Capitol Hill - middle school and beyond?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I think you're both right & wrong. I think it will always be hard to get a cohort of kids to make the jump from CH MSes to Eastern for a variety of reasons, but if Maury/Brent/LT/SWS all fed to 1 MS (+ whichever other schools you want; I'd actually love for all Hill schools to feed to a pan-Hill MS), it would immediately be academically equivalent to Deal & Hardy at the sharp end and parents could focus on the HS issue instead.

But what building would be big enough? The instant you do that, people will want to attend.

NP. Move Eastern into EH. Consolidate the middle schools in the Eastern building.

Then people will be complaining that the high school isn't big enough to support good programming.

This is also a political loser because this theoretical new MS would be seen as "for" the UMC, mostly white families on the Hill. Whereas right now, Eastern's attendance is largely from MC and LMC black students from Wards 7 and 8. Moving the current Eastern population into the smaller, less recently renovated building, so that you can try to attract more white kids in Ward 6 to a new combined MS, would pretty much instantly become a lightening rod issue that most DC politicians would either not want to touch, or would use as a way to prove their commitment to equity (by opposing the new MS).

It's not going to happen, there's no point in even having this conversation.

This is why DCPS will continue to bleed UMC/MC students to charter schools. Prioritizing the needs of distant wards over neighborhood schools due to skin color is pretty wrong.

EH is in Ward 7 now …

And we're talking about changing the feeder rights of Ward 6 elementary schools so they feed into a Ward 6 middle school, so you're proving my point.

Jefferson and Stuart-Hobson are both in Ward 6. Are you saying you don’t want any Ward 6 elementary kids to be zoned for Eliot-Hine, which is in Ward 7?

Pay attention. We're talking about feeding all the Hill elementary schools (which are in Ward 6) into one middle school. People pushed back on that saying that it wasn't politically feasible because it would exclude people from Wards 7 and 8, which is ridiculous, because the city has expressed a desire to have neighborhood schools. You don't have that now, because you're taking all the neighborhood schools and feeding them into three different middle schools.

This conversation is splitting hairs. The new ward boundaries change what ward certain schools are in, but if you forget about wards for a second, you can just think about proximity. Eliot Hine is probably the best in this regard, with it's 3 feeder schools' boundaries adjacent to the school. (Yes I know SWS is technically a feeder, but currently I don't think many kids matriculate to EH from there). Stuart Hobson is in a good location for it's feeders except for the strange arm of the cluster boundary up by the cemetery. Jefferson is the tricky one, but it is closer to Amidon and Van Ness - so if you closed that school, it would give those kids no choice but to travel a lot further for school. In the end of the day, having one middle school would not work - it would become over crowded. Having there middle schools with increasing buy-in from feeder patterns is the best solution, and things are already trending in that direction. Yes - many families are not choosing Eastern right now, and that may or may not change, but in a city with various high schools that have different focuses, I do not think that is a bad thing. High school students are able to travel independently, so if a high school student wants to travel to an arts school, or a STEM school, a charter school, or a private school, they can. And from what I have seen online, Eastern has it's largest IB cohort so far this year -- if that program continues to grow, it could potentially draw kids from other feeder patterns as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I think you're both right & wrong. I think it will always be hard to get a cohort of kids to make the jump from CH MSes to Eastern for a variety of reasons, but if Maury/Brent/LT/SWS all fed to 1 MS (+ whichever other schools you want; I'd actually love for all Hill schools to feed to a pan-Hill MS), it would immediately be academically equivalent to Deal & Hardy at the sharp end and parents could focus on the HS issue instead.

But what building would be big enough? The instant you do that, people will want to attend.

NP. Move Eastern into EH. Consolidate the middle schools in the Eastern building.

Then people will be complaining that the high school isn't big enough to support good programming.

This is also a political loser because this theoretical new MS would be seen as "for" the UMC, mostly white families on the Hill. Whereas right now, Eastern's attendance is largely from MC and LMC black students from Wards 7 and 8. Moving the current Eastern population into the smaller, less recently renovated building, so that you can try to attract more white kids in Ward 6 to a new combined MS, would pretty much instantly become a lightening rod issue that most DC politicians would either not want to touch, or would use as a way to prove their commitment to equity (by opposing the new MS).

It's not going to happen, there's no point in even having this conversation.

This is why DCPS will continue to bleed UMC/MC students to charter schools. Prioritizing the needs of distant wards over neighborhood schools due to skin color is pretty wrong.

EH is in Ward 7 now …

And we're talking about changing the feeder rights of Ward 6 elementary schools so they feed into a Ward 6 middle school, so you're proving my point.

