DC's School Report Cards are up. Any surprises?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that.

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that.

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?

Dunbar is downtown. Most transit flows downtown. Plus, the city is limited by the built environment. No one, not even you, is calling on them to build a brand new high school somewhere in the outlying part of the Dunbar catchment. Meanwhile Anacostia and Ballou both exist already, and closing either one would lead to increased absenteeism and all the negative costs that come with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that.

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?

The distance thing is a planning goal. It's not an entitlement to individuals. They aren't going to open a new school to meet the goal, especially when there are other high schools in the area that are not overcrowded. HD Woodson, Eastern, and McKinley Tech conveniently serve a portion of students zoned for Dunbar, as do charters such as Latin and WLA, and Dunbar is not overcrowded, so DCPS doesn't view this as a problem even those things Dunbar's zone is bigger than technically desirable. But that doesn't mean other schools should also have a massive zone.

DCPS closed a lot of schools in past decades and came to regret it. And DCPS needs to maintain some extra capacity just in case it's needed, and to absorb kids from charters that fail. If, say, Thurgood Marshall Academy were to close, putting nearly 400 kids out, Ballou and Anacostia would have to absorb many of them. Even on zero notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that.

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?

The distance thing is a planning goal. It's not an entitlement to individuals. They aren't going to open a new school to meet the goal, especially when there are other high schools in the area that are not overcrowded. HD Woodson, Eastern, and McKinley Tech conveniently serve a portion of students zoned for Dunbar, as do charters such as Latin and WLA, and Dunbar is not overcrowded, so DCPS doesn't view this as a problem even those things Dunbar's zone is bigger than technically desirable. But that doesn't mean other schools should also have a massive zone.

DCPS closed a lot of schools in past decades and came to regret it. And DCPS needs to maintain some extra capacity just in case it's needed, and to absorb kids from charters that fail. If, say, Thurgood Marshall Academy were to close, putting nearly 400 kids out, Ballou and Anacostia would have to absorb many of them. Even on zero notice.

This person DCPSes. Spot on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Ballou stays open because DCPS provides a by right high school within a certain distance of every address in the city. Merging with Anacostia would not achieve that.

I would love to know what you think this “certain distance” is because… have you seen the Dunbar catchment?

The distance thing is a planning goal. It's not an entitlement to individuals. They aren't going to open a new school to meet the goal, especially when there are other high schools in the area that are not overcrowded. HD Woodson, Eastern, and McKinley Tech conveniently serve a portion of students zoned for Dunbar, as do charters such as Latin and WLA, and Dunbar is not overcrowded, so DCPS doesn't view this as a problem even those things Dunbar's zone is bigger than technically desirable. But that doesn't mean other schools should also have a massive zone.

DCPS closed a lot of schools in past decades and came to regret it. And DCPS needs to maintain some extra capacity just in case it's needed, and to absorb kids from charters that fail. If, say, Thurgood Marshall Academy were to close, putting nearly 400 kids out, Ballou and Anacostia would have to absorb many of them. Even on zero notice.

This person DCPSes. Spot on.

Actually now that I think about it, there's a ton of high schools in or near the Dunbar zone. KIPP and Friendship have them, there's Truth, Banneker isn't far, Luke C Moore, Phelps... Then you have Gonzaga, St Jerome, St Anselm's, and Seton, and Archbishop Carroll isn't that far either. So the area is arguably oversupplied with high school seats, when the full landscape is considered.

When I'm back at my desk I'll look up what happened with the kids who went to Washington Math Science and Technology charter. It closed suddenly in 2018 due to insolvency. I wonder if those kids ended up at their IB schools. I don't think any charter high schools are likely to close soon, but as experience shows, you really never know and the PCSB is willing to give schools plenty of rope.

[Anonymous]

Now that I'm back on my laptop, it seems like the WMST debacle was too long ago to be visible in publicly available data.

