s/o Gifted classes in DC schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sorry. I posted the Latin info and then noted that pp asked for what BASIS offers in 5th, not Latin. Misread that.

Thank you, was interested in WL curriculum as well. I think the CK sequence is richer for 5th grade -- integrated units on Pre-Columbian Civilizations, Renaissance in Europe, Reformation, English Civil War, Early Russia, Feudal Japan, American West, US Civil War/Reconstruction. The literature includes Shakespeare and Cervantes (abridged), Frederick Douglass, Tom Sawyer, lots of poetry with integrated music and art history. Imagine how strong the K-8 curriculum would be if DCPS supplemented the current standards with CK.

Excellent. Stellar. Now tell me why nearly one-quarter of the kids still can't pass proficiency tests so easy that my 3rd grader scored 100% on the DC-CAS. Actually, I'm fairly certain that she would have scored 100% on the 4th grade test. Can I send her to Latin to take the 5th grade test next year to boost scores there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So sorry. I posted the Latin info and then noted that pp asked for what BASIS offers in 5th, not Latin. Misread that.

Thank you, was interested in WL curriculum as well. I think the CK sequence is richer for 5th grade -- integrated units on Pre-Columbian Civilizations, Renaissance in Europe, Reformation, English Civil War, Early Russia, Feudal Japan, American West, US Civil War/Reconstruction. The literature includes Shakespeare and Cervantes (abridged), Frederick Douglass, Tom Sawyer, lots of poetry with integrated music and art history. Imagine how strong the K-8 curriculum would be if DCPS supplemented the current standards with CK.

Excellent. Stellar. Now tell me why nearly one-quarter of the kids still can't pass proficiency tests so easy that my 3rd grader scored 100% on the DC-CAS. Actually, I'm fairly certain that she would have scored 100% on the 4th grade test. Can I send her to Latin to take the 5th grade test next year to boost scores there?

Who cares?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. To the poster who thinks im trying to pick a fight, trust me Im not. I am truly curious why this idea has not gained more steam with DCPS management. there are so many driven and well organized parents in DCPS who put so much effort into starting Charters, enrichment programs or saving their local under performing school that it surprises me that a group hasn't formed to demand test-in advanced classes, for younger kids. I grew up in another state and was in a test-in gifted and talented program starting in third grade. It was great and I am glad I had the opportunity and challenges that came with it. By high school, everyone was more leveled at in some courses more than others. I know a few students in DCPS who have been allowed to skip a grade but that to me is not a good long term solution for kids. I think the schools in ward 1 are surrounded by some of the most educated parents in the City and its quickly gentrifying but so many of the DCPS schools do not reflect this at all. My kid is still a couple of years from DCPS so I am really trying to understand this issue. It just doesnt make much sense to me to have a group of third graders in one class where half are reading, barely, at kindergarten level and the rest are reading at a fifth grade level. Unless the expectation is that the more advanced kids are supposed to tutor the others. Which is really screwed up too.

There we go, part of the problem with the debate is of course that those clamoring for G&T programs do so because they think that all of the so many "driven parents" (including them of course) have gifted children. Doesn't surprise me that OP doesn't even have school age children yet. How does he/she know his/hers are gifted?! If these are the parents pestering DCPS for G&T programs, then let's not be surprised that DCPS rolls its eyes saying "here we go again" because all it ends up being is "I want my child to be enrolled with 'like' children". God forbid that these G&T children be poor and/or black.

So, let me rephrase:
Question: "Why don't we have a G&T program?"
Answer: "Because the wrong people are asking for it for the wrong reasons."

Meanwhile, I, who may well have a truly talented child in DCPS, I can but distance myself from the "stroller brigade" (not my word choice) whose requests and claims are too often pitifully uninformed.

Fortunately, we've found DCPS well capable of addressing our child's needs. And, no, I won't share in what supposedly (I quote) "parallel universe" with its "bs enrichment" we've made it happen. Go do your own homework.

NP here. Out of curiosity, why are you such a bitch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just looked at BASIS. What we found is a cave-like building, no gym, no stage, no decent music or art room. Dim, loud, bare hallways in which loads of kids shove and trip one another. Very young teachers and admins in there, looking a bit over-whelmed. Many kids fidgety and distracted seeming in one class after another (trying to absorb dry material obviously over the heads of a good half).

