What elementary school on The Hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

I'm not the poster you are quoting, but it seems more likely that the poster does not consider Jefferson as a Capitol Hill middle school. It's in SW by the waterfront. It may be a better school academically than SH, but SH is an easy walk, scooter or bike ride for middle school kids that actually live on the Hill. I'm a Brent parent and I would rather enroll my child at SH for that reason rather than Jefferson. Jefferson just isn't in my neighborhood-- SH is. Quite galling that Brent doesn't feed into the neighborhood middle school. When Hine middle school was available, it made sense to not have Brent feed SH since Hine was only 4 blocks from Brent. but now? I don't understand it.

To the subject at hand, Brent is fine, so are most of the elementary schools on the Hill. Find a house you love and enjoy! I don't think you will regret it! Good luck!

Huh? You need to get out more and walk due east.

In defense of PP, her characterization was clearly with respect to MOST elementary schools. By definition, MOST does not encompass ALL. Is is that irksome that she might very well live IB for Brent?

No, not irksome. But I think she's ignorant outside of the Brent boundary, and thus should only opine on what she knows. You too, for that matter.

Do you by chance have a personality disorder requiring medication or are you just a mean drunkard?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

MGP doesn't mean what you think it does. The higher performing the school and the kids were at the start the lower one would expect the growth rate to be. That is why Janney and Two Rivers and Brent track in the 40s. But if you are relying on MGP to show better schools then Deal must be going downhill because Jefferson has better scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

I'm not the poster you are quoting, but it seems more likely that the poster does not consider Jefferson as a Capitol Hill middle school. It's in SW by the waterfront. It may be a better school academically than SH, but SH is an easy walk, scooter or bike ride for middle school kids that actually live on the Hill. I'm a Brent parent and I would rather enroll my child at SH for that reason rather than Jefferson. Jefferson just isn't in my neighborhood-- SH is. Quite galling that Brent doesn't feed into the neighborhood middle school. When Hine middle school was available, it made sense to not have Brent feed SH since Hine was only 4 blocks from Brent. but now? I don't understand it.

To the subject at hand, Brent is fine, so are most of the elementary schools on the Hill. Find a house you love and enjoy! I don't think you will regret it! Good luck!

Huh? You need to get out more and walk due east.

In defense of PP, her characterization was clearly with respect to MOST elementary schools. By definition, MOST does not encompass ALL. Is is that irksome that she might very well live IB for Brent?

No, not irksome. But I think she's ignorant outside of the Brent boundary, and thus should only opine on what she knows. You too, for that matter.

Do you by chance have a personality disorder requiring medication or are you just a mean drunkard?

Maybe you don't agree with her post but she explained her thought process. You, on the other hand, just went to a sophomoric ad homonym attack. Pot. Kettle. Black.

[Anonymous]

It's ad hominem and there's clearly very little in the way of thought process. Nice sock puppetry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

Like two bald men fighting over a comb!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But Tyler and Van Ness also feed into Jefferson. Are you saying those aren't Hill schools either?

No, Van Ness isn't on the Hill and neither is Jefferson. Capitol Riverfront or Navy Yard or whatever you want to call it isn't part of the Hill anymore than the residential areas of SW south of the Freeway. If it were, then Amidon would be considered to be a Hill elementary school and realtors would be marketing properties in SW as the Hill. Brent hasn't sent an IB kids to Jefferson in recent memory, SY 2015-16 will be the first year that Tyler feeds to Jefferson, and Van Ness will not be graduating a Fifth Grade class until the Spring of 2021. Is there something that I might have overlooked?

I remember when I was looking at those EYA homes south of Results, the markerters told me that was part of the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

MGP doesn't mean what you think it does. The higher performing the school and the kids were at the start the lower one would expect the growth rate to be. That is why Janney and Two Rivers and Brent track in the 40s. But if you are relying on MGP to show better schools then Deal must be going downhill because Jefferson has better scores.

What on earth are you saying?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But Tyler and Van Ness also feed into Jefferson. Are you saying those aren't Hill schools either?

