New to looking at Capitol Hill DCPS. Any majority high SES schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You are just completely wrong here, Word Salad. As usual. It is not racial. There are plenty of high SES AA families at our school - Brent. Plenty. High SES is not at all a code for non-AA. Maybe for you though, who lack vision.

Ah yes -- the other coded word for anyone who calls BS on the lowest common denominator on the board. Your juvenile taunt aside, everyone knows Brent is getting whiter and whiter, especially in the lower levels. Not much different than a number of other Ward 6 ES. That trend will continue at Brent, probably on the akin to Janney.

And sweetie -- we turned down an IB spot in your school, so enjoy your perch

OK, I will bite. If you turned down an IB spot at Brent (not that I believe you), where did you send your child?

NP. We live IB for Brent and chose YY, only public school we applied to other than private schools. We really wanted Mandarin for DC. Very happy with our choice.

[Anonymous]

NP. We live IB for Brent and chose YY, only public school we applied to other than private schools. We really wanted Mandarin for DC. Very happy with our choice.

We did the opposite and selected Brent because the YY PA parents and administrators turned us off bigtime (hint: we speak Chinese at home). Also very happy with our choice.

[Anonymous]

Another satisfied Brent customer here after being majorly turned off by Yu Ying administrators and school culture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait Eastern was a city wide project, so the hope was not solely dependent on having Jefferson, S-H and E-H as their only feeder schools. Please note, that Eastern was the only high-school that had feedback of the entire city to make it attractive as a high-school. Such the case, the majority of DCPS is AA and hence the attraction was for that demographic. It was pretty evident that DCPS thought beyond Cap-Hill in the thought process of relaunching of Eastern and it is kinda too late to turn back now.

City wide or not, Eastern needs some great middle schools feeding in to it to make it a success, right?

Most definitely, that is why Eastern never would let the school pigeon-hole them in the Ward 6/Capitol Hill exclusiveness. The question was poised to the renowned popular principal, Mr. Neal of Eastern, he was asked how come Eastern was never part of the cluster schools? It would make sense that to have elementaries, middle-schools and the lone high-school be the logical choice a cluster school. His response was until the cluster can guarantee the best, I will not solely depend on those cluster schools to feed into my high-school. He went on to elaborate, you want the scholarly child of course and hopefully every child in this city can be a product. But we have athletics, choir, band and etc.. So who has the best middle school athletes, I will go there to recruit? Who has the best middle school choir students, I will go there and so on? If the science school winner for middle-schools is at a school outside supposedly of my cluster school population and my cluster-schools don't produce winners, what kind of principal am I to not go after the best.

Again, until the cluster schools can produce the best, I will continue to search city-wide for the best. Well, as that was probably his thought process a decade earlier prior to the re-launching of Eastern. It still held to be true as Chancellor Rhee made it her mandate that every person in this city would be part of the re-launching Eastern; to make it the best, she new the best was not just limited to neighborhood blocks of Capitol Hill. True then and true now.


School choice is not always for the parents. Schools want to have the choice too and not necessarily don't want the application process to gain that ability. We all want this power to be able select a school of what we think is the best for our child. How rewarding is it for you to have a school select your child first because he/she is the best choice for their school?

[Anonymous]

Despite this interesting history, Eastern still needs established feeds from strong middle schools to be a success. A pipeline of academically well prepared students. Even with a few great middle schools feeding it, the principal could go ahead and recruit athletes musicians and technicians. But the school needs a strong backbone. Capitol Hill, like it or not, could provide that if it got its middle schools together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait Eastern was a city wide project, so the hope was not solely dependent on having Jefferson, S-H and E-H as their only feeder schools. Please note, that Eastern was the only high-school that had feedback of the entire city to make it attractive as a high-school. Such the case, the majority of DCPS is AA and hence the attraction was for that demographic. It was pretty evident that DCPS thought beyond Cap-Hill in the thought process of relaunching of Eastern and it is kinda too late to turn back now.

City wide or not, Eastern needs some great middle schools feeding in to it to make it a success, right?

Most definitely, that is why Eastern never would let the school pigeon-hole them in the Ward 6/Capitol Hill exclusiveness. The question was poised to the renowned popular principal, Mr. Neal of Eastern, he was asked how come Eastern was never part of the cluster schools? It would make sense that to have elementaries, middle-schools and the lone high-school be the logical choice a cluster school. His response was until the cluster can guarantee the best, I will not solely depend on those cluster schools to feed into my high-school. He went on to elaborate, you want the scholarly child of course and hopefully every child in this city can be a product. But we have athletics, choir, band and etc.. So who has the best middle school athletes, I will go there to recruit? Who has the best middle school choir students, I will go there and so on? If the science school winner for middle-schools is at a school outside supposedly of my cluster school population and my cluster-schools don't produce winners, what kind of principal am I to not go after the best.

