Anonymous wrote:Is there any hope that TR middle school could improve to be a viable option? The infrastructure is there, the need is there…but it seems to be in a free fall of failure.
Well it could have been, that was the idea all along. But without a massive change in leadership and approach to education, it isn't going to happen. Even if they did get new leadership it will take years to recover from the current hot mess.
Anonymous wrote:Is there any hope that TR middle school could improve to be a viable option? The infrastructure is there, the need is there…but it seems to be in a free fall of failure.
Well it could have been, that was the idea all along. But without a massive change in leadership and approach to education, it isn't going to happen. Even if they did get new leadership it will take years to recover from the current hot mess.
+1000. And I would argue, honest acknowledgment from school leaders about TR's failings. To move forward, you have to acknowledge the failings of the present and past.
This seems unlikely.
Anonymous wrote:Is there any hope that TR middle school could improve to be a viable option? The infrastructure is there, the need is there…but it seems to be in a free fall of failure.
Well it could have been, that was the idea all along. But without a massive change in leadership and approach to education, it isn't going to happen. Even if they did get new leadership it will take years to recover from the current hot mess.
+1000. And I would argue, honest acknowledgment from school leaders about TR's failings. To move forward, you have to acknowledge the failings of the present and past.
This seems unlikely.
And if losing an entire 7th grade classroom isn't going to open their eyes, what will?
Anonymous wrote:Is there any hope that TR middle school could improve to be a viable option? The infrastructure is there, the need is there…but it seems to be in a free fall of failure.
Well it could have been, that was the idea all along. But without a massive change in leadership and approach to education, it isn't going to happen. Even if they did get new leadership it will take years to recover from the current hot mess.
+1000. And I would argue, honest acknowledgment from school leaders about TR's failings. To move forward, you have to acknowledge the failings of the present and past.
This seems unlikely.
And if losing an entire 7th grade classroom isn't going to open their eyes, what will?
Is the parent organization engaged at all?
Indeed. All the engaged parents (including us) left a long time ago. I didn't trust my child to be safe and have his needs met in their ES--I sure as h*** wasn't going to throw him to the wolves in TR MS.
Anonymous wrote:I agree that charters have hit a maturation point, that is somewhat exacerbated by some pandemic driven trends (enrollment dipped for the first time in a long time, and while the growth is back, it hasn't caught up).
One thing I noted as a PK3 parent this year, and a longtime DCUM reader (come for the fertility advice, stay for the school info) is that in previous years, particularly if you go back to like 2014-2020, there was SO much stress about the lottery and getting shut out, and how there were only so many PK3 seats, and how so many schools were terrible, and oh my god the waitlist numbers. Endless focus on waitlist numbers and what chance you had to get in and what will you do if you don't and oh my god the agita.
I literally don't know anyone IRL who was watching waitlists this year. And when your kids are starting PK3 in August, "where is Larlo going to school next year?" is like the number one conversation opener from March until now, so I talked to probably 100 parents over the course of the year, and I never once heard, "well, we're really holding out hope for a waitlist spot..." All answers have been final and definitive since the lottery results came out.
Of course, there were some waitlist threads on DCUM, and some agita, but honestly, it seemed like most of them were around middle school and even high school. Not elementary. People are happy with their IB, they mostly get in, a couple lucky families are headed to the super popular charters, but myself and lots of others didn't even bother putting any on our list and just went with our IB.
If there is more space for movement with charters, it's middle and high schools for sure.
This. When my DD lotteried for PK3, some charter waitlists had 400 or more kids on them! It was crazy, really. People were so worried about their IB schools, often unnecessarily. I sent my DD in-boundary and people had so many questions about it. Now that school has more kids than ever, and the nobody thinks it's noteworthy when they meet someone who attends. Of course there is still lots of room for improvement, but the school has more ECE classrooms and more IB preschoolers than 5 years ago. Times really, really have changed, but if your kids are younger than 10 you might not realize the full extent of the change.
