Rave about your DCPS/charter school

[Anonymous]

20:13, I'd agree with most of what you write, except for the bashing of teachers--especially ugly with the racist overtones too. Ick.

Yes, we've got one in private now for HS and the others will head that way as well. Elementary school can be done and done pretty well in DC, public or PCS. Middle school is where the wheels come off.

Unlike you, I don't blame the teachers. I'd blame the poverty. I guess you could blame the craptacular parenting too, but that is, fundamentally a poverty issue.

The absolute best teacher any of my children had was at a low-income DCPS.

My private school kid has some terrific teachers right now, but those same teachers would get eaten for lunch in Ward 8.

[Anonymous]

If it takes all kinds to make a public school system work then why all the heartache against the lest fortunate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two dozen schools to love up to 3rd grade (we loved Brent), after which the challenge falls off for the brightest and most discplined kids in almost every case.

Few schools to love for 4th and 5th for advanced learners/GT and nothing but OK compared to privates and suburban options.

Middle-class parents claim they love DCPS and DC Charter middle and high schools because they're attached to their urban lifestyles, not because any DC public school is wonderful for grade 6+ for high-performing kids when compared to the better suburban schools, not by a long shot. Facilities, ability grouping and teaching are uniformly weak by comparison.

Hope you can swing a private after ES. You'll go later if you can afford to. Challenge for the brightest teenagers isn't a priority for DCPS. Preserving AA middle-class jobs (including for lousy teachers), keeping under-enrolled neighborhood schools open, prepping low-SES kids to pass proficiency tests, and shielding low-SES kids from competition by high-SES peers are the priorities. Doubt it at your kid's peril.


Oh Lord! Why do you persist in coming on every DCPS and DCPCS threads to repeat yourself. It is trite. This is a thread about raving, not bashing. Now please go back to your suburban or private school.

[Anonymous]

I'm fairly new to dc, Chicago native, really happy with Lamb in lower grades but don't have my head around why so many of the professional parents I'm meeting are planning to leave city schools for middle school. Not true of friends back home.

Some of these parents could go with Deal, which is supposed to offer a lot of challenge and fine teaching.

Why are well-off parents so much happier with grade schools as a group than what comes later? Oh Lord, somebody give me a straight answer. Demographics can't be the whole story. We weren't short on poverty in downtown Chicago. Are posters complaining about lack of challenge advised to shut up because they strike a nerve?

If just a few feel this way, why have LAMB parents with serious jobs & income already begun to leave? It's a good little school. My spouse calls 'em the "self-fullfilling prophecy brigade."

[Anonymous]

+1. WE're from Germany, at YY. We've posted on other thread about our good experiences there. We like the school because the Mandarin instruction is very good, but we don't understand why offering different levels for middle school subjects is hardly done in DC, and elsewhere in the USA. In Germany, and the rest of Europe, it's normal. In Germany, even if your child attends a gymnasium (most academic type of school) there will be two or three levels for most subjects, enabling the most academic children to do much more advanced work than in America. When parents ask for that here, they seem to get called names, snobs, racists etc. Voters worry about economic competitiveness while the American parents we know seem to worry most about school atmosphere, they want a caring, safe, nurturing atmosphere with involved parents more than difficult subjects for the smartest children. We don't understand this attitude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently came to the decision we can't swing private school for DS. Its disappointing because we saw some privates that seemed like a good fit for him. Moreover, I hear a lot of parents raving about their kid's private school education (their kids love to learn, love to go to school, have really learned to think in a critical and analytical way). If you love the education your child is getting at a DCPS or charter school, can you talk about which one and rave about it here? I would love to hear some great stories as we start our search again (this is for the 2013-2014 year)

OP impossible to advise w/out knowing:
-where you reside
-what sort of learner you have
-what you are interested in (language immersion? Montessori? old-fashioned academics? progressive academics?)
-what you are OK with (a lot of farms kids, not many)
-how long you plan to stay in DCPS or charter, and the city; whether you afford privates after saving

Tell us more.

We love Brent, but wouldn't go for another Hill es or a charter, other than 2 Rivers (didn't get in). We don't have enough confidence in math teaching for our good-at-math (gifted?) daughter elsewhere. Brent has hired a part-time math teacher for the upper grades with PTA money, helpign convince us to stay at least another year. We think it's a happy school with good teaching and facilities, and involved parents, although, admittedly, we love being downtown/close to museums more than what DCPS is doing for us.

We're not OK with our ms feeders, like the other Brent parents we know. We might be OK with Basis, but we'll have to see if we get in and how the school develops. "Trite" concerns about ms quality don't seem to be going away. 9:47, you are the one who should shut up.

[Anonymous]

My son attended John Burroughs in Brookland for PreK4 through 1st and my daughter attended for PreK4 through Kindergarten. John Burroughs is a good neighborhood school that is overlooked. They now attend Stokes. Their current Stokes teachers were very impressed with their foundations received at Burroughs. I personally was very impressed with their Pre - K and Kindergarten teachers. They really taught them skills that were above and beyond PreK and Kindergarten. Stokes started off a little slow for me, mainly so because they were so advanced. But Stokes offers a more diverse population and foreign language. I enjoy seeing my kids thrive in an environment where parents are truly vested in their kids education. Burroughs has good teachers but the parents are just OK. I feel lucky to have my kids at Stokes though. So Burroughs = Better. Stokes = Best! If you can get in.

