Zoning Lafayette out of Deal/Wilson - is this real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:21:08 Building a high school won't fly because is a huge amount of money to spend on a bunch of wealthy white families and besides that there is absolutely no place to put it that wouldn't cost even MORE money. Ain't happening.

According to comments in both of these threads, Bowser would be open to a new high school WOTP.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/764646.page#13992573

Here, someone speculates that such a high school would be open to all:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/90/772513.page#14200095

But where to put it? I know. Bye, bye, Duke Ellington!

What about moving Walls? I think that would be politically easier. It's roughly the same capacity as Ellington, 500-ish.

[Anonymous]

Move it where? And why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Busing" would be sending LaFayette graduates to Ward 7 or 8. We're not talking about busing, but rezoning: sending LaFayette grads to a new middle school that's essentially the same distance from LaFayette as Deal. Along with couple of other decently-performing elementary schools. It would probably work out just fine. See: Hardy.

Hmmm which feeder schools are similar to current feeders to Wells?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what crazy people (and agree with the PP, this is a total fantasy thread), here's the real story:

- Our kids shouldn't be used as a social engineering experiment because they are UMC and live in stable homes. Call that elitist, privileged, whatever, but no kid should have to deal with it because some social justice warrior deems it so.

- Of course we are going to scream when you ship our kids out of our neighborhood to an unproven school with abysmal test scores. NOBODY would want that to happen.

- The schools you are talking about sending us to, while smaller, do not have the same sort of extra curriculars (sports, arts) what have you that Deal and Wilson already have.

I think if Lafayette parents are convinced that the experience would be the same wherever else than it would be at Deal and Wilson, we would be OK with it. Contrary to what this thread suggests, I don't think Chevy Chase is full of racists. It is, however, full of families who want what's best for their kids, and Wells and Cardozo are just not going to cut it now. The expectations are just higher.

And, finally, for all the Deal bashers here, it IS a great place. The team approach keeps it small, and I can say especially over the last two years DD has had uniformly amazing teachers. I don't know who you've had. I'm sorry your snowflake can't handle the size, I'm sure when you pick their classes for them in college it will be better.

I occasionally see this term thrown around by the same sorts of folks who use the term 'SJW.' What exactly does this mean? How would this play out, in terms of outcomes?

Also, Wells isn't even open yet, so how can you remark about the extracurricular options or test scores there? What are you basing your predictions on? DCPS PARCC data, along with other research, suggests that kids from affluent, educated families tend to do well even in lower-performing schools, so your alarm at the prospect of redistricting is somewhat puzzling.

That's precisely the point - there AREN'T any, and it will take years to develop them. And what it means is that people are so blinded by "social justice" that they fail to see how it can actually impact real people. It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to send your kid to a shitty school on a the theory that your smart, UMC kid is going to suddenly solve all of the inherent problems of urban poverty by just sitting next to some kid in a classroom.

There might be an ounce of sympathy if there was any concern whatsoever for the so-called "shitty schools." Some of us don't think anyone should have to send their kids to a "shitty school" regardless of address. The solution for Ward 3 families is not enrolling charters or OOB and traveling across town -- that's only required of families in Wards 7 & 8.

I think folks ARE concerned about the shitty schools. But remember, a lot of those problems are not just the schools, but the problems the kids at those schools bring with them. Redrawing school boundaries won't solve that issue.

I agree that redrawing boundaries won't solve generational poverty, but that doesn't mean that schools dealing with the greatest burdens of poverty should be denied additional resources to effectively support higher needs students.

There are three main persistent elitism themes on DCUM -- 1) talking about "shitty schools" like they exist in a vacuum and fail the children who need them most, or 2) denigrating kids and their care givers who come to school with a heavy load of stuff to deal with. . . maybe 3) combination of 1) and 2) above

Not to paint too broadly but I fail to see any meaningful concern about the plight of students and communities with higher needs than their entitled families from anyone who would call any legitimate school "shitty"

The poorest schools DO get the most money per student. In some cases, twice as much as Ward 3 schools. Money is not the problem. The problem is not student resources, it’s student home life. The schools are being asked to solve problems they are not equipped to solve. It’s a sad conundrum, but one that no one has been able to solve on a large scale anywhere in this country. And overcrowding Ward 3 schools is a spiteful response that hurts more kids that it helps.

