CAPE Score Comparison for Caucasian students at Schools with Spanish Immersion

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

Do you mean for the spring semester or for 2025-2026 school year? I haven't seen a calendar yet for next school year. But aren't charters subject to the same number of days in class as DCPS?

Supposedly kids have to be in class for 180 days but the definition of a school day is fuzzy and some schools take full advantage of that.

Exactly this. Supposedly half days count as full days. I also heard that this half day once a week business was a done deal. Not sure why they’re pretending to do surveys. If you’re not paying teachers properly, letting them work less is the only solution. Why aren’t they paying teachers well? Well you gotta pay for that huge fleet of useless admins somehow!

Parents don't realize how much less classtime students get at LAMB than they do at DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Parents don't realize how much less classtime students get at LAMB than they do at DCPS schools.

Based on what? If you compare calendars, there's the same number of days, except that LAMB takes 5 half days (new this year - I won't address unannounced possible additional half days for future years). BUT, LAMB's hours are 8:15-3:15, while most DCPS elementary schools hours are 8:45-3:15, so LAMB students get an extra 30 minutes of class time every day, for the 175 full days of school. Doing the math, that adds up to an EXTRA 12.5 days of class time for LAMB kids.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/school-start-and-end-times

[Anonymous]

From what I hear (from other parents) Mundo Verde Cook kids do very well at DCI. My DCI kid and his classmates from MV are all in advanced track Spanish classes and many are in advanced math and English.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Parents don't realize how much less classtime students get at LAMB than they do at DCPS schools.

Based on what? If you compare calendars, there's the same number of days, except that LAMB takes 5 half days (new this year - I won't address unannounced possible additional half days for future years). BUT, LAMB's hours are 8:15-3:15, while most DCPS elementary schools hours are 8:45-3:15, so LAMB students get an extra 30 minutes of class time every day, for the 175 full days of school. Doing the math, that adds up to an EXTRA 12.5 days of class time for LAMB kids.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/school-start-and-end-times

It's really difficult to accurately compare this. You have to account for lunch and recess and any other breaks, which vary by grade level. And a "half day" can be dismissal at 12, 12:30, 1, etc. it would be a real pain to do it precisely for many schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lamb’s test scores have been dropping for years. Every kid I know is supplementing. Lamb kids do not do well at DCI. I don’t know what happened. As a lamb parent it is shocking to me that the leadership seemingly are unconcerned as far as I can tell. Although, to be honest, I don’t really have time to read every parentsquare post because I’m driving my kids to Mathnasium after school like everyone else.

Also part of the problem is that LAMB takes SO many days off. The number of PD days is out of control. Next year, they're planning on taking professional development days every single week of the year.

LAMB parent here! You almost gave me a heart attack and I frantically searched ParentSquare to see when this was announced! But alas this is just wrong. The calendar hasn’t been released yet, but sounds like it will be similar to this year.

Ask Jessica. If LAMB isn't planning on taking weekly PD days next year, she will surely deny it. If she doesn't deny it, then you know.

Parents will go *completely* apeshit if LAMB has PD days every week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Parents don't realize how much less classtime students get at LAMB than they do at DCPS schools.

Based on what? If you compare calendars, there's the same number of days, except that LAMB takes 5 half days (new this year - I won't address unannounced possible additional half days for future years). BUT, LAMB's hours are 8:15-3:15, while most DCPS elementary schools hours are 8:45-3:15, so LAMB students get an extra 30 minutes of class time every day, for the 175 full days of school. Doing the math, that adds up to an EXTRA 12.5 days of class time for LAMB kids.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/school-start-and-end-times

It's really difficult to accurately compare this. You have to account for lunch and recess and any other breaks, which vary by grade level. And a "half day" can be dismissal at 12, 12:30, 1, etc. it would be a real pain to do it precisely for many schools.

+1. Charters often have longer hours than DCPS in part because they have more recess (at our DCPS - 30 min) and lunch (20 min) time in their schedule. Which is good because 50 minutes total for recess AND lunch, including transition time, is objectively terrible. But that extra 12.5 days of instructional time goes poof if a charter has a more developmentally appropriate, reasonable schedule.

Can any LAMB parents speak to how long recess and lunch are?

[Anonymous]

It’s been about five years, but I was in one of the LAMB meetings where parents were introduced to the new incoming leadership and had the opportunity to ask questions. The meeting devolved into intense questioning about the achievement gap.

My youngest was in fifth grade at the time so we had a foot out the door anyway, but it was obvious that the top scores were going to be sacrificed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh, Marie Reed, Bruce Monroe, and Powell really are great schools with great teachers, but will never escape the high SES flight (white and otherwise) because of the feeder pattern.

- Former family who loved their school but fled because of the feeder pattern.

If dcps had the guts to say that getting into a school for elementary oob didn't qualify you for the middle and high school patterns, more people would stay at their elementary schools through 5th grade.

As a matter of fact, that was the story in DCPS pre Michelle Rhee. She was the one who granted automatic feeder rights in 2009. Huge mistake. Politically, it’s tough to take away a right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh, Marie Reed, Bruce Monroe, and Powell really are great schools with great teachers, but will never escape the high SES flight (white and otherwise) because of the feeder pattern.

- Former family who loved their school but fled because of the feeder pattern.

