Question for Supporters of New WotP High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I didn't finish my thought. I meant to explain that I'd like to see DCPS on the Walter reed campus because the location is fantastic, it's rare to have the opportunity to build a school campus from scratch with lots of space and we could found a couple new DCPS secondary schools that are free of the strings attached/reputation/legacy that many long-standing Schools have (i.e. the alumni issue referenced throughout this thread).

Walter Reed is 3 or 4 blocks away from Coolidge, which DCPS has no idea what to do with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone remember when Wilson was inferior and they had the same demographics? The creating of Banneker, SWW and McKinley was to do actually what? Surely not to offer a better alternative to Wilson's perpetual over-crowding. This offer to siphon Wilson students to send them off to oblivion is laughable. Might as well create the all powerful high school for athletes only too.

The goal to offer Roosevelt as an alternative site for the over-crowding at Wilson is such bullsh*t. Again there's not enough of y'all to make a school self-sufficient, it is just that plain and simple.
The first couple of posts had a parent say that a commute from Wilson to Roosevelt would be a nightmare. I honestly LOL considering the schools are more accessible with free transportation now than ever before. Helicopting parents cracks me up.

An IB program at Roosevelt would need, what, 400 to 500 students to be viable? That is on top of the 500 kids already there. If the program were designed well, that would not be a heavy lift.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone remember when Wilson was inferior and they had the same demographics? The creating of Banneker, SWW and McKinley was to do actually what? Surely not to offer a better alternative to Wilson's perpetual over-crowding. This offer to siphon Wilson students to send them off to oblivion is laughable. Might as well create the all powerful high school for athletes only too.

The goal to offer Roosevelt as an alternative site for the over-crowding at Wilson is such bullsh*t. Again there's not enough of y'all to make a school self-sufficient, it is just that plain and simple.

The first couple of posts had a parent say that a commute from Wilson to Roosevelt would be a nightmare. I honestly LOL considering the schools are more accessible with free transportation now than ever before. Helicopting parents cracks me up.

According to the January City Paper article on Roosevelt, there are nearly as many kids who live in the Roosevelt boundary at Wilson as there are at Roosevelt. Exaggerating a bit to prove a point, making Roosevelt viable would fix Wilson's overcrowding all by itself (1700-200=1500=Wilson's capacity).

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2014/01/30/ten-charts-that-explain-d-c-s-school-problems/
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Most D.C. students don't attend their neighborhood school. In fact, Wilson High School is the only neighborhood high school attended by more than two in five of the public-school, high school-age students living within its boundary. There's sometimes a perception that charter schools are drawing away most of a neighborhood school's potential students. In fact, the top five schools enrolling Roosevelt-boundary students are all traditional public high schools or application-based public high schools. Here are the top schools attended by the 1,906 high schoolers living within the Roosevelt boundary:

Roosevelt: 301
Wilson: 209
Columbia Heights Education Campus: 202
McKinley Tech: 124
Coolidge: 110
Banneker: 85
Perry Street Prep Public Charter School: 81
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School: 79
Ellington School of the Arts: 69
Capital City Public Charter School: 65
School Without Walls: 63

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[Anonymous]

what if you took all the kids from the various charters EOTP & combined that into a feeder for middle and feed into a Roosevelt IB system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:what if you took all the kids from the various charters EOTP & combined that into a feeder for middle and feed into a Roosevelt IB system.

Which ones? Haynes and Cap City have their own HS programs. The DCI feeders have an MS, growing into an HS. KIPP is going to open its own HS program. It looks as though the best/most popular schools are solving this problem for themselves. So which schools did you have in mind?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:what if you took all the kids from the various charters EOTP & combined that into a feeder for middle and feed into a Roosevelt IB system.

Which ones? Haynes and Cap City have their own HS programs. The DCI feeders have an MS, growing into an HS. KIPP is going to open its own HS program. It looks as though the best/most popular schools are solving this problem for themselves. So which schools did you have in mind?

(And of course Latin and Basis have no need.)

