Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric

[Anonymous]

demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

# non econ disadvantaged / total tested

Eliot Hine: 52/287
Jefferson: 61/277
Stuart Hobson: 260/430

# white / total tested

Eliot Hine: 0/287
Jefferson: 0/277
Stuart Hobson: 56/430

Which school would I be willing to send my white 5th grader to next year? Close Stuart Hobson, I'll go charter or private. Race and class can't change soon enough at the other middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of people seem to think you that with enough skill one can simply set up a successful middle school. It seems to me that you need enough good students to make it happen. Show me one good middle school that takes kids from below basic in fifth grade and BOOM, by 8th grade they are mostly proficient or advanced. The typical way to create a good middle school is to start from a position of strength (perhaps 66% proficient) and create a culture and climate conducive to learning.

Doesn't KIPP do that? And SEED? I u derstand they take kids Below basic and work them hard to get them to advanced, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

# non econ disadvantaged / total tested

Eliot Hine: 52/287
Jefferson: 61/277
Stuart Hobson: 260/430

# white / total tested

Eliot Hine: 0/287
Jefferson: 0/277
Stuart Hobson: 56/430

Which school would I be willing to send my white 5th grader to next year? Close Stuart Hobson, I'll go charter or private. Race and class can't change soon enough at the other middle schools.

Riiiggght. But using your logic, if Stuart Hobson is combined with EH, what do you get?

# non economic disadvantage/ total tested

312 / circa 700

Does that tickle your class o meter?

AND you get that magic number of students to provide some truly nice programming, you get a pretty nice campus, the advantages of Eastern High (fields, youth orchestra, high level classes ) AND you get capacity for the legions more muddle class families on Capitol Hill who really really want to join you.

[Anonymous]

Muddle class. That's funny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of people seem to think you that with enough skill one can simply set up a successful middle school. It seems to me that you need enough good students to make it happen. Show me one good middle school that takes kids from below basic in fifth grade and BOOM, by 8th grade they are mostly proficient or advanced. The typical way to create a good middle school is to start from a position of strength (perhaps 66% proficient) and create a culture and climate conducive to learning.

Doesn't KIPP do that? And SEED? I u derstand they take kids Below basic and work them hard to get them to advanced, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yes, but, do KIPP and SEED deal well with kids in 5th grade ALREADY on grade level and advanced? Is that what those schools are/can be about? Maybe different students need different kinds of schools and there is no one model that fits all? Maybe two great middle schools can look entirely different. I think that is a subtlety that gets lost in these discussions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

Riiiggght. But using your logic, if Stuart Hobson is combined with EH, what do you get?

# non economic disadvantage/ total tested

312 / circa 700

Does that tickle your class o meter?

AND you get that magic number of students to provide some truly nice programming, you get a pretty nice campus, the advantages of Eastern High (fields, youth orchestra, high level classes ) AND you get capacity for the legions more muddle class families on Capitol Hill who really really want to join you.

but how many of the 260 currently going to Stuart Hobson, a lot of whom I'd bet are Ward 5 coming in on the red line (so the "short" distance is a huge drawback in terms of metro commute time, going in to Metro Center and back out) are actually going to go to EH? I'd bet ~100 to 120.

[Anonymous]

^^^that's ok. As we have heard, Ward 5 will hopefully get its own stand alone middle school so those kids don't have to get on a train at all. They will be quickly replaced by people returning from charters, private and strong elementary feeders on capitol hill who want a closer, neighborhood middle school that vaguely resembles Deal. At least that is the theory.

[Anonymous]

right, Ward 5 is going to get a middle school, EH is going to be as good as Deal. . . .

my kid is in 5th grade. Maybe if he was in K, these would give me hope. in the meantime, my best hope is Stuart Hobson accessed via the red line. My second best hope is Mont County.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Yes, but, do KIPP and SEED deal well with kids in 5th grade ALREADY on grade level and advanced? Is that what those schools are/can be about? Maybe different students need different kinds of schools and there is no one model that fits all? Maybe two great middle schools can look entirely different. I think that is a subtlety that gets lost in these discussions.

