New Jackson-Reed HS (Wilson HS) School Principal - Sah Brown from Eastern High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

Lady, have you taken a look at “the Hill” lately? It’s a huge and growing area with a ton of money. The fact is that Wilson has a sizeable population with similar needs to the kids served by Eastern. This principal has a track record of only caring about that population, despite the very large number of children who live in the Eastern catchment who mirror Wilson’s “different needs” (for lack of a better term) population — kids who are better served by advanced offerings, real AP/IB classes, etc. If you think this guy is going to show up and make any changes that might widen the achievement gap, you are crazy.

[Anonymous]

Is this considered a promotion for Principal Brown? I mean largest high school and all -

[Anonymous]

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I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

DP here. I did not agree with the NWP podcast. The changes they documented are most likely real but it is divisive and disingenuous to blame the parents. Parents will always do what is best for their own kids. That is why it is stupid and ineffective for posters on here railing that wealthy parents should just enroll at Eastern for the greater good. The school board and central administration should be focused on trying to provide what all students need including upper income students. If new parents were advocating for changes that did not serve the majority of students well, then the school board should push back. I don’t blame the parents in this case. If a parent wants French at the school, they should advocate for it. However the principal and school district should be firm about not granting the request if it is not beneficial to the school as a whole or if it takes resources away from a more popular offering like Spanish

Let me be sure I understand the argument here... it's NOT divisive to parachute into a community, promote to the media and anyone who will listen a fictionalized version of the history of the community ("there used to be so many fights in the school...."), leverage outsized influence through professional connections to make changes, and outspend members of the community on a massive scale to implement programs that the existing community doesn't want. But pointing out those events IS divisive? Interesting take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

Lady, have you taken a look at “the Hill” lately? It’s a huge and growing area with a ton of money. The fact is that Wilson has a sizeable population with similar needs to the kids served by Eastern. This principal has a track record of only caring about that population, despite the very large number of children who live in the Eastern catchment who mirror Wilson’s “different needs” (for lack of a better term) population — kids who are better served by advanced offerings, real AP/IB classes, etc. If you think this guy is going to show up and make any changes that might widen the achievement gap, you are crazy.

Here’s the bottom line people, especially since he does whatever the chancellor and DCPS wants as stated by many posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

Lady, have you taken a look at “the Hill” lately? It’s a huge and growing area with a ton of money. The fact is that Wilson has a sizeable population with similar needs to the kids served by Eastern. This principal has a track record of only caring about that population, despite the very large number of children who live in the Eastern catchment who mirror Wilson’s “different needs” (for lack of a better term) population — kids who are better served by advanced offerings, real AP/IB classes, etc. If you think this guy is going to show up and make any changes that might widen the achievement gap, you are crazy.

I'm still caught up in the "isolated, small" neighborhood that is... the Hill? I'm not saying it's the same size as W3, it isn't population-wise or physically... But only someone who has never been EOTP thinks that "the Hill" is a "small, isolated" part of the Eastern IB rather than a huge chunk of it w/ Hill adjacent areas with plenty of dough too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

Lady, have you taken a look at “the Hill” lately? It’s a huge and growing area with a ton of money. The fact is that Wilson has a sizeable population with similar needs to the kids served by Eastern. This principal has a track record of only caring about that population, despite the very large number of children who live in the Eastern catchment who mirror Wilson’s “different needs” (for lack of a better term) population — kids who are better served by advanced offerings, real AP/IB classes, etc. If you think this guy is going to show up and make any changes that might widen the achievement gap, you are crazy.

I LOVE DCUM!!! At the same moment some of you are claiming the Hill encompasses a HUGE swath a bunch of your buddies are on other forums arguing the only two ES on "the Hill" are Brent and Maury. Priceless.

Also, as a demographic matter the zip codes on the Hill (the expanded version) are not remotely as affluent as Ward 3 and the amount of affordable housing and homeless shelters dwarf that of Ward 3. Finally, the Principal was focused mostly on the kids who attended, not the ones who didn't attend but lived in the catchment. I assume JR parents will similarly want him to focus on the enrolled population and not cater to the population of people he and DCP would want to enroll?

[Anonymous]

Having lived in both places, yes, the families of school aged kids in ward 3 tend to be much wealthier than on the hill. That said, a much higher percentage of the kids also attend privates. And wilson has its fair share of kids who live out of bounds, although probably not as many as eastern, as a percentage of the population.

