ludlow-taylor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid goes to SH and he is taking Algebra next year as a 7th grader.

I believe you, but what does this mean exactly? There's no 7th grade algebra class per se, right? So you're kid takes algebra with the 8th graders, is that right? Will other 7th graders do the same? How many? And then what happens in 8th grade math for your kid? Why do you think that your kid ready for 7th grade algebra? You do Johns Hopkins CTY camps in the summers or what?

I'm not the bolded poster you asked the question to, but my 7th grader at Stuart is taking pre-algebra. I'm pretty sure it's pre-algebra in 7th and algebra in 8th for most students.

[Anonymous]

I have children that attend this school and I have been impressed with the higher grades. Do your homework, LT test scores are good, the teachers are great, and the PTA is outstanding(now) anyway. People are afraid that their children will be tainted from attending this school, it's their loss though. I would much rather build a relationship with my community and help the school improve then complain and send my child elsewhere.

Just another think, many of the parents from LT come from middle to upper middle class households...and GASP also, in the upper grades(imagine that). Black does not equate to poor. I would much rather send my child to a school where they are nutured(LT) then send them to a school because white kids go there. That's stupid. We are OOB, got into Watkins(mess) and never considered Brent(have you seen their scores). LT has so much more going for it.

I will agree that I am not a fan of the principal. She is aloof most of the times and out of touch. The only complaint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have children that attend this school and I have been impressed with the higher grades. Do your homework, LT test scores are good, the teachers are great, and the PTA is outstanding(now) anyway. People are afraid that their children will be tainted from attending this school, it's their loss though. I would much rather build a relationship with my community and help the school improve then complain and send my child elsewhere.

Just another think, many of the parents from LT come from middle to upper middle class households...and GASP also, in the upper grades(imagine that). Black does not equate to poor. I would much rather send my child to a school where they are nutured(LT) then send them to a school because white kids go there. That's stupid. We are OOB, got into Watkins(mess) and never considered Brent(have you seen their scores). LT has so much more going for it.

I will agree that I am not a fan of the principal. She is aloof most of the times and out of touch. The only complaint.

Your open-mindedness is laudable. However, the since the situation you describe for your (presumably white) children isn't for the great majority of upper-middle-class IB families, in an increasingly affluent swathe of DC, LT remains a drag on the north Stanton Park neighborhood. Given that very few white parents are OK with LT above K, let alone in the upper grades, how reasonable is DCPS' expectation of extreme open-mindedness to stay involved beyond preschool or K?

Brent's test scores for the two dozen or so white kids who've made it to 3rd grade have been great, with around half testing advanced, as they are for white kids in grade 3+ city-wide, whether they attend DCPS or DCPC schools. It stands to reason that test scores lose relevance when Hill elementary school populations start to mirror neighborhood populatons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous. [/quote wrote:

Your open-mindedness is laudable. However, the since the situation you describe for your (presumably white) children isn't for the great majority of upper-middle-class IB families, in an increasingly affluent swathe of DC, LT remains a drag on the north Stanton Park neighborhood. Given that very few white parents are OK with LT above K, let alone in the upper grades, how reasonable is DCPS' expectation of extreme open-mindedness to stay involved beyond preschool or K?

Brent's test scores for the two dozen or so white kids who've made it to 3rd grade have been great, with around half testing advanced, as they are for white kids in grade 3+ city-wide, whether they attend DCPS or DCPC schools. It stands to reason that test scores lose relevance when Hill elementary school populations start to mirror neighborhood populatons.

NP here. Since, as you say, Brent white kids test well, as most white kids in DC do, wouldn't it stand to reason that white kids at LT would also test well, regardless of whether or not LT mirrors its neighborhood population? I note that in the upper grades at Brent, white kids are not the majority. And yet they still do well. So it seems to me that DCPS' expectation that LT white parents stay beyond K is pretty reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
NP here. Since, as you say, Brent white kids test well, as most white kids in DC do, wouldn't it stand to reason that white kids at LT would also test well, regardless of whether or not LT mirrors its neighborhood population? I note that in the upper grades at Brent, white kids are not the majority. And yet they still do well. So it seems to me that DCPS' expectation that LT white parents stay beyond K is pretty reasonable.

Pretty reasonable unless you're a run of the mill high-SES parent, vs. a super open-minded one like the satisfied PP. Sure, white kids in this city will probably test well regardless, at least if they accrue the benefit of good after care (with parents, tutors, au pairs, lessons etc.). That said, parents tend to want much better social experiences at schools than can be provided by being about the only one of anything--girl, boy, white, Asian, Latino, poor, affluent--in an entire grade. I speak from experience having hated being the only Asian kid in my K-5th ES, which would pretty much be the case at LT. Won't do that to DCs.