Here’s some sobering reading:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/08/can_we_fix_the_schools_maybe_not_139978.html

Totes, Plessy v. F. sitch. Let those poor unfortunate souls thrive over yonder in Ward 4, CC is more unincorporated North Bethesda in “outlook.” We’ve got the right (white) privilege. Deal forever!

Sweetheart, Brown v. Board was decided 3 generations ago. Since that time trillions of dollars have been directed to closing the achievement gap. To absolutely no meaningful avail. I don’t know what the solution is either. But I do know that a 2000 student Deal is not the answer. And you know it too.

Right, which is why we’re suggesting moving some of the feeders to other MS and HS.

Start with the two feeder schools that have 800 kids.

PPs have hit it on the head. I do numbers and geography for a living. Deal and Wilson are simply victims of their own success. Community should be very proud of how they've made these two schools so desirable. While OOB feeder rights were a legitimate beef in past years (and to this day, residency "fraud" or rather fluidity in permutations of how to define where students sleep at night with which relative, etc. but hard to fix without becoming the Stasi), it's almost 2020 and due to changing demographics, OOB is not what it used to be. Deal/Wilson bursting at the seams with IB students from popular JKLM, Hearst is healthy, Eaton is at Hardy, etc. To fix Deal/Wilson overcrowding, need to shrink the attendance zone or make people attrite on their own. Loved 16:48's comment about how Mayor Bowser is 22% percent of her way to "Alice Deal for all!"

Throwing out my two cents, but reducing pressure at Deal is straightforward. Package a giant UMC school with a smaller one and move to a neighboring middle school. People will be upset, but this can be spun in a positive way, as long as families moved out of Deal are kept inside the Wilson HS pyramid. High school is a different story. Telling families they're being moved from Wilson to Cardozo/Roosevelt/Coolidge will just make them quit DCPS, go private, MoCo, or possibly to a DCPS choice school (perhaps the secret agenda of DCPS!)

For Deal, 1) Janney + Hearst to Hardy, or 2) Lafayette + Shepherd to Wells. This would tip Hardy for sure and possibly Wells. Notice how some DCUM Janney parents who witnessed the Deal improvement over the past decade see early signs of how Hardy is just a few years from turning that corner as well? (calm down everyone... redistricting begins in 2023 at the earliest with changes implemented in 2025 and beyond) Both solutions allow one or two EOTP schools to remain at Deal (Bancroft + possibly Shep?), preserving what DC leadership has always wanted. Imagine vast majority of reasonable Ward 3 parents can live with a different MS (see Eaton) as long as their kids remain in the Wilson HS pyramid.

For Wilson, struggling to identify what would relieve sufficient pressure, short of doing something drastic like a Murch-Deal-EOTP HS feeder pattern (e.g. having the Murch kids who stayed at Deal join Lafayette+Shep at Coolidge/Roosevelt. My inner SJW wants to believe it'd be great to have another large, high-performing traditional HS to rival Wilson in sports, etc. but hey, a girl can dream!) Moving Shepherd/Hyde-Addison/Eaton/Hearst/Bancroft all or piecemeal to Coolidge/Roosevelt/Cardozo might help, but only nibbles at the margins of the demographic core "problem" = giant, high-performing JKLM schools full of IB kids. Also likely opposed by Mayor Bowser and others who want to maintain the EOTP connection to the WOTP high school.

However, seeing as how few if any boundaries changed in the last redistricting, the most likely (and safest!) DCPS response figures to maintain the status quo and leave Wilson boundaries as is, hoping that the pushiest parents get fed up and leave on their own, perhaps even for the vaunted Walls/Banneker/new McKinley/DESA that the DC establishment loves to promote.

Disclaimer: Lived on the Hill for 15 years - still amazed that younger parents are excited about Stuart-Hobson, but again, all happening due to gentrification = "changing demographics." Times they are a changing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
PPs have hit it on the head. I do numbers and geography for a living. Deal and Wilson are simply victims of their own success. Community should be very proud of how they've made these two schools so desirable.

The numbers don't support this conclusion. Rather, what's happening at Deal and Wilson is just the manifestation of a much broader demographic trend. After WWII, DC went through 50 years of declining population, and the student population fell every year from 1968 to 2008. The youth population started growing city-wide in 2008 and since then has added over 20,000 students and is projected to add another 25,000 in the next ten years. The under-18 population of the city is now growing faster than the overall population.