I agree that if the Higher SES hill population on the hill sent their kids to eastern at the same rate that the higher SES population in ward 3 send their kids to wilson, the demographics could be much more similar. I understand the hesitance of hill parents who aren’t receiving assurance that eastern would offer the same advanced coursework as wilson, even if kids capable of that work enroll at the school. I also understand the worry of ward 3 parents who hear that he did not try to attract hill parents to eastern, and think that he might also not seek to maintain the higher SES IB population at wilson. That said, ward 3 has status quo on its side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:The Hill has similar demographics to Ward 3. Nobody sends their kids to eastern and this principal doesn’t seem to give those folks the time of day. The question will be whether he’ll give them the time of day at Jackson, or if he’ll continue to cater to the bottom. My guess is the latter, as this is also a DCPS priority.

This is an absurd construct. You have isolated one small neighborhood in Eastern's catchment area and claimed it is similar in demographics to all of Ward 3. Assuming you were correct on the facts...and? How is that relevant? Do you not see that you illustrate part of the inherent conflict here; CH is one small neighborhood and Eastern's IB population is much broader and more varied with many more diverse needs than Ward 3s somewhat homogeneous population? Take a look at the catchment for Eastern and then look at Wilson's. Even ignoring OB kids, the IB constituencies are not similar or nearly as homogeneous. Those of you with too much free time or an ax to grind have created this BS construct that that Eastern and Wilson and their respective IB populations are somehow similar and that the only thing holding Eastern back is a principal. Laughable.

Lady, have you taken a look at “the Hill” lately? It’s a huge and growing area with a ton of money. The fact is that Wilson has a sizeable population with similar needs to the kids served by Eastern. This principal has a track record of only caring about that population, despite the very large number of children who live in the Eastern catchment who mirror Wilson’s “different needs” (for lack of a better term) population — kids who are better served by advanced offerings, real AP/IB classes, etc. If you think this guy is going to show up and make any changes that might widen the achievement gap, you are crazy.

I LOVE DCUM!!! At the same moment some of you are claiming the Hill encompasses a HUGE swath a bunch of your buddies are on other forums arguing the only two ES on "the Hill" are Brent and Maury. Priceless.

Also, as a demographic matter the zip codes on the Hill (the expanded version) are not remotely as affluent as Ward 3 and the amount of affordable housing and homeless shelters dwarf that of Ward 3. Finally, the Principal was focused mostly on the kids who attended, not the ones who didn't attend but lived in the catchment. I assume JR parents will similarly want him to focus on the enrolled population and not cater to the population of people he and DCP would want to enroll?

What? No, no one says Ludlow-Taylor, Watkins, Tyler and Payne aren’t also on the Hill. Show me the post that says that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having lived in both places, yes, the families of school aged kids in ward 3 tend to be much wealthier than on the hill. That said, a much higher percentage of the kids also attend privates. And wilson has its fair share of kids who live out of bounds, although probably not as many as eastern, as a percentage of the population.

I agree that if the Higher SES hill population on the hill sent their kids to eastern at the same rate that the higher SES population in ward 3 send their kids to wilson, the demographics could be much more similar. I understand the hesitance of hill parents who aren’t receiving assurance that eastern would offer the same advanced coursework as wilson, even if kids capable of that work enroll at the school. I also understand the worry of ward 3 parents who hear that he did not try to attract hill parents to eastern, and think that he might also not seek to maintain the higher SES IB population at wilson. That said, ward 3 has status quo on its side.

Very well stated. While I'm not ecstatic to hear the Principal selection, we do have status quo on our side and I think our kids will continue to be just fine at Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That principal?!

We live on Capitol Hill. My spouse and I met with Brown when when we were looking into the IB Diploma program at Eastern for our oldest in early 2020, before the pandemic began.

Brown seemed clueless about what it would take to attract high SES in-boundary families like ours to Eastern, without any real interest in doing so. He claimed that the program offered "real rigor and challenge to all" repeatedly, and wouldn't answer our questions about Eastern's average IBD points totals. He also wouldn't talk about how many of the "full Diploma" students at Eastern actually earn the Diploma.

Later on, we learned that Eastern's average points total has been mired in the mid 20s, on a 24-45 points pass scale, since the program's inception a decade ago. We also learned that most of the Eastern students who try to earn the Diploma have failed since the get go. We left the meeting unimpressed with Brown and Eastern's IBD program and didn't enroll our child.

So, let me get this right. You walked into this man’s office with your white hood on, took it off, handed it to him and asked him to put it on. He rebuffed your offer and you decided you didn’t like him. Eastern HS kids test poorly due to various reasons (poverty, trauma, inequality, etc). He does not have to explain any of that to you. Your child could have obtained a good education there, but your classism and racism prevented you from entertaining the thought of your child in that school.