[Anonymous]

Most D.C. students don't attend their neighborhood school. In fact, Wilson High School is the only neighborhood high school attended by more than two in five of the public-school, high school-age students living within its boundary. There's sometimes a perception that charter schools are drawing away most of a neighborhood school's potential students. In fact, the top five schools enrolling Roosevelt-boundary students are all traditional public high schools or application-based public high schools.

This is a pretty important point that I think a lot of people currently set for Wilson are forgetting. The cohort now competing for PS3 - K seats outside of Ward 3 are filling schools that were previously never discussed among middle class parents. Powell, Tubman, Bruce-Monroe, Barnard were all dismissed as low-performing and now they have wait lists.

These are all kids who presumably will raise the quality of those schools if they choose to stay. It seems hard for people to believe that the Ward 3-type of family exists outside of Ward 3 (and even outside of Mt. Pleasant), but they do. You can say their presence won't last because parents will move, but a better question is what would make them stay?

Being one of those parents, I can say that having a middle school that we can look forward to our child attending would keep us at Powell until 5th grade. Right now, our options are CHEC or one of the nearby PS-8 education campuses. None of those look good, so we're exploring every option except staying put. One of the options we're exploring is renting or buying in Ward 3, so we'd be further emptying EOTP schools and adding to the Deal/Wilson overcrowding.

There are a lot of strollers in my neighborhood and a lot of bidding wars for newly renovated homes, meaning there are a lot more potential DCPS students - from higher SES families - coming behind us.

If they could get MacFarland back up and running to keep families here through elementary school, I'm very optimistic that there would be enough students EOTP to fill Roosevelt without worrying about enticing Ward 3 families. But they have to start building those schools/programs now, before parents depart for other parts of the city or charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Most D.C. students don't attend their neighborhood school. In fact, Wilson High School is the only neighborhood high school attended by more than two in five of the public-school, high school-age students living within its boundary. There's sometimes a perception that charter schools are drawing away most of a neighborhood school's potential students. In fact, the top five schools enrolling Roosevelt-boundary students are all traditional public high schools or application-based public high schools.

This is a pretty important point that I think a lot of people currently set for Wilson are forgetting. The cohort now competing for PS3 - K seats outside of Ward 3 are filling schools that were previously never discussed among middle class parents. Powell, Tubman, Bruce-Monroe, Barnard were all dismissed as low-performing and now they have wait lists.

These are all kids who presumably will raise the quality of those schools if they choose to stay. It seems hard for people to believe that the Ward 3-type of family exists outside of Ward 3 (and even outside of Mt. Pleasant), but they do. You can say their presence won't last because parents will move, but a better question is what would make them stay?

Being one of those parents, I can say that having a middle school that we can look forward to our child attending would keep us at Powell until 5th grade. Right now, our options are CHEC or one of the nearby PS-8 education campuses. None of those look good, so we're exploring every option except staying put. One of the options we're exploring is renting or buying in Ward 3, so we'd be further emptying EOTP schools and adding to the Deal/Wilson overcrowding.

There are a lot of strollers in my neighborhood and a lot of bidding wars for newly renovated homes, meaning there are a lot more potential DCPS students - from higher SES families - coming behind us.

If they could get MacFarland back up and running to keep families here through elementary school, I'm very optimistic that there would be enough students EOTP to fill Roosevelt without worrying about enticing Ward 3 families. But they have to start building those schools/programs now, before parents depart for other parts of the city or charters.

Good thoughts -- my concern is that the city government is eager to encourage parents to be enticed to charters -- not traditional public schools -- and so far they've been successful, with middle class parents flocking to charters and being willing to drive their kids long distances to get them there. Henderson herself seemed to punt on middle schools, saying maybe they should be left to Charters - who are better at it. If an all charter system is not desirable to a majority of parents, my feeling is that it needs to be addressed loud and clear - otherwise, don't be surprised when more charters appear and your flock to them and traditional public schools go to pot. It's what's happened so far, with middle-class families as pawns in the game.