In Ward 3, the rebound started earlier. The youth population hit bottom in 2000 and has been growing for 20 years. The success of Deal and Wilson doesn't really have anything to do with anything the community has done to make them desirable, it's the demographics.

[Anonymous]

It’s a demographic that can and does put their own resources into the schools has for years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You know what crazy people (and agree with the PP, this is a total fantasy thread), here's the real story:

- Our kids shouldn't be used as a social engineering experiment because they are UMC and live in stable homes. Call that elitist, privileged, whatever, but no kid should have to deal with it because some social justice warrior deems it so.

- Of course we are going to scream when you ship our kids out of our neighborhood to an unproven school with abysmal test scores. NOBODY would want that to happen.

- The schools you are talking about sending us to, while smaller, do not have the same sort of extra curriculars (sports, arts) what have you that Deal and Wilson already have.

I think if Lafayette parents are convinced that the experience would be the same wherever else than it would be at Deal and Wilson, we would be OK with it. Contrary to what this thread suggests, I don't think Chevy Chase is full of racists. It is, however, full of families who want what's best for their kids, and Wells and Cardozo are just not going to cut it now. The expectations are just higher.

And, finally, for all the Deal bashers here, it IS a great place. The team approach keeps it small, and I can say especially over the last two years DD has had uniformly amazing teachers. I don't know who you've had. I'm sorry your snowflake can't handle the size, I'm sure when you pick their classes for them in college it will be better.

I occasionally see this term thrown around by the same sorts of folks who use the term 'SJW.' What exactly does this mean? How would this play out, in terms of outcomes?

Also, Wells isn't even open yet, so how can you remark about the extracurricular options or test scores there? What are you basing your predictions on? DCPS PARCC data, along with other research, suggests that kids from affluent, educated families tend to do well even in lower-performing schools, so your alarm at the prospect of redistricting is somewhat puzzling.

That's precisely the point - there AREN'T any, and it will take years to develop them. And what it means is that people are so blinded by "social justice" that they fail to see how it can actually impact real people. It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to send your kid to a shitty school on a the theory that your smart, UMC kid is going to suddenly solve all of the inherent problems of urban poverty by just sitting next to some kid in a classroom.

There might be an ounce of sympathy if there was any concern whatsoever for the so-called "shitty schools." Some of us don't think anyone should have to send their kids to a "shitty school" regardless of address. The solution for Ward 3 families is not enrolling charters or OOB and traveling across town -- that's only required of families in Wards 7 & 8.

I think folks ARE concerned about the shitty schools. But remember, a lot of those problems are not just the schools, but the problems the kids at those schools bring with them. Redrawing school boundaries won't solve that issue.

I agree that redrawing boundaries won't solve generational poverty, but that doesn't mean that schools dealing with the greatest burdens of poverty should be denied additional resources to effectively support higher needs students.

There are three main persistent elitism themes on DCUM -- 1) talking about "shitty schools" like they exist in a vacuum and fail the children who need them most, or 2) denigrating kids and their care givers who come to school with a heavy load of stuff to deal with. . . maybe 3) combination of 1) and 2) above

Not to paint too broadly but I fail to see any meaningful concern about the plight of students and communities with higher needs than their entitled families from anyone who would call any legitimate school "shitty"

The poorest schools DO get the most money per student. In some cases, twice as much as Ward 3 schools. Money is not the problem. The problem is not student resources, it’s student home life. The schools are being asked to solve problems they are not equipped to solve. It’s a sad conundrum, but one that no one has been able to solve on a large scale anywhere in this country. And overcrowding Ward 3 schools is a spiteful response that hurts more kids that it helps.

Here’s some sobering reading:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/08/can_we_fix_the_schools_maybe_not_139978.html

Totes, Plessy v. F. sitch. Let those poor unfortunate souls thrive over yonder in Ward 4, CC is more unincorporated North Bethesda in “outlook.” We’ve got the right (white) privilege. Deal forever!

Sweetheart, Brown v. Board was decided 3 generations ago. Since that time trillions of dollars have been directed to closing the achievement gap. To absolutely no meaningful avail. I don’t know what the solution is either. But I do know that a 2000 student Deal is not the answer. And you know it too.

One way to work on the achievement gap is to snuff out the toxic, pernicious slur in some quarters, in that diligent study, hard work and academic success are derided as “acting white.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:21:08 Building a high school won't fly because is a huge amount of money to spend on a bunch of wealthy white families and besides that there is absolutely no place to put it that wouldn't cost even MORE money. Ain't happening.

