Bell Multicultural High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CHEC is basically a de facto charter school. Bell HS was started as a GED-vocational program for immigrants and refugees from conflict areas in the 80s. Most of the students were older than traditional HS and limited English. It has a nonprofit fundraising arm, privately funded daycare, and that amazing building. Tukeva worked with the students nobody else in DC wanted to deal with. This does not make her a saint. Far from it. But it was always her fiefdom and never really comparable to DCPS schools.

It became CHEC by adding Lincoln Middle School nearby. It was literally a disaster of a building and sorry excuse for an education. It's horrible to think what those kids went through. Our volunteer organization had to leave due for safety reasons.

I don't know all the machinations that went on during CHEC's evolution, but I've heard from staff that it's pretty rough but some families say they feel protected and understood.

It's complicated. But Tukeva's reign has got to end at some point. It might be time to convert it to a charter and call it a day.

Jay Mathews love fest with CHEC AP offering justifies his whole "challenge index". He wouldn't criticize Tukeva (or KIPP or any of his pet projects) if you paid him.

ALL STUDNENTS TAKE AP, that includes the ones who don't speak English. Sadly, they should be learning English by taking ESL classes, yes the school looks good on paper but in reality it is not great. Used to have a lot of gang issues but it is also strict, doesn't teach ESL and believes it is the teachers' fault when students fail, students don't get the remedial help they need.

[Anonymous]

Tukeva runs CHEC like her own private personal property, where grades given by the teachers are quite different than the grades on students' transcripts. Many many teachers have noticed this over the years.

This happens mostly in small charters, not publics ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with this school? It is in Columbia Heights, yet I was told that in AdMo our in bounds HS is Wilson. This school has AP, International Bac and French & Spanish programs--sounds like what MV, YY, EWS, and LAMB are trying to accomplish as a secondary school.

Columbia Heights EC does not have an IB program. Currently Banneker is the only HS with IB, and Eastern will roll out IB course next year.

Eastern has been an IB school since April of 2013.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with this school? It is in Columbia Heights, yet I was told that in AdMo our in bounds HS is Wilson. This school has AP, International Bac and French & Spanish programs--sounds like what MV, YY, EWS, and LAMB are trying to accomplish as a secondary school.

Columbia Heights EC does not have an IB program. Currently Banneker is the only HS with IB, and Eastern will roll out IB course next year.

Eastern has been an IB school since April of 2013.

This thread was started in 2012.

[Anonymous]

I think it gets rejuvenated because higher SES parents in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights-- who are sending their kids to good charters which have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of decent facility space-- see CHEC as a relatively new facility that is a failing educational institution run by what by all accounts appears to be a tyrant. And they wonder why that situation is allowed to continue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it gets rejuvenated because higher SES parents in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights-- who are sending their kids to good charters which have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of decent facility space-- see CHEC as a relatively new facility that is a failing educational institution run by what by all accounts appears to be a tyrant. And they wonder why that situation is allowed to continue.

I know a lot of those parents, and as far as I know, none of them have set foot inside CHEC for any reason other than to vote there if that's their polling place. Their information is usually second or third hand - they heard from someone who doesn't send their child there that someone who does send their child there that it's a crappy school - and then they combine that gossip with a handful of facts they pull from a website and present this opinion as though it should have weight. The other people who talk about it are people who worked there at one point or another in whatever capacity who have negative opinions about the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it gets rejuvenated because higher SES parents in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights-- who are sending their kids to good charters which have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of decent facility space-- see CHEC as a relatively new facility that is a failing educational institution run by what by all accounts appears to be a tyrant. And they wonder why that situation is allowed to continue.

I know a lot of those parents, and as far as I know, none of them have set foot inside CHEC for any reason other than to vote there if that's their polling place. Their information is usually second or third hand - they heard from someone who doesn't send their child there that someone who does send their child there that it's a crappy school - and then they combine that gossip with a handful of facts they pull from a website and present this opinion as though it should have weight. The other people who talk about it are people who worked there at one point or another in whatever capacity who have negative opinions about the school.

Besides Jay Matthews Washington Post, in 17 years of living in DC, I have not heard one positive thing to say about the school or its administration. Even if you ignore the negative comments, you can't ignore the fact that those that go there are not commenting on how good it is either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it gets rejuvenated because higher SES parents in Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights-- who are sending their kids to good charters which have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of decent facility space-- see CHEC as a relatively new facility that is a failing educational institution run by what by all accounts appears to be a tyrant. And they wonder why that situation is allowed to continue.

