Capitol Hill Middle School and High School situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because everyone on the hill leaves those elementary schools by 3rd grade, if not sooner, so in theory those could all be great schools if these obnoxious parents that are so reoccupied with "education" aka all white schools would just keep their kids in their in bound school with their grade cohort of kids and they get better over time. No one wants to be the test dummy so no one stays, it's a vicious cycle and its killing DCPS. Charters are a total joke and robbing public schools of resources and the kids they could bring in to continuously improve. I don't live on the hill, but rather in petworth but have several friends on the hill and its the same whining and everyone scratching their head when in reality, its that the wealthy or even normal by this areas standards well meaning parents of white kids leave. Period. It's causing me so much frustration in my own area because my childrens cohort of parents keep saying we love the area, we like the school but yeah we gotta move before middle, and it's like hmm i think if everyone stayed we'd be just fine. If you figure out a solution let me know.

Tbh, many parents are happy when those obnoxious white parents leave. One of the things that makes SH a great school is that the vibe is really relaxed and much more friendly, mostly because those white parents have left.

Wow. Replace "white" with"black" and you'd be condemned as a racist...go figure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because everyone on the hill leaves those elementary schools by 3rd grade, if not sooner, so in theory those could all be great schools if these obnoxious parents that are so reoccupied with "education" aka all white schools would just keep their kids in their in bound school with their grade cohort of kids and they get better over time. No one wants to be the test dummy so no one stays, it's a vicious cycle and its killing DCPS. Charters are a total joke and robbing public schools of resources and the kids they could bring in to continuously improve. I don't live on the hill, but rather in petworth but have several friends on the hill and its the same whining and everyone scratching their head when in reality, its that the wealthy or even normal by this areas standards well meaning parents of white kids leave. Period. It's causing me so much frustration in my own area because my childrens cohort of parents keep saying we love the area, we like the school but yeah we gotta move before middle, and it's like hmm i think if everyone stayed we'd be just fine. If you figure out a solution let me know.

Tbh, many parents are happy when those obnoxious white parents leave. One of the things that makes SH a great school is that the vibe is really relaxed and much more friendly, mostly because those white parents have left.

Wow. Replace "white" with"black" and you'd be condemned as a racist...go figure.

Is it racist if the parents are indeed obnoxious?

[Anonymous]

Everybody leaves which Hill elementary schools by 3rd grade?

At our Hill ES, we had around 75 kids in 3rd grade this year (more than 90% in-boundary students), six dozen kids in 4th, and more than 30 in 5th this year.

Fact was, hardly anybody left before 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody leaves which Hill elementary schools by 3rd grade?

At our Hill ES, we had around 75 kids in 3rd grade this year (more than 90% in-boundary students), six dozen kids in 4th, and more than 30 in 5th this year.

Fact was, hardly anybody left before 4th grade.

Well … Watkins definitely.

[Anonymous]

If all the UMC kids stayed through MS AND successfully demanded advanced programming which was implemented by an administration and reaching staff motivated to provide that programming, and supported by DCPS in doing so, then yes, we would have more areas with quality paths through MS and HS. But there are a lot at variables there and I don’t blame families for not taking the risk. Part of the problem is that some UMC families do choose to send their kids to the local MS but accept the status quo and the families who stay but try to work for change get labeled as obnoxious or high strung or racist or whatever. You see this all over this board and I have experienced this even in ES. We were at a school with @good test scores@ which I took to mean lots of kids scoring 5s. What it means in hill-speak is that there is a small achievement gap. Big difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody leaves which Hill elementary schools by 3rd grade?

At our Hill ES, we had around 75 kids in 3rd grade this year (more than 90% in-boundary students), six dozen kids in 4th, and more than 30 in 5th this year.

Fact was, hardly anybody left before 4th grade.

Well … Watkins definitely.

