Ward Five Proposal

[Anonymous]

I would support a rigorous middle school program, and I believe it's better to provide the children with the opportunity to be challenged (even if they don't all excel) than to just throw up our collective hands and say 'they're not going to make it so why bother'

[Anonymous]

PP I think you are right that DCPS is failing a lot of kids some worse than others, but I think a lot of it may also be related to the general content of what is being taught. These kids have had too little invested in them from language, books, experiences. If the curriculum is not super content rich it will not help these kids because they are starting too far behind. This is some of the reasoning behind the idea of free and effective pre-k but I think the system is handicapped by a philosophy that de-emphasizes knowledge in favor of skills or things kids are already familiar with. So for example they will focus on kids knowing their neighborhood instead of including a broader geographical concept of continents and rivers, mountains etc. Or writing a rap song about something instead of writing an expository essay. They call it the Matthew Effect because well off parents know how to teach or push or things that will enable their kids to succeed. An excellent book on this is Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhoods http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271425

[Anonymous]

Perhaps the IB PYP and MYP programs are meant to attract back to dcps kids whose academically ambitious families have them in charters and privates. It would be good for the system as a while to have more of those families invested in dcps.

[Anonymous]

Here is the problem with the idea of attracting academically ambitious families in Ward 5. I am one of those. I managed to get my kid into a school that will feed into deal at least for now, who knows given boundaries and he is in kindergarten. But no way am I taking a chance on this school. Did it once with DCPS would rather go beg for private school if we get pushed out of our first option. I have a feeling the 50% of us that have opted out in Ward 5 feel pretty much the same. Plus we have nearly affordable Catholic school options for middle school here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem with the idea of attracting academically ambitious families in Ward 5. I am one of those. I managed to get my kid into a school that will feed into deal at least for now, who knows given boundaries and he is in kindergarten. But no way am I taking a chance on this school. Did it once with DCPS would rather go beg for private school if we get pushed out of our first option. I have a feeling the 50% of us that have opted out in Ward 5 feel pretty much the same. Plus we have nearly affordable Catholic school options for middle school here.

What about the magnet program?

[Anonymous]

STAY OPEN
1. Langdon (75)
2. Buroughs (39)
4. Browne (29)
5. Noyes (28 )

CLOSE
3. Brookland (37)
6. Marshall (26)
7. Wheatley (20)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem with the idea of attracting academically ambitious families in Ward 5. I am one of those. I managed to get my kid into a school that will feed into deal at least for now, who knows given boundaries and he is in kindergarten. But no way am I taking a chance on this school. Did it once with DCPS would rather go beg for private school if we get pushed out of our first option. I have a feeling the 50% of us that have opted out in Ward 5 feel pretty much the same. Plus we have nearly affordable Catholic school options for middle school here.

Another middle-class (academically ambitious too) Ward 5 family here. I think all of the proposals look relatively attractive on paper. DCPS seems to be taking into account feedback, which is admirable. I like how they are proposing 3 options for our ward, rather than just one.

The trouble is, how are they going to get us into the system at the middle school level? We are currently at a charter. You are at a Deal-feeding DCPS (though who knows if you'll have rights to Deal, as you point out). I think this is what they are supposedly going to address in January once they decide on the grade configurations.

But for my family, the big issue will be ensuring enough appropriate learning (not remedial learning to get kids up to grade level). That's why, in a way, the STEM option is the most attractive -- because it is a magnet w/ a set aside for Ward 5. I think that model has a lot of potential. On the downside, I don't like the idea of a grade 6-12 school.

What do others think about the magnet option? especially other ward 5 options.

On the closings, I think the speculation is pointless because some of these schools may be reconstituted as new or renamed or combined campuses. Noyes is a new building, but has a scandal attached to it. So they may try to do something with that building that is not Noyes, per se.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: They call it the Matthew Effect because well off parents know how to teach or push or things that will enable their kids to succeed. An excellent book on this is Annette Lareau's Unequal Childhoods http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271425

The matthew effect is actually about reading:

early success in acquiring reading skills usually leads to later successes in reading as the learner grows, while failing to learn to read before the third or fourth year of schooling may be indicative of life-long problems in learning new skills. This is because children who fall behind in reading, read less, increasing the gap between them and their peers. Later, when students need to "read to learn" (where before they were learning to read), their reading difficulty creates difficulty in most other subjects. In this way they fall further and further behind in school, dropping out at a much higher rate than their peers.