What’s going on at DCI?

[Anonymous]

Current arrangement at DCI is good enough for most of the feeder families. A small minority are aiming higher. They either don't make the jump from 5th at a feeder, or stay for 6th and bail.

Little pressure on DCI admins to create honors classes for English, social studies or science so they won't. Too bad but that's that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current arrangement at DCI is good enough for most of the feeder families. A small minority are aiming higher. They either don't make the jump from 5th at a feeder, or stay for 6th and bail.

Little pressure on DCI admins to create honors classes for English, social studies or science so they won't. Too bad but that's that.

Eh, we'll get there. Starting a secondary school is hard work and takes years to see results. All the feeders are becoming more and more wealthy, so we will eventually see that trickle up to DCI. Yes, some will peel off for Latin or privates, but nobody is picking Brookland Middle or MacFarland over DCI.

[Anonymous]

Wow, that's inspiring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, that's inspiring.

There is no magic.

Good schools require good, well-prepared students.

[Anonymous]

Cone on, a rising school can build a first-rate strong program quite quickly via a school-within-a-school program. I say this not just as a charter parent but as a grad of one of the first cohorts of the Communications Arts magnet program at Montgomery Blair HS in Silver Spring. Tacoma Park MS and Blair HS were our family's in bounds schools, but my parents would have avoided both if hadn't been able to take all honors classes from 6th-12th grades.

My kids are still in a DCI feeder, but I'm already tired of hearing excuses for DCI not offering honors classes outside math and target language instruction. My oldest kid (fully bilingual/biliterate in a target language) would obviously be bored with the current curriculum!!

Hoping for a BASIS slot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cone on, a rising school can build a first-rate strong program quite quickly via a school-within-a-school program. I say this not just as a charter parent but as a grad of one of the first cohorts of the Communications Arts magnet program at Montgomery Blair HS in Silver Spring. Tacoma Park MS and Blair HS were our family's in bounds schools, but my parents would have avoided both if hadn't been able to take all honors classes from 6th-12th grades.

My kids are still in a DCI feeder, but I'm already tired of hearing excuses for DCI not offering honors classes outside math and target language instruction. My oldest kid (fully bilingual/biliterate in a target language) would obviously be bored with the current curriculum!!

Hoping for a BASIS slot.

No charter school has a school-within-a-school program.

FYI -- BASIS tracks even less than DCI (math only). But they do retain students (6th - 8th) who don't pass one or more of the end of year exams (there is one retake opportunity).

[Anonymous]

BASIS makes it clear to kids, and their parents, that if they don't meet high academic standards in 6th grade, they won't be moving on to 7th (a good 15-20% won't make the cut). What BASIS is doing amounts to creating a school within a school program. Most of the kids will leave before high school, mainly to escape rigor they can't handle, or don't want to. DCI isn't doing this in any grade. Standards are much lower across the board and social promotion rules. Haven't been impressed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS makes it clear to kids, and their parents, that if they don't meet high academic standards in 6th grade, they won't be moving on to 7th (a good 15-20% won't make the cut). What BASIS is doing amounts to creating a school within a school program. Most of the kids will leave before high school, mainly to escape rigor they can't handle, or don't want to. DCI isn't doing this in any grade. Standards are much lower across the board and social promotion rules. Haven't been impressed.

BASIS isn't losing 15-20% anymore. What is happening is that people are wary to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Cone on, a rising school can build a first-rate strong program quite quickly via a school-within-a-school program. I say this not just as a charter parent but as a grad of one of the first cohorts of the Communications Arts magnet program at Montgomery Blair HS in Silver Spring. Tacoma Park MS and Blair HS were our family's in bounds schools, but my parents would have avoided both if hadn't been able to take all honors classes from 6th-12th grades.

My kids are still in a DCI feeder, but I'm already tired of hearing excuses for DCI not offering honors classes outside math and target language instruction. My oldest kid (fully bilingual/biliterate in a target language) would obviously be bored with the current curriculum!!

Hoping for a BASIS slot.

No charter school has a school-within-a-school program.

FYI -- BASIS tracks even less than DCI (math only). But they do retain students (6th - 8th) who don't pass one or more of the end of year exams (there is one retake opportunity).

You're painting with too broad a brush, PP. Our neighbor's kid, close friends with mine since age 3, is at Latin. He's been put in a couple of classes above grade level this year (not for math), with a few classmates. You know what, he's effectively in a school-within-a-school program, albeit a very small one. We started at DCI, entering the school year high on the Latin WL. We switched as fast as we could.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS makes it clear to kids, and their parents, that if they don't meet high academic standards in 6th grade, they won't be moving on to 7th (a good 15-20% won't make the cut). What BASIS is doing amounts to creating a school within a school program. Most of the kids will leave before high school, mainly to escape rigor they can't handle, or don't want to. DCI isn't doing this in any grade. Standards are much lower across the board and social promotion rules. Haven't been impressed.

BASIS isn't losing 15-20% anymore. What is happening is that people are wary to attend.

Exactly, self-selecting school-within-a-school program, the "school" being the public charter system. Great!

[Anonymous]

A bunch of kids who read at the 3rd or 4th grade level in 6th grade English classes with classmates who read at an 8th grade level, or even higher.

Bad policy, bad practice and a decade to change it. Great.

[Anonymous]

What's going on for us at DCI is that we've stopped buying what smiling admins are telling us about achievement.

I'm just not seeing the purported rigor in what comes home. For math, maybe but taht's it.

Hoping for lottery luck yet again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Occasional translation at Spanish track events only.

Only parents who haven't experienced YY or Stokes are going to be shocked.

When you haven't come across a single translation for ethnic families who don't speak English well in the course of 7 or 8 years at a feeder (and don't know any such families) it doesn't even occur to you that a translation should be provided.

DCI just sounds really good. Nice web site, too.

PP what do you know about how public IB programs at Richard Montgomery or BCC High School or private schools like Washington International School communicate with parents? Do they send messages home in Chinese and every other language they teach?

[Anonymous]

Not the PP you're responding to but it's not difficult to learn about about MoCo immersion programs. They have open houses and publish good info on their web sites.

We're considering switching from YY to Potomac Gardens or College Park MoCo. Yup,those programs send communication home in Chinese. Admins announced this at an open house we attended in teh fall.

Not sure about Herbert Hoover (MS partial immersion) or Richard Montgomery but wouldn't be surprised. Hope the snark helps you deal with the fact that YY isn't that hot, other than the pretty campus.

[Anonymous]

Immersion schools communicate with parents in the target language when admins and parents are serious about building relationships with bilingual ethnic communities to support the program's mission. YY, Stokes and DCI aren't. LAMB and MV are.