Sounds like Brent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If all the UMC kids stayed through MS AND successfully demanded advanced programming which was implemented by an administration and reaching staff motivated to provide that programming, and supported by DCPS in doing so, then yes, we would have more areas with quality paths through MS and HS. But there are a lot at variables there and I don’t blame families for not taking the risk. Part of the problem is that some UMC families do choose to send their kids to the local MS but accept the status quo and the families who stay but try to work for change get labeled as obnoxious or high strung or racist or whatever. You see this all over this board and I have experienced this even in ES. We were at a school with @good test scores@ which I took to mean lots of kids scoring 5s. What it means in hill-speak is that there is a small achievement gap. Big difference.

You make good points, PP. I don't see an academic "risk" in staying on the Hill for MS as much as the psychic risk of taking on the frustration and dissatisfaction of running with a DCPS middle school culture that's not in sync with that of dynamic, highly diverse neighborhood.

As things stand on the Hill, your kid has the option of going from your highly diverse (students, teachers, staff, admins), high-performing ES to a MS that's overwhelmingly AA (students, teachers, staff, admins) where most students work below grade level. DCPS could make the prospect of sending your kid a DCPS middle school EotP far more appealing by tweaking programming/curriculum to cater to advanced learners, and recruiting more diverse faculties. DCPS doesn't bother so parents can' be blamed for voting with their feet.

[Anonymous]

What is the point of worrying about the quality of the MS on the Hill when the high school option is NOT good? A lot of parents bail for Latin and BASIS because of Eastern, not because of Stuart Hobson. . .

[Anonymous]

Some families can afford a private for HS, but not for MS and HS.

Some Hill families are prepared to rent in the burbs just for HS, with parents returning to their Hill house as empty nesters.

Some SH students test into Walls and/or Banneker. DCPS seems to give preferential treatment in admissions to Walls to 8th graders in DCPS programs, particularly coming from SH. Loyalty to DCPS tends to be rewarded when applying to selective high schools in the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some families can afford a private for HS, but not for MS and HS.

Some Hill families are prepared to rent in the burbs just for HS, with parents returning to their Hill house as empty nesters.

Some SH students test into Walls and/or Banneker. DCPS seems to give preferential treatment in admissions to Walls to 8th graders in DCPS programs, particularly coming from SH. Loyalty to DCPS tends to be rewarded when applying to selective high schools in the system.

Neither Walls nor Banneker (nor DE) are guaranteed and Walls is not the school it used to be. What is your point PP? We should just ignore the situation at Eastern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some families can afford a private for HS, but not for MS and HS.

Some Hill families are prepared to rent in the burbs just for HS, with parents returning to their Hill house as empty nesters.

Some SH students test into Walls and/or Banneker. DCPS seems to give preferential treatment in admissions to Walls to 8th graders in DCPS programs, particularly coming from SH. Loyalty to DCPS tends to be rewarded when applying to selective high schools in the system.

Neither Walls nor Banneker (nor DE) are guaranteed and Walls is not the school it used to be. What is your point PP? We should just ignore the situation at Eastern?

I'm not advocating for any approach to MS. We're hoping to get off the BASIS WL by the start of school. That said, I know a number of Hill families who've made the SH work over the years. Some of these kids have gone on to highly competitive colleges, e.g. Brown, Penn, Georgetown.

What else can we do but ignore the dead-ended situation at Eastern?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everybody leaves which Hill elementary schools by 3rd grade?

At our Hill ES, we had around 75 kids in 3rd grade this year (more than 90% in-boundary students), six dozen kids in 4th, and more than 30 in 5th this year.

Fact was, hardly anybody left before 4th grade.

Well … Watkins definitely.

Sounds like Brent.

PP here. I was responding to the question “everybody IB leaves which school by 3rd.”