According to comments in both of these threads, Bowser would be open to a new high school WOTP.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/764646.page#13992573

Here, someone speculates that such a high school would be open to all:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/90/772513.page#14200095

But where to put it? I know. Bye, bye, Duke Ellington!

Yup. Bye Duke. Buh, bye Felicia!

Onward Western High School!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s a demographic that can and does put their own resources into the schools has for years.

Just like many many schools in DC: demographics, not parental diligence is responsible.

[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:You know what crazy people (and agree with the PP, this is a total fantasy thread), here's the real story:

- Our kids shouldn't be used as a social engineering experiment because they are UMC and live in stable homes. Call that elitist, privileged, whatever, but no kid should have to deal with it because some social justice warrior deems it so.

- Of course we are going to scream when you ship our kids out of our neighborhood to an unproven school with abysmal test scores. NOBODY would want that to happen.

- The schools you are talking about sending us to, while smaller, do not have the same sort of extra curriculars (sports, arts) what have you that Deal and Wilson already have.

I think if Lafayette parents are convinced that the experience would be the same wherever else than it would be at Deal and Wilson, we would be OK with it. Contrary to what this thread suggests, I don't think Chevy Chase is full of racists. It is, however, full of families who want what's best for their kids, and Wells and Cardozo are just not going to cut it now. The expectations are just higher.

And, finally, for all the Deal bashers here, it IS a great place. The team approach keeps it small, and I can say especially over the last two years DD has had uniformly amazing teachers. I don't know who you've had. I'm sorry your snowflake can't handle the size, I'm sure when you pick their classes for them in college it will be better.

I occasionally see this term thrown around by the same sorts of folks who use the term 'SJW.' What exactly does this mean? How would this play out, in terms of outcomes?

Also, Wells isn't even open yet, so how can you remark about the extracurricular options or test scores there? What are you basing your predictions on? DCPS PARCC data, along with other research, suggests that kids from affluent, educated families tend to do well even in lower-performing schools, so your alarm at the prospect of redistricting is somewhat puzzling.

That's precisely the point - there AREN'T any, and it will take years to develop them. And what it means is that people are so blinded by "social justice" that they fail to see how it can actually impact real people. It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to send your kid to a shitty school on a the theory that your smart, UMC kid is going to suddenly solve all of the inherent problems of urban poverty by just sitting next to some kid in a classroom.

There might be an ounce of sympathy if there was any concern whatsoever for the so-called "shitty schools." Some of us don't think anyone should have to send their kids to a "shitty school" regardless of address. The solution for Ward 3 families is not enrolling charters or OOB and traveling across town -- that's only required of families in Wards 7 & 8.

I think folks ARE concerned about the shitty schools. But remember, a lot of those problems are not just the schools, but the problems the kids at those schools bring with them. Redrawing school boundaries won't solve that issue.

I agree that redrawing boundaries won't solve generational poverty, but that doesn't mean that schools dealing with the greatest burdens of poverty should be denied additional resources to effectively support higher needs students.

There are three main persistent elitism themes on DCUM -- 1) talking about "shitty schools" like they exist in a vacuum and fail the children who need them most, or 2) denigrating kids and their care givers who come to school with a heavy load of stuff to deal with. . . maybe 3) combination of 1) and 2) above

Not to paint too broadly but I fail to see any meaningful concern about the plight of students and communities with higher needs than their entitled families from anyone who would call any legitimate school "shitty"

The poorest schools DO get the most money per student. In some cases, twice as much as Ward 3 schools. Money is not the problem. The problem is not student resources, it’s student home life. The schools are being asked to solve problems they are not equipped to solve. It’s a sad conundrum, but one that no one has been able to solve on a large scale anywhere in this country. And overcrowding Ward 3 schools is a spiteful response that hurts more kids that it helps.

Here’s some sobering reading:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/08/can_we_fix_the_schools_maybe_not_139978.html

Totes, Plessy v. F. sitch. Let those poor unfortunate souls thrive over yonder in Ward 4, CC is more unincorporated North Bethesda in “outlook.” We’ve got the right (white) privilege. Deal forever!

Sweetheart, Brown v. Board was decided 3 generations ago. Since that time trillions of dollars have been directed to closing the achievement gap. To absolutely no meaningful avail. I don’t know what the solution is either. But I do know that a 2000 student Deal is not the answer. And you know it too.

