Autonomy considered as way to improve struggling Dunbar High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well then, what about a test-in academy at Dunbar? No neighborhood kids excluded from the school, some will test in to the academy and be joined by strong students from around the city. And perhaps with autonomy, an experienced administrator could hire excellent teachers and find success in all areas of the school.

If the school still has lots of behavioral problems, then a test-in academy within the school will have a hard time attracting students. I know I would never send my kid that has a lot of severe behavioral issues even with a test-in academy.

It seems to work for Blair, and that school have multiple NMS every year. PP, private school is what you seek.

I really don't think Blair is really comparable. Even w/o the magnet kids it's a solid school.

Blair has it's fair share of behavior problems. And it is a school that deals with a substantial ESOL and FARM population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Epic failure of DCPS. Fail to educate children in elementary school. These kids then go to very sub-par middle schools and now let's exclude those kids from attending most of the public high schools in DC.

And then we can blame the bureaucracy that we put in place.

When will someone stand up for the children of DC?

That's the only way we can improve test scores, because Rhee/Henderson/TFA/Charter Schools et al said it is ALL the teachers fault. Before you get voted out of DC you have to show some results.

Get those fresh out of "the best and the brightest" universities and give them 5 weeks training and a teaching certificate and test scores will rise!!!! When that doesn't work manipulate the test scores, open a multitude of charter schools to drain all the top talent, threaten the teachers and stress them out and fire the bottom x percent every year (Rhee documented tactic), control the media (Washington Post). Well all else fails bring in an outside agency to turn around your school with NO oversight (Friends of Bedford). Still failing, make your school an application school and fool all those around you by blowing lots of smoke and surround yourself with mirrors. When you read most of the posts on DCUM about failing or title I schools, their tactics apparently appear to be working well!!!

And your solution to improve the schools is.....?

*crickets chirping*

Look, WTU/DCPS apologist, we already tried it your way for 20 years prior. Doing it your way is what got us schools as screwed up as they are.

Mmmmmmmmmmm so that's why the divide between black and white test scores are worst than ever. Keep believing the hype why don't you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Epic failure of DCPS. Fail to educate children in elementary school. These kids then go to very sub-par middle schools and now let's exclude those kids from attending most of the public high schools in DC.

And then we can blame the bureaucracy that we put in place.

When will someone stand up for the children of DC?

That's the only way we can improve test scores, because Rhee/Henderson/TFA/Charter Schools et al said it is ALL the teachers fault. Before you get voted out of DC you have to show some results.

Get those fresh out of "the best and the brightest" universities and give them 5 weeks training and a teaching certificate and test scores will rise!!!! When that doesn't work manipulate the test scores, open a multitude of charter schools to drain all the top talent, threaten the teachers and stress them out and fire the bottom x percent every year (Rhee documented tactic), control the media (Washington Post). Well all else fails bring in an outside agency to turn around your school with NO oversight (Friends of Bedford). Still failing, make your school an application school and fool all those around you by blowing lots of smoke and surround yourself with mirrors. When you read most of the posts on DCUM about failing or title I schools, their tactics apparently appear to be working well!!!

And your solution to improve the schools is.....?

*crickets chirping*

Look, WTU/DCPS apologist, we already tried it your way for 20 years prior. Doing it your way is what got us schools as screwed up as they are.

Mmmmmmmmmmm so that's why the divide between black and white test scores are worst than ever. Keep believing the hype why don't you.

Oh, I see.

For decades, Washington DC was AA-run, overwhelming majority AA population, with horrible school results across the board. Now, there's a growing population of white folks who've moved in, and their white kids are doing better than the AA kids (who haven't changed and are still getting the same horrible results) but somehow now it's all suddenly the fault of white people.

Riiiiiiight.

[Anonymous]

The prominent alumni and the principal want to throw out all the neighborhood kids and start over with different kids.

I'm not sure where they think they'll find them.

Or whether they think the neighborhood kids will get a new school just for them, let's call it the "Lower Central Northwest DC High School for Pre-Dropouts." Maybe they should have never knocked down the old school and let it remain a pre-prison for area youth.

The Dunbar alumni, frankly, are late. If they wanted this they should have done it before the new school was ever occupied. At some point we decide geography counts for high school or not.

If not tell me how we will deal with what Dunbar alumni consider the dregs, because in DCPS high schools that population is probably the majority.

[Anonymous]

22"13: You can get help for your paranoia. Unfortunately, the racism is not so easily fixable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some other interesting data - the new Dunbar building has a capacity, I believe, of 1,100 students. There are about 500 enrolled (as of 2012-13 school year). Of the 500 enrolled, fewer than half (46%) are in-boundary.

As it stands right now, there's room for a sort of 50/50 solution. Word in the neighborhood is that the new Dunbar is Gray's pet project, so I'll be interested to see how the autonomy discussion develops.