My kid has attended Johns Hopkins CTY, where he has no trouble keeping up with classmates bound for MoC HGCs (Centers for Highly Gifted, 4th-5th grades). We're not sure where to head for 5th grade and beyond. We don't want to move to the burbs, don't like the idea of DC being with pampered kids at privates (or jeopardizing our college and retirement savings by sending him), and doubt Latin would differentiate enough. Also, we don't see serious sports at either Latin or BASIS for an athletic child and fierce competitor, and don't like Latin's down-heel new neighborhood. Yea, we're too picky, snooty, whatever.

I don't see GT programs coming in with Gray/Henderson. Rhee used to talk about her desire to introduce them, starting in Ward 8. Henderson doesn't.

Good, it sounds like you've identified the root of the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So sorry. I posted the Latin info and then noted that pp asked for what BASIS offers in 5th, not Latin. Misread

[Anonymous]

PP here. Thanks to the obnoxious troll who baited me into responding about how many kids I have and what schools they are in and how I seem to know so much just having one child in pre-k. Despite my feeling that I did not identify our family or anyone else's, my husband feels like I have "outed" my family and is going to cut me off from DCUMs - no, I don't have a very egalitarian marriage. But that is true of many minority couples. So I am hoping he can make it read only because I feel like I have actually contributed to discussions, and I have certainly learned a lot from you all. He sometimes comes out with opinions based on facts that he does not admit he read first here - I guess I will have to guess more from now on. But since I still don't think I identified our ES, our family, the gender of any of my children, the total number of kids in my family, and any schools other than Washington Latin and Basis, and did not even say the gender or the grade that dc1 was in, I hope that he is wrong and that I did not do anything really wrong that could lead to my family being identified and somehow retaliated against... Oh well. It would help me feel better if before he comes home at least one person could post that they don't know who I am and could care less, because sometimes when you don't give the evidence - your personal experience - to back up your opinions, you get trashed. Oh woops! I gave a lot of evidence and got trashed anyway, but also supported. Again, thank you to this community

Signed,
apparently irresponsible AA mother of 3 or more kids..... in some undisclosed JKLM school with dc1 at BASIS and very happy with dc1's education...........

You weren't baited. You were challenged for inconsistencies in your post. You chose to share all your details. That said, I doubt anyone here would identify you and can't imagine even the meanest posters here ever retaliating against you for anything you posted. Since you asked, though, for one person could post they don't know you and could care less, I'm one such person and I mean that it in the best way possible. You're just another parent with passionate concerns wading into the sometimes tough playground that is DCUM.

[Anonymous]

And this thread has taken a turn for the way worse. Geez! Now people are worried about being outed? Nothing on here is that serious, people!!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Yea, we're too picky, snooty, whatever.

Good, it sounds like you've identified the root of the problem.

I assure you that s/he hasn't identified it. The root of the problem is parents like you making do instead of demanding what's healthy and normal a few miles away, across the MD and VA lines: tracking to meet the academic needs of all the middle school kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Yea, we're too picky, snooty, whatever.

Good, it sounds like you've identified the root of the problem.

I assure you that s/he hasn't identified it. The root of the problem is parents like you making do instead of demanding what's healthy and normal a few miles away, across the MD and VA lines: tracking to meet the academic needs of all the middle school kids.





what's healthy and normal in MD may not actually be healthy or normal

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/06/11/teachers-why-so-many-kids-are-flunking-final-exams-in-montgomery-county/

[Anonymous]

Sounds to me like some of you are trying to compare your memories of big suburban public schools with huge budgets to small urban charters that get far less to spend per student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here. Thanks to the obnoxious troll who baited me into responding about how many kids I have and what schools they are in and how I seem to know so much just having one child in pre-k. Despite my feeling that I did not identify our family or anyone else's, my husband feels like I have "outed" my family and is going to cut me off from DCUMs - no, I don't have a very egalitarian marriage. But that is true of many minority couples. So I am hoping he can make it read only because I feel like I have actually contributed to discussions, and I have certainly learned a lot from you all. He sometimes comes out with opinions based on facts that he does not admit he read first here - I guess I will have to guess more from now on. But since I still don't think I identified our ES, our family, the gender of any of my children, the total number of kids in my family, and any schools other than Washington Latin and Basis, and did not even say the gender or the grade that dc1 was in, I hope that he is wrong and that I did not do anything really wrong that could lead to my family being identified and somehow retaliated against... Oh well. It would help me feel better if before he comes home at least one person could post that they don't know who I am and could care less, because sometimes when you don't give the evidence - your personal experience - to back up your opinions, you get trashed. Oh woops! I gave a lot of evidence and got trashed anyway, but also supported. Again, thank you to this community

