If not Basis or Latin, where?
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Anonymous
There is drama, art and music. The art is both hands on and theory (discussion of using right/left brain, study of artists, styles, etc.). Music is also hands on (recorder -- not my favorite instrument) and theory (not an easy course). Given that the art class was meeting in the cafeteria, I can only imagine that it will get better in the new location. Science courses will of course get better with better facilities. |
Anonymous
Okay, so that would mean about a half of a kid (given that the 12th grade has about 40 kids). They are doing pretty good then that they got one kid into Cornell and another into Brown. I don't see the school "falling apart." If anything the Upper School seems more attractive than the middle school. We had money set aside to go private for high school, but our child wanted to stay for the upper school. We think it is a good choice and look forward to seeing how DC grows. The upper school seems very nurturing as well as rigorous and I have been impressed with Latin's administrators. They all seem very knowledgeable about how to best educate kids. |
Anonymous
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^ Sure, sure, sure. So why do so many high-SES families still leave, particularly between 8th and 9th? Much of what Latin is doing is great, it's also too little, too late for at least half the kids. Without ES GT programs, the poor kids best able to benefit from the classics curriculum and general rigor are often not identified, nurtured or recruited. I grew weary of my middle schooler sitting next to kids who couldn't handle the work (both high and low-SES), but were promoted anyway after making some effort. If Latin were a test-in school, I'd believe you, and I would have stayed for high school, in a heartbeat. Yes, Latin will continue to improve, but only so much without the sort of inputs other municipalities provide their most able and hard-working students, mainly peer group inputs.
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Anonymous
| They leave for a number of reasons. 1. Some parents are going to send their child to private regardless of the current school. They KNOW long before MS which private they are sending their child to. 2. Some students are great athletes and get recruited to a private school. I don't think it's anything against Latin, it's just faced with 4 year bball (or some other sport) scholarship where the child may be be seen by scouts, etc, most parents will jump at that opportunity for their child. (So out of a class of 70, that will take about 15-20 of the students) 3. Then there are the application schools (Walls, Ellington, Banneker, McKinley). For a student that is "into" the Arts, applying to Ellington is a no-brainer (maybe 1-2 students), Walls has a great reputation for being an excellent academic school and more importantly for most parents ALL the students are high achievers. Talk about pressure on the student, but that is what parents want. Latin WILL NEVER be that type of school as long as the charter is set up the way it is and that is fine with me. Latin loses most of it's 8th graders to Walls, but that is not saying that the HS isn't a good school. If a student is in the Honors classes, they are not sitting next to a student that has "escaped" from attending a low-performing DCPS HS and are not reading/writing doing math on grade level). They are actually getting instruction and assignments that are on the same level as Walls/Banneker/McKinley. I have friends at each of these schools and the work is about the same. So when you look at Latin DC-Cas scores for 10th grade, some people are astonished at the # of students that are basic or below basic (or whatever the wording is)and wonder how can Latin be considered a "great school", when the test scores are so low. Well, what if that student came into 9th grade (not from LAtin MS)at a 6th grade reading/math level? But by 10th grade, they may actually have improved under Latin's guidance and teaching to a 8th/9th grade level, but the DC-CAS scores are not going to show that improvement. It's still shows as below level. Anyway, people leave Latin between 8th and 9th because frankly, they just don't know anything about Latin HS except that it goes from being a mixed race school to predominately black HS. They think Walls or one of the other test-in schools are better, but that doesn't mean that Latin is not just as good! |
Anonymous
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16:19 Here again.
Very few of my DC's close friends are planning to leave after 8th this year (all fairly high SES). I would love to see a test in middle school in DC, but that just doesn't exist and given that it doesn't I think Latin does a pretty good job with smart kids (and even not so smart kids). I have been very impressed with some of the work that my DC has done this year. Lots of papers, which have been written and rewritten, a memoir that was presented orally, two languages. Even music seems to be fairly challenging, certainly not the easy A, DC had hoped it would be. There seems to be a lot of criticism on this thread about Latin's lack of rigor, but frankly I don't know if DC could handle too much more work. |
Anonymous
Why else? To give people like you something to talk about. |
Anonymous
Oh give me a break. What is there to talk about if your kid is really academic, not just above average and hard-working, but leaving DC public after a point? If pushed, my 9th grader can easily handle math I couldn't have done in college. So what are we supposed to do with the child, other than go private or to MoCo or Fairfax? I'd rather not say a thing about needing more challenge than Latin offered, and not wanting mostly low-SES peers. Maybe if BASIS had started a few years earlier, we would have stayed in the system. |
Anonymous
Some posters seem to see Latin as being at stasis. It is so far from that. Latin fifth grade has changed dramatically in just the last four years. The buzz has been growing, the number of academically-minded families staying in DC for middle school is increasing, the waiting list is much longer. The fact is, whatever the 9th-12th grades have been like in previous years is not predictive of what it will be like going forward - there are just more hard-working kids every year. My prediction, based upon what I've seen happening in the lower grades, is that the number of kids leaving Latin after 8th grade will drop every year, and each year's graduating class will exceed the previous year in academics and college acceptances. Deal has long been popular but I hear from friends that Hardy, too, is becoming a destination rather than a default. All that said, we switched our kid from Latin to Basis for practical reasons, and we like Basis too. A rising academic tide lifts all middle schools. |
Anonymous
No dear. 5% of 40 is 2 kids. So 2 out of the 40 are high SES. Where did you attend elementary school? DCPS? Hope you are not a teacher. Sad to see an adult unable to do simple percentages... |
Anonymous
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I do think more high SES kids are staying at Latin for 9th grade this year.
Wilson was full and Walls was very,very competitive this year and a number of these kids were shut out of other options. Parents I know who all along planned to leave after middle school are now singing the praises of Latin for High School. Funny how things work out. |
Anonymous
| Yes, PP, Hardy is becoming a more sought-after school. Perhaps more families in-bounds can now relax and enjoy their local public middle school. How refreshing!! |
Anonymous
PP, we were in the exact same place a few years back. While the decision to turn down some private school offers was hard, we haven't looked back. What you named above is well in place: nurturing + rigorous. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Many, perhaps most, white, Asian, Latino and upper-middle-class AA parents in this city simply won't send their kids to a majority AA high school. The same parents, who are often fine with a majority AA ES, worry about HS peer influences when most of the kids are from lower-middle-class or low-income families, as is the case with DCPC AA kids. ES GT and MS test-in programs could change the calculus, but none appear to be on the way. Concern about yet another majority AA HS without the right academic inputs lower down is an unspoken problem at Latin. A large and possibly insurmountable problem for the parents of most of the strongest high school students in the city. Walls and Wilson have the same problem.
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Anonymous
| FWIW, I think a lot of DC's middle-class AA families who cannot afford private school have the same concern about peer pressure influences in high school---perhaps even more so than white and Asian families. From what I have seen, Latin has a very strong cohort of AA parents who are educated, solidly middle class, want to keep their kids sheltered from the larger DCPS high school options, and like the fact that Latin unabashedly teaches character, values and how to behave as a responsible member of society as part of its core mission, along with offering significant college application and scholarship seeking assistance. So yes, Latin's HS may be majority AA---but it appears to be very far removed from the stereotype that many non-AA parents in DC have in their heads. |