Jefferson and Stuart-Hobson are both in Ward 6. Are you saying you don’t want any Ward 6 elementary kids to be zoned for Eliot-Hine, which is in Ward 7?

Pay attention. We're talking about feeding all the Hill elementary schools (which are in Ward 6) into one middle school. People pushed back on that saying that it wasn't politically feasible because it would exclude people from Wards 7 and 8, which is ridiculous, because the city has expressed a desire to have neighborhood schools. You don't have that now, because you're taking all the neighborhood schools and feeding them into three different middle schools.

This conversation is splitting hairs. The new ward boundaries change what ward certain schools are in, but if you forget about wards for a second, you can just think about proximity. Eliot Hine is probably the best in this regard, with it's 3 feeder schools' boundaries adjacent to the school. (Yes I know SWS is technically a feeder, but currently I don't think many kids matriculate to EH from there). Stuart Hobson is in a good location for it's feeders except for the strange arm of the cluster boundary up by the cemetery. Jefferson is the tricky one, but it is closer to Amidon and Van Ness - so if you closed that school, it would give those kids no choice but to travel a lot further for school. In the end of the day, having one middle school would not work - it would become over crowded. Having there middle schools with increasing buy-in from feeder patterns is the best solution, and things are already trending in that direction. Yes - many families are not choosing Eastern right now, and that may or may not change, but in a city with various high schools that have different focuses, I do not think that is a bad thing. High school students are able to travel independently, so if a high school student wants to travel to an arts school, or a STEM school, a charter school, or a private school, they can. And from what I have seen online, Eastern has it's largest IB cohort so far this year -- if that program continues to grow, it could potentially draw kids from other feeder patterns as well.

This. Sorry, PP, you need to accept that the instant you create a well-functioning middle school it will be overcrowded. Because more people living IB will attend. I don't know why this isn't obvious! Three buildings is needed just on baseline population growth, even if quality doesn't increase much.

And people don't actually love the idea of sending their kids to a ginormous middle school btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I totally agree. I feel like they could get buy in though if they did something like beef up the IB program or something to attract high performing kids. I’m actually not even sure why the IB program hasn’t performed well. A rigorous program kids can self-select into could help a ton. I think so many people on the Hill would LOVE to stay and go there and would if it felt like their kids could have a good experience there. I think the fear is that so much of the population appears to be so far behind that you’d need tracking from 9th in all core subjects to feel like a more advanced kid can do well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I think you're both right & wrong. I think it will always be hard to get a cohort of kids to make the jump from CH MSes to Eastern for a variety of reasons, but if Maury/Brent/LT/SWS all fed to 1 MS (+ whichever other schools you want; I'd actually love for all Hill schools to feed to a pan-Hill MS), it would immediately be academically equivalent to Deal & Hardy at the sharp end and parents could focus on the HS issue instead.

But what building would be big enough? The instant you do that, people will want to attend.

NP. Move Eastern into EH. Consolidate the middle schools in the Eastern building.

Then people will be complaining that the high school isn't big enough to support good programming.

This is also a political loser because this theoretical new MS would be seen as "for" the UMC, mostly white families on the Hill. Whereas right now, Eastern's attendance is largely from MC and LMC black students from Wards 7 and 8. Moving the current Eastern population into the smaller, less recently renovated building, so that you can try to attract more white kids in Ward 6 to a new combined MS, would pretty much instantly become a lightening rod issue that most DC politicians would either not want to touch, or would use as a way to prove their commitment to equity (by opposing the new MS).

It's not going to happen, there's no point in even having this conversation.

This is why DCPS will continue to bleed UMC/MC students to charter schools. Prioritizing the needs of distant wards over neighborhood schools due to skin color is pretty wrong.

EH is in Ward 7 now …

And we're talking about changing the feeder rights of Ward 6 elementary schools so they feed into a Ward 6 middle school, so you're proving my point.

Jefferson and Stuart-Hobson are both in Ward 6. Are you saying you don’t want any Ward 6 elementary kids to be zoned for Eliot-Hine, which is in Ward 7?

Pay attention. We're talking about feeding all the Hill elementary schools (which are in Ward 6) into one middle school. People pushed back on that saying that it wasn't politically feasible because it would exclude people from Wards 7 and 8, which is ridiculous, because the city has expressed a desire to have neighborhood schools. You don't have that now, because you're taking all the neighborhood schools and feeding them into three different middle schools.

