Difference between NW parent involvement and Capitol Hill parent involvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have experienced both as a parent and a teacher. My observation is that Capitol Hill families are just meaner and expect the worst as the norm from teachers and schools. NW families are so much more open to collaborating and feedback. Cap Hill families are tightly strung. Wish they would chill out for the sake of their own kids if not anything else. Honestly, offering as friendly advice for people who are interested in the observation.

Doesn't sound like friendly advice at all. Sounds like you are trying to stir up a Cap Hill vs NW debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have experienced both as a parent and a teacher. My observation is that Capitol Hill families are just meaner and expect the worst as the norm from teachers and schools. NW families are so much more open to collaborating and feedback. Cap Hill families are tightly strung. Wish they would chill out for the sake of their own kids if not anything else. Honestly, offering as friendly advice for people who are interested in the observation.

Why would you open such a thread?

[Anonymous]

Hill parents have reason to be fed up and pissed off with DCPS and the city council on ed issues. Many of us got involved in providing input to DCPS back during the boundary/feeder review of 2013-2014. We trooped to stakeholder meetings across town. The collective advice we gave was that we wanted a strong pan-Ward 6 middle school, possibly spanning two campuses (Eliot-Hine and Stuart Hobson). There broad support among parents for this solution, but resistance from the politically powerful Cluster's leadership. We were totally ignored.

Flash forward a decade without a pan-Ward 6 by-right middle school and every DCPS program that's majority UMC on the Hill (Maury, Brent, SWS, Watkins UMC families) loses most of its IB families between 4th and 5th grades, as families jump on the Washington Latin, BASIS and DCI trains. Many families go charter even earlier, choosing language immersion programs over thriving neighborhood schools to be sure to have a viable path to 12th grade. There are two other unfortunate by-products of having been ignored. The first is that DCPS pours money into pricey renovations of Ward 6 middle schools that are nowhere near full, with no real prospect of filling up (Eliot Hine and Jefferson Academy). The second is that Eastern HS, criminally, remains around 1% white/high SES in a catchment area that's majority white/high SES.

Call us mean, call us grumpy, call us whatever you want, but it's worth noting that we didn't throw our hands in the air a decade back. We were ready to dig in to help DCPS build high-performing neighborhood schools past elementary.

[Anonymous]

Eastern, Jefferson and EH being unrepresentative of the neighborhood is on you all. Show up and things are instantly change.

You want it to be perfect for a good 5 years before you will even consider it. They built it - complete with IB certification - and you didn’t come.

[Anonymous]

I’ve worked in both schools.
My experience is that NW parents look @ schools as hired help. They tell you what to do & expect it to be done. Similar to telling a nanny to pick up the kids at a certain place/time. Cap Hill parents usually crowd source ideas & then ask what they can do to support implementation. For example, if they want more time for science they will sit down with staff & ask the teachers what supports are needed to achieve the outcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are often more chill about schools if they have an adequate middle and high school feeder.

This. I've lived in a few different DC neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and live in an UNW Deal/Wilson feeder neighborhood now. It's so much easier to be chill when everything isn't a fight against the city and schools because you already have a good feeder path all the way through. IME, there's also a difference in how the WOTP DCPS teachers and administration behave towards parents and students. They're much more collaborative and fair. I believe it's because they understand this parent group wouldn't accept less in these established schools. I also agree with another pp who claimed that the lack of a feeder pattern drives away UMC families in otherwise good Hill DCPS schools. There's less incentive for the city and school officials to work with families when they know they're probably going to leave anyway. Just my experience, YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are often more chill about schools if they have an adequate middle and high school feeder.

This. I've lived in a few different DC neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and live in an UNW Deal/Wilson feeder neighborhood now. It's so much easier to be chill when everything isn't a fight against the city and schools because you already have a good feeder path all the way through. IME, there's also a difference in how the WOTP DCPS teachers and administration behave towards parents and students. They're much more collaborative and fair. I believe it's because they understand this parent group wouldn't accept less in these established schools. I also agree with another pp who claimed that the lack of a feeder pattern drives away UMC families in otherwise good Hill DCPS schools. There's less incentive for the city and school officials to work with families when they know they're probably going to leave anyway. Just my experience, YMMV.

Or maybe there is just more time? When you have fewer high needs students and strong test scores, there is more time for parent engagement about improvements or ideas. And dealing with a gentrifying school day to day is just more complicated and parents don’t necessarily agree about what the problems or needs are. (And yes, I know Maury and Brent are more like the WOTP school). Capitol Hill schools are less alike than JKLMMEH, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are often more chill about schools if they have an adequate middle and high school feeder.

This. I've lived in a few different DC neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and live in an UNW Deal/Wilson feeder neighborhood now. It's so much easier to be chill when everything isn't a fight against the city and schools because you already have a good feeder path all the way through. IME, there's also a difference in how the WOTP DCPS teachers and administration behave towards parents and students. They're much more collaborative and fair. I believe it's because they understand this parent group wouldn't accept less in these established schools. I also agree with another pp who claimed that the lack of a feeder pattern drives away UMC families in otherwise good Hill DCPS schools. There's less incentive for the city and school officials to work with families when they know they're probably going to leave anyway. Just my experience, YMMV.