Right, which is why we’re suggesting moving some of the feeders to other MS and HS.

Start with the two feeder schools that have 800 kids.

PPs have hit it on the head. I do numbers and geography for a living. Deal and Wilson are simply victims of their own success. Community should be very proud of how they've made these two schools so desirable. While OOB feeder rights were a legitimate beef in past years (and to this day, residency "fraud" or rather fluidity in permutations of how to define where students sleep at night with which relative, etc. but hard to fix without becoming the Stasi), it's almost 2020 and due to changing demographics, OOB is not what it used to be. Deal/Wilson bursting at the seams with IB students from popular JKLM, Hearst is healthy, Eaton is at Hardy, etc. To fix Deal/Wilson overcrowding, need to shrink the attendance zone or make people attrite on their own. Loved 16:48's comment about how Mayor Bowser is 22% percent of her way to "Alice Deal for all!"

Throwing out my two cents, but reducing pressure at Deal is straightforward. Package a giant UMC school with a smaller one and move to a neighboring middle school. People will be upset, but this can be spun in a positive way, as long as families moved out of Deal are kept inside the Wilson HS pyramid. High school is a different story. Telling families they're being moved from Wilson to Cardozo/Roosevelt/Coolidge will just make them quit DCPS, go private, MoCo, or possibly to a DCPS choice school (perhaps the secret agenda of DCPS!)

For Deal, 1) Janney + Hearst to Hardy, or 2) Lafayette + Shepherd to Wells. This would tip Hardy for sure and possibly Wells. Notice how some DCUM Janney parents who witnessed the Deal improvement over the past decade see early signs of how Hardy is just a few years from turning that corner as well? (calm down everyone... redistricting begins in 2023 at the earliest with changes implemented in 2025 and beyond) Both solutions allow one or two EOTP schools to remain at Deal (Bancroft + possibly Shep?), preserving what DC leadership has always wanted. Imagine vast majority of reasonable Ward 3 parents can live with a different MS (see Eaton) as long as their kids remain in the Wilson HS pyramid.

For Wilson, struggling to identify what would relieve sufficient pressure, short of doing something drastic like a Murch-Deal-EOTP HS feeder pattern (e.g. having the Murch kids who stayed at Deal join Lafayette+Shep at Coolidge/Roosevelt. My inner SJW wants to believe it'd be great to have another large, high-performing traditional HS to rival Wilson in sports, etc. but hey, a girl can dream!) Moving Shepherd/Hyde-Addison/Eaton/Hearst/Bancroft all or piecemeal to Coolidge/Roosevelt/Cardozo might help, but only nibbles at the margins of the demographic core "problem" = giant, high-performing JKLM schools full of IB kids. Also likely opposed by Mayor Bowser and others who want to maintain the EOTP connection to the WOTP high school.

However, seeing as how few if any boundaries changed in the last redistricting, the most likely (and safest!) DCPS response figures to maintain the status quo and leave Wilson boundaries as is, hoping that the pushiest parents get fed up and leave on their own, perhaps even for the vaunted Walls/Banneker/new McKinley/DESA that the DC establishment loves to promote.

Disclaimer: Lived on the Hill for 15 years - still amazed that younger parents are excited about Stuart-Hobson, but again, all happening due to gentrification = "changing demographics." Times they are a changing!

This is an excellent post and makes several excellent points that I wish very much - as a Lafayette parent - DCPS would listen to.

[Anonymous]

It’s time for Lafayette and Shepherd to go, and end OOB unless high-risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s time for Lafayette and Shepherd to go, and end OOB unless high-risk.

From a self interested perspective (my child’s), high at-risk would be the first group to go. Which group far disproportionately is reponsible for the serious discipline problems and classroom disruptions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Busing" would be sending LaFayette graduates to Ward 7 or 8. We're not talking about busing, but rezoning: sending LaFayette grads to a new middle school that's essentially the same distance from LaFayette as Deal. Along with couple of other decently-performing elementary schools. It would probably work out just fine. See: Hardy.

Just arrange with MoCo to send us to Westbard. DCPS can cut a check to the county. Works for us. Work for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m confused why Lafayette is a Ward 4 school. We are IB for Lafayette and live in Ward 3. The schools boundaries are not by ward!

Lafayette is IN Ward 4. Not that deep.