This conversation is splitting hairs. The new ward boundaries change what ward certain schools are in, but if you forget about wards for a second, you can just think about proximity. Eliot Hine is probably the best in this regard, with it's 3 feeder schools' boundaries adjacent to the school. (Yes I know SWS is technically a feeder, but currently I don't think many kids matriculate to EH from there). Stuart Hobson is in a good location for it's feeders except for the strange arm of the cluster boundary up by the cemetery. Jefferson is the tricky one, but it is closer to Amidon and Van Ness - so if you closed that school, it would give those kids no choice but to travel a lot further for school. In the end of the day, having one middle school would not work - it would become over crowded. Having there middle schools with increasing buy-in from feeder patterns is the best solution, and things are already trending in that direction. Yes - many families are not choosing Eastern right now, and that may or may not change, but in a city with various high schools that have different focuses, I do not think that is a bad thing. High school students are able to travel independently, so if a high school student wants to travel to an arts school, or a STEM school, a charter school, or a private school, they can. And from what I have seen online, Eastern has it's largest IB cohort so far this year -- if that program continues to grow, it could potentially draw kids from other feeder patterns as well.

This. Sorry, PP, you need to accept that the instant you create a well-functioning middle school it will be overcrowded. Because more people living IB will attend. I don't know why this isn't obvious! Three buildings is needed just on baseline population growth, even if quality doesn't increase much.

And people don't actually love the idea of sending their kids to a ginormous middle school btw.

This response is idiotic. We shouldn’t try to create a well functioning middle school because too many people might want to go there???

[Anonymous]

The whole middle school arrangement for the Hill is idiotic. We know neighborhood kids who would have been a great fit for the BASIS curriculum who are stuck with too easy STEM classes at other public middle schools. We also know Hill families who moved to the burbs rather than brave Jefferson, EH or SH.

Did you know that Brent has combined 4th and 5th grade this year because so few 5th graders returned? This was done at the last minute over the summer, leaving some of the 5th grade families furious. They expected at least one stand-alone 5th grade class as per usual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The whole middle school arrangement for the Hill is idiotic. We know neighborhood kids who would have been a great fit for the BASIS curriculum who are stuck with too easy STEM classes at other public middle schools. We also know Hill families who moved to the burbs rather than brave Jefferson, EH or SH.

Did you know that Brent has combined 4th and 5th grade this year because so few 5th graders returned? This was done at the last minute over the summer, leaving some of the 5th grade families furious. They expected at least one stand-alone 5th grade class as per usual.

How can you combine 4th and 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

Brent is calling 4th and 5th grade "Upper School" this year. Look on their web site. Apparently, kids now work in small groups in combined 4th/5th grade classrooms. Weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent is calling 4th and 5th grade "Upper School" this year. Look on their web site. Apparently, kids now work in small groups in combined 4th/5th grade classrooms. Weird.

That's really unfortunate for that 5th grade cohort, not least because it just emphasizes the feeling of having been left behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent is calling 4th and 5th grade "Upper School" this year. Look on their web site. Apparently, kids now work in small groups in combined 4th/5th grade classrooms. Weird.

I believe Ross used to do this.

Maybe it’s just a one-year fluke at Brent, or maybe some families are now adding SH/EH feeders to their 5th grade lottery cards and trying that.

[Anonymous]

The reason Brent is lumping 5th graders in with 4th graders is because 5th grade numbers are way down after Covid highs. Last year's 5th grade class was a bubble class from the get go, Brent's first fully in-boundary K class six years later. Almost half of the 5th graders stayed at Brent last year, three dozen, many shut out of both Latins and BASIS, with two 5th grade classes. This year, there aren't even enough 5th graders to justify running a single self-contained classroom for them. Brent is reacting to the numbers generated by external forces. City politicians and DCPS leaders don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I think you're both right & wrong. I think it will always be hard to get a cohort of kids to make the jump from CH MSes to Eastern for a variety of reasons, but if Maury/Brent/LT/SWS all fed to 1 MS (+ whichever other schools you want; I'd actually love for all Hill schools to feed to a pan-Hill MS), it would immediately be academically equivalent to Deal & Hardy at the sharp end and parents could focus on the HS issue instead.

But what building would be big enough? The instant you do that, people will want to attend.

NP. Move Eastern into EH. Consolidate the middle schools in the Eastern building.

Then people will be complaining that the high school isn't big enough to support good programming.

This is also a political loser because this theoretical new MS would be seen as "for" the UMC, mostly white families on the Hill. Whereas right now, Eastern's attendance is largely from MC and LMC black students from Wards 7 and 8. Moving the current Eastern population into the smaller, less recently renovated building, so that you can try to attract more white kids in Ward 6 to a new combined MS, would pretty much instantly become a lightening rod issue that most DC politicians would either not want to touch, or would use as a way to prove their commitment to equity (by opposing the new MS).