[Anonymous]

We are pleased with our experience at Barnard in Petworth (Ps-3 thru K right now) and as the neighborhood slowly changes (thanks in part to still affordable housing, gentrification pressure from Columbia Heights, and the nearby Metro) word is getting out, the preschool waitlists have tripled since we enrolled. Test scores could be better, but there are also a lot of Title One kids there. The school has an egalitarian ethos and is getting more diverse. You will not feel out of place pulling up for dropoff in a beat up Honda or a luxury SUV or on foot.
Parents also pressured the chancellor to add grade 5, so trailers have been set up to make room. I believe this is a reflection of parents being satisfied with the school but also the extremely poor performance at the IB middle school, MacFarland, which struggles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two dozen schools to love up to 3rd grade (we loved Brent), after which the challenge falls off for the brightest and most discplined kids in almost every case.

Few schools to love for 4th and 5th for advanced learners/GT and nothing but OK compared to privates and suburban options.

Middle-class parents claim they love DCPS and DC Charter middle and high schools because they're attached to their urban lifestyles, not because any DC public school is wonderful for grade 6+ for high-performing kids when compared to the better suburban schools, not by a long shot. Facilities, ability grouping and teaching are uniformly weak by comparison.

Hope you can swing a private after ES. You'll go later if you can afford to. Challenge for the brightest teenagers isn't a priority for DCPS. Preserving AA middle-class jobs (including for lousy teachers), keeping under-enrolled neighborhood schools open, prepping low-SES kids to pass proficiency tests, and shielding low-SES kids from competition by high-SES peers are the priorities. Doubt it at your kid's peril.


I find this post bordering racist. Are you stating that your DC school is w/o white, Asian, or Hispanic teachers. Are only the AA jobs being preserved. As for keeping under-enrolled neighborhood schools open, I disagree. Michelle Rehee with the help of Kaya Henderson put the last nails in the coffins of Ward 5 schools. They closed many of the elementary and all the middle schools. Therefore, this city has not demonstrated restraint in closing schools. At least not the ones in Ward 5, as I cannot speak about other wards.

Finally, I don't think the city is shielding competition from High SeS students. The parents of high SES students refuse to allow their children to apply and compete in the competitive schools. Too many Black students is the often repeated mantra. That is code for, we want to start from scratch with the completive schools with a majority white population before I entertain the thought of my child applying to Banneker, Walls, and McKinley.

Question poster and others of similar thought. When DCPS establish a middle school component at McKinley, what will be your excuse then. McKinley is EOP in a predominant Black neighborhood and the high school component is predominant Black, if not 100 percent.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

I have to agree with the PP about the McKinley Tech middle-school project. You know what the excuse will be and that too will be borderlined racist. Hell, it won't be borderline racist, it will be outright racist with the excuse of it being straight-talk.

The city population for AA might be dwindling but the school population for AA is not, hence the majority of what you see, is what you gonna get.

[Anonymous]

Here is the problem with any new middle school option in Ward 5--they won't attract a wide variety of parents in my view because There are no high performing DCPS elementary schools in Ward 5. Parents who view the elementary feeders unfavorably in Ward 5 are unlikely to suddenly trust a new DCPS middle school option in Ward 5 when all they see during the building block phase is limited proficiency. The 2nd problem is that DCPS is surrounded by charters in Ward 5 that are already more diverse that plan on going through middle.

Brookland @ Bunker Hill 37% proficiency
Burroughs 54%
Langdon 56%
Noyes 32%

[Anonymous]

Please tell me more about the Mckinley middle school. I am a white upper middle class parent and I would certainly be interested in sending my child there if it were to challenge him, even if he were the only white kid there. When will it open? is attendance based on a test?

thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me more about the Mckinley middle school. I am a white upper middle class parent and I would certainly be interested in sending my child there if it were to challenge him, even if he were the only white kid there. When will it open? is attendance based on a test?

thanks!

Ms Henderson has said that the school would open 2014-2015. We shall see. It is located in Eckington, Ward 5 and open to all DC students, with Ward 5 residents getting a preference. The school is to focus on high level math and science, as a bridge to the Mckinley Tech HS. Please don't ask me to define high level math and science from DCPS' point of view, for I cannot. Good question about application. I have not heard. The HS level is application, so perhaps so shall the MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please tell me more about the Mckinley middle school. I am a white upper middle class parent and I would certainly be interested in sending my child there if it were to challenge him, even if he were the only white kid there. When will it open? is attendance based on a test?

thanks!

Ms Henderson has said that the school would open 2014-2015. We shall see. It is located in Eckington, Ward 5 and open to all DC students, with Ward 5 residents getting a preference. The school is to focus on high level math and science, as a bridge to the Mckinley Tech HS. Please don't ask me to define high level math and science from DCPS' point of view, for I cannot. Good question about application. I have not heard. The HS level is application, so perhaps so shall the MS.

Thanks! We are in ward 6 currently, but it may be worth it to move to ward 5 if the McKinley middle school will have a very strong math program. wish ward 6 had something similar for middle school!