Bowser’s first community outreach mtg since re-election: education focused

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Mayor’s statement is clearly a knock on Eastern, Coolidge, and Roosevelt.

Or maybe just an acknowledgement of reality. Still, it sucks for people EOTP because any new school would be kind of a hassle to get to.

[Anonymous]

Alice Deal for all!

What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowser attended our neighborhood community meeting on Thursday night. It was her first public outreach mtg since her Tuesday night re-election.

On the recent scandals:

“This year has been tough for DCPS. We have learned a lot and Chancellor Alexander is taking steps to ensure the attendance and grading issues never happen again. It’s unacceptable. We have zero tolenace for this stuff and I am working close with her to put in safe guards.”

A father of a Wilson senior student asked about school crowding and lowering head count at Wilson. He complained that teachers are stuggling with large classes. He asked what Bowser is doing to create more options for Wilson-quality education.

Here are Bowser’s latest talking points:
“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

Someone else mentioned that Duke Ellington is under capacity and that more general education kids should be housed the building:

“I think Duke Ellington needs to remain arts focused. We have the kids in the District to fill this space; the hardest part is identifying them and getting them prepared prior to high school for a rigorous arts education.”

However, she left open the possibility of adding another WOTP high school to relieve crowding at Wilson:

“Our decisions about the future will be driven by the population patterns. We know the Wilson feeders are reaching capacity as District parents return to DCPS. We thank them for choosing to remain and be involved; this is a great thing. I think we may need to consider opening another western high school - sorry, I mean another high school on the west side of town. But will be driven by the population patterns and demand.”

At that point, Bowser’s time was up. It left me with more questions than answers, but I think we may see in the medium term so progress on WOTP over crowding and perhaps more resources, especially if school age population booms.

What BS.

If there was anything close to zero tolerance, the Mayor should have resigned something like ten times already.

[Anonymous]

Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

DCPS gets no kudos or credit for middle schoolers. They do need / want to track and report high school graduation rates, and numbers of students getting into college.
This is about creating more high quality high school seats, and trying to get more high schoolers to choose DCPS (K and 9th are the grades where DCPS 'beats' charters).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

DCPS gets no kudos or credit for middle schoolers. They do need / want to track and report high school graduation rates, and numbers of students getting into college.
This is about creating more high quality high school seats, and trying to get more high schoolers to choose DCPS (K and 9th are the grades where DCPS 'beats' charters).

Maybe high school graduation rates would improve if the entering 9th graders weren't woefully below grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she’s spot on with the reasoning for moving Banneker. Whites are now mingling with browns/blacks and with a new building with an established track record of a high quality school, this is an “If we build,they will come” example.

+1. Just build it.

Mingling, seriously?

75.9% Black, non-Hispanic
2.7% Asian
18.0% Hispanic / Latino
0.2% Native American / Alaska Native
0.2% Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander
1.0% White non-Hispanic
1.9% Multiracial

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

+1000

Banneker is the best public school in DC and even though it's 1% white we've got this jagoff trying to claim it as an achievement of white intercession. What a joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

You have one. It's at Cardozo. You might not like the idea of your kid going 1.5 miles to middle school (even though plenty of kids all over the country travel way further), or it being in the same building as a high school, or its test scores, but you have one. And the sooner you get the kids currently going to Francis-Stevens to go there with your kids, the better the school will be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

You have one. It's at Cardozo. You might not like the idea of your kid going 1.5 miles to middle school (even though plenty of kids all over the country travel way further), or it being in the same building as a high school, or its test scores, but you have one. And the sooner you get the kids currently going to Francis-Stevens to go there with your kids, the better the school will be.

Cardozo is NOT a permanent option, and it was NEVER meant to be. Shaw deserves a by-right, stand-alone middle school. Stop with all the Cardozo nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think she’s spot on with the reasoning for moving Banneker. Whites are now mingling with browns/blacks and with a new building with an established track record of a high quality school, this is an “If we build,they will come” example.

+1. Just build it.

Mingling, seriously?

75.9% Black, non-Hispanic
2.7% Asian
18.0% Hispanic / Latino
0.2% Native American / Alaska Native
0.2% Native Hawaiian / Other Pacific Islander
1.0% White non-Hispanic
1.9% Multiracial

YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.

+1000

Banneker is the best public school in DC and even though it's 1% white we've got this jagoff trying to claim it as an achievement of white intercession. What a joke.

FWIW, this is actually a good argument for keeping Banneker close to Howard and from what I've heard many Banneker students and parents would prefer this arrangement and love the proximity to such a prominent HBCU.

[Anonymous]

Fake news! [b]

[Anonymous]

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am all for reducing pressure on Wilson, but for what a new school would cost, they could invest substantially in magnet programs at Eastern amd Coolidge to draw more kids that way.[/quote]

They've been doing this but it hasn't worked.[/quote]

DCPS has substantially invested in magnet programs at Eastern and Coolidge? They absolutely have not. Paying for programs doesn't constitute making a substantial investment. No, that takes astute planning, research, outreach, community buy-in etc.

All DC needs to do is copy highly successful test-in/magnet programs in the Metro area burbs. Hardly rocket science. DCPS leaders don't bother because their political patrons don't lose their jobs for failing to support more than one high performing neighborhood high school.[/quote]

Are you for real? They did invest in Eastern and now at Coolidge. Throwing money at this does not work. You can't be cookie cutter with this stuff- you can't just plop down a program that works somewhere else. That suburb shit isn't gonna work here. [/quote]

They didn't invest anywhere near what it takes, nor did they create a program that was the right sort of thing. I agree that they're a bunch of morons.[/quote]

[b]ALL DCPS has to do is copy successful suburban school districts is true. Unfortunately, DCPS's poor population is about 80% or more impoverished. One cannot have a successful school in areas outside of NW when the students are not at benchmark. Wilson, Banneker, Walls are just about the only schools doing well and even then those schools do not provide a well rounded high school experience. DCPS will never have a public school that offers the private school experience. Many of our areas best public schools are run like private prep schools.[/b]

[Anonymous]

[/b]ALL DCPS has to do is copy successful suburban school districts is true. Unfortunately, DCPS's poor population is about 80% or more impoverished. One cannot have a successful school in areas outside of NW when the students are not at benchmark. Wilson, Banneker, Walls are just about the only schools doing well and even then those schools do not provide a well rounded high school experience. DCPS will never have a public school that offers the private school experience. Many of our areas best public schools are run like private prep schools.[b]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

What about ending the silly-looking, gerrymandered, Wilson school zone? End it at Connecticut Avenue to the east: overcrowding problem solved like magic. Then attract the kids to the east of Connecticut to the new "mid-city Banneker." "Banneker For All" is a great slogan, too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Talk about burying the leded, from original post:

Anonymous wrote:

“The quickest way I can reduce crowding and demand for Wilson is to get Banneker at Shaw opened as quickly as possible. 100% of Banneker kids go to college; these are some of the best kids in the District. If we move them to Shaw, I have 350 more seats we can fill; these are families who would otherwise be clamoring to get into Wilson or SWW.”

“We can also increase high quality middle school seats by taking the current Banneker space and creating a new, high quality middle school open to all District residents.”

What about a midcity (Shaw, etc.) MS that at least serves those residents first, without an entrance exam or lottery?

What about ending the silly-looking, gerrymandered, Wilson school zone? End it at Connecticut Avenue to the east: overcrowding problem solved like magic. Then attract the kids to the east of Connecticut to the new "mid-city Banneker." "Banneker For All" is a great slogan, too!

Solved it! Reinstitute redlining and PP will be happy. So many problems solved at once, eh PP?