It's not going to happen, there's no point in even having this conversation.

This is why DCPS will continue to bleed UMC/MC students to charter schools. Prioritizing the needs of distant wards over neighborhood schools due to skin color is pretty wrong.

EH is in Ward 7 now …

And we're talking about changing the feeder rights of Ward 6 elementary schools so they feed into a Ward 6 middle school, so you're proving my point.

Jefferson and Stuart-Hobson are both in Ward 6. Are you saying you don’t want any Ward 6 elementary kids to be zoned for Eliot-Hine, which is in Ward 7?

Pay attention. We're talking about feeding all the Hill elementary schools (which are in Ward 6) into one middle school. People pushed back on that saying that it wasn't politically feasible because it would exclude people from Wards 7 and 8, which is ridiculous, because the city has expressed a desire to have neighborhood schools. You don't have that now, because you're taking all the neighborhood schools and feeding them into three different middle schools.

This conversation is splitting hairs. The new ward boundaries change what ward certain schools are in, but if you forget about wards for a second, you can just think about proximity. Eliot Hine is probably the best in this regard, with it's 3 feeder schools' boundaries adjacent to the school. (Yes I know SWS is technically a feeder, but currently I don't think many kids matriculate to EH from there). Stuart Hobson is in a good location for it's feeders except for the strange arm of the cluster boundary up by the cemetery. Jefferson is the tricky one, but it is closer to Amidon and Van Ness - so if you closed that school, it would give those kids no choice but to travel a lot further for school. In the end of the day, having one middle school would not work - it would become over crowded. Having there middle schools with increasing buy-in from feeder patterns is the best solution, and things are already trending in that direction. Yes - many families are not choosing Eastern right now, and that may or may not change, but in a city with various high schools that have different focuses, I do not think that is a bad thing. High school students are able to travel independently, so if a high school student wants to travel to an arts school, or a STEM school, a charter school, or a private school, they can. And from what I have seen online, Eastern has it's largest IB cohort so far this year -- if that program continues to grow, it could potentially draw kids from other feeder patterns as well.

This. Sorry, PP, you need to accept that the instant you create a well-functioning middle school it will be overcrowded. Because more people living IB will attend. I don't know why this isn't obvious! Three buildings is needed just on baseline population growth, even if quality doesn't increase much.

And people don't actually love the idea of sending their kids to a ginormous middle school btw.

This response is idiotic. We shouldn’t try to create a well functioning middle school because too many people might want to go there???

I can’t stop giggling at this now. No we can’t create a good middle school because OTHERWISE people would like it too much!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason Brent is lumping 5th graders in with 4th graders is because 5th grade numbers are way down after Covid highs. Last year's 5th grade class was a bubble class from the get go, Brent's first fully in-boundary K class six years later. Almost half of the 5th graders stayed at Brent last year, three dozen, many shut out of both Latins and BASIS, with two 5th grade classes. This year, there aren't even enough 5th graders to justify running a single self-contained classroom for them. Brent is reacting to the numbers generated by external forces. City politicians and DCPS leaders don't care.

Oh great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reason Brent is lumping 5th graders in with 4th graders is because 5th grade numbers are way down after Covid highs. Last year's 5th grade class was a bubble class from the get go, Brent's first fully in-boundary K class six years later. Almost half of the 5th graders stayed at Brent last year, three dozen, many shut out of both Latins and BASIS, with two 5th grade classes. This year, there aren't even enough 5th graders to justify running a single self-contained classroom for them. Brent is reacting to the numbers generated by external forces. City politicians and DCPS leaders don't care.

Wow that is crazy the attrition. They can’t even fill one class.

But honestly, I’m not surprised. Hill families know that SH is not a viable option although some on here try to make it seem so unless you want to supplement everything and who has time for that. Those with options are not going there. Those with no options who are shut out from the lottery try it and it would be good to see retention rates from 6th to 8th which I suspect is low.

[Anonymous]

Brent doesn't feed into SH. It feeds into Jefferson Academy.

What I don't like about the combined 4th/5th grade classes is that they're sending a message to lower grades parents that it's not worth returning for 5th. 5th grade numbers are v. likely to fall even further as a result of this year's "Upper School" experiment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Cap Hill middle school system is broken not because of Eastern but because DCPS insists on feeding the strong elementary schools into multiple different middle schools, even though those schools are all in close proximity to each other, because “equity.”

I used to think this too but I disagree because I've watched as all three middle schools have improved and gotten more IB buy in. It's changed a lot.