No, Van Ness isn't on the Hill and neither is Jefferson. Capitol Riverfront or Navy Yard or whatever you want to call it isn't part of the Hill anymore than the residential areas of SW south of the Freeway. If it were, then Amidon would be considered to be a Hill elementary school and realtors would be marketing properties in SW as the Hill. Brent hasn't sent an IB kids to Jefferson in recent memory, SY 2015-16 will be the first year that Tyler feeds to Jefferson, and Van Ness will not be graduating a Fifth Grade class until the Spring of 2021. Is there something that I might have overlooked?

I remember when I was looking at those EYA homes south of Results, the markerters told me that was part of the Hill.

The EYA homes south of the freeway is not technically part of Capitol Hill. However, anyone who frequests Canal Park or Yards Park will find that the vast majority of the families that go there either live in Capitol Hill or the Capitol Riverfront. In 5 years living in the "Capitol Riverfront" will have as much prestige as living in "Capitol Hill". The demographics won't be that different. Also, Van Ness will end up being similar to Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, and Maury.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

MGP doesn't mean what you think it does. The higher performing the school and the kids were at the start the lower one would expect the growth rate to be. That is why Janney and Two Rivers and Brent track in the 40s. But if you are relying on MGP to show better schools then Deal must be going downhill because Jefferson has better scores.

If it's comparing kids at the same starting point, then it would be comparing a kid who started at say 90 at Janney with a kid who started at 90 at Brent with a kid that started at 90 at Payne. If the kid improves a lot more at Payne than at Janney and Brent, wouldn't that say that Payne might be a better school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But Tyler and Van Ness also feed into Jefferson. Are you saying those aren't Hill schools either?

No, Van Ness isn't on the Hill and neither is Jefferson. Capitol Riverfront or Navy Yard or whatever you want to call it isn't part of the Hill anymore than the residential areas of SW south of the Freeway. If it were, then Amidon would be considered to be a Hill elementary school and realtors would be marketing properties in SW as the Hill. Brent hasn't sent an IB kids to Jefferson in recent memory, SY 2015-16 will be the first year that Tyler feeds to Jefferson, and Van Ness will not be graduating a Fifth Grade class until the Spring of 2021. Is there something that I might have overlooked?

I remember when I was looking at those EYA homes south of Results, the markerters told me that was part of the Hill.

My sarcasm meter may be running a bit low on juice today, but are you referring to Capitol Quarter (FKA Capper/Carrolsburg), which is south of the FREEWAY? While I have your attention, I know of a Nigerian prince who is anxious to diversify his investment portfolio. Would you be able to wire $25,000 to my account in the Cayman Islands if I presented you with a valid cashier's check for $30,000. You get to retain $5.000 for your services. Let me know. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

MGP doesn't mean what you think it does. The higher performing the school and the kids were at the start the lower one would expect the growth rate to be. That is why Janney and Two Rivers and Brent track in the 40s. But if you are relying on MGP to show better schools then Deal must be going downhill because Jefferson has better scores.

No. The Public Charter School Board has a good explanation of MGPs at https://pcsb-pmf.wikispaces.com/Growth+Model+FAQ. "A student growth percentile (abbreviated SGP) measures how much a student's performance has improved from one year to the next relative to his or her academic peers: other students statewide with similar DC CAS test scores in prior years. The calculation answers the question, "Among other students with similar DC CAS test score histories in previous years, what is the range of scores attained this year?" The model then uses the answer to determine whether a student grew at a faster or slower rate than the students' peers, or at a similar rate. A student growth percentile of 60 indicates the student grew as well or better than 60% of her academic peers. It is not about how that recent test score compares to all the other test scores." And then the MGP is the median SGP within a given demographic group.

Schools like Janney and Two Rivers and Brent --and Stuart-Hobson--have low MGPs because the kids who come in, though they score well, do not make as much progress as kids who scored just as well but attended other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

Didn't you just confirm PP's claims (the stats DO, not don't, bear out what PP claims)? Am I missing something?

PP claims that "SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines." I agree that there is a large performance gap along racial lines. But I disagree that it's fine for advanced students. If we use white as a proxy for high performance (and I know that's a terrible proxy, but the school equity reports don't have a subset for "non-FARMs" or "scoring proficient or advanced") it's easy to see that SH's MGPs are low for this group. White kids at SH are not making as much progress as white kids who scored as high as they did in previous years but who go to different schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But Tyler and Van Ness also feed into Jefferson. Are you saying those aren't Hill schools either?

