Feedback on Washington Latin?

[Anonymous]

I wonder if the KIPP enthusiast would support KIPP moving to a central location and then trying to enroll more non-FARMS kids, and then blaming KIPP if it was unsuccessful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lower school at Latin is now 6% FARMS. The upper school is just under 10%.

That's quite a bit of "choice" going on.

What do you want????? The school has the world's crappiest facility and limited extracurricular activities. That doesn't appeal to everyone. Neither does the dorky uniforms and the long bus ride to get there.

Do you want to force some FARMS kids to go there? Do you want them to spend their limited money to advertise on the sides of buses?

I am actually asking this is all seriousness. What do you want?

[Anonymous]

Here's another option. Would you like Latin to disappear off the face of the planet if they can't manage to attract an acceptable number of FARMS kids?

[Anonymous]

Should KIPP disappear off the planet if they can't attract an exact replica of the racial/socio-economic make up of the city?

Or is their way of educating/cohort of students somehow more deserving and pure and important in your mind?

[Anonymous]

Latin's founders made a commitment to physically reach children from every quadrant of the city. Not only location-wise, but also with hub bus service that they only began charging moderately for two years ago. (Latin is pretty unique among charters to factor the provision of transportation into its access goals). Over the years, the school and parents have faced our perpetually stretched budget by getting creative--parents painting and cleaning the school with supplies we donated, to make it a halfway decent learning environment for kids and faculty. The idea that WL has ever been champagne days and caviar nights is pretty humorous. However, we enjoy it precisely for what it is and for what we see it becoming--a school with a strong urban classics identity. It's not KIPP and it's not Walls and it's not Wilson and it's not Banneker. It's Latin. Sumus Leones!

[Anonymous]

The PPs disregarded my argument.

Yes, I think it is somewhat suspicious that Washington Latin has around 7-8% FARMS. But much of that can probably be explained away by the fact that they are in upper northwest, far away from a metro station. The low rate of FARMS in itself is not my beef with the school or its boosters. HOWEVER, because the school is 90% upper-middle class, which is not the case with any other public middle school in the city, you cannot compare its test scores with other schools.

[Anonymous]

I don't get why it is on for KIPP to target a specific demographic but not ok for Latin. I am not saying that Latin actually does target (which KIPP clearly does) but why is it right for some and not for others?

[Anonymous]

I wonder how the KIPP booster would feel if a new KIPP school was opened in ward 3 and mainly ward 3 kids applied, so mainly ward 3 kids got in, and then the scores out of that school were higher than KIPP scores in wards 7-8.

[Anonymous]

But there is a KIPP in Shaw, right? That is pretty centrally located and in a diverse neighborhood that is accessible from a lot of parts of the city. Does it reflect the diversity of Shaw and nearby areas? I don't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The PPs disregarded my argument.

Yes, I think it is somewhat suspicious that Washington Latin has around 7-8% FARMS. But much of that can probably be explained away by the fact that they are in upper northwest, far away from a metro station. The low rate of FARMS in itself is not my beef with the school or its boosters. HOWEVER, because the school is 90% upper-middle class, which is not the case with any other public middle school in the city, you cannot compare its test scores with other schools.

PP, respectfully, your comments must be based upon a lack of acquaintance with the school. It is located on Upper 16th street, not convenient to a lot of "Upper NW" due to the location of the park. Latin is actually quite convenient to anyone with access to Columbia Heights Metro Station, 16th street corridor. That's not most of UPPER NW (Red Line). The rest of us rely on and are greatly helped by the hub buses that the school provides for.
Secondly, the school is not 90% UPPER middle class. The majority of families of all races are smack-dab lower and middle class - book-ended by some FARMS and some "UPPER Middle Class" families. Latin's MS is over 50% black and our HS is closer to 90% black (current freshman class more diverse). I'm not denying there are many well-heeled black professional families in DC, but by your math the entire black population in Latin would have to pull from DC's black glitterati to reach this 90% UPPER class claim. And the white and Latino families as well. In fact, with your math--everyone except the 10% FARMS are UPPER Middle Class. Really? All diving head -first into a seven year old charter that until 3 years ago operated in a church basement?
That being said, no one is going to apologize for having UPPER Middle Class families, and I think the families we do have probably have some common characteristics (besides wealth) that drew them to the school. Latin welcomes all. That's the badge of pride.