[Anonymous]

Good thoughts -- my concern is that the

city government is eager to encourage parents to be enticed to charters -- not traditional public schools

-- and so far they've been successful, with middle class parents flocking to charters and being willing to drive their kids long distances to get them there. Henderson herself seemed to punt on middle schools, saying maybe they should be left to Charters - who are better at it. If an all charter system is not desirable to a majority of parents, my feeling is that it needs to be addressed loud and clear - otherwise, don't be surprised when more charters appear and your flock to them and traditional public schools go to pot. It's what's happened so far, with middle-class families as pawns in the game.

I get funny looks when I say this aloud, but I think it's the opposite. I believe DCPS is trying to siphon families off from charters by introducing the elements that make them appealing.

When you think about it, much of what's in the DME proposals mimics what the charters do, particularly at the elementary school level: specialized programming, including language immersion, Montessori and Tools of the Mind (copying expeditionary learning); guaranteed feed to middle and high school if you get into one of a set of elementary schools (as with DCI). I'd say they're even trying to recreate the excitement and buzz that happens around a new charter. It now takes less than a year for a charter to get "hot." If, within the next school year they could get that kind of word of mouth going about some schools that no one would have considered this year, they'll potentially bring out the same level of parent engagement that drives an upstart charter. I had brunch the other day with a mom who is reluctantly going to give Walker Jones a try because it's all they've got right now. She felt almost ashamed to be excited about the school's urban farm (look it up, it's cool) but maybe she'll find others who will join with her to make a go at improving the school overall.

It all sounds a little hokey, but so do charters when you tell people how they get going. And it's worth a shot.

Anyway, the big IF is whether or not DCPS can keep these families around. For our family, the big IF is whether DCPS will have a place for my kid to go. There's buildings for middle and high school right down the street from us. Make it happen. We will come. Others will join us - I'm sure of it.

[Anonymous]

^^sorry about the weird cut and paste with the quote

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Good thoughts -- my concern is that the

city government is eager to encourage parents to be enticed to charters -- not traditional public schools

-- and so far they've been successful, with middle class parents flocking to charters and being willing to drive their kids long distances to get them there. Henderson herself seemed to punt on middle schools, saying maybe they should be left to Charters - who are better at it. If an all charter system is not desirable to a majority of parents, my feeling is that it needs to be addressed loud and clear - otherwise, don't be surprised when more charters appear and your flock to them and traditional public schools go to pot. It's what's happened so far, with middle-class families as pawns in the game.

I get funny looks when I say this aloud, but I think it's the opposite. I believe DCPS is trying to siphon families off from charters by introducing the elements that make them appealing.

When you think about it, much of what's in the DME proposals mimics what the charters do, particularly at the elementary school level: specialized programming, including language immersion, Montessori and Tools of the Mind (copying expeditionary learning); guaranteed feed to middle and high school if you get into one of a set of elementary schools (as with DCI). I'd say they're even trying to recreate the excitement and buzz that happens around a new charter. It now takes less than a year for a charter to get "hot." If, within the next school year they could get that kind of word of mouth going about some schools that no one would have considered this year, they'll potentially bring out the same level of parent engagement that drives an upstart charter. I had brunch the other day with a mom who is reluctantly going to give Walker Jones a try because it's all they've got right now. She felt almost ashamed to be excited about the school's urban farm (look it up, it's cool) but maybe she'll find others who will join with her to make a go at improving the school overall.

It all sounds a little hokey, but so do charters when you tell people how they get going. And it's worth a shot.

Anyway, the big IF is whether or not DCPS can keep these families around. For our family, the big IF is whether DCPS will have a place for my kid to go. There's buildings for middle and high school right down the street from us. Make it happen. We will come. Others will join us - I'm sure of it.

There are a couple unattractive attributes of charters that the DME proposals mimic, as well -- lotteries and fewer options for attending schools near your home. I think charter proponents are betting that parents are now conditioned for this type of uncertainty.

[Anonymous]

There are a couple unattractive attributes of charters that the DME proposals mimic, as well -- lotteries and fewer options for attending schools near your home. I think charter proponents are betting that parents are now conditioned for this type of uncertainty.