KIPP parent here. Yes, KIPP can/will deal with 5th graders already on and above grade level which is why they've opened elementary schools at their 3 campuses (the WILL campus will have one opening next year). One of my son's teachers commented last year how KIPP is now having to shift from 'bringing everyone up' to 'making sure the advanced kids don't get bored.'

[Anonymous]

That's great news about KIPP. Do you know if that shift has been successful?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's great news about KIPP. Do you know if that shift has been successful?

For us, yes, it has been very successful for my advanced reader, but then again, I can only speak for myself. This is our 2nd year in the elementary school and I don't feel the need to supplement instruction at home like I had to do at our previous school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

# non econ disadvantaged / total tested
Eliot Hine: 52/287
Jefferson: 61/277
Stuart Hobson: 260/430

Which school would I be willing to send my white 5th grader to next year? Close Stuart Hobson, I'll go charter or private. Race and class can't change soon enough at the other middle schools.

The part about race is complex and I’ll leave it for a more adept person to tackle.

As a non-Cluster Ward 6 parent, the overwhelming number of econ disadvantaged that would make you pull out of DCPS is the same reason we don’t feel like we can stay in DCPS past 4th grade. We need Kaya to cut the Gordian knot.

Take a look at this link to a paper published by the Century Foundation:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html?print=1&levelId=1000

From my perspective, here’s the key point in the paper:

“Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

# non econ disadvantaged / total tested
Eliot Hine: 52/287
Jefferson: 61/277
Stuart Hobson: 260/430

Which school would I be willing to send my white 5th grader to next year? Close Stuart Hobson, I'll go charter or private. Race and class can't change soon enough at the other middle schools.

The part about race is complex and I’ll leave it for a more adept person to tackle.

As a non-Cluster Ward 6 parent, the overwhelming number of econ disadvantaged that would make you pull out of DCPS is the same reason we don’t feel like we can stay in DCPS past 4th grade. We need Kaya to cut the Gordian knot.

Take a look at this link to a paper published by the Century Foundation:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html?print=1&levelId=1000

From my perspective, here’s the key point in the paper:

“Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature.”

Thank you for sharing this. But what about Stuart Hobson? Don't the middle class kids do well there - even though its a socioeconomically diverse school?

My younger two kids go to a very high poverty DCPS school and since they are young (preschool), I feel like its in many ways an advantage over being in a middle class school. Maybe they won't advance academically as much, but school when you are 3 is all about developing social skills. Someone who can get along with anyone regardless of looking different, talking different, having a different family structure to me has excellent social skills. I feel like I'm preparing my preschoolers to have the advanced social skills to be sucessful inner-city school teachers, Peace Corps volunteers, managers or emergency room nurses or doctors. I feel great about this. Obviously the higher up in school you get, this changes. Academics matter more and more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's great news about KIPP. Do you know if that shift has been successful?

For us, yes, it has been very successful for my advanced reader, but then again, I can only speak for myself. This is our 2nd year in the elementary school and I don't feel the need to supplement instruction at home like I had to do at our previous school.

Is foreign language offered at any of the KIPP campuses. If so, which languages. TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS

# non econ disadvantaged / total tested
Eliot Hine: 52/287
Jefferson: 61/277
Stuart Hobson: 260/430

Which school would I be willing to send my white 5th grader to next year? Close Stuart Hobson, I'll go charter or private. Race and class can't change soon enough at the other middle schools.

The part about race is complex and I’ll leave it for a more adept person to tackle.

As a non-Cluster Ward 6 parent, the overwhelming number of econ disadvantaged that would make you pull out of DCPS is the same reason we don’t feel like we can stay in DCPS past 4th grade. We need Kaya to cut the Gordian knot.

Take a look at this link to a paper published by the Century Foundation:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html?print=1&levelId=1000

From my perspective, here’s the key point in the paper:

“Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature.”

Is not KIPP majority low-SES. If so, I think KIPP has just refuted this proposition.