I did take a look at where Eagle Academy students landed on here: https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways and it's interesting because it's really all over the place. Many to nearby DCPS, many to nearby charters, but a few to places that aren't as near like Dorothy Height, CHML, Mann, Eaton, Walker-Jones, Harmony, Friendship Armstrong, Meridian, and Bethune. I was saddened to observe that some went to Hope Tolson and I Dream, which have announced closure at the end of this year-- what a sad and damaging thing for a child to go through twice let alone once.

Another closure to observe is Washington Metropolitan, a DCPS-operated alternative high school that was at the KC Lewis site by the McMillan park. Those students similarly were geographically dispersed across 20+ schools from Ballou to DCI. Of course, since Washington Metropolitan is an alternative school with no boundary, they might have come from an especially wide geographic range to begin with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a solution to the problem with schools in this city. But as an educated UMC family EOTP, charters are what kept us in the city to make it work.

We were at an immersion charter and now at DCI as a new family this year. We were at an event this weekend and met a number of other DCI families and wow the backgrounds of these families were impressive - lawyers, CIO, educational executives, etc…. It was also a very diverse group with blacks, white, asians.

It is quite obvious to me now that educated UMC families of all backgrounds and ethnicities are congregating and coalescing among the few acceptable charters for middle school EOTP. It is not by chance that there were so many accomplished families in one event.

If I could send my kid to Stuart-Hobson I totally would. DC is at a supposedly desirable EOTP charter but meh.

I think this is the same Stuart Hobson booster but if it’s a real post I invite you do so some research on the school. It’s objectively a poor performing school.

It’s really not. It has a good OSSE report card with solid performance and growth scores. Its top kids do well on tests and in HS admissions, while having a very robust MS experience with great ECs and truly excellent performance arts. It’s not an accident that SH got over 20 kids into Duke last year. I’m not sure why anyone thinks there’s on SH booster.

Duke Ellington is a performing arts school. It’s not an academic powerhouse. I mean I am thrilled if kids who are good at performance do well here, but the reality is that SH has very little to do with it. Furthermore, the “honors” classes are not even grade level. Kids do really poorly on standardized tests. “Truly excellent” performing arts is 100% in the eye of the booster. I’m glad you’re happy but I’m really glad my kids don’t attend Stuart Hobson.

SH doesn't have "honors" classes; it does track kids, but not like that. So it's interesting that you have opinions on classes that literally don't exist. Why do people come on DCUM to post nonsense about schools they have no connection to? Look, obviously demographics (and, particularly, at risk %age) play into overall test scores and SH is 29% at risk, but if you look at just white kids (since they are virtually certainly to be close to 0% at risk at any DC school), SH actually outperforms BASIS and Hardy and DCI and Latin on ELA CAPE (looking at 4s + 5s); in Math, it's still ahead of all of those schools except for BASIS, which is only at 2% more. Tell me again about the non-grade level classes and kids doing "really poorly"...

I want to be clear that I am not trashing any of those schools. I would have sent me DD to Latin if she lotteried in, because I would love to have a HS plan. She has friends who are very happy at BASIS and if we lived IB for Hardy, I assume she'd go there happily. Also, there are other unnamed schools doing equally well or even better by the metric I just looked at, like Jefferson and Elliot Hine and ITS and Truth. The point is that there are actually a bunch of MS out there working for kids all of which have various pluses and minuses and this weird DCUM line that UMC Hill kids at a school like SH are looking for "easy classes" and or somehow not getting fundamentals is crazy. People hire tutors in MS because their kids aren't doing well... so it's not shocking to hear that the tutor works with kids who aren't doing well at Hill MSes. I'm sure there are plenty of those too! (And it's fair to say that I don't know any parents at SH who hire an individual tutor for "enrichment" given all of the free enrichment offered by the school, so that doesn't really surprise me either. Maybe there are MSes with less on offer where that's more attractive?)

I am thrilled you are so optimistic about Stuart Hobson. However for those who have actual children and are thinking about it you should be aware that the offerings are poor, grade level at Stuart Hobson is considered doing really well, and kids are not being taught well there. Sorry not sorry. Same applies for Truth (actually Stuart would probably be better than truth). Hine has an IB program which is a good curriculum. Finally the reason you don’t know any kids who get a tutor for further enrichment is my biggest issue with SH- kids are just not ambitious. I’m seeing kids who are struggling and not motivated. But if that’s okay with you, fantastic. But lie to less privileged kids who don’t know they’ll be okay. It’s not a good school. It won’t meet your kids needs. If you know your privileged kids will be totally fine whatever happens- go for it. Enjoy the easy commute. But for those less sure, do everything you can to get into another school including moving.