If dcps had the guts to say that getting into a school for elementary oob didn't qualify you for the middle and high school patterns, more people would stay at their elementary schools through 5th grade.

As a matter of fact, that was the story in DCPS pre Michelle Rhee. She was the one who granted automatic feeder rights in 2009. Huge mistake. Politically, it’s tough to take away a right.

I see this argument over and over here- that feeder rights should be revoked for oob schools. I assume that this comes from families west of the park who thinks that they are the only ones who's tax dollars support Deal. But I cannot imagine how difficult it would be for a kid to not get to continue on with their friends because they lotteried into their elementary school. This seems like it would create all kinds of social problems without solving the city's issues.

[Anonymous]

Strongly disagree and we have lived EotP for 20 years. If you want to build a strong urban neighborhood school system you need to prioritize attracting residents of a school’s catchment area to the program, like the burbs do. All the crazy school commutes in DC are a real drag, as is insufficient middle school challenge for most middle class students. Weak partial language immersion options in DCPS after ES outside Adams are another losing proposition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Parents don't realize how much less classtime students get at LAMB than they do at DCPS schools.

Based on what? If you compare calendars, there's the same number of days, except that LAMB takes 5 half days (new this year - I won't address unannounced possible additional half days for future years). BUT, LAMB's hours are 8:15-3:15, while most DCPS elementary schools hours are 8:45-3:15, so LAMB students get an extra 30 minutes of class time every day, for the 175 full days of school. Doing the math, that adds up to an EXTRA 12.5 days of class time for LAMB kids.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/school-start-and-end-times

It's really difficult to accurately compare this. You have to account for lunch and recess and any other breaks, which vary by grade level. And a "half day" can be dismissal at 12, 12:30, 1, etc. it would be a real pain to do it precisely for many schools.

+1. Charters often have longer hours than DCPS in part because they have more recess (at our DCPS - 30 min) and lunch (20 min) time in their schedule. Which is good because 50 minutes total for recess AND lunch, including transition time, is objectively terrible. But that extra 12.5 days of instructional time goes poof if a charter has a more developmentally appropriate, reasonable schedule.

Can any LAMB parents speak to how long recess and lunch are?

FWIW times also vary by DCPS because ours has 30 minute lunch, so it’s an hour total. Our PK also has an additional 30 minute recess each day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strongly disagree and we have lived EotP for 20 years. If you want to build a strong urban neighborhood school system you need to prioritize attracting residents of a school’s catchment area to the program, like the burbs do. All the crazy school commutes in DC are a real drag, as is insufficient middle school challenge for most middle class students. Weak partial language immersion options in DCPS after ES outside Adams are another losing proposition.

Trying to force parents to send their kids to weak schools will not help DC retain students. It will make them leave like they did in larger numbers before this policy change.

[Anonymous]

You’re missing the forest for the trees on that one. Take Stuart Hobson. There are still more students enrolled from Wards 5, 7 and 8 than from Wards 6. Take away OOB rights and add programming that appeals to most IB parents, eg advanced Spanish, science and social studies and we’d have a good shot at a Deal equivalent EotP soon enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re missing the forest for the trees on that one. Take Stuart Hobson. There are still more students enrolled from Wards 5, 7 and 8 than from Wards 6. Take away OOB rights and add programming that appeals to most IB parents, eg advanced Spanish, science and social studies and we’d have a good shot at a Deal equivalent EotP soon enough.

And what happens to all the kids enrolled in S-H feeders from OOB? They didn't lottery into those schools because their IB schools are awesome. Those families are using the lottery as intended, to get their kids better education options because their IB schools are failing. Those needs don't evaporate at 6th.

If IB families wanted to, they could just attend their IB elementaries in higher numbers and that would automatically result in fewer OOB students at S-H. Yet IB families consistently lottery out of the feeder schools, whether in PK or in 5th for Latin and Basis. If they want a school with high IB numbers, that is entirely within their control. Don't blame it on OOB feeder rights that just perpetuate patterns IB families themselves create.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You’re missing the forest for the trees on that one. Take Stuart Hobson. There are still more students enrolled from Wards 5, 7 and 8 than from Wards 6. Take away OOB rights and add programming that appeals to most IB parents, eg advanced Spanish, science and social studies and we’d have a good shot at a Deal equivalent EotP soon enough.

And what happens to all the kids enrolled in S-H feeders from OOB? They didn't lottery into those schools because their IB schools are awesome. Those families are using the lottery as intended, to get their kids better education options because their IB schools are failing. Those needs don't evaporate at 6th.

If IB families wanted to, they could just attend their IB elementaries in higher numbers and that would automatically result in fewer OOB students at S-H. Yet IB families consistently lottery out of the feeder schools, whether in PK or in 5th for Latin and Basis. If they want a school with high IB numbers, that is entirely within their control. Don't blame it on OOB feeder rights that just perpetuate patterns IB families themselves create.

It’s actually not that easy. Watkins is massively oversized for child population — it wouldn’t be close to full if every kid in the IB attended; it’s designed to permit OOB kids. JOW is desirable for people in the IB — SH actually has a higher IB percentage; that may change with the renovation (hopefully). L-T is increasingly IB already and most IB families would be happy if SH looked like L-T.