Or maybe there is just more time? When you have fewer high needs students and strong test scores, there is more time for parent engagement about improvements or ideas. And dealing with a gentrifying school day to day is just more complicated and parents don’t necessarily agree about what the problems or needs are. (And yes, I know Maury and Brent are more like the WOTP school). Capitol Hill schools are less alike than JKLMMEH, etc.

Maury and Brent also have upper grades that start peeling off for Wilson feeders and charters. The shuffling is worse elsewhere but it happens there too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern, Jefferson and EH being unrepresentative of the neighborhood is on you all. Show up and things are instantly change.

You want it to be perfect for a good 5 years before you will even consider it. They built it - complete with IB certification - and you didn’t come.

I totally disagree. You can either be reflexively woke, or you can listen to what the community tells you about integrating the schools.

[Anonymous]

NW parents are surprisingly hands-off education as long as they think everything is going "ok." They don't demand the best and are fine with "good enough." I think it is because they aren't worried about their kids falling out of the middle class. I don't have experience with hill parents, but I do with other EOTP parents, and the anxiety level is much higher, which I imagien can lead to lots of bad behavior with teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eastern, Jefferson and EH being unrepresentative of the neighborhood is on you all. Show up and things are instantly change.

You want it to be perfect for a good 5 years before you will even consider it. They built it - complete with IB certification - and you didn’t come.

Total BS, PP. We showed up for Jefferson Academy for 6th grade after striking out in the charter lottery. Our shy advanced learner was mostly bored in class, knocked around by rowdy classmates a lot, and unhappy. Things were so far from perfect that our kid's mental health was on the line. Things did not instantly change because she turned up. We left.

[Anonymous]

When I went to some of the boundary meetings, the Cap Hill parents who were there were mainly focused on getting neighborhood preference for SWS and keeping feeder rights. Maybe they weren't representative of Cap Hill parents overall, but (especially the SWS ask) was definitely something tahat was pushed for at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People are often more chill about schools if they have an adequate middle and high school feeder.

This. I've lived in a few different DC neighborhoods including Capitol Hill and live in an UNW Deal/Wilson feeder neighborhood now. It's so much easier to be chill when everything isn't a fight against the city and schools because you already have a good feeder path all the way through. IME, there's also a difference in how the WOTP DCPS teachers and administration behave towards parents and students. They're much more collaborative and fair. I believe it's because they understand this parent group wouldn't accept less in these established schools. I also agree with another pp who claimed that the lack of a feeder pattern drives away UMC families in otherwise good Hill DCPS schools. There's less incentive for the city and school officials to work with families when they know they're probably going to leave anyway. Just my experience, YMMV.

Or maybe there is just more time? When you have fewer high needs students and strong test scores, there is more time for parent engagement about improvements or ideas. And dealing with a gentrifying school day to day is just more complicated and parents don’t necessarily agree about what the problems or needs are. (And yes, I know Maury and Brent are more like the WOTP school). Capitol Hill schools are less alike than JKLMMEH, etc.

Maury and Brent also have upper grades that start peeling off for Wilson feeders and charters. The shuffling is worse elsewhere but it happens there too.

Maybe a decade back, but very few peel off for Wilson feeders these days. I only know a handful of families who've done this in the last few years. Hill families seldom peel off for Wilson feeders for several obvious reasons. Getting to the feeders has become more of a hassle than it once was - traffic has worsened downtown and it's become harder to find other Hill families to carpool with. These days, there are hardly any spots in Wilson feeders" OOB families who try to lottery in and almost always fail. There are more decent charter MS options, mostly far up in NE, than before. Some of the small charter middle schools are improving (e.g. ITS, Creative Minds, Two Rivers) are improving and Wash Latin will open a second campus next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When I went to some of the boundary meetings, the Cap Hill parents who were there were mainly focused on getting neighborhood preference for SWS and keeping feeder rights. Maybe they weren't representative of Cap Hill parents overall, but (especially the SWS ask) was definitely something tahat was pushed for at the time.

Well, keep in mind that was immediately after SWS became city wide after being part of the Cluster. It didn’t seem that unreasonable to ask for that option back right after it was taken away. I personally wasn’t asking, but I get it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eastern, Jefferson and EH being unrepresentative of the neighborhood is on you all. Show up and things are instantly change.

You want it to be perfect for a good 5 years before you will even consider it. They built it - complete with IB certification - and you didn’t come.

I totally disagree. You can either be reflexively woke, or you can listen to what the community tells you about integrating the schools.

+1 you get mean when you are told by the public school system, that your rising property taxes pay for, that it is YOUR FAULT that you do not have solid IB options for middle and high school. And IB certification as done by DCPS is a joke.