Here's a video that could help you to get to know the school a little better. I kind of get your intent, but I sincerely think that you just need to get better acquainted before drawing conclusions about a complicated, and special, school. Please get to know us and please feel free to be a part of our community. Care to tutor or volunteer? The irony here is that Latin is not nearly as well-connected a national brand as a KIPP (bless them, they worked hard for the status they enjoy). Hopefully we'll get there one day with your help and goodwill.

http://www.edline.net/pages/Washington_Latin_PCS/About_Us

[Anonymous]

Lots people are just too quick to judge.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy at Washington Latin. Our son is in 6th grade. The adjustment from his elementary school was significant as he learned to navigate multiple teachers, classes, sets of material, etc.., The transition also involved a significant increase in homework and a clear prioritization of academic achievement. Balanced with its emphasis on challenging students academically, though, is its nurturing atmosphere. No one embodies the school’s values more clearly than Martha Cutts, the Head of School who models excellence and warmth in all that she does. The teachers at WL are relatively young (characteristic of the teaching staff at many charter schools), but they offer great energy, talent, enthusiasm, and dedication. In my son’s words, he had two “awesome” teachers last year, several “good” teachers, and just one “so so” teacher. Most have been willing to meet with my son before or after school. Most have very responsive to us as parents – by phone, email, or in person. The administration is also very accessible.

The school will be moving next summer – further east. Although our commute will be longer (or we’ll choose to pay for WL’s bus service), we are excited about the move. Class sizes will remain relatively small. The indoor spaces will be LEED-certified and lovely after the renovation. For active children (like our son), having quick, easy access to basketball courts and fields will be great.

As a mother who attended highly resourced independent schools most of her life, I sometimes wish that my son went to school in a well-endowed facility. I also wish that the arts were more developed and integrated into the curriculum. (To supplement what the school offers, our son takes music lessons outside of school and joins us in other arts-related activities.) In sum, though, we feel very lucky that our son has good friends from diverse walks of life living in all wards of the city. Moreover, he is clearly learning a lot and viewing himself as a capable, confident learner.

[Anonymous]

It's a darn good school but too bad it'll move to a place further away from us. Not looking forward to the commute but other things might become available. We still have time.

[Anonymous]

Greetings. We are parents of a current 5th grade student at Washington Latin.

We thought we would recap what we love about Washington Latin:
• School leadership -- ambitious, competent, professional, accessible, and warm
• Small school size (roughly 80 per grade), creating a very warm, family-like atmosphere
• Small class sizes (18-20 students per class), allowing opportunities for individualized attention
• Close relations between students & teachers
• Highly dedicated and energetic teachers, many of whom give considerable time to students outside of class
• A good number of very talented male teachers
• Clear mission that organizes everyone's efforts
• Rigorous, organized curriculum where every student is challenged
• Its emphasis on critical thinking, dialogue (using Socratic seminars), oral expression, written expression, and public speaking
• The 5th grade Latin teacher and grade level head is spectacular: Who would have thought that our son would love Latin and discover how relevant it is?
• Tremendous diversity in student population. Our son has good friends who live in all wards of the city.
• As our son has become more aware of associations between clothing and status, we appreciate the school’s simple uniform
• Clear academic & behavioral expectations (and consistent follow through)
• Easy parent/teacher collaboration -- with online tools and teacher responsiveness (to calls/emails)
• Easy tracking of student progress -- again, with online tools and teacher responsiveness
• A pervasive, clear spirit of fun and positive humor
• Educational and very fun community-wide events (the annual Roman banquet, Fibonacci Day, etc..)

Downsides?
• The current facility is too crowded, a bit grungy, and under-resourced. By September of 2013, it will be moving into a beautiful, fully renovated facility.
• With a high-energy, athletic son, we wish he had more opportunities to exercise during the day. Again, we expect he'll spend more time exercising in the new facility.
• Many of the teachers are relatively young and inexperienced, but clearly the administration has a knack for picking natural talent, and they do a great job supporting their teachers.
• The arts program is less developed than we'd like, but it's good enough. We supplement with private lessons and classes.
• We wish that the school offered Spanish, but it’s not in their charter to do so.
• We live east of the park. It takes us 8-10 minutes to get there. Next year the drive will be roughly 20 minutes (one way). We might continue our carpool arrangement. Alternatively, many kids take a school bus. He might take the bus that goes from Tenleytown to school (and back). There will also be a shuttle from the Fort Totten metro to the school.

We considered Deal very seriously (our neighborhood school). As a solid student who has considerable social ease and many extracurricular interests, we think our child would have done just fine there, but we doubt that he would have thrived there. This year he comes home raving about teachers and learning. He said that his old school "used to hammer stuff into his brain over and over until you got bored," while this year "the teachers throw stuff at you, hope that it sticks, and make learning interesting." We knew that our son would feel challenged and learn a lot this year. What we didn't anticipate, though, is how much fun he would have and how proud he would feel. Finally, since it's a small school, we expect he will continue to have many leadership opportunities --- in the classroom, on competitive athletic teams (beginning in 7th grade), and in other extracurricular areas.

[Anonymous]

Agreed! Latin is definitely a school where the upsides greatly outweigh the downsides and where the downsides are slowly but surely diminishing. Looking forward to the new campus and having my middle schoolers set there through high school. Whenever I feel a bit down about the long commute across town, I just think about NYC and the generations of students who have used public transportation there to get themselves to great schools. It is part of city living.