You totally pwned that poster! And that’s what matters.it’s not whether there’s any merit to what the original poster wrote, but in whether you sounding cool, and regurgitating social justice buzzwords, which in actuality, just distract from the real issues that Eastern sucks. It sucks because parents are not involved enough with their kids, because of the soft bigotry of low expectations, because of bad teachers, and generally it’s an intractable issue until the wealthy surrounding families decide to send their precious jewels there, who are well behaved and care about learning and there’s enough to form a crucial mass.

That’s the truth. I don’t care about your slam dunking comments. The truth to anyone not afraid to say it is that yes High SES parents are the only reason these types of schools turn around. You can’t deny it and you’d be wrong if you did. I’m sorry we’re in some post truth era where everyone is offended by eve everything. It only hurts more to have to be honest, because truth hurts.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Some of you guys have been hammering at a random neighborhood mom who bothered to look into the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program for pages now. The exercise is as pointless as it is nuts.

Suggestion: look at the development trajectory of Blair Montgomery HS in MoCo in the last 40 years rather than taking pot shots at moms.

Blair wasn't all that different from Eastern when I was a little kid living in Silver Spring. The school was dramatically under-enrolled, under-performing and filled with low SES minority students. Then, in the early 80s, MoCo started up two, large, super-duper test-in magnet programs at Blair, each with a county-wide draw, one program for STEM, the other for humanities. The magnets have always offered preferential treatment in admissions to in-boundary applicants. Almost since their inception, these programs have admitted a fraction of 8th grade applicants, roughly 10% in this century.

With the magnets in place, Blair began to attract top administrators, resources to renovate and better teachers. These days, Blair is a thriving by-right HS with double the enrollment it had in my day, and a highly diverse student body, attracting sizeable cohorts of black, white, Asian and Latino students, low and high SES.

Our ed leaders in the District would much rather see Eastern languish endlessly as a hopeless case under middling leadership than take a page from the MoCo Blair story. Go at them, please.

I haven't the time to tear down something that exhibits such a glaring misunderstanding of demographics. Suffice it to say the demographics of MoCo and DC are not similar, and that is even more so when one compares the IB population of Blair and Eastern. Your nice little story doesn't address the role of wealth, poverty and education gaps. It also ignores the brain drain of congressionally mandated charters (which I support, BTW) which don't exist in MoCo. Oh, and picking 30 40 years ago as a point of reference to compare the two while DC was gripped with the worst crack epidemic in the US and MoCo was not kind of encapsulates how little you understand the similarities and differences between the jurisdictions. .

TLR This isn't nearly as simple as you want to pretend it is.

Is all that supposed to make us want to enroll in Eastern?

[Anonymous]

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I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

Nice White Parents is about parents sending their kids to the local schools. I have zero issues with parents attending the school organizing to support the school they are sending their kids to.

[Anonymous]

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I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

DP here. I did not agree with the NWP podcast. The changes they documented are most likely real but it is divisive and disingenuous to blame the parents. Parents will always do what is best for their own kids. That is why it is stupid and ineffective for posters on here railing that wealthy parents should just enroll at Eastern for the greater good. The school board and central administration should be focused on trying to provide what all students need including upper income students. If new parents were advocating for changes that did not serve the majority of students well, then the school board should push back. I don’t blame the parents in this case. If a parent wants French at the school, they should advocate for it. However the principal and school district should be firm about not granting the request if it is not beneficial to the school as a whole or if it takes resources away from a more popular offering like Spanish

I agree. Except my specific issue here is that Hill parents need to show some agency and *organize themselves* if they want to make Eastern and Eliot Hine viable. I think it's absurd to think the principal will do it for you.

[Anonymous]

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I’m very surprised that a parent wouldn’t expect the principal of a schools to focus on the students AT THE SCHOOL rather than trying to replace those students with different ones. What a bizarre expectation.


A principal should do both! If the IB students avoid the school, then the system—DCPS in this case—is not serving those students well. Same for all the schools that the OOB come from. It’s great that the system lets people lottery for different schools, but IB should be the default, or else the system has given up trying to make it’s schools not suck.

THIS. DCPS could put the effort in to create a high performing gen ed MS/HS in Capitol Hill but it hasn't. And it is always DCPS circular logic: Why should DCPS care about what IB families want when it's not the IB families at the school. Well, the IB families aren't at the school because the school doesn't care about what IB families want . . . .

