Hill Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

We are zoned for Stuart Hobson and have elementary school kids. I am hopeful that with Basis opening an elementary program that it won't have room for Hill kids and Hill kids will be forced to attend SH and EH. There are great elementary schools on the Hill and then parents feel like they have to move for 5th or will lose their shot at charters.

[Anonymous]

Whatever. I do not think Deal is a perfect school. But if you think 59% math and 72% ELA with 4s or 5s and 79% math with 3-5 and 87% ELA with 3-5 is necessarily bad PARCC test scores at a general population public school, I dont think you are likely to be satisfied almost anywhere.

[Anonymous]

These are post-pandemic test scores and most other states do not take PARCC anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the main thing that's holding Jefferson back is the lack of definite rigor. They don't seem to offer many true honors/intensified classes. Few UMC feeder parents are sold on their vague "we differentiate marvelously!" pledge. The lack of diversity doesn't help either. Where are the Asian students? There seem to be zero and only a tiny number of whites.

Jefferson has an accelerated math track with admission based on test scores and other specified metrics.

The school is 1.1% Asian (as compared with DCPS overall, which is 2% Asian).

I fully believe that Jefferson’s primary impediment to attracting more Capitol Hill kids is its location. Overall, however, it’s among the more popular middle schools in the city, with a waitlist that consistently exceeds the number of offers made.

If this were true, wouldn't Stuart Hobson have been popular with IB families for years? After all, the school is just a few blocks from Union Station and Stanton Park. Yet SH has yet to take off as a neighborhood middle school. These are tough schools. Not dangerous, but full of low SES kids leading tough lives, which turns off most UMC Ward 6 parents (though they'd be hard pressed to admit it). There's still not much in the way of definite academic tracking in DCPS middle schools, really just for math, even in 8th grade. Rigor remains insufficient and enrichment weak compared to privates, the better charters and the high-performing suburban schools in the area. Most UMC families just aren't incentivized to enroll. A few more do every year, but most still won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the main thing that's holding Jefferson back is the lack of definite rigor. They don't seem to offer many true honors/intensified classes. Few UMC feeder parents are sold on their vague "we differentiate marvelously!" pledge. The lack of diversity doesn't help either. Where are the Asian students? There seem to be zero and only a tiny number of whites.

Jefferson has an accelerated math track with admission based on test scores and other specified metrics.

The school is 1.1% Asian (as compared with DCPS overall, which is 2% Asian).

I fully believe that Jefferson’s primary impediment to attracting more Capitol Hill kids is its location. Overall, however, it’s among the more popular middle schools in the city, with a waitlist that consistently exceeds the number of offers made.

If this were true, wouldn't Stuart Hobson have been popular with IB families for years? After all, the school is just a few blocks from Union Station and Stanton Park. Yet SH has yet to take off as a neighborhood middle school. These are tough schools. Not dangerous, but full of low SES kids leading tough lives, which turns off most UMC Ward 6 parents (though they'd be hard pressed to admit it). There's still not much in the way of definite academic tracking in DCPS middle schools, really just for math, even in 8th grade. Rigor remains insufficient and enrichment weak compared to privates, the better charters and the high-performing suburban schools in the area. Most UMC families just aren't incentivized to enroll. A few more do every year, but most still won't.

Jefferson actually has had more things going for it at various times than SH has. And yet SH is the one that has made *some* inroads into getting community buy-in. I am a NP but I 100% think that is linked to its location.

FWIW and I don't know the reason (bad lottery luck, siblings running out, perceived improvement at SH, the shine off the Basis bloom for some families), LT is looking to have a much bigger returning class this year than last year and with quiet a few of the academic high flyers.

[Anonymous]

Ugh, *quite a few, obviously.

[Anonymous]

Community buy-in at SH is built less on location than its status as a CH Cluster School fed by Watkins-Peabody. There have been at least 40 white kids at SH in 6th-8th grades each year for the last two decades. As you may know, SH housed Watkins' 5th grade up until 2008. Jefferson Academy had to start attracting UMC CH families from scratch around 5 years ago. With Latin Cooper going strong, the upward struggle to attract neighborhood talent without designated honors classes outside math at both schools continues. If BASIS gets permission to open a K-4 school, the struggle is only going to intensify.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community buy-in at SH is built less on location than its status as a CH Cluster School fed by Watkins-Peabody. There have been at least 40 white kids at SH in 6th-8th grades each year for the last two decades. As you may know, SH housed Watkins' 5th grade up until 2008. Jefferson Academy had to start attracting UMC CH families from scratch around 5 years ago. With Latin Cooper going strong, the upward struggle to attract neighborhood talent without designated honors classes outside math at both schools continues. If BASIS gets permission to open a K-4 school, the struggle is only going to intensify.