Bumping this thread where the obnoxious tutor talks about enrichment… and says parents who don’t hired tutors for enrichment are “just not ambitious” or maybe that’s their kids, unclear. Just like I said. You’re welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a solution to the problem with schools in this city. But as an educated UMC family EOTP, charters are what kept us in the city to make it work.

We were at an immersion charter and now at DCI as a new family this year. We were at an event this weekend and met a number of other DCI families and wow the backgrounds of these families were impressive - lawyers, CIO, educational executives, etc…. It was also a very diverse group with blacks, white, asians.

It is quite obvious to me now that educated UMC families of all backgrounds and ethnicities are congregating and coalescing among the few acceptable charters for middle school EOTP. It is not by chance that there were so many accomplished families in one event.

If I could send my kid to Stuart-Hobson I totally would. DC is at a supposedly desirable EOTP charter but meh.

I think this is the same Stuart Hobson booster but if it’s a real post I invite you do so some research on the school. It’s objectively a poor performing school.

It’s really not. It has a good OSSE report card with solid performance and growth scores. Its top kids do well on tests and in HS admissions, while having a very robust MS experience with great ECs and truly excellent performance arts. It’s not an accident that SH got over 20 kids into Duke last year. I’m not sure why anyone thinks there’s on SH booster.

Duke Ellington is a performing arts school. It’s not an academic powerhouse. I mean I am thrilled if kids who are good at performance do well here, but the reality is that SH has very little to do with it. Furthermore, the “honors” classes are not even grade level. Kids do really poorly on standardized tests. “Truly excellent” performing arts is 100% in the eye of the booster. I’m glad you’re happy but I’m really glad my kids don’t attend Stuart Hobson.

SH doesn't have "honors" classes; it does track kids, but not like that. So it's interesting that you have opinions on classes that literally don't exist. Why do people come on DCUM to post nonsense about schools they have no connection to? Look, obviously demographics (and, particularly, at risk %age) play into overall test scores and SH is 29% at risk, but if you look at just white kids (since they are virtually certainly to be close to 0% at risk at any DC school), SH actually outperforms BASIS and Hardy and DCI and Latin on ELA CAPE (looking at 4s + 5s); in Math, it's still ahead of all of those schools except for BASIS, which is only at 2% more. Tell me again about the non-grade level classes and kids doing "really poorly"...

I want to be clear that I am not trashing any of those schools. I would have sent me DD to Latin if she lotteried in, because I would love to have a HS plan. She has friends who are very happy at BASIS and if we lived IB for Hardy, I assume she'd go there happily. Also, there are other unnamed schools doing equally well or even better by the metric I just looked at, like Jefferson and Elliot Hine and ITS and Truth. The point is that there are actually a bunch of MS out there working for kids all of which have various pluses and minuses and this weird DCUM line that UMC Hill kids at a school like SH are looking for "easy classes" and or somehow not getting fundamentals is crazy. People hire tutors in MS because their kids aren't doing well... so it's not shocking to hear that the tutor works with kids who aren't doing well at Hill MSes. I'm sure there are plenty of those too! (And it's fair to say that I don't know any parents at SH who hire an individual tutor for "enrichment" given all of the free enrichment offered by the school, so that doesn't really surprise me either. Maybe there are MSes with less on offer where that's more attractive?)

I am thrilled you are so optimistic about Stuart Hobson. However for those who have actual children and are thinking about it you should be aware that the offerings are poor, grade level at Stuart Hobson is considered doing really well, and kids are not being taught well there. Sorry not sorry. Same applies for Truth (actually Stuart would probably be better than truth). Hine has an IB program which is a good curriculum. Finally the reason you don’t know any kids who get a tutor for further enrichment is my biggest issue with SH- kids are just not ambitious. I’m seeing kids who are struggling and not motivated. But if that’s okay with you, fantastic. But lie to less privileged kids who don’t know they’ll be okay. It’s not a good school. It won’t meet your kids needs. If you know your privileged kids will be totally fine whatever happens- go for it. Enjoy the easy commute. But for those less sure, do everything you can to get into another school including moving.

