When are boundary changes being announced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't test-in be the solution?

It will be a solution, as it is now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought good sense was going to prevail. Unfortunately this is not going to be the case.

The controlled choice (in all its variations) for the City Center and the East quadrant for ES and MS will kill all the past years efforts by the local gentrifying communities to invest in their schools.

There was no real need for this social experiment, no real measured demand from parents, no real measured positive academic improvements from other similar experiments, just migration to more accountable and predictable school districts...

I did not want to believe it, but it really looks like the Old Guard is eager to get hands back on the DCPS business by expelling the new watchful families.

And the so called "experts" called to help (real experts and academics from leading universities just cannot make sense of the fact that the Nation Capital of the United States of America has teamed up with such a bunch of unskilled and amateurish practitioners) have confirmed their identity of mercenaries.

I live in Takoma Park, DC side (but less than one mile from Takoma MD, which looks like paradise to me now). Single-mom with one fifth grader, high education and middle income. My son and I love the Takoma community, the proximity to downtown. In just two years the area has incredibly benefited from the "gentrification". From what I see , it's mainly young professionals renting/buying small apartments in refurbished buildings, but I also see many new young families with kids. The newly updated Takoma playground thrives with kids from new families on weekends, as the Takoma DCPR pool. The Takoma Educational Campus, an incredibly majestic facility with first-class sport fields and infrastructures which, by the way, are way better than Wilson (pool, football field, baseball field, tennis courts) is on the rise. And though most gentrifiers are still shipping daily their kids west of the Park, some have started to invest in the Takoma Educational Campus (TEC). TEC selves kids from pre-school to 8th grade. Parents who are increasingly starting to dedicate volontary time and money to the school know that they are doing a 8+ year investment. I myself, after 5 great years at Murch ES, have decided to enroll my kid to the Takoma Educational Campus for middle school. And he cannot wait for that. Though still in "borderline" academic conditions, I am confident that with parental involvement/supervision my kid will have a great school and academic experience. He will be finally able to walk to school by himself (which is going to be such a relief to me) and have school access to these magnificent facilities.

The school is on the rise, parents are seen more and more in the school, gentrifiers are stepping in.

Now I see with horror and disgust that Ward 4, Takoma, is on the controlled choice part of an official DC document. This is not rumor , THIS IS AN OFFICIAL DC DOCUMENT ON AN OFFICIAL DC GOVERNMENT WEBSITE. See the the worksheet "Exploring Options" here: http://dme.dc.gov/node/790172

I do not want to say more but let me just tell you that controlled choice will break in just one year the great dynamics we are seeing in Takoma . The parents I know will not accept a random element. We want and we need choice, no chance. We are in Takoma for a choice not fo a chance. The "newcomers" have landed in Takoma for an investment choice, not by chance.

And I find unacceptable that controlled choice is even proposed for Ward 4.

And, yes, as one of the previous posters said, I too find disgusting that DCPS has picked the 21 Century School Fund people - unskilled experimentalists full of pre-ideologies on what's right and wrong - to inform their work and decide our kids fate.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, my best guess is that the black boxes with ward numbers on them below various policy scenarios in that worksheet indicate that the scenario most closely resembles what is already happening organically in those wards?

As in, Ward 3 mostly stick to their neighborhood schools and follow the feeder patterns while in Ward 4 the families are actually already moving around among a "choice set".

If that is what they mean ( and we should ask) then, it is only a snapshot and doesn't capture trends, investments and an actual choice among equal options and therefore is not very informative and should NOT be used to inform any policy decisions.