Yes the upper grades in DCPS have room for improvement, but at a lot of schools (like Brent), they're not any worse than the nearby charter options. It's not like TR and CHML are hitting it out of the park academically either, right?
Middle school is a whole different situation. I really feel that we don't need any more elementary schools than we already have-- what we need is QUALITY middle schools. Any new charters should be focused on that issue.
Oops CHML is not a charter. I meant to say MV. Or Lee. Or SSMA. I think ITDS is pretty solid academically though.
ITDS is not a step up from L-T academically, at least. When my kid started there with a few other L-Ters in 6th grade (struck out at BASIS and Latin and wanted something smaller than SH), all of them were in the upper third of performers in their new classes. I don't think L-T math instruction is great, but ITDS was not ahead/better and L-T's writing instruction seemed to be far more robust than ITDS' (L-T has separate writing teachers for 3rd up, which helps). My kid is happy at ITDS, but it's no better than on par academically with L-T.
I can't speak to the other Capitol Hill DCPSes and I do send my kids to Mathnasium (where my younger child's group usually includes a kid from CH Day and one from MV), but I do think the IB DCPS pastures are greener for ES than trekking to a charter that's on par at best.
I agree, it's about on par with L-T. But that's not really the point. ITDS elementary is fine just like L-T and Maury and Brent are fine. The upper grades are okay, which is more than can be said of some DCPS and charters. The question is middle school, and from those schools people move to ITDS in the year that they decide to make the jump and have a good enough lottery number-- it isn't really driven by quality differences in specific elementary grades. We came in to ITDS when older DD was entering 4th so that youngest DD would be able to start PK3 at ITDS, rather than starting at our current school and switching when older DD switched for middle-- and of course, the 4th grade offer felt like a bird in the hand, what if we declined and then didn't get in for 5th?
For middle school, I think ITDS is different from SH but not necessarily better or worse for any specific kid, just different, depending on your needs and interests.
Hopping on real quick for any early childhood parents reading and thinking about options in the coming years. Our children, and many of our neighbors and peers have stayed at our DCPS school all the way through elementary and now in middle school. And despite all the hand wringing on here, they are gonna be alright. At our school specifically, we found the upper grade teachers were some of the strongest. My daughter entered third grade behind in math due to a year and a half of virtual learning during COVID. I had signed her up for mathnasium and was not happy with having to pay, but thought I had to. At the beginning of her third grade, the math teacher told me to cancel mathnasium, so I trusted her to see how the year would go. This teacher took a grade of kids whose test scores showed lots of gaps, and by the end of the year she had all but a few of them on or above grade level. I think some people at mathnasium are there because their kids are legitimately behind or struggling in math, but others are there because they think they have to. Despite the increasing range of abilities in older grades that everyone on this site likes to fret about, a lot of the teachers in our schools are good enough and strong enough and can still reach and instruct kids out of a variety of levels.
Anyway, to connect it back to the topic of this read, I agree that I think we don't need a ton of new charter schools right now, and I would argue that we don't need new middle schools, when our current DCPS middle schools aren't full yet, and there will may be a new DCPS middle school in Shaw in the coming year or two. I think parents are realizing that commuting across town takes his toll (at least on some people), and the rose color glasses/ grass is always greener mentality that kept everyone in a frenzy as recently as 5 or 10 years ago is starting to fade. Some charter schools offer great programs, DCPS also offers strong instruction.
Sorry, no. Some of the DCPS middle schools don't have even one kid on grade level in math. Not even one child! Come on.
+1000. And let me guess, the PP above thinks that is going to miraculously change in the next 5-7 years.
Also when you have a big achievement gap in the upper grades in elementary, reality is the teacher is not able to meet the needs of all the kids, the focus is on the bottom, like PP’s kid. This is also true when you have a large majority below grade level. Ask any teacher how they think they are going to differentiate when kids are 3-4 levels apart. Screens is your answer for the top kids. It serves as a substitute for teaching.
I’m not interested in my kid being “alright” which in PP definition I guess is below grade level and gets to grade level. I’m interested in my high performing kid reaching being challenged and reaching his full potential.
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