Eastern is the problem. Even if you consolidated these middle schools so that the more advanced students at each could have a larger cohort, I don't think you'd see the cohort moving on to Easter. Most of them would still depart for application schools, private, and the suburbs.

Part of the issue is stakes. MS is something you have to get through, ideally with your kid getting the preparation they need to do well in HS. But HS is make or break in terms of college. So some families are willing to send their kid to a MS that has overall weak scores, as long as they can be assured their own child will be in a tracked class with more advanced instruction. But the trust isn't there for HS, and the ability of a family to use outside enrichment or supplementing to address deficiencies is low. You can put a 7th grader in math enrichment and get them on track. Best of luck finding something that will replace AP physics when it turns out the HS doesn't have a teacher for it or the class is simply not meeting minimal expectations to prep your kid for the exam or college.

Eastern is the problem, it's just that some of you are still living in the denial of "HS will work out if I can just solve MS." I've been there, but eventually you realize that figuring out MS is the least of your worries.

I think you're both right & wrong. I think it will always be hard to get a cohort of kids to make the jump from CH MSes to Eastern for a variety of reasons, but if Maury/Brent/LT/SWS all fed to 1 MS (+ whichever other schools you want; I'd actually love for all Hill schools to feed to a pan-Hill MS), it would immediately be academically equivalent to Deal & Hardy at the sharp end and parents could focus on the HS issue instead.

But what building would be big enough? The instant you do that, people will want to attend.

NP. Move Eastern into EH. Consolidate the middle schools in the Eastern building.

Then people will be complaining that the high school isn't big enough to support good programming.

This is also a political loser because this theoretical new MS would be seen as "for" the UMC, mostly white families on the Hill. Whereas right now, Eastern's attendance is largely from MC and LMC black students from Wards 7 and 8. Moving the current Eastern population into the smaller, less recently renovated building, so that you can try to attract more white kids in Ward 6 to a new combined MS, would pretty much instantly become a lightening rod issue that most DC politicians would either not want to touch, or would use as a way to prove their commitment to equity (by opposing the new MS).

It's not going to happen, there's no point in even having this conversation.

This is why DCPS will continue to bleed UMC/MC students to charter schools. Prioritizing the needs of distant wards over neighborhood schools due to skin color is pretty wrong.

EH is in Ward 7 now …

And we're talking about changing the feeder rights of Ward 6 elementary schools so they feed into a Ward 6 middle school, so you're proving my point.

Jefferson and Stuart-Hobson are both in Ward 6. Are you saying you don’t want any Ward 6 elementary kids to be zoned for Eliot-Hine, which is in Ward 7?

Pay attention. We're talking about feeding all the Hill elementary schools (which are in Ward 6) into one middle school. People pushed back on that saying that it wasn't politically feasible because it would exclude people from Wards 7 and 8, which is ridiculous, because the city has expressed a desire to have neighborhood schools. You don't have that now, because you're taking all the neighborhood schools and feeding them into three different middle schools.

This conversation is splitting hairs. The new ward boundaries change what ward certain schools are in, but if you forget about wards for a second, you can just think about proximity. Eliot Hine is probably the best in this regard, with it's 3 feeder schools' boundaries adjacent to the school. (Yes I know SWS is technically a feeder, but currently I don't think many kids matriculate to EH from there). Stuart Hobson is in a good location for it's feeders except for the strange arm of the cluster boundary up by the cemetery. Jefferson is the tricky one, but it is closer to Amidon and Van Ness - so if you closed that school, it would give those kids no choice but to travel a lot further for school. In the end of the day, having one middle school would not work - it would become over crowded. Having there middle schools with increasing buy-in from feeder patterns is the best solution, and things are already trending in that direction. Yes - many families are not choosing Eastern right now, and that may or may not change, but in a city with various high schools that have different focuses, I do not think that is a bad thing. High school students are able to travel independently, so if a high school student wants to travel to an arts school, or a STEM school, a charter school, or a private school, they can. And from what I have seen online, Eastern has it's largest IB cohort so far this year -- if that program continues to grow, it could potentially draw kids from other feeder patterns as well.

This. Sorry, PP, you need to accept that the instant you create a well-functioning middle school it will be overcrowded. Because more people living IB will attend. I don't know why this isn't obvious! Three buildings is needed just on baseline population growth, even if quality doesn't increase much.

And people don't actually love the idea of sending their kids to a ginormous middle school btw.

This response is idiotic. We shouldn’t try to create a well functioning middle school because too many people might want to go there???

I can’t stop giggling at this now. No we can’t create a good middle school because OTHERWISE people would like it too much!

You can't create a large middle school unless you have a large building to put it in. Obviously.