Petition to keep School-Within-School (SWS) a true neighborhood school!

[Anonymous]

Tommy Wells can mobilize everyone but to do that successfully he would need more blacks in his camp to make the mobilization successful. Those who did not vote for Anita Bonds didn't help her win, it was those who did vote. It will take a strong black turn-out for Tommy to get him in place for a mayoral run.

Back to the issue at hand choice is good and I say move-on to other schools and make your debut at that school. Why have this one-school for my child only attitude it is so unhealthy and not genuine.

See many have this fix notion of one school for my SES child with the underlying factor of our school is not for your "one" FARM child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent parent here-- where is the incentive for parents to try again? As I see it, as long as there is hope that BASIS and Latin and other seemingly successful middle school options are available, there is no incentive. Yes, it will be a bit sad next year when my kid skips out of 5th grade at Brent to attend a charter school instead, but Brent friendships seem pretty tight and are likely to last even though they will mostly disburse before 5th. Maybe it is good for parents to be forced to think about what type of school really works for their kid for middle school, rather than just blindly follow the herd onto the next school as what we did in my community as a kid where no one had the pleasure/pain of school choice. Yes, it is annoying to have to go to all those open houses and do all the research, but it may actually be the best thing for the kids. Silver lining of the lack of a definite path to one, specific, middle school from Brent, I guess.

Plus Latin and Basis solve two problems with one solution by providing a path through HS (I suspect that hurts Two Rivers more than any academic shortcomings). That's appealing to many Hill families given that Wilson is a tough draw OOB and SWW is highly sought after. Despite having time on our side I'm not terribly optimistic about the prospects for Eastern. There's always private, parochial or moving as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent parent here-- where is the incentive for parents to try again? As I see it, as long as there is hope that BASIS and Latin and other seemingly successful middle school options are available, there is no incentive. Yes, it will be a bit sad next year when my kid skips out of 5th grade at Brent to attend a charter school instead, but Brent friendships seem pretty tight and are likely to last even though they will mostly disburse before 5th. Maybe it is good for parents to be forced to think about what type of school really works for their kid for middle school, rather than just blindly follow the herd onto the next school as what we did in my community as a kid where no one had the pleasure/pain of school choice. Yes, it is annoying to have to go to all those open houses and do all the research, but it may actually be the best thing for the kids. Silver lining of the lack of a definite path to one, specific, middle school from Brent, I guess.

Plus Latin and Basis solve two problems with one solution by providing a path through HS (I suspect that hurts Two Rivers more than any academic shortcomings). That's appealing to many Hill families given that Wilson is a tough draw OOB and SWW is highly sought after. Despite having time on our side I'm not terribly optimistic about the prospects for Eastern. There's always private, parochial or moving as well.

With enough involved parents thinking like that, you can be sure neighborhood DCPS middle and high schools will soon die out, except for the lucky folks in ward 3. For them the dying period will take longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Plus Latin and Basis solve two problems with one solution by providing a path through HS (I suspect that hurts Two Rivers more than any academic shortcomings). That's appealing to many Hill families given that Wilson is a tough draw OOB and SWW is highly sought after. Despite having time on our side I'm not terribly optimistic about the prospects for Eastern. There's always private, parochial or moving as well.

With enough involved parents thinking like that, you can be sure neighborhood DCPS middle and high schools will soon die out, except for the lucky folks in ward 3. For them the dying period will take longer.

Frankly, it is the school's job to improve itself and not the parents' job.

I am tired of hearing that it is the parents' job to make things all better at schools when it is up to the schools to provide safe classrooms and schools and to provide a content-rich curricula that provides mastery of core foundational knowledge and skills. Schools often fail to do this in DC.

[Anonymous]

Isn't CHPSPO working on the middle school issue?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent parent here-- where is the incentive for parents to try again? As I see it, as long as there is hope that BASIS and Latin and other seemingly successful middle school options are available, there is no incentive. Yes, it will be a bit sad next year when my kid skips out of 5th grade at Brent to attend a charter school instead, but Brent friendships seem pretty tight and are likely to last even though they will mostly disburse before 5th. Maybe it is good for parents to be forced to think about what type of school really works for their kid for middle school, rather than just blindly follow the herd onto the next school as what we did in my community as a kid where no one had the pleasure/pain of school choice. Yes, it is annoying to have to go to all those open houses and do all the research, but it may actually be the best thing for the kids. Silver lining of the lack of a definite path to one, specific, middle school from Brent, I guess.

Plus Latin and Basis solve two problems with one solution by providing a path through HS (I suspect that hurts Two Rivers more than any academic shortcomings). That's appealing to many Hill families given that Wilson is a tough draw OOB and SWW is highly sought after. Despite having time on our side I'm not terribly optimistic about the prospects for Eastern. There's always private, parochial or moving as well.