I don't really think they're betting on it. More like trying to figure out how much parents will accept. Because, if you look at any of these threads for charters, it's clear parents are willing to put up with a lot if it gets them a school they want.

So consider city-wide lotteries at high school another way: if you offer specialized programming at Roosevelt High School that many parents want - let's say International Baccalaureate - is it fair or even practical to say only in boundary families can have access to it? What if Oyster gets diverted to Cardozo and the school develops a highly-regarded language program. It wouldn't be fair to limit enrollment to its feeders, especially if the school could peel off students from some of the language charters.

And then consider choice sets another way: if going to one school in a set guaranteed you could get into a particular middle school, you might be more inclined to accept a school that wasn't your number one pick. I've talked to parents who want Yu Ying, but would accept Mundo Verde or Stokes so they could get into DCI.

I think that's all pie in the sky until DCPS gets to a point where all or most neighborhood schools are at least acceptable, but it's worth exploring. I think it's too bad the exploration is potentially coming to a halt, because like I said, we would definitely be staying put in our home if we had good feelings about 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Roosevelt location is perfect.
Agree with all previous posters who identified in the IB the key to attract a number of proficient kids (I personally know of many Deal families who would opt for continuity with the IB).

Shepherd Park Elementary is one of the few IB (intern. Baccalaureate) elementary schools in DC. It is right down the street from the Walter Reed Campus. Giving Shepherd students (and others) the ability to continue their IB curriculum through MS (Deal) and then onto a new DCPS HS at WR (or Roosevelt) would attract a lot of families.

[Anonymous]

Roosevelt: 301
Wilson: 209
Columbia Heights Education Campus: 202
McKinley Tech: 124
Coolidge: 110
Banneker: 85
Perry Street Prep Public Charter School: 81
E.L. Haynes Public Charter School: 79
Ellington School of the Arts: 69
Capital City Public Charter School: 65
School Without Walls: 63

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All of these children at the other schools if transferred to Roosevelt would make it over-whelmingly a majority AA comprehensive high-school for northwest area with the second largest capacity to Wilson that is also overwhelmingly AA too. If you think that DCPS is going to make another application only high-school you're crazy!!! Therefore to count on those students who are already enrolled in an application school the likelihood of them transferring is far and few. Also, for Roosevelt to work successfully it would have to phase out or phase in and again that's another lab-experiment that has not worked entirely well (ask Eastern). Many thought that Eastern would attract whites to the campus and thus far there's only white student but the programs at Eastern are phenomenal and the AA students at the school are to quite well. So once again build it and they will come is just foolishness for many to believe. Moreso, build it and they will keep my property value at a level of excellent for resaling purposes. Projected enrollment for Eastern next year will have them being the second largest high-school to Wilson being the first and this is without any increased white student body. Thus with Eastern offering everything and more than Wilson...why would you need to revamp Roosevelt to make it more attractive? Too many cooks spoil the soup.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
All of these children at the other schools if transferred to Roosevelt would make it over-whelmingly a majority AA comprehensive high-school for northwest area with the second largest capacity to Wilson that is also overwhelmingly AA too. If you think that DCPS is going to make another application only high-school you're crazy!!! Therefore to count on those students who are already enrolled in an application school the likelihood of them transferring is far and few. Also, for Roosevelt to work successfully it would have to phase out or phase in and again that's another lab-experiment that has not worked entirely well (ask Eastern). Many thought that Eastern would attract whites to the campus and thus far there's only white student but the programs at Eastern are phenomenal and the AA students at the school are to quite well. So once again build it and they will come is just foolishness for many to believe. Moreso, build it and they will keep my property value at a level of excellent for resaling purposes. Projected enrollment for Eastern next year will have them being the second largest high-school to Wilson being the first and this is without any increased white student body. Thus with Eastern offering everything and more than Wilson...why would you need to revamp Roosevelt to make it more attractive? Too many cooks spoil the soup.

I appreciate the Eastern advocacy and DCUM could probably use a lot more of it (whatever happened to our resident Eastern booster?). But, I think it is just too far away for many of us who might consider a revitalized Roosevelt.