Again, until the cluster schools can produce the best, I will continue to search city-wide for the best. Well, as that was probably his thought process a decade earlier prior to the re-launching of Eastern. It still held to be true as Chancellor Rhee made it her mandate that every person in this city would be part of the re-launching Eastern; to make it the best, she new the best was not just limited to neighborhood blocks of Capitol Hill. True then and true now.


School choice is not always for the parents. Schools want to have the choice too and not necessarily don't want the application process to gain that ability. We all want this power to be able select a school of what we think is the best for our child. How rewarding is it for you to have a school select your child first because he/she is the best choice for their school?

I like his attitude well enough, but it is a political response, not a logical one. What Ward 6 ES parents (Brent among them) isn't whether or not Eastern will be a good fit, it is where the students can go for Middle School. Those dots have not been connected.

[Anonymous]

You all do remember that when Eastern was at their height of excellence the three major feeder schools were Jefferson, Sousa and Hines and the latter was a blue ribbon middle school in Ward 6 and was not part of the cluster.

Eastern's current population is reflecting what DCPS intended. Let's be real they improved Eastern have it almost half full and it is without Ward 6 students. The upcoming 2013 Easteen freshmen class has to accept Ward 5 former Spingarn population. A large high-school with a cross section of students from all over the city is a political dream but it was DCPS plan. That is why the joke is on Ward 6 they fought hard to keep Eastern in the Cap-Hill inventory but DCPS are not making it a priority to fill it with Cap-Hill children. Bamboozling at its best.

Everyone is talking about improving Eliot-Hine to a prominent status. Yet Friendship PCMS and Chavez PCMS are in Eastern's school boundary. Those graduating 8th graders have their eyes on Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all do remember that when Eastern was at their height of excellence the three major feeder schools were Jefferson, Sousa and Hines and the latter was a blue ribbon middle school in Ward 6 and was not part of the cluster.

Eastern's current population is reflecting what DCPS intended. Let's be real they improved Eastern have it almost half full and it is without Ward 6 students. The upcoming 2013 Easteen freshmen class has to accept Ward 5 former Spingarn population. A large high-school with a cross section of students from all over the city is a political dream but it was DCPS plan. That is why the joke is on Ward 6 they fought hard to keep Eastern in the Cap-Hill inventory but DCPS are not making it a priority to fill it with Cap-Hill children. Bamboozling at its best.

Everyone is talking about improving Eliot-Hine to a prominent status. Yet Friendship PCMS and Chavez PCMS are in Eastern's school boundary. Those graduating 8th graders have their eyes on Eastern.

Exactly how Eastern wants it. Friendship and Chavez are going to send them students much better prepared for their aspirations. Did you read the Principal's message? Didn't you get who the audience is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait Eastern was a city wide project, so the hope was not solely dependent on having Jefferson, S-H and E-H as their only feeder schools. Please note, that Eastern was the only high-school that had feedback of the entire city to make it attractive as a high-school. Such the case, the majority of DCPS is AA and hence the attraction was for that demographic. It was pretty evident that DCPS thought beyond Cap-Hill in the thought process of relaunching of Eastern and it is kinda too late to turn back now.

City wide or not, Eastern needs some great middle schools feeding in to it to make it a success, right?

Most definitely, that is why Eastern never would let the school pigeon-hole them in the Ward 6/Capitol Hill exclusiveness. The question was poised to the renowned popular principal, Mr. Neal of Eastern, he was asked how come Eastern was never part of the cluster schools? It would make sense that to have elementaries, middle-schools and the lone high-school be the logical choice a cluster school. His response was until the cluster can guarantee the best, I will not solely depend on those cluster schools to feed into my high-school. He went on to elaborate, you want the scholarly child of course and hopefully every child in this city can be a product. But we have athletics, choir, band and etc.. So who has the best middle school athletes, I will go there to recruit? Who has the best middle school choir students, I will go there and so on? If the science school winner for middle-schools is at a school outside supposedly of my cluster school population and my cluster-schools don't produce winners, what kind of principal am I to not go after the best.

Again, until the cluster schools can produce the best, I will continue to search city-wide for the best. Well, as that was probably his thought process a decade earlier prior to the re-launching of Eastern. It still held to be true as Chancellor Rhee made it her mandate that every person in this city would be part of the re-launching Eastern; to make it the best, she new the best was not just limited to neighborhood blocks of Capitol Hill. True then and true now.