It may be in Ward 4, but remember, the line down Broad Branch Road was arbitrarily created not that long ago strictly to balance voters. It was never intended to have ANYTHING to do with schools. To imply otherwise is just somebody making stuff up.

I would say there's a much better case that school attendance boundaries are arbitrary than ward boundaries. What's so magical about Massachusetts Avenue that one side of it goes to Deal and the other to Hardy?

In outlook, Chevy Chase DC is very much oriented toward Ward 3, not Ward 4 - most of which lies east of the Park.

Outlook meaning pretentious bigot-y folks???

Meaning where schools, churches and synogogues, kids activities, shopping, neighborhood restaurants, libraries, transit nodes — point to Ward 4. Being part of Ward 4 was a political contrivance, that’s all.

[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:You know what crazy people (and agree with the PP, this is a total fantasy thread), here's the real story:

- Our kids shouldn't be used as a social engineering experiment because they are UMC and live in stable homes. Call that elitist, privileged, whatever, but no kid should have to deal with it because some social justice warrior deems it so.

- Of course we are going to scream when you ship our kids out of our neighborhood to an unproven school with abysmal test scores. NOBODY would want that to happen.

- The schools you are talking about sending us to, while smaller, do not have the same sort of extra curriculars (sports, arts) what have you that Deal and Wilson already have.

I think if Lafayette parents are convinced that the experience would be the same wherever else than it would be at Deal and Wilson, we would be OK with it. Contrary to what this thread suggests, I don't think Chevy Chase is full of racists. It is, however, full of families who want what's best for their kids, and Wells and Cardozo are just not going to cut it now. The expectations are just higher.

And, finally, for all the Deal bashers here, it IS a great place. The team approach keeps it small, and I can say especially over the last two years DD has had uniformly amazing teachers. I don't know who you've had. I'm sorry your snowflake can't handle the size, I'm sure when you pick their classes for them in college it will be better.

I occasionally see this term thrown around by the same sorts of folks who use the term 'SJW.' What exactly does this mean? How would this play out, in terms of outcomes?

Also, Wells isn't even open yet, so how can you remark about the extracurricular options or test scores there? What are you basing your predictions on? DCPS PARCC data, along with other research, suggests that kids from affluent, educated families tend to do well even in lower-performing schools, so your alarm at the prospect of redistricting is somewhat puzzling.

That's precisely the point - there AREN'T any, and it will take years to develop them. And what it means is that people are so blinded by "social justice" that they fail to see how it can actually impact real people. It doesn't make you a bad person to not want to send your kid to a shitty school on a the theory that your smart, UMC kid is going to suddenly solve all of the inherent problems of urban poverty by just sitting next to some kid in a classroom.

There might be an ounce of sympathy if there was any concern whatsoever for the so-called "shitty schools." Some of us don't think anyone should have to send their kids to a "shitty school" regardless of address. The solution for Ward 3 families is not enrolling charters or OOB and traveling across town -- that's only required of families in Wards 7 & 8.

I think folks ARE concerned about the shitty schools. But remember, a lot of those problems are not just the schools, but the problems the kids at those schools bring with them. Redrawing school boundaries won't solve that issue.

I agree that redrawing boundaries won't solve generational poverty, but that doesn't mean that schools dealing with the greatest burdens of poverty should be denied additional resources to effectively support higher needs students.

There are three main persistent elitism themes on DCUM -- 1) talking about "shitty schools" like they exist in a vacuum and fail the children who need them most, or 2) denigrating kids and their care givers who come to school with a heavy load of stuff to deal with. . . maybe 3) combination of 1) and 2) above

Not to paint too broadly but I fail to see any meaningful concern about the plight of students and communities with higher needs than their entitled families from anyone who would call any legitimate school "shitty"

The poorest schools DO get the most money per student. In some cases, twice as much as Ward 3 schools. Money is not the problem. The problem is not student resources, it’s student home life. The schools are being asked to solve problems they are not equipped to solve. It’s a sad conundrum, but one that no one has been able to solve on a large scale anywhere in this country. And overcrowding Ward 3 schools is a spiteful response that hurts more kids that it helps.

Here’s some sobering reading:

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/04/08/can_we_fix_the_schools_maybe_not_139978.html

Totes, Plessy v. F. sitch. Let those poor unfortunate souls thrive over yonder in Ward 4, CC is more unincorporated North Bethesda in “outlook.” We’ve got the right (white) privilege. Deal forever!