I think you're right when it comes to Watkins folks, though as the UMC/IB population drops at Watkins, it will be interesting to see if the "cluster" status really remains a net positive for IB families. I know LT families are actually quite put off by it and the fact that SH seems to make little-to-no effort to do outreach to LT. It feels awkward like you're joining someone else's school.

[Anonymous]

The self-serving Capitol Hill Middle School Initiative of the Public School Parents Organization, CHPSPO, now W6PSPO, is largely to blame. The group has lobbied Ward 6 for the past 13 years not to support charters, to keep SWS, Brent and Maury from feeding into SH, to keep DCPS from setting up a pan-Ward 6 middle school etc. Brent actually fed into SH for a couple years under Michelle Rhee until the 2014 boundary review change that.

https://w6pspo.org/current-initiatives/middle-school-initiative/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The self-serving Capitol Hill Middle School Initiative of the Public School Parents Organization, CHPSPO, now W6PSPO, is largely to blame. The group has lobbied Ward 6 for the past 13 years not to support charters, to keep SWS, Brent and Maury from feeding into SH, to keep DCPS from setting up a pan-Ward 6 middle school etc. Brent actually fed into SH for a couple years under Michelle Rhee until the 2014 boundary review change that.

https://w6pspo.org/current-initiatives/middle-school-initiative/

I don’t think Brent fed to SH before 2014. There was a 2010-ish reshuffle due to the initiative above, that’s also when SWS and Capitol Hill Montessori left the cluster. Maybe before 2010? But I think before 2010 Watkins was the only SH feeder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Community buy-in at SH is built less on location than its status as a CH Cluster School fed by Watkins-Peabody. There have been at least 40 white kids at SH in 6th-8th grades each year for the last two decades. As you may know, SH housed Watkins' 5th grade up until 2008. Jefferson Academy had to start attracting UMC CH families from scratch around 5 years ago. With Latin Cooper going strong, the upward struggle to attract neighborhood talent without designated honors classes outside math at both schools continues. If BASIS gets permission to open a K-4 school, the struggle is only going to intensify.

The "cluster" concept means nothing to most people on the Hill who still have kids in DCPS. I mean, your own post says SH houses Watkins 5th grade up until 2008. 2008!!!! That was 14 years ago my friend. A 5th grader at SH that year would be a law school grad by now.

I know there are a lot of old timers on DCUM who still remember fondly the cluster wars. You are all adorable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The self-serving Capitol Hill Middle School Initiative of the Public School Parents Organization, CHPSPO, now W6PSPO, is largely to blame. The group has lobbied Ward 6 for the past 13 years not to support charters, to keep SWS, Brent and Maury from feeding into SH, to keep DCPS from setting up a pan-Ward 6 middle school etc. Brent actually fed into SH for a couple years under Michelle Rhee until the 2014 boundary review change that.

https://w6pspo.org/current-initiatives/middle-school-initiative/

I don’t think Brent fed to SH before 2014. There was a 2010-ish reshuffle due to the initiative above, that’s also when SWS and Capitol Hill Montessori left the cluster. Maybe before 2010? But I think before 2010 Watkins was the only SH feeder.

Tommy Wells arranged for Brent to feed into SH in 2010. The arrangement lasted less than 3 years. Only a handful of Brent parents took advantage of the guaranteed feed. Almost everybody rushed to Latin, then to BASIS when it opened in 2013. Watkins was the only SH feeder until 2014.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Community buy-in at SH is built less on location than its status as a CH Cluster School fed by Watkins-Peabody. There have been at least 40 white kids at SH in 6th-8th grades each year for the last two decades. As you may know, SH housed Watkins' 5th grade up until 2008. Jefferson Academy had to start attracting UMC CH families from scratch around 5 years ago. With Latin Cooper going strong, the upward struggle to attract neighborhood talent without designated honors classes outside math at both schools continues. If BASIS gets permission to open a K-4 school, the struggle is only going to intensify.

