Hill Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Eliot Hine gained a little over 100 students in 5 years after, what, a gleaming $50 million+ renovation? Big deal. Exceedingly poor value for taxpayers money.

Meanwhile, Latin Cooper, teaching out of warehouse with a minimum of natural light and no grass, gym or auditorium had 50 on its WL in May or last year. This year come May, they had at least 250 on their WL. I know because our WL # was in the 240s.

Figure it out DCPS. Incentivize most IB families to stay IB for schools already.

Latin Cooper's draw isn't about Latin MS grades. It is about zero viable HS options.

Disagree. Many families who shrug their shoulders about academics in elementary school care a lot about academics in middle school. The lack of a viable high school option hurts, but the middle schools are a problem too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So Eliot Hine gained a little over 100 students in 5 years after, what, a gleaming $50 million+ renovation? Big deal. Exceedingly poor value for taxpayers money.

Meanwhile, Latin Cooper, teaching out of warehouse with a minimum of natural light and no grass, gym or auditorium had 50 on its WL in May or last year. This year come May, they had at least 250 on their WL. I know because our WL # was in the 240s.

Figure it out DCPS. Incentivize most IB families to stay IB for schools already.

Latin Cooper's draw isn't about Latin MS grades. It is about zero viable HS options.

Disagree. Many families who shrug their shoulders about academics in elementary school care a lot about academics in middle school. The lack of a viable high school option hurts, but the middle schools are a problem too.

My point is this: Even if SH offered true advanced tracking people would still choose Latin and BASIS because of the HS path problem.

[Anonymous]

Everybody isn't in the same boat. Some of us don't plan to stay in public schools, or even in the DC area, for HS. Many of us are being shut out of both Latins and BASIS these days. I'd take SH at this point if DCPS offered advanced MS classes in science, social studies, math and English from 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Us, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody isn't in the same boat. Some of us don't plan to stay in public schools, or even in the DC area, for HS. Many of us are being shut out of both Latins and BASIS these days. I'd take SH at this point if DCPS offered advanced MS classes in science, social studies, math and English from 6th grade.

This isn’t happening and wishful thinking.

DCPS is going in the opposite direction. Just look at honors for all. Get out of DCPS if you can or move.

[Anonymous]

It’s not that simple. Privates cost a bomb, even with fi aid, and giving up the community where you’ve lived for a long time is a huge deal. Plus DCPS seems to give preferential treatment in admissions for Walls and Banneker to families who stick with them for middle school.

[Anonymous]

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I occasionally think this board has some pro-school choice “trolls.”. Anything positive about traditional public schools or that some in-bound families might actually be choosing them over charters, it is ripped apart.

This^.

[Anonymous]

https://www.learningbydesignmagazine.com/sites/default/files/images/Fall2017/Project_PDFs/Middle/072_LBD_Fall17.pdf

[Anonymous]

Well, 3 bed Townhomes (basic space for a 2-3 kid family) in Stuart Hobson area goes from $850K to $4.5 million so not cheap to buy or rent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, 3 bed Townhomes (basic space for a 2-3 kid family) in Stuart Hobson area goes from $850K to $4.5 million so not cheap to buy or rent.

Sure but the quality of the schools don’t match the housing prices.

That’s plenty to buy in the best school districts in VA and MD and you lose the stress of dealing with such low performing peer groups, behaviors issues, low resources, etc..

It’s a no brainer. If you choose to prioritize your current housing over your kids education, that’s your choice but let’s not deny there are better educational choices out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 3 bed Townhomes (basic space for a 2-3 kid family) in Stuart Hobson area goes from $850K to $4.5 million so not cheap to buy or rent.

Sure but the quality of the schools don’t match the housing prices.

That’s plenty to buy in the best school districts in VA and MD and you lose the stress of dealing with such low performing peer groups, behaviors issues, low resources, etc..

It’s a no brainer. If you choose to prioritize your current housing over your kids education, that’s your choice but let’s not deny there are better educational choices out there.

If you provide support and resources, kids can do well at most schools. Not everyone wants to go for stressful suburban schools buzzing with helicopter parents. Your child can standout and get mire opportunities leadership positions, which is crucial in personal growth. For academic strength, you can use parental involvement, tutoring and good summer programs. This crazy obsession of comparing school rankings often backfires. Some parents rather spend more time with their kids then in twice daily commute to large houses and stress enclave schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s not that simple. Privates cost a bomb, even with fi aid, and giving up the community where you’ve lived for a long time is a huge deal. Plus DCPS seems to give preferential treatment in admissions for Walls and Banneker to families who stick with them for middle school.

Banneker is a mediocre school at best. The culture of the school is not the best fit for many kids.

Walls is also a mediocre school, and really as a selective school is on the lower end compared to magnets and selective programs in the burbs. It’s just the standards in DC are so low that Walls is considered the best in the city. The opaque admissions process has already lowered the academic cohort and will continue to do so. Plus your chance of getting in is decreasing due to the admissions process above and DCPS goal of getting more kids into the school from under-represented wards in the city.

So if your plan is to risk middle school quality and education with the hopes of getting into Walls and then you don’t, then what? Or if you get into Banneker and it’s not a good fit and your kid is miserable, then what is the plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, 3 bed Townhomes (basic space for a 2-3 kid family) in Stuart Hobson area goes from $850K to $4.5 million so not cheap to buy or rent.

Sure but the quality of the schools don’t match the housing prices.

That’s plenty to buy in the best school districts in VA and MD and you lose the stress of dealing with such low performing peer groups, behaviors issues, low resources, etc..

It’s a no brainer. If you choose to prioritize your current housing over your kids education, that’s your choice but let’s not deny there are better educational choices out there.

If you provide support and resources, kids can do well at most schools. Not everyone wants to go for stressful suburban schools buzzing with helicopter parents. Your child can standout and get mire opportunities leadership positions, which is crucial in personal growth. For academic strength, you can use parental involvement, tutoring and good summer programs. This crazy obsession of comparing school rankings often backfires. Some parents rather spend more time with their kids then in twice daily commute to large houses and stress enclave schools.

You are naive if you think all schools in the burbs are pressure cookers. Plenty are not and you get so much more space and yard for your money.

In addition, doing after school supplementing is not enough and does not replace a good quality middle school program. Are you planning on supplementing all subjects? When is you kid going to have time to do any extracurriculars and sports?

Lastly, is this a joke? Your teenage kid is not going to want to spend time with you at home during the week. No way in hell. Feel free to work as late as you want. They want to be with friends, involved in school clubs, sports, etc… which is very lacking BTW in DCPS compared to the burbs.

[Anonymous]

We don't give a hoot about space and yards. All we want is our happy, walkable, neighborly row house life on the Hill, thanks. We'll suffer for it. We'll pay tutors, we'll commute to schools, we'll fill in middle school rigor gaps ourselves.