So lovely to know they spent 122 million on a school that is less than 50% capacity.... with 17% at or above grade level for high school. What a joke...

DCPS is currently doing the same with Roosevelt. Not surprised.

[Anonymous]

Although I agree with most of the comments here, Dunbar needed a renovation. The old school looked like a jail!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Epic failure of DCPS. Fail to educate children in elementary school. These kids then go to very sub-par middle schools and now let's exclude those kids from attending most of the public high schools in DC.

And then we can blame the bureaucracy that we put in place.

When will someone stand up for the children of DC?

That's the only way we can improve test scores, because Rhee/Henderson/TFA/Charter Schools et al said it is ALL the teachers fault. Before you get voted out of DC you have to show some results.

Get those fresh out of "the best and the brightest" universities and give them 5 weeks training and a teaching certificate and test scores will rise!!!! When that doesn't work manipulate the test scores, open a multitude of charter schools to drain all the top talent, threaten the teachers and stress them out and fire the bottom x percent every year (Rhee documented tactic), control the media (Washington Post). Well all else fails bring in an outside agency to turn around your school with NO oversight (Friends of Bedford). Still failing, make your school an application school and fool all those around you by blowing lots of smoke and surround yourself with mirrors. When you read most of the posts on DCUM about failing or title I schools, their tactics apparently appear to be working well!!!

And your solution to improve the schools is.....?

*crickets chirping*

Look, WTU/DCPS apologist, we already tried it your way for 20 years prior. Doing it your way is what got us schools as screwed up as they are.

Mmmmmmmmmmm so that's why the divide between black and white test scores are worst than ever. Keep believing the hype why don't you.

Oh, I see.

For decades, Washington DC was AA-run, overwhelming majority AA population, with horrible school results across the board. Now, there's a growing population of white folks who've moved in, and their white kids are doing better than the AA kids (who haven't changed and are still getting the same horrible results) but somehow now it's all suddenly the fault of white people.

Riiiiiiight.

The white students are benefiting not anybody else. Do you really care? Do you live near Dunbar, have children that go to Dunbar, volunteer or teach at Dunbar or you just care about what happens to your children and just like to make throw away comments about everyone else. Easy to blame everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully these newly renovated high schools (Ballou, etc.) will motivate at risk elementary students (and their families) to do what's necessary to compete for limited seats when they reach high school. Maybe this strategy will work; knowing there are viable opportunities for their children if they take school seriously.

And do away with social promotion. The overhanging stigma of being left behind is a motivating factor.

This is too much money to spend without any kind of result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Epic failure of DCPS. Fail to educate children in elementary school. These kids then go to very sub-par middle schools and now let's exclude those kids from attending most of the public high schools in DC.

And then we can blame the bureaucracy that we put in place.

When will someone stand up for the children of DC?

That's the only way we can improve test scores, because Rhee/Henderson/TFA/Charter Schools et al said it is ALL the teachers fault. Before you get voted out of DC you have to show some results.

Get those fresh out of "the best and the brightest" universities and give them 5 weeks training and a teaching certificate and test scores will rise!!!! When that doesn't work manipulate the test scores, open a multitude of charter schools to drain all the top talent, threaten the teachers and stress them out and fire the bottom x percent every year (Rhee documented tactic), control the media (Washington Post). Well all else fails bring in an outside agency to turn around your school with NO oversight (Friends of Bedford). Still failing, make your school an application school and fool all those around you by blowing lots of smoke and surround yourself with mirrors. When you read most of the posts on DCUM about failing or title I schools, their tactics apparently appear to be working well!!!

And your solution to improve the schools is.....?

*crickets chirping*

Look, WTU/DCPS apologist, we already tried it your way for 20 years prior. Doing it your way is what got us schools as screwed up as they are.

Mmmmmmmmmmm so that's why the divide between black and white test scores are worst than ever. Keep believing the hype why don't you.

Oh, I see.

For decades, Washington DC was AA-run, overwhelming majority AA population, with horrible school results across the board. Now, there's a growing population of white folks who've moved in, and their white kids are doing better than the AA kids (who haven't changed and are still getting the same horrible results) but somehow now it's all suddenly the fault of white people.

Riiiiiiight.

The white students are benefiting not anybody else. Do you really care? Do you live near Dunbar, have children that go to Dunbar, volunteer or teach at Dunbar or you just care about what happens to your children and just like to make throw away comments about everyone else. Easy to blame everyone else.

"The white students are benefiting and nobody else is?" As though the mere presence of white kids suddenly, magically causes some new benefit to materialize - and for them only and at the expense of others? No, sorry, that's not how it works. The schools are what they always were, and if anything changes it is because parents get involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Epic failure of DCPS. Fail to educate children in elementary school. These kids then go to very sub-par middle schools and now let's exclude those kids from attending most of the public high schools in DC.

And then we can blame the bureaucracy that we put in place.

When will someone stand up for the children of DC?

