Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Deal MS represents the utter failure of Michelle Rhee. Why? When she came on board Deal was good. Now that she's gone, Deal has benefitted from $250/sq ft. renovations, skylights, IB programming, organized athletcis, uniforms that fit, fencing teams plus valuable suits for loan, better cafeteria food, excellent band/instrumental options, differentiated instruction, foreign languages. And where is Deal? Major Upper Caucasia. Why isn't Deal's model replicated anywhere else? Easier to wine and dine with the upper NW parents. What school south of the park has I-Macs in every classroom smart boards on every wall, web-based email, excellent musical and theatre facilties, etc.. etc...where else? The parents didn't pay for this stuff. So who did? Who compares? We're going to be forced to pay private tuition in a couple of years because the ever-tight Deal boundaries are only getting tighter and tighter...shrink-wrapping the W3 mostly white kids into one fabulously free and unique MS. 'Nuff Said.

I don't get your post.

I do get this post. On consecutive days, I visited both Deal and Jeferson Middle Schools. The fact that Deal is provided with everything it needs to thrive and Jefferson is literally left to "die on the vine" is what the pp is getting at. Kids at Jefferson ( and many other schools I am sure ) are left to learn in truly abominable conditions...from the quality of teaching to the obvious health hazards throughout the building.

I get it too. Point is also that the kids at Deal, due to their SES, are likely to excel anyway, when kids that may need extra resources don't get it. Why?? It's completely unfair.

Deal has about 900 students with the highest proficiency rate of any DCPS middle school - factors that help it succeed in educating a wide range of students. Higher performing students benefit from a critical mass of strong students. Students who need remediation and/or extra resources also benefit from attending a large school with most students at grade level.

It’s my understanding that proficient students, in some ways, subsidize struggling students. Providing special services to struggling students is expensive, and proficient students cost a school system less than the average per pupil expense. I favor providing extra resources to struggling students, and the Deal model looks like a great way to get everyone moving forward. A rising ship raises all ships in the harbor. Deal is serving a large number of struggling students and is doing a GREAT job. Unless you are a simply a crank, or you have evidence (and not curmudgeonly assertions) that Deal gets resources above their DCPS counterparts, how can one be against their success?

Rock on Principal Kim!

[Anonymous]

it's not even about the formal $ that each pupil gets, it's just the totality of it; Deal vs. everywhere else. I agree with 10:25 as well, though-- Deal shows what MS CAN be. It's just how to get there.

[Anonymous]

14.20

This is reasonable thinking to some degree. But we find ourselves in a school system that thus far has a smallish percentage of proficient. It is really tough to replicate this deal model....majority of proficient kids rising everyones tide....throughout the city.

Deal happens to benefit from sitting in a place where a majority of students come de facto from high performing homes and elementary schools.

What about the rest of the city then? What do we do while the elementary schools start to roll out well prepared students? Import proficient students ( magnets ) or devote extra resources? The Deal forces are not in play around the city. Not replicable in the same way. We need another formula.

[Anonymous]

15:11

Not suggesting Deal can be replicated across the city; simply saying the animus towards Deal is misplaced. Deal is getting it done for hundreds of struggling students, let’s applaud that success. And that success, to varying degrees, can only help the rest of the city’s students

I don’t have a great answer for the rest of the city’s middle schools – that’s for Vince Gray and Kaya Henderson and Abigail Smith to figure out. I’m pretty sure there’s not a one size fits all solution. Some elementary schools could go to eighth grade (temporarily perhaps). Some middle schools like Stuart Hobson (75% proficient), Hardy (70% proficient) and Jefferson (56% proficient) can build on their relatively strong cohort by creating programs that attract and retain proficient students. Perhaps throw a magnet school or two in the mix. Keep Sousa’s momentum going. Within a couple of years these schools could become Deal-esque and better serve even more struggling students than is currently the case. All of DC is better off with a growing number of strong middle schools coming on-line.

I’m not talking about a silver bullet solution. Rather, I am advocating for increasing the capacity of DCPS to serve its most vulnerable students by creating and celebrating strong middle schools. Let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good. As you mention, the Deal forces are not always in play elsewhere. Well, how about putting them more in play by creating more successful middle schools? Rome was not built in a day.

This is not a choice between having high performing schools OR helping struggling students. It’s not a zero sum game - they are not mutually exclusive. Would blowing Deal up help the rest of the city? Unequivocally no. Yes, every school and every neighborhood starts in its own unique position, but it should be clear to all that Deal’s success will only enhance the chances of success for midle schools in other parts of the city.

[Anonymous]

I agree with everything you write and it is very well put.

There is no animus on my part towards Deal. You are possibly reading that into the comments and feeling defensive.

The animus is toward a SYSTEM that ALLOWS this kind of drastic inequity.

Let's continue to advocate througout the system for all those great ideas you listed to lift up all middle schools.