Agree that it sounds like they are describing Brent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If all the UMC kids stayed through MS AND successfully demanded advanced programming which was implemented by an administration and reaching staff motivated to provide that programming, and supported by DCPS in doing so, then yes, we would have more areas with quality paths through MS and HS. But there are a lot at variables there and I don’t blame families for not taking the risk. Part of the problem is that some UMC families do choose to send their kids to the local MS but accept the status quo and the families who stay but try to work for change get labeled as obnoxious or high strung or racist or whatever. You see this all over this board and I have experienced this even in ES. We were at a school with @good test scores@ which I took to mean lots of kids scoring 5s. What it means in hill-speak is that there is a small achievement gap. Big difference.

You make good points, PP. I don't see an academic "risk" in staying on the Hill for MS as much as the psychic risk of taking on the frustration and dissatisfaction of running with a DCPS middle school culture that's not in sync with that of dynamic, highly diverse neighborhood.

As things stand on the Hill, your kid has the option of going from your highly diverse (students, teachers, staff, admins), high-performing ES to a MS that's overwhelmingly AA (students, teachers, staff, admins) where most students work below grade level. DCPS could make the prospect of sending your kid a DCPS middle school EotP far more appealing by tweaking programming/curriculum to cater to advanced learners, and recruiting more diverse faculties. DCPS doesn't bother so parents can' be blamed for voting with their feet.

Jefferson has a white principal and black assistant principals. https://www.jeffersontrojans.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_92289/File/JA%20Staff%20Directory%209.2.20.pdf looks like the staff is about even between black and white with a few Latina and Asian teachers too...certainly wouldn't call it "overwhelmingly AA" (also if you/your kid is overwhelmed by being around people of color that might deserve some introspection...). White kids are not going to lack racial mirrors among faculty at JA. And the directory lists the contact info for all the staff so you could certainly inquire about how your advanced learner will be catered to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If all the UMC kids stayed through MS AND successfully demanded advanced programming which was implemented by an administration and reaching staff motivated to provide that programming, and supported by DCPS in doing so, then yes, we would have more areas with quality paths through MS and HS. But there are a lot at variables there and I don’t blame families for not taking the risk. Part of the problem is that some UMC families do choose to send their kids to the local MS but accept the status quo and the families who stay but try to work for change get labeled as obnoxious or high strung or racist or whatever. You see this all over this board and I have experienced this even in ES. We were at a school with @good test scores@ which I took to mean lots of kids scoring 5s. What it means in hill-speak is that there is a small achievement gap. Big difference.

You make good points, PP. I don't see an academic "risk" in staying on the Hill for MS as much as the psychic risk of taking on the frustration and dissatisfaction of running with a DCPS middle school culture that's not in sync with that of dynamic, highly diverse neighborhood.

As things stand on the Hill, your kid has the option of going from your highly diverse (students, teachers, staff, admins), high-performing ES to a MS that's overwhelmingly AA (students, teachers, staff, admins) where most students work below grade level. DCPS could make the prospect of sending your kid a DCPS middle school EotP far more appealing by tweaking programming/curriculum to cater to advanced learners, and recruiting more diverse faculties. DCPS doesn't bother so parents can' be blamed for voting with their feet.

Jefferson has a white principal and black assistant principals. https://www.jeffersontrojans.org/UserFiles/Servers/Server_92289/File/JA%20Staff%20Directory%209.2.20.pdf looks like the staff is about even between black and white with a few Latina and Asian teachers too...certainly wouldn't call it "overwhelmingly AA" (also if you/your kid is overwhelmed by being around people of color that might deserve some introspection...). White kids are not going to lack racial mirrors among faculty at JA. And the directory lists the contact info for all the staff so you could certainly inquire about how your advanced learner will be catered to.

You're exaggerating, booster. We've been to open houses and other events at JA. It's a seriously AA school without definite honors classes. My kid isn't overwhelmed by much but we're not tempted. JA just isn't nearly diverse enough.

[Anonymous]

This fall, there will be, what, half a dozen in-boundary Brent graduates at JA, from a 4th grade cohort of six dozen.

Situation can only be described as bleak and hardly improving year on year.