Expectations for Future MS Differentiation EOTP

[Anonymous]

PP, solutions have been different since 4th grade but, first including pull-outs, then "tracking", then skipping a grade. There is a cohort, likely in every setting actually, just facing different levels of ability or willingness to work with that and make the best of it. Also, it takes an unbiased and anti-racist take to make it happen without the inevitable pitfalls. We see it at work in our DCPS setting, and that's what matters to me.

[Anonymous]

You're painting with too broad a brush. You absolutely get a cohort of bright kids at the strongest DC public charter middle school programs these days. The list is growing, and now includes Deal, Stuart Hobson, Hardy, Wash Latin, BASIS, DCI, Adams and possibly Two Rivers, Capitol City, Logan Montessori, Inspired Teaching and CMI.

What you don't get is a consistent push for kids who can work high above grade level to do so, other than at BASIS for math.

You also don't get great teaching across the board, strong writing instruction, or much individualized attention. Neither do you find a particularly rich humanities curriculum anywhere, or strong instruction in modern languages outside Adams. I speak two of the languages taught at DCI fluently, have volunteered there several times recently to work with the most "advanced" students studying both. I wasn't remotely impressed after all those years of immersion study.

In view of the above, many high SES parents are OK with getting the basics, or more, from one of the schools on the list and paying to supplement. Some pay to supplement a little, others go all out. The practice becomes less strange or unusual as time goes on in the City. DC parents dig in to avoid moving to Fairfax or MoCo for GT programs to get what they're looking for, or clobbering their retirement and college savings by paving for tony privates, where they may not like the cocoon arrangement anyway.

[Anonymous]

If you don't mind, please name the schools that are providing differentiation that some of you are mentioning....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind, please name the schools that are providing differentiation that some of you are mentioning....

I'm OP with kids who have benefited from an advanced math pathway in DCPS and say this: You're asking the wrong question. The way to look at it is that all schools do indeed look to help every student advance, including the already advanced. How exactly they do it depends on the size of the "cohort" they have, particular circumstances, and the leadership's response to it. PP's list is a good one (add Jefferson MS) but you can take my earlier question ("what would you do if my child tested...") to any middle school and get a sense. In conjunction with your attention to PARCC, whereby you should have a look at whether a school is able to sustain at least a few students in the 5th quintile, that's what can guide you.

All this said, middle school is a difficult place for many kids developmentally. While you can place all of the emphasis you want on academic excellence, you may find your student floundering around and goofing for other reasons. Finding the right fit of school culture (culture not color by the way) for your particular child, may be at least if not more important.

[Anonymous]

Face it folks, some kids got it, and some don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind, please name the schools that are providing differentiation that some of you are mentioning....

I'm OP with kids who have benefited from an advanced math pathway in DCPS and say this: You're asking the wrong question. The way to look at it is that all schools do indeed look to help every student advance, including the already advanced. How exactly they do it depends on the size of the "cohort" they have, particular circumstances, and the leadership's response to it. PP's list is a good one (add Jefferson MS) but you can take my earlier question ("what would you do if my child tested...") to any middle school and get a sense. In conjunction with your attention to PARCC, whereby you should have a look at whether a school is able to sustain at least a few students in the 5th quintile, that's what can guide you.

All this said, middle school is a difficult place for many kids developmentally. While you can place all of the emphasis you want on academic excellence, you may find your student floundering around and goofing for other reasons. Finding the right fit of school culture (culture not color by the way) for your particular child, may be at least if not more important.

To me, part of the problem is that the bar is set low in DCPS for ELA and humanities in general. My kid was one of those 5th quintile kids at a DCPS middle school. He always got 4s on report cards for ELA and 5s of the PARCC. But when we switched him to a private for 7th grade, he was deemed in need of extensive remedial education for writing. That's the reality that should guide us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Face it folks, some kids got it, and some don't.

Are you always this useless or just today?

[Anonymous]

In the end it’s still staffing, right?

Which makes me think a magnet concept at least in a small way makes sense. Like make sure that Algebra II for middle schoolers is always offered at Cardozo (point being, a centralized school somewhere) and then when families want it say “Cardozo has that for you” in addition to normal Cardozo school content. (And yes please go ahead and lay out your usual Cardozo students are knuckledraggers” complaint, it’s so helpful.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind, please name the schools that are providing differentiation that some of you are mentioning....

I'm OP with kids who have benefited from an advanced math pathway in DCPS and say this: You're asking the wrong question. The way to look at it is that all schools do indeed look to help every student advance, including the already advanced. How exactly they do it depends on the size of the "cohort" they have, particular circumstances, and the leadership's response to it. PP's list is a good one (add Jefferson MS) but you can take my earlier question ("what would you do if my child tested...") to any middle school and get a sense. In conjunction with your attention to PARCC, whereby you should have a look at whether a school is able to sustain at least a few students in the 5th quintile, that's what can guide you.

All this said, middle school is a difficult place for many kids developmentally. While you can place all of the emphasis you want on academic excellence, you may find your student floundering around and goofing for other reasons. Finding the right fit of school culture (culture not color by the way) for your particular child, may be at least if not more important.

To me, part of the problem is that the bar is set low in DCPS for ELA and humanities in general. My kid was one of those 5th quintile kids at a DCPS middle school. He always got 4s on report cards for ELA and 5s of the PARCC. But when we switched him to a private for 7th grade, he was deemed in need of extensive remedial education for writing. That's the reality that should guide us!

This is my fear...believing all is well! But in reality you are just ok. I've seen kids have self-esteem issues because of the exact scenario you mentioned. It's more about expectations than anything. Kids at good private schools are already accustom to what is expected. DCPS is more about grade-level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d recommend that you you look at affordable privates. Charter, DCPS, etc. all teach to the middle. There is nothing more disappointing than having advanced kids being stymied because a teacher is trying to kid the rest of the class to grade level. You can’t supplement an entire curriculum no matter what you do. DC’s lack of a magnet program is just sad. Just real advice from someone that just hit middle school.

Oh sure, all those affordable privates. We're Jewish and work for non-profits. We wouldn't be comfortable at "affordable" parochial schools running families around 20K a year, even if we could afford that kind of dough for two kids. We'll probably just move to the burbs.

Well I can save you time! Privatedont offer much differentiation either. We left private school because of this. Why pay a lot of money to have your child bored and working on unchallenging material?!

but at private you are much more likely to have a class of peers. My kid is at a Title 1 school and the gap is already glaring in kindergarten. Kids who know 50 sight words and kids who don't know