[dholt]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with everything you write and it is very well put.

There is no animus on my part towards Deal. You are possibly reading that into the comments and feeling defensive.

The animus is toward a SYSTEM that ALLOWS this kind of drastic inequity.

Let's continue to advocate througout the system for all those great ideas you listed to lift up all middle schools.

My bad. I didn't mean to say that you have animus towards Deal. I was referring to earlier posts complaining about Deal's strength.

[Anonymous]

I think we could do more to improve all of our schools by focusing on improving the educational opportunities we offer rather than obsessing on test scores. And I wouldn't necessarily try to replicate what Deal is doing.

We could significantly improve the educational opportunities at our elementary and middle schools by offering the K-8 Core Knowledge sequence.

This supplemental curriculum is designed to address the vocabulary and knowledge gap that many of our low SES students possess when they start school. The history, geography, literature, science and arts content is very rich compared to our current DCPS standards.

One of the advantages of implementing this curriculum is that is requires teachers who are both well-educated and passionate about knowledge. There are many DCPS teachers that possess these qualifications and would love to work in a CK school.

It goes without saying that we should improve the facilities at all of our schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"It is about finding a great principal."

Yes, I would have to agree. I would also have to add that the majority of the principals Rhee appointed are underwhelming.

I think the churn in the leadership on the school level and the low-quality of the leaders Rhee appointed is something that will hobble DCPS for years to come.

The thing is, that when Dr Kim was hired, she was a brand new, untested, inexperienced principal. She was exactly the kind of principal that many people who dislike Rhee talk so poorly about-( from the principal training group New Leaders).
She was hired under Janey. She had a really terrible 2nd year, when a couple of parents whose children she had cracked down on for poor behavior stood outside the school with protest signs and accused her of racism. Janey did not have her back and did not give her support.
She is a visionary and a truly great principal who has lifted Deal with her expectations and her action. I went to Deal under Mr. Moss (the previous principal) and never wanted to send my child to Deal until Dr. Kim.
But just to put it in perspective, the changes took a while, the principal was not a obvious slam dunk when she was hired, and it was Rhee who gave her the support she needed. It was not a matter of a Ward 3 school getting a golden principal at the expense of other wards.
And I am not sure it would have turned out so well without the support of Rhee.

[Anonymous]

To posters who believe anyone is begrudging Deal's successes, I read it as the opposite. It's a complaint about the inequity across the board. And there should also be a big concern that as Deal has become THE MS to get into right now if all of the in-boundary students keep choosing Deal rather than private (recent past history shows this peeled away numbers of in-bounds) there will no longer be any room for the OOB struggling students that certainly do benefit by the mix. As for Rhee's support of Kim, sure it's helped Deal. But what about all of the other principals, particularly across town? No facility and programming can begin to compare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To posters who believe anyone is begrudging Deal's successes, I read it as the opposite. It's a complaint about the inequity across the board. And there should also be a big concern that as Deal has become THE MS to get into right now if all of the in-boundary students keep choosing Deal rather than private (recent past history shows this peeled away numbers of in-bounds) there will no longer be any room for the OOB struggling students that certainly do benefit by the mix. As for Rhee's support of Kim, sure it's helped Deal. But what about all of the other principals, particularly across town? No facility and programming can begin to compare.

Exactly. 14:20 quoted me. I have nothing against Deal-- just against the inequality in the system and stressed out b/c Deal is not in-boundary school. And I don't live in Cap Hill either. I live in Ward 5. We have NO middle school. That's just not fair. Where can I send my kid for middle school? How likely is it that he could get into Deal or Latin? Those are the only decent options from what I can see. It's just depressing.

[Anonymous]

Kim was not hired by Rhee. Rhee never demonstrated she had any skill in hiring effective leaders.

Kim was at Shadd for at least 5 years and then served as an assistant principal in the Cluster School for a year.

Yes, she was quite young when she took over Deal, but compared to the average Rhee appointee, Kim had loads of experience. She certainly had more educational experience than Rhee herself, but that wouldn't be hard.

To let Rhee take credit for Kim's work at Deal sounds like, well, Michelle Rhee herself.

[Anonymous]

Rhee did not support Kim initially. The support came after she realized that Kim was someone to get behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Exactly. 14:20 quoted me. I have nothing against Deal-- just against the inequality in the system and stressed out b/c Deal is not in-boundary school. And I don't live in Cap Hill either. I live in Ward 5. We have NO middle school. That's just not fair. Where can I send my kid for middle school? How likely is it that he could get into Deal or Latin? Those are the only decent options from what I can see. It's just depressing.

How many elementary schools in Ward 5 go through 8th grade?

[Anonymous]

Not sure how many -- but it's all of them.

[Anonymous]

Brand new--Wheatley Educational Campus, very early childhood through grade 8--in Trinidad