what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I meant as far as mentioning Maury as a possible feed into a charter school. Try to read everything.

Are you really that daft? A "policy" proposal should have a more compelling basis that a significant percentage of Brent students are leaving for charters and privates. Is the situation really that much different at Maury. I doubt that droves are heading to EH.

But Maury parents say that they aren't losing kids to charters. They say Eliot Hine is getting their graduates.

This needs to be parsed out. While it may be true that some Maury 5th graders head to EH, I'll bet these are OOB kids in Maury 5th grade who don't have a better option (and I'll bet each successive year at Maury has a higher proportion of OOB kids, just like Brent. E.g., Brent 5th grade is 15 kids this year, with fewer than 5 IB, contrasted w/100% IB at Brent for ECE). I am VERY skeptical that any IB Maury kids have opted for EH. Please, disprove me on this.

[Anonymous]

In boundary Maury students haven't hit 5th grade yet (for the most part). There is some PTA commitment to adopting EH, but it is more theoretical than actual thud far, because very few of the relevant kids are old enough to have been put to the test.

[Anonymous]

Yes, there are Maury IB kids at Eliot-Hine. Quite a few parents of younger kids committed to making EH work and are doing the hard work to get the International Baccalaureate program off the ground.

[Anonymous]

Actually using the Options campus for a Basis-type charter or a test-in DCPS middle school would be awesome. I live near SH and it is a quick bike commute to get to Options (did that route all summer). I think it would mean giving up hope for SH, but I would love a real, reliable, quality neighborhood option, one way or another.

Cluster Parent

[Anonymous]

What I understand is that most of the 5th grade of Brent left last year for Basis. Do you think that will happen this year? Were the expectations met?

[Anonymous]

The charters aren't test-in or selective. Why does public need to be?

I think the poster who mentioned the power of "word of mouth" marketing hit the nail on the head. Some of these schools which have excellent potential and already impressive programs (such as Eastern) have a real marketing problem when it comes to a lot of Hill families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually using the Options campus for a Basis-type charter or a test-in DCPS middle school would be awesome. I live near SH and it is a quick bike commute to get to Options (did that route all summer). I think it would mean giving up hope for SH, but I would love a real, reliable, quality neighborhood option, one way or another.

Cluster Parent

Asked and answered. DCPS has made it clear that it is not interested in test-in or adding another middle school to the Hill when EH is grossly under enrolled. The focus is on under served, low performing students in the name of promoting diversity. A charter would be great, but DCPS has to find a home for the unique population served at Options.

[Anonymous]

Cluster parent: how do you explain the divide if the parents coming out of Watkins who think SH is "just fine" and those who have posted here that even though they live next to SH, they would trek past it to another theoretical brand new charter school on the Hill?

What is the hesitation to jump into SH about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cluster parent: how do you explain the divide if the parents coming out of Watkins who think SH is "just fine" and those who have posted here that even though they live next to SH, they would trek past it to another theoretical brand new charter school on the Hill?

What is the hesitation to jump into SH about?

I'm a Cluster parent. Every family has their own criteria for what is "just fine" and what is "not". Having watched SH for 3 years (as my DC has been in 4th, 5th, 6th in the cluster), I think the SH gets better each year.

It is also very easy to say "yes" to a theoretical brand new charter on an anonymous forum. I've had experience with my DCs in brand new/ almost brand new charters, and for our family, the difference between "theoretical"' and "actual" experience has been vast, and I personally will not again enroll DC in new school.

[Anonymous]

When will rich white parents realize that an all-white/high-ses public school system in their gentrified/gentrifying city is not their manifest destiny?

[Anonymous]

All parents regardless of race or socioeconomic status have an interest in having their children attend neighborhood schools where education is valued and promoted. This includes middle school, which requires our do nothing Mayor to tell Kaya that shrugging her shoulders and saying middle school is hard is simply no longer acceptable. The Chancellor almost certainly would be out of a job almost immediately anywhere else, but in good ole DC her resignation is just par for the course so long as she can continue to collect a fat government paycheck. Nobody living in DC and attending DCPS is advocating for an all-white/high SES system, but to the broader point, "diversity" solely for the sake of diversity will do nothing to overcome a 40 to 50 point achievement gap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will rich white parents realize that an all-white/high-ses public school system in their gentrified/gentrifying city is not their manifest destiny?

Oh shut up and go away. Lazy lazy thinking and accusations. DC is a dysfunctional school system that has failed the majority of its students for decades. Parents do not care if their kids' classmates are white black or purple. They don't care if they are rich or poor. THEY DO care if their child's classmates are I adequately prepared for academic work and proper social interaction. If we had a school system that worked, it could possibly mitigate the effects of poverty on these factors. In the meantime, it is only prudent and CAUSED by the inability of our schools system to properly educate all children, to try to find a scenario where classmates have the highest probability of learning DESPITE the systemic failures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When will rich white parents realize that an all-white/high-ses public school system in their gentrified/gentrifying city is not their manifest destiny?

I'm a white parent and I'm totally with you. What you have to work around is the idea that the white parents/higher income parents have shown that they will choose other schools if the presented choices do not seem good for them. So if you want them, it turns out you have to create incentives for them along with any restrictions on mobility within DCPS.

I'm not a fan however, once you create the school that these parents want, that they then go and start exercising a level of exclusive ownership inappropriate for a larger system of schools with a clearly limited number of quality seats.

[Anonymous]

Please tell us what you mean by "exercising a level of exclusive ownership inappropriate for a larger system of schools . . . ". This sounds like BS gibberish. DCPS is a neighborhood-based school system and each school, regardless of the racial or SES make-up of those within its boundaries has a finite number of seats that can be filled. IB families get first priority, than OOB with sibling, then proximity, and then everyone else according to lottery number. What do you propose instead?

[Anonymous]

You need to learn to read between the lines. Basically PP takes issue with the idea that middle-class parents are holding out for options where more than half of the students are prepared to learn at grade level, and not disrupt the school culture with behavioral issues. Anywhere else, this would just be a given (for all SES levels), but at DCPS it's an unforgivable provocation, and shows a horrible sense of entitlement.