Sweetheart, Brown v. Board was decided 3 generations ago. Since that time trillions of dollars have been directed to closing the achievement gap. To absolutely no meaningful avail. I don’t know what the solution is either. But I do know that a 2000 student Deal is not the answer. And you know it too.

Right, which is why we’re suggesting moving some of the feeders to other MS and HS.

Start with the two feeder schools that have 800 kids.

PPs have hit it on the head. I do numbers and geography for a living. Deal and Wilson are simply victims of their own success. Community should be very proud of how they've made these two schools so desirable. While OOB feeder rights were a legitimate beef in past years (and to this day, residency "fraud" or rather fluidity in permutations of how to define where students sleep at night with which relative, etc. but hard to fix without becoming the Stasi), it's almost 2020 and due to changing demographics, OOB is not what it used to be. Deal/Wilson bursting at the seams with IB students from popular JKLM, Hearst is healthy, Eaton is at Hardy, etc. To fix Deal/Wilson overcrowding, need to shrink the attendance zone or make people attrite on their own. Loved 16:48's comment about how Mayor Bowser is 22% percent of her way to "Alice Deal for all!"

Throwing out my two cents, but reducing pressure at Deal is straightforward. Package a giant UMC school with a smaller one and move to a neighboring middle school. People will be upset, but this can be spun in a positive way, as long as families moved out of Deal are kept inside the Wilson HS pyramid. High school is a different story. Telling families they're being moved from Wilson to Cardozo/Roosevelt/Coolidge will just make them quit DCPS, go private, MoCo, or possibly to a DCPS choice school (perhaps the secret agenda of DCPS!)

For Deal, 1) Janney + Hearst to Hardy, or 2) Lafayette + Shepherd to Wells. This would tip Hardy for sure and possibly Wells. Notice how some DCUM Janney parents who witnessed the Deal improvement over the past decade see early signs of how Hardy is just a few years from turning that corner as well? (calm down everyone... redistricting begins in 2023 at the earliest with changes implemented in 2025 and beyond) Both solutions allow one or two EOTP schools to remain at Deal (Bancroft + possibly Shep?), preserving what DC leadership has always wanted. Imagine vast majority of reasonable Ward 3 parents can live with a different MS (see Eaton) as long as their kids remain in the Wilson HS pyramid.

For Wilson, struggling to identify what would relieve sufficient pressure, short of doing something drastic like a Murch-Deal-EOTP HS feeder pattern (e.g. having the Murch kids who stayed at Deal join Lafayette+Shep at Coolidge/Roosevelt. My inner SJW wants to believe it'd be great to have another large, high-performing traditional HS to rival Wilson in sports, etc. but hey, a girl can dream!) Moving Shepherd/Hyde-Addison/Eaton/Hearst/Bancroft all or piecemeal to Coolidge/Roosevelt/Cardozo might help, but only nibbles at the margins of the demographic core "problem" = giant, high-performing JKLM schools full of IB kids. Also likely opposed by Mayor Bowser and others who want to maintain the EOTP connection to the WOTP high school.

However, seeing as how few if any boundaries changed in the last redistricting, the most likely (and safest!) DCPS response figures to maintain the status quo and leave Wilson boundaries as is, hoping that the pushiest parents get fed up and leave on their own, perhaps even for the vaunted Walls/Banneker/new McKinley/DESA that the DC establishment loves to promote.

Disclaimer: Lived on the Hill for 15 years - still amazed that younger parents are excited about Stuart-Hobson, but again, all happening due to gentrification = "changing demographics." Times they are a changing!

This is an excellent post and makes several excellent points that I wish very much - as a Lafayette parent - DCPS would listen to.

Actually it is a bunch of non-sense.

The problem is very simple and leaving the politics aside the solution is very simple too. Deal and Wilson have too many schools/neighborhoods feeding into them and to solve that problem some of those schools/neighborhoods need to go elsewhere.

That's it.

The most logical way to shrink who is eligible for Deal/Wilson is to do it based on geography and the location of additional school capacity.

If Lafayette parents have a better idea or want to advocate for a city wide lottery then please lets hear your ideas.

Again if you actually look at the demographics of Deal/Wilson and stop pretending it is Sidwell duplicating Deal is not really logistically difficult.

But Lafayette parents go ahead and keep making absurd suggestions that people who can walk to Deal & Wilson should be the ones moved to other schools so you can keep driving there.