No, Van Ness isn't on the Hill and neither is Jefferson. Capitol Riverfront or Navy Yard or whatever you want to call it isn't part of the Hill anymore than the residential areas of SW south of the Freeway. If it were, then Amidon would be considered to be a Hill elementary school and realtors would be marketing properties in SW as the Hill. Brent hasn't sent an IB kids to Jefferson in recent memory, SY 2015-16 will be the first year that Tyler feeds to Jefferson, and Van Ness will not be graduating a Fifth Grade class until the Spring of 2021. Is there something that I might have overlooked?

I remember when I was looking at those EYA homes south of Results, the markerters told me that was part of the Hill.

The EYA homes south of the freeway is not technically part of Capitol Hill. However, anyone who frequests Canal Park or Yards Park will find that the vast majority of the families that go there either live in Capitol Hill or the Capitol Riverfront. In 5 years living in the "Capitol Riverfront" will have as much prestige as living in "Capitol Hill". The demographics won't be that different. Also, Van Ness will end up being similar to Brent, Ludlow-Taylor, and Maury.

I frequently see my friends and neighbors from Capitol Hill at the Costco located just off of New York Avenue. Does logic therefore dictate that this neighborhood will soon have as much prestige as the Hill? It's pointless to engage in a shallow discussion over disparities in demographics among the Brent, Maury, LT and Van Ness attendance zones or the relative degrees of prestige of each. Discussions relating to Van Ness always bring to mind GlenGarry Glen Ross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

No -- the stats do bear what I posted and you should cite current data <http://www.learndc.org/schoolprofiles/view?s=0428#equityreport>

I wasn't using "white" as proxy for advanced. Not ALL of the white kids at SH are advanced, and one can safely deduce that some of the kids performing lower academically may be just as susceptible to the lack of academic progress as students of color. As a distinct minority at SH those numbers can be easily skewed. Plus SH was hit hard by late withdrawals before SY13-14 during BASIS's first year when families could easily double enroll and not show up for the beginning of one school. They scrambled to fill seats by cut day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

you do know that SH has a lower percentage of students who are proficient or better in math (and a lower percentage of kids who are advanced in math) than Jefferson, right? In reading, Stuart Hobson has 61% proficient and Jefferson has 45%, so there is admittedly a distinction there. Jefferson has more than twice the in-bounds percentage of Stuart-Hobson, too. Learndc no longer seems to have the 2014 equity reports posted, but the most recent stats I could find showed a higher median growth percentile at Jefferson than Stuart-Hobson. So I'm not sure that S-H is the only middle school option for kids on the Hill that can provide a "good peer group." Unless you think kids need to be white to be good peers, in which case yes, there are about 40 at Stuart Hobson.

Jefferson is undeniably outperforming SH in student progress. That likely reflects that the school is meeting the needs of its students of color in a way that SH is not. SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines. SH is bigger and provides at least some advanced coursework for those capable. SH (and by extension its feeders) are not meeting the needs a lot of students.

The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at
http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools.

The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated.

Didn't you just confirm PP's claims (the stats DO, not don't, bear out what PP claims)? Am I missing something?

PP claims that "SH has always been fine for advanced students regardless of race, but there is a large performance gap along racial lines." I agree that there is a large performance gap along racial lines. But I disagree that it's fine for advanced students. If we use white as a proxy for high performance (and I know that's a terrible proxy, but the school equity reports don't have a subset for "non-FARMs" or "scoring proficient or advanced") it's easy to see that SH's MGPs are low for this group. White kids at SH are not making as much progress as white kids who scored as high as they did in previous years but who go to different schools.

That's a flawed assumption. MGP doesn't follow individual kids. School enrollment is somewhat fluid and scores at ones school may not reflect the assigned feeder patterns. Schools with high turnover in late elementary or a large scale shuffle as commonly seen in 5th would entirely skew MGP for a given school. OSSE needs to figure out a way to create an anonymous and portable method of quantifying performance that doesn't penalize schools for receiving under prepared students or reward schools for receiving well prepared students