That's the only way we can improve test scores, because Rhee/Henderson/TFA/Charter Schools et al said it is ALL the teachers fault. Before you get voted out of DC you have to show some results.

Get those fresh out of "the best and the brightest" universities and give them 5 weeks training and a teaching certificate and test scores will rise!!!! When that doesn't work manipulate the test scores, open a multitude of charter schools to drain all the top talent, threaten the teachers and stress them out and fire the bottom x percent every year (Rhee documented tactic), control the media (Washington Post). Well all else fails bring in an outside agency to turn around your school with NO oversight (Friends of Bedford). Still failing, make your school an application school and fool all those around you by blowing lots of smoke and surround yourself with mirrors. When you read most of the posts on DCUM about failing or title I schools, their tactics apparently appear to be working well!!!

And your solution to improve the schools is.....?

*crickets chirping*

Look, WTU/DCPS apologist, we already tried it your way for 20 years prior. Doing it your way is what got us schools as screwed up as they are.

Mmmmmmmmmmm so that's why the divide between black and white test scores are worst than ever. Keep believing the hype why don't you.

Oh, I see.

For decades, Washington DC was AA-run, overwhelming majority AA population, with horrible school results across the board. Now, there's a growing population of white folks who've moved in, and their white kids are doing better than the AA kids (who haven't changed and are still getting the same horrible results) but somehow now it's all suddenly the fault of white people.

Riiiiiiight.

+1. Thank you for the lucid analysis.

[Anonymous]

If I can throw in my fifty cents. I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only. The deplorable test scores for generations are due solely on Black cronyism. The politicians stole and or diverted money from the schools. Many schools did not have text books, biology equipment, chemistry labs, etc. The most glaring were the absent of text books for many kids. Some, not all, teachers became ROADs and failed to inspire or teach. First heroin and then Crack cocaine hit the city hard between 76 and 96 and anybody who had an opportunity to flee, fled.

The middle and upper class Black establishment left the city or sent their children to parochial/private. There wasn't any one left to ffight for the poor and low-income against the ineptness of DCPS. Along with many others, middle and uper income Blacks have returned to the city (parents home, etc) and are sending their kids to charters and DCPS.

I know some of you think it is only your children who are raising the scores, I would say not. It is the combination of educated Blacks, whites and Latinos that are causing the rise. But, you white folks can think it is all you and only you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I can throw in my fifty cents. I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only. The deplorable test scores for generations are due solely on Black cronyism. The politicians stole and or diverted money from the schools. Many schools did not have text books, biology equipment, chemistry labs, etc. The most glaring were the absent of text books for many kids. Some, not all, teachers became ROADs and failed to inspire or teach. First heroin and then Crack cocaine hit the city hard between 76 and 96 and anybody who had an opportunity to flee, fled.

The middle and upper class Black establishment left the city or sent their children to parochial/private. There wasn't any one left to ffight for the poor and low-income against the ineptness of DCPS. Along with many others, middle and uper income Blacks have returned to the city (parents home, etc) and are sending their kids to charters and DCPS.

I know some of you think it is only your children who are raising the scores, I would say not. It is the combination of educated Blacks, whites and Latinos that are causing the rise. But, you white folks can think it is all you and only you.

I don't think it's at all fair to characterize it as "white only". Nobody's trying to exclude anyone by race. But it always gets twisted into that whenever anyone tries to talk about raising the bar across the board. Raising the bar across the board, like offering G&T programs and magnets ADDS opportunities, it doesn't take them away. But no, not everyone will make the cut when it's admissions based. But then again, nobody makes the cut to get into Banneker either - that divides along certain economic strata as well. Not everyone makes it on to the football team either. But whenever an assumption arises that it will be a disproportionate amount of white kids it's always immediately twisted into being about "exclusion" and "whites only" and there's no longer any rational discussion to be had.

[Anonymous]

The problem is what to do with the children that the neighborhood schools send - they live geographically nearby and are the most likely feeders in all cases and are not academically prepared for the success the principal and alumni apparently dream of. I love that the principal especially is dreaming himself into a promotion from Dunbar Remedial High School into Dunbar Selective Prep.

The local students NEED A PLACE TO GO TO SCHOOL. Magnets are wonderful, but WHERE WILL THE LOCAL KIDS CONTINUE TO GO FOR HIGH SCHOOL?

[Anonymous]

Have your ever thought it is of "be careful of what you ask for, because you just might get it." It is not that Kaya doesn't know what she's doing, it is the mere fact that principal are lookiing at the "grass is greener on the other side." That is you have Wilson High School with a sense of autonomy and why can't the goose get what the gander gets? It shouldn't be a situation that you get autonomy as a reward but you should get it as an award. A test-in academy is not a bad idea because Woodson High School Business and Finance Academy had the same protocol and what was highly success and ranked nationally. The Pre-Engineering program at Dunbar had a similiar pre-requisite, so I do believe it is not a reinventing of the wheel.