As long as LT faces competition from more diverse schools like Brent, YY, Peabody/Watkins and SWS, offering both better leadership and facilities, the great majority of IB parents aren't going to bite past PreK. Short of DCPS upgrading the physical plant and reinventing LT with brand new leadership, faculty, and PTA, LT seems to be going nowhere in this decade. And that's the name of that tune.

[Anonymous]

Why should dcps replace LT faculty? If the only thing stopping rational LT parents from continuing enrollment at LT is fear of being an "only" it seems the only fix needed is up to the parents. Your hang ups a all on you.

[Anonymous]

The thing w/LT is that the principal and most of the parents of k-5 kids there (who presumably make up most if not all of the PTA) do not think there is anything wrong with LT. The only people who want changes are the parents of the ps-pk kids and they are simply out numbered.

[Anonymous]

I know several IB families whose kids are in the PS3 program this year who are determined to stay past K. Maybe they're all talk but the population growth on the Hill has made getting into the "better," more established Hill schools extremely difficult if you are not IB. This is motivating neighborhood parents to come to terms with L-T as the only public option and work with what they've got. It's going to be hard - my impression is that the majority of parents who send their kids to the school have little time or energy to devote to its development. But, we'll see. The teachers that I've met have been great and are truly vested in their students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should dcps replace LT faculty? If the only thing stopping rational LT parents from continuing enrollment at LT is fear of being an "only" it seems the only fix needed is up to the parents. Your hang ups a all on you.

The fear of being an only is only one problem among many.

The rundown school still has a ghetto feel in a neighborhood where homes sell for 500-900K. Teachers (almost all AA) tend to think in terms of serving low-income kids as their calling, while most of the little IB kids are high-SES kids and white. You could do worse than start with a clean slate across the board if you want the school to serve a good chunk of a diverse IB population, as long as good teachers can choose where they land. Or simply accuse parents of having hang-ups and keep LT 80% OOB and less than 10% white in a catchment area that's nearly 2/3 white.

I've heard many parents vow to stay to K and beyond for 6 or 7 years now. Hardly anybody does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The thing w/LT is that the principal and most of the parents of k-5 kids there (who presumably make up most if not all of the PTA) do not think there is anything wrong with LT. The only people who want changes are the parents of the ps-pk kids and they are simply out numbered.

Very true. But then maybe one-third of the parents live in the neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

IB parents, wake up. Nobody much gives a damn about the state of LT. Not the OOB/PG Country controlled PTA, not the handful of IB granola crunchie who stay, not DCPS, not ANC 6C, and certainly not Tommy Wells. This will not change while your child is of school age. You need to find yourselves another school and/or home. And you will if you try hard enough.

[Anonymous]

I don't know --JO Wilson got second looks by the hipsters now that the outside of the building has been redone. Maybe the IB parents will give it a try when the facade is renovated this year. The inside is in pretty good shape, but it really needs all glass windows.

[Anonymous]

I did the lotteries last year, and all the parents I surveyed in both L-T and J.O. confided in me that they would be playing the lottery again this year. It's a shame, because there is a lot to like about both schools.

Whoever said that the critical mass of Hill parents is diluted over too many schools is absolutely correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know several IB families whose kids are in the PS3 program this year who are determined to stay past K. Maybe they're all talk but the population growth on the Hill has made getting into the "better," more established Hill schools extremely difficult if you are not IB. This is motivating neighborhood parents to come to terms with L-T as the only public option and work with what they've got. It's going to be hard - my impression is that the majority of parents who send their kids to the school have little time or energy to devote to its development. But, we'll see. The teachers that I've met have been great and are truly vested in their students.

What is wrong with Ludlow? Is there a lot of fighting or disruptive behavior? Is the curriculum not challenging enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What is wrong with Ludlow? Is there a lot of fighting or disruptive behavior? Is the curriculum not challenging enough?

Try this for answers: stand by the front door between 8:00 and 8:30 AM on any school day. Watch dozens of MD plate cars pull up to drop kids off. Watch little yellow school buses roll in, bringing scores of OOB special needs kids. Watch a couple dozen tiny little white kids trickle in, and a handful of older ones. No fighting, little disruptive behavior, standard DCPS curriculum (which is challenging for the great majority of kids in lower grades, and around half the high-SES kids in upper grades) yet LT is far from a high-SES friendly neighborhood school in a mostly high-SES neighborhood. It's a Ward 7, 8 and PG County school in the Stanton Park neighborhood.