Signed,
apparently irresponsible AA mother of 3 or more kids..... in some undisclosed JKLM school with dc1 at BASIS and very happy with dc1's education...........

Actually, I think I might no you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS does have art and music, not sure why you'd think they don't... As for a stage and other facilities, they have started getting access to use some better facilities outside of their building. Bear in mind that DC real estate is not cheap and DC has not particularly been helpful to charters in the facilities department - one can only conclude they'd spitefully prefer to have their extra facilities sit shuttered than let kids benefit from them.

Music and art looked weak to me. They aren't offering the sort of enrichment programs I had access to in middle and high school, although my family struggled financially, e.g. a real orchestra, band, school musicals, ceramics workshops etc. I've been on a couple tours.

I'm not exactly blaming BASIS. It's more the politicians fault, or perhaps the voters fault, that extra facilities remain shuttered. But I'm not sure that I like the narrow emphasis on STEM work either, and I'm an MIT grad near the top of the Federal pay scale. As a teenager, I would have done nothing but math and sci if I'd been encouraged to (not to my benefit).


Basis is new in town. Even if DC opened up all the empty schools to charters, there are schools way ahead of charter on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds to me like some of you are trying to compare your memories of big suburban public schools with huge budgets to small urban charters that get far less to spend per student.

I went to a small high school in a struggling little New England mill town. We had a modest pool and stage with orchestra pit, a champion marching band, at least a dozen varsity sports (many so strong that our teams were often invited to play private prep schools), and remarkably good science labs and computer labs. We also had regular town meetings attended by many parents. There was nowhere to hide from waste, fraud and mismanagement, so there wasn't much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Now tell me why nearly one-quarter of the kids still can't pass proficiency tests so easy that my 3rd grader scored 100% on the DC-CAS.

Who cares?

Um, lots high-SES parents in the city. How much can kids get of of studying the Renaissance etc. when they can barely read? Again, too much instructor time and energy going to reach kids lacking basic skills. You hear Latin teachers claim "Oh, but the kids we don't serve well are those who are behind; the advanced kids aren't shortchanged." Not buying it.

The high octane CK sequence cannot work well when at least two thirds of the kids in any given 5th grade Latin class are unable to score advanced on the CAS, and nearly a third are unable to score proficient. I didn't grasp how easy the DC-CAS actually is until my 3rd grader, who is no genius, scored 100%. This April, I kept her home on testing days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS does have art and music, not sure why you'd think they don't... As for a stage and other facilities, they have started getting access to use some better facilities outside of their building. Bear in mind that DC real estate is not cheap and DC has not particularly been helpful to charters in the facilities department - one can only conclude they'd spitefully prefer to have their extra facilities sit shuttered than let kids benefit from them.

Music and art looked weak to me. They aren't offering the sort of enrichment programs I had access to in middle and high school, although my family struggled financially, e.g. a real orchestra, band, school musicals, ceramics workshops etc. I've been on a couple tours.

I'm not exactly blaming BASIS. It's more the politicians fault, or perhaps the voters fault, that extra facilities remain shuttered. But I'm not sure that I like the narrow emphasis on STEM work either, and I'm an MIT grad near the top of the Federal pay scale. As a teenager, I would have done nothing but math and sci if I'd been encouraged to (not to my benefit).

Basis is new in town. Even if DC opened up all the empty schools to charters, there are schools way ahead of charter on the list.

I'm not sure where you get the idea that it's just a "narrow emphasis on STEM" or "nothing but math and sci" when they also have a very strong and robust classical/liberal arts education component containing several years of Latin, along with strong offerings in English, history, geography and other arts and humanities. BASIS isn't the only charter missing out due to politicians, many charters have far worse facilities than BASIS, many are for example parked in cramped little incubators and so on.