Bumping this thread where the obnoxious tutor talks about enrichment… and says parents who don’t hired tutors for enrichment are “just not ambitious” or maybe that’s their kids, unclear. Just like I said. You’re welcome.

I don’t understand parents who don’t want the best for their kids. I truly don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SH and a lot of the other DCPS middle schools offer a lot of sports and extracurriculars. The really high-achieving kids are likely to be very busy with some combination of activities like the musical, debate, mock trial, and sports teams, etc. That does not always leave a ton of time for tutoring unless you absolutely need it.

SH offerings are mediocre.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SH and a lot of the other DCPS middle schools offer a lot of sports and extracurriculars. The really high-achieving kids are likely to be very busy with some combination of activities like the musical, debate, mock trial, and sports teams, etc. That does not always leave a ton of time for tutoring unless you absolutely need it.

SH offerings are mediocre.

The SH extracurricular offerings are mediocre? That is just a lie. For offerings to student ratio, I'd say SH's are obviously the best of DC public schools. (Deal is the only school that comes close and it is orders of magnitude bigger, so the activities are nowhere near as accessible.)

[Anonymous]

^^ To be clear, I should have specified among middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SH and a lot of the other DCPS middle schools offer a lot of sports and extracurriculars. The really high-achieving kids are likely to be very busy with some combination of activities like the musical, debate, mock trial, and sports teams, etc. That does not always leave a ton of time for tutoring unless you absolutely need it.

SH offerings are mediocre.

What do you mean? On the academic front, obviously, since there aren't true above-grade-level classes at SH outside math in DCPS. You're arguing that the musicals, debate, mock trial, sports teams are mediocre relative to other DCPS middle schools, or privates, or the burbs or what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a solution to the problem with schools in this city. But as an educated UMC family EOTP, charters are what kept us in the city to make it work.

We were at an immersion charter and now at DCI as a new family this year. We were at an event this weekend and met a number of other DCI families and wow the backgrounds of these families were impressive - lawyers, CIO, educational executives, etc…. It was also a very diverse group with blacks, white, asians.

It is quite obvious to me now that educated UMC families of all backgrounds and ethnicities are congregating and coalescing among the few acceptable charters for middle school EOTP. It is not by chance that there were so many accomplished families in one event.

If I could send my kid to Stuart-Hobson I totally would. DC is at a supposedly desirable EOTP charter but meh.

I think this is the same Stuart Hobson booster but if it’s a real post I invite you do so some research on the school. It’s objectively a poor performing school.

It’s really not. It has a good OSSE report card with solid performance and growth scores. Its top kids do well on tests and in HS admissions, while having a very robust MS experience with great ECs and truly excellent performance arts. It’s not an accident that SH got over 20 kids into Duke last year. I’m not sure why anyone thinks there’s on SH booster.

Duke Ellington is a performing arts school. It’s not an academic powerhouse. I mean I am thrilled if kids who are good at performance do well here, but the reality is that SH has very little to do with it. Furthermore, the “honors” classes are not even grade level. Kids do really poorly on standardized tests. “Truly excellent” performing arts is 100% in the eye of the booster. I’m glad you’re happy but I’m really glad my kids don’t attend Stuart Hobson.

SH doesn't have "honors" classes; it does track kids, but not like that. So it's interesting that you have opinions on classes that literally don't exist. Why do people come on DCUM to post nonsense about schools they have no connection to? Look, obviously demographics (and, particularly, at risk %age) play into overall test scores and SH is 29% at risk, but if you look at just white kids (since they are virtually certainly to be close to 0% at risk at any DC school), SH actually outperforms BASIS and Hardy and DCI and Latin on ELA CAPE (looking at 4s + 5s); in Math, it's still ahead of all of those schools except for BASIS, which is only at 2% more. Tell me again about the non-grade level classes and kids doing "really poorly"...