I wish NPR or the NYT would do a series about this catch-22 and be able to source actual data and experiences and results. I mean, I guess it is possible that it is just this easy, but, hmmmmmmmmmm.

Oh wait. Never mind. Nice White Parents. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/podcasts/nice-white-parents-serial.html

Could you say more about how you think the lessons of NWP applies in this circumstance?

I know there is the basic idea of a UMC parent wanting something more from the school, but beyond that I don’t see similarities. Eastern is not under-resourced. OP is not white, is neither attracted nor put-off by Eastern’s racial composition, is not wanting new programs. OP was concerned about the lack of achievement in a program the school already has and wanted reassurance that her kid could get a good education and successfully qualify for an IB diploma. She found the principal underwhelming and unable to give her that reassurance.

So what’s the answer? OP deciding not to worry about whether her child would actually end up with an IB diploma?

The answer the NWP poster alludes to is OP not having the gall to ask questions relating to the performance of Eastern's IB Diploma program of Mr. Brown in the first place. Subsequently, she should have avoided briefly reporting on the nature of her interaction with, and professional impressions of, him so as not to open herself up to attack.

Let's say she'd stuck to a script governed by avoidance, a failure to engage. In that case, what would have been achieved?

meh. Nice White Parents *actually attend* the school and annoy people with their anti-bologna sandwich campaigns. That is much different (and better) than OP, who just wants to publicly criticize a black principal at a school she doesn’t attend, based on a single conversation.

So higher income parents get bashed if they attend their low performing school and they get bashed if they decide not to attend. What exactly would make you happy. Would you prefer they just leave DCPS and go private? It does seem like no one here has an issue with private school parents but watch out if you are high income and highly educated and want to attend your local DCPS high school.

PP here. I think the parents attending schools have every right to organize however they want.

LOL. That was the main problem in “Nice White Parents” — new families showing up and the leading change according to their interests.

I guess you are not very familiar with the series you referenced?

Just because I can summarize the argument doesn’t mean I agree with it. I think “NWP” is an illegitimate and bad-faith racialized attack on parents sending their kids to the local schools. OP deciding to put a principal on blast (when she never went to the school) due to a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation is annoying and exhausting.

I guess you’re kinda hoping that no one listened to the series so you can try to get away with your absurd characterization of Nice White Parents, huh? Of course, those of us who actually listened to the show know that it had absolutely nothing to do with an attack on parents sending their kids to local schools, but was rather a critique of generations of white parents whose kids didn’t attend the school organizing to push for changes to a local school that the people actually attending the school didn’t need or want, changes which the school board prioritized over the actual well being of the kids attending the school. Repeatedly.

DP here. I did not agree with the NWP podcast. The changes they documented are most likely real but it is divisive and disingenuous to blame the parents. Parents will always do what is best for their own kids. That is why it is stupid and ineffective for posters on here railing that wealthy parents should just enroll at Eastern for the greater good. The school board and central administration should be focused on trying to provide what all students need including upper income students. If new parents were advocating for changes that did not serve the majority of students well, then the school board should push back. I don’t blame the parents in this case. If a parent wants French at the school, they should advocate for it. However the principal and school district should be firm about not granting the request if it is not beneficial to the school as a whole or if it takes resources away from a more popular offering like Spanish

I agree. Except my specific issue here is that Hill parents need to show some agency and *organize themselves* if they want to make Eastern and Eliot Hine viable. I think it's absurd to think the principal will do it for you.

Yeah we have tried that before and we got called racists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having lived in both places, yes, the families of school aged kids in ward 3 tend to be much wealthier than on the hill. That said, a much higher percentage of the kids also attend privates. And wilson has its fair share of kids who live out of bounds, although probably not as many as eastern, as a percentage of the population.

I agree that if the Higher SES hill population on the hill sent their kids to eastern at the same rate that the higher SES population in ward 3 send their kids to wilson, the demographics could be much more similar. I understand the hesitance of hill parents who aren’t receiving assurance that eastern would offer the same advanced coursework as wilson, even if kids capable of that work enroll at the school. I also understand the worry of ward 3 parents who hear that he did not try to attract hill parents to eastern, and think that he might also not seek to maintain the higher SES IB population at wilson. That said, ward 3 has status quo on its side.

Very well stated. While I'm not ecstatic to hear the Principal selection, we do have status quo on our side and I think our kids will continue to be just fine at Wilson.

I would be careful. The status quo at Wilson is actually weakening academics, implementing programs like honors for all and generally moving in the wrong direction.