With enough involved parents thinking like that, you can be sure neighborhood DCPS middle and high schools will soon die out, except for the lucky folks in ward 3. For them the dying period will take longer.

No - the Ward 3 schools are retaining their IB populations and gaining critical mass for upper levels. The Hill public ES are split among a number of mostly poor public options intended to prop up multiple lackluster schools, only the families find better options by middle school. Jefferson, Eliot Hine and Stuart Hobson? Please. And after splitting for MS, who would reenroll in DCPS at Eastern?

If you had multiple strong ES feeds into a single MS that would be something to consider. Does even a single Brent kid move on to Jefferson? Will any neighborhood Maury kids attend Eliot Hine? Who knows where SWS and future Van Ness will feed. DCPS would also need to retain these kids through 5th grade, which is another challenge. Charters for older students just aren't looking that bad. I say that as a content DCPS parent with younger children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent parent here-- where is the incentive for parents to try again? As I see it, as long as there is hope that BASIS and Latin and other seemingly successful middle school options are available, there is no incentive. Yes, it will be a bit sad next year when my kid skips out of 5th grade at Brent to attend a charter school instead, but Brent friendships seem pretty tight and are likely to last even though they will mostly disburse before 5th. Maybe it is good for parents to be forced to think about what type of school really works for their kid for middle school, rather than just blindly follow the herd onto the next school as what we did in my community as a kid where no one had the pleasure/pain of school choice. Yes, it is annoying to have to go to all those open houses and do all the research, but it may actually be the best thing for the kids. Silver lining of the lack of a definite path to one, specific, middle school from Brent, I guess.

Plus Latin and Basis solve two problems with one solution by providing a path through HS (I suspect that hurts Two Rivers more than any academic shortcomings). That's appealing to many Hill families given that Wilson is a tough draw OOB and SWW is highly sought after. Despite having time on our side I'm not terribly optimistic about the prospects for Eastern. There's always private, parochial or moving as well.

With enough involved parents thinking like that, you can be sure neighborhood DCPS middle and high schools will soon die out, except for the lucky folks in ward 3. For them the dying period will take longer.

Oh, please. Deal and Wilson are wildly oversubscribed and will be for years. If Ward 3 parents decide to send their kids elsewhere, you can bet that high-SES OOB parents will have their hair on fire to try to get in. I'm not trying to downplay the failure of DCPS to meet the needs of every kid, but all of these doom and gloomers predicting the imminent death of DCPS are over the top.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't CHPSPO working on the middle school issue?

They did. What you see in place now is the fruition if their radical plan for improvement

[Anonymous]

CHPSPO worked on it but once the Mocha Moms got the ear of the Chancellor, it stalled and then poo-pooed.

[Anonymous]

Fascinating analysis. Mocha Moms are a force indeed. Would love to hear more from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CHPSPO worked on it but once the Mocha Moms got the ear of the Chancellor, it stalled and then poo-pooed.

Not true. CHPSPO got almost exactly what they asked for in their proposal. They asked for IB Middle Years at Jefferson and Eliot Hine. They asked for Logan Montessori to go through 8 th grade. They asked for LT to feed to Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CHPSPO worked on it but once the Mocha Moms got the ear of the Chancellor, it stalled and then poo-pooed.

Not true. CHPSPO got almost exactly what they asked for in their proposal. They asked for IB Middle Years at Jefferson and Eliot Hine. They asked for Logan Montessori to go through 8 th grade. They asked for LT to feed to Stuart Hobson.

Agree. IIRC, the Brent working group had a different set of goals that were not put into place.

[Anonymous]

Because the Brent working group was suggesting measures that would actually have results toward the goal of retaining families in neighborhood middle and high school. CHPSPO recommending some feel-good, don't ruffle any feathers, yet very expensive changes that will not have much affect toward stated goal at all. But hopefully the facilities and education on offer at thr three ward 6 middle schools will be better as they serve dwindling numbers of students. Well done CHPSPO

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Oh, please. Deal and Wilson are wildly oversubscribed and will be for years. If Ward 3 parents decide to send their kids elsewhere, you can bet that high-SES OOB parents will have their hair on fire to try to get in. I'm not trying to downplay the failure of DCPS to meet the needs of every kid, but all of these doom and gloomers predicting the imminent death of DCPS are over the top.

Yes, wildly over-subscribed now and probably for the future, but that's because they are in upper NW, not because they are DCPS.

As DCPS continues to contract as charters grow, at some point it will become untenable to sustain DCPS just to serve the few remaining decent schools. Those schools will have little choice but to go charter.

[Anonymous]

It's not "doom and gloom" either. I'd like to see neighborhood schools survive, I just don't think it's in the cards, not with Kaya requesting chartering authority herself and with the mayor sitting back.