I know a lot of those parents, and as far as I know, none of them have set foot inside CHEC for any reason other than to vote there if that's their polling place. Their information is usually second or third hand - they heard from someone who doesn't send their child there that someone who does send their child there that it's a crappy school - and then they combine that gossip with a handful of facts they pull from a website and present this opinion as though it should have weight. The other people who talk about it are people who worked there at one point or another in whatever capacity who have negative opinions about the school.

Besides Jay Matthews Washington Post, in 17 years of living in DC, I have not heard one positive thing to say about the school or its administration. Even if you ignore the negative comments, you can't ignore the fact that those that go there are not commenting on how good it is either.

Commenting on it where? Here? The high school parents who post here don't talk about any public school but Wilson. I have heard positive things about the principal from a couple people in the neighborhood - one who runs a community organization that works with some Bell students and one who is an educator at another neighborhood school. I haven't sought out other comments because my kid won't be ready for those conversations for another 5 years.

I'm perfectly comfortable to ignore gossip and hearsay and form my opinions based on actual observations. Why is that unusual?

[Anonymous]

pp, it's not gossip and it's not hearsay. I have talked to Hispanic parents who live on Park street, parents of studious and the best students. CHEC teachers have told them to get their kids out to Wilson. The only reason they are staying is because admin has promised them big scholarships from private donors, money that can help the entire family. One such parent tried to convince her kid to stay who absolutely refused to do so. He is now at Wilson saying CHEC should be shut down for so many reasons.

[Anonymous]

I mentored a student who went to Bell. She graduated about six years ago, so this is old. But she took AP, was highly ranked in her class (like top twelve), and supposedly took a class at UDC for college credit. Since I mentored her for a couple years, I can tell you her reading and writing and other academic skills were terrible, terrible, terrible. Really poor. I had to drag her through a research paper assignment that should have been totally routine for a junior or senior in high school. And her SATs scores were incredibly low, except the essay part, because I basically had to teach her to write an essay to take the test. This is an AP student. Her college counselor was advising her to go to UDC or Montgomery College. She did get into a four-year liberal arts college, and really, really struggled. It was a miracle she graduated. So I was not impressed with what she told me about what was going on at Bell, even though the school, on paper, looked great. I am willing to believe a school can be turned around, but this wasn't all that long ago.

[Anonymous]

I mean, if you look at the testing scores, the percentage of kids at Bell who met or exceeded expectations in math was 1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if you look at the testing scores, the percentage of kids at Bell who met or exceeded expectations in math was 1%.

In any other school the Principal would be gone with scores like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp, it's not gossip and it's not hearsay. I have talked to Hispanic parents who live on Park street, parents of studious and the best students. CHEC teachers have told them to get their kids out to Wilson. The only reason they are staying is because admin has promised them big scholarships from private donors, money that can help the entire family. One such parent tried to convince her kid to stay who absolutely refused to do so. He is now at Wilson saying CHEC should be shut down for so many reasons.

You are aware of the definitions of "gossip" and "hearsay" right? Read your statement. It's filled with both.

My point was that I have not ever, even one time, observed a post on this board from someone saying, "I send my child to CHEC and they have experienced X, Y, Z." In my conversations with neighborhood people discussing middle school, I have heard many opinions expressed by parents of young children about CHEC that it's a terrible school without any first hand experience in the school (even going on a tour) or first hand conversations with people whose kids have gone there. I have talked with parents in my neighborhood who are sending their children elsewhere - two because they went to Lincoln themselves and had bad experiences (in the 80s and 90s) and one because her older child is already at Deal.

[Anonymous]

Pollyanna parents of toddlers amaze me. Why would any busy parent who cares about their kids even waste time touring CHEC? The scores say it all. And I would bet you that the absolute last thing the administration of that school wants is parental involvement and scrutiny from highly educated and involved parents. So by all means-- go take a tour and tell us all about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, if you look at the testing scores, the percentage of kids at Bell who met or exceeded expectations in math was 1%.

In any other school the Principal would be gone with scores like that.

It's a Title 1 School with 30% ELL.

Not sure the scores are any worse than other schools with similar demographics such as Cardozo, Roosevelt. I realize that isn't saying much but can't compare to Deal, Hardy, Wilson.