The "cluster" concept means nothing to most people on the Hill who still have kids in DCPS. I mean, your own post says SH houses Watkins 5th grade up until 2008. 2008!!!! That was 14 years ago my friend. A 5th grader at SH that year would be a law school grad by now.

I know there are a lot of old timers on DCUM who still remember fondly the cluster wars. You are all adorable.

See forest for the trees perhaps. Somebody posted about stronger IB buy-in for SH than Jefferson, although, in many respects, Jefferson has more to offer (I agree). There's a history to SH's buy-in, which isn't strong to this day. Point is, the Ward 6 DCPS middle school situation hasn't come out of nowhere and isn't in danger of being fixed within the next decade as a result. The wild card now is BASIS' K-4 school, which could mop up 2/3 of the BASIS 5th grade spots within a few short years. Might not be a bad idea to pay attention if you have lower grades kids at Maury, Brent, LT, SWS, Watkins and plan to stay on the Hill after ES. I'm sort of shocked that Latin Cooper's May and June WL went from around 50 names last year to 250 this year. Adorable, yea.

[Anonymous]

So if you don't get into the Charters for MS where do you go? I thought privates at MS were hard to get into at that point. Do families just move?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the main thing that's holding Jefferson back is the lack of definite rigor. They don't seem to offer many true honors/intensified classes. Few UMC feeder parents are sold on their vague "we differentiate marvelously!" pledge. The lack of diversity doesn't help either. Where are the Asian students? There seem to be zero and only a tiny number of whites.

Jefferson has an accelerated math track with admission based on test scores and other specified metrics.

The school is 1.1% Asian (as compared with DCPS overall, which is 2% Asian).

I fully believe that Jefferson’s primary impediment to attracting more Capitol Hill kids is its location. Overall, however, it’s among the more popular middle schools in the city, with a waitlist that consistently exceeds the number of offers made.

If this were true, wouldn't Stuart Hobson have been popular with IB families for years? After all, the school is just a few blocks from Union Station and Stanton Park. Yet SH has yet to take off as a neighborhood middle school. These are tough schools. Not dangerous, but full of low SES kids leading tough lives, which turns off most UMC Ward 6 parents (though they'd be hard pressed to admit it). There's still not much in the way of definite academic tracking in DCPS middle schools, really just for math, even in 8th grade. Rigor remains insufficient and enrichment weak compared to privates, the better charters and the high-performing suburban schools in the area. Most UMC families just aren't incentivized to enroll. A few more do every year, but most still won't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So if you don't get into the Charters for MS where do you go? I thought privates at MS were hard to get into at that point. Do families just move?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, the main thing that's holding Jefferson back is the lack of definite rigor. They don't seem to offer many true honors/intensified classes. Few UMC feeder parents are sold on their vague "we differentiate marvelously!" pledge. The lack of diversity doesn't help either. Where are the Asian students? There seem to be zero and only a tiny number of whites.

Jefferson has an accelerated math track with admission based on test scores and other specified metrics.

The school is 1.1% Asian (as compared with DCPS overall, which is 2% Asian).

I fully believe that Jefferson’s primary impediment to attracting more Capitol Hill kids is its location. Overall, however, it’s among the more popular middle schools in the city, with a waitlist that consistently exceeds the number of offers made.

If this were true, wouldn't Stuart Hobson have been popular with IB families for years? After all, the school is just a few blocks from Union Station and Stanton Park. Yet SH has yet to take off as a neighborhood middle school. These are tough schools. Not dangerous, but full of low SES kids leading tough lives, which turns off most UMC Ward 6 parents (though they'd be hard pressed to admit it). There's still not much in the way of definite academic tracking in DCPS middle schools, really just for math, even in 8th grade. Rigor remains insufficient and enrichment weak compared to privates, the better charters and the high-performing suburban schools in the area. Most UMC families just aren't incentivized to enroll. A few more do every year, but most still won't.

Maury and Payne families enroll in Eliot-Hine. We are moving or going private for HS (since my kid probably won’t get into Walls and is not a good enough student for Banneker.)