I want to be clear that I am not trashing any of those schools. I would have sent me DD to Latin if she lotteried in, because I would love to have a HS plan. She has friends who are very happy at BASIS and if we lived IB for Hardy, I assume she'd go there happily. Also, there are other unnamed schools doing equally well or even better by the metric I just looked at, like Jefferson and Elliot Hine and ITS and Truth. The point is that there are actually a bunch of MS out there working for kids all of which have various pluses and minuses and this weird DCUM line that UMC Hill kids at a school like SH are looking for "easy classes" and or somehow not getting fundamentals is crazy. People hire tutors in MS because their kids aren't doing well... so it's not shocking to hear that the tutor works with kids who aren't doing well at Hill MSes. I'm sure there are plenty of those too! (And it's fair to say that I don't know any parents at SH who hire an individual tutor for "enrichment" given all of the free enrichment offered by the school, so that doesn't really surprise me either. Maybe there are MSes with less on offer where that's more attractive?)

I am thrilled you are so optimistic about Stuart Hobson. However for those who have actual children and are thinking about it you should be aware that the offerings are poor, grade level at Stuart Hobson is considered doing really well, and kids are not being taught well there. Sorry not sorry. Same applies for Truth (actually Stuart would probably be better than truth). Hine has an IB program which is a good curriculum. Finally the reason you don’t know any kids who get a tutor for further enrichment is my biggest issue with SH- kids are just not ambitious. I’m seeing kids who are struggling and not motivated. But if that’s okay with you, fantastic. But lie to less privileged kids who don’t know they’ll be okay. It’s not a good school. It won’t meet your kids needs. If you know your privileged kids will be totally fine whatever happens- go for it. Enjoy the easy commute. But for those less sure, do everything you can to get into another school including moving.

Bumping this thread where the obnoxious tutor talks about enrichment… and says parents who don’t hired tutors for enrichment are “just not ambitious” or maybe that’s their kids, unclear. Just like I said. You’re welcome.

I don’t understand parents who don’t want the best for their kids. I truly don’t.

I’m not sure what the connection is between “hire a tutor” and “giving kids what’s best for them.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SH and a lot of the other DCPS middle schools offer a lot of sports and extracurriculars. The really high-achieving kids are likely to be very busy with some combination of activities like the musical, debate, mock trial, and sports teams, etc. That does not always leave a ton of time for tutoring unless you absolutely need it.

SH offerings are mediocre.

The SH extracurricular offerings are mediocre? That is just a lie. For offerings to student ratio, I'd say SH's are obviously the best of DC public schools. (Deal is the only school that comes close and it is orders of magnitude bigger, so the activities are nowhere near as accessible.)

I understand the instinct to try and feel assured that the school you chose for your kids is fine and that it will all work out.

It's ALSO true that there is a portion of people who feel that SH is simply not offering a good enough education and would not consider it for their kids. and these people are not wrong, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SH and a lot of the other DCPS middle schools offer a lot of sports and extracurriculars. The really high-achieving kids are likely to be very busy with some combination of activities like the musical, debate, mock trial, and sports teams, etc. That does not always leave a ton of time for tutoring unless you absolutely need it.

SH offerings are mediocre.

The SH extracurricular offerings are mediocre? That is just a lie. For offerings to student ratio, I'd say SH's are obviously the best of DC public schools. (Deal is the only school that comes close and it is orders of magnitude bigger, so the activities are nowhere near as accessible.)

I understand the instinct to try and feel assured that the school you chose for your kids is fine and that it will all work out.

It's ALSO true that there is a portion of people who feel that SH is simply not offering a good enough education and would not consider it for their kids. and these people are not wrong, either.

My kid is not at SH. They may be in the future and I also have some qualms about the lack of tracking there outside of math. But attacking the extracurricular offerings at SH, of all things, just makes you look uninformed. I would LOVE to hear what public school in DC they think is suitable on this front if not SH. If their answer is move to the burbs or go private, then I'm not sure why they're trolling a DCPS message board.