School choice is not always for the parents. Schools want to have the choice too and not necessarily don't want the application process to gain that ability. We all want this power to be able select a school of what we think is the best for our child. How rewarding is it for you to have a school select your child first because he/she is the best choice for their school?

This actually illustrates the "priorities divide" pretty well. "Sure, it would be nice to have students who are on grade-level, but it's just as important to have a good football team!" No thanks.

Reminds me of the middle-school meeting I attended last year where the principal of our in-boundary Ward 6 middle-school was touting all her school's great programs. "We have a football team, a basketball team...we even have *GIRLS* SPORTS!!!" in a tone of voice that most would reserve for an announcement that the school had a live tame unicorn living in the boiler room.

That went over really well with the middle-class parents with daughters in the room.

It's about priorities.

[Anonymous]

^^^ . . .let me guess, you were at a meeting at Stuart Hobson!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ . . .let me guess, you were at a meeting at Stuart Hobson!

New Poster. I was there, too, and sent a note to Wells' office afterwards, cc'd to the Chancellor, complaining that the school clearly doesn't cater to middle-class Hill families, and that Brent and Maury don't feed it.

As long as Wells is off the hook on these issues, nothing much will change. I find that parents around here continually look to local schools for change when it's our DC Councilmembers, the Chancellor and the Mayor who set the tone/call the shots that could effect real change above ES. We pay the property taxes and should get the services appropriate for our demographic but for that to happen, we need to demand them. If demaning means organizing to leave Wells running scared in 2014, that's what we need to do, or give up and head to Basis and Latin....

[Anonymous]

+1. Yea, but both neighborhood middle schools are simply too high a mountain to climb for most of the uber-educated parents around here. They tend to throw their hands in the air after one look.

It seems that Two Rivers ES has become somewhat less middle-class in the last two or three years, with more high SES families pulling out younger. They don't differentiate much at all, leading to advanced learners as young as 4 being bored silly and remaining that way despite parents complaints. More IB Brent and Maury families are avoiding the Two Rivers lottery, or returning to their neighborhood schools after trying the charter for a year or two, believing that advanced learners will be better off "at home." It's a shame that we-don't-celebrate-holidays Two Rivers won't adapt to changing times - we couldn't have enough middle-class friendly Hill schools.

[Anonymous]

+1 In my experience, for all its hype,Two-Rivers seemed to provide for a little for advanced learners as a matter of school policy. This observation holds across subjects -- math, English or Spanish. It’s “beyond the basics” philosophy skips over the basics altogether. What TR regards as rote learning -- memorizing multiplication and division tables, diagramming sentences, etc. -- actually forms the essential basis for higher mathematical and language arts learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1 In my experience, for all its hype,Two-Rivers seemed to provide for a little for advanced learners as a matter of school policy. This observation holds across subjects -- math, English or Spanish. It’s “beyond the basics” philosophy skips over the basics altogether. What TR regards as rote learning -- memorizing multiplication and division tables, diagramming sentences, etc. -- actually forms the essential basis for higher mathematical and language arts learning.

Yet it's still preferable to just about any Hill choice - and certainly any of the cluster schools. Therein lies the real angst - there is simply no one logical path which provides a high-quality education through public schools with no more than 40% Farms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Yet it's still preferable to just about any Hill choice - and certainly any of the cluster schools. Therein lies the real angst - there is simply no one logical path which provides a high-quality education through public schools with no more than 40% Farms.

So would PPs say that around one-third FARMS is the cut-off for most middle-class Hill families? Is that for an entire school, or a particular year/cohort? It seems that only Brent and SWS are this threshold and perhaps Maury will get there soon. We're in the Payne District, looking at the lottery for an almost-three-year-old and have been hoping that Two Rivers, Maury or Tyler Spanish Immersion might work out for us via the lotteries, at least for PreK+. We'd rather not bounce around between schools and would like to stay in the city. It's hard to get stats on Tyler SI because DCPS doesn't de-aggregate their test scores (you can only look up "Tyler" scores) or demographics. Is Tyler SI majority high SES to their highest grade (3rd?).

It's hard to say if such a little kid will qualify as an advanced learner, but she certainly seems bright. So you think that Two Rivers would be preferable to Peabody in the medium-term? What about Maury?

I've heard that PreS3 at Payne is surprisingly good, maybe even PreK. Neighbors involved at Payne say that the other kids there are more of a problem than the principal, teachers or Tools of the Mind curriculum. We already regret buying in the Payne District pre-kids, seduced by an affordable house. Even high SES neighbors with little kids seem to be planning to leave if they don't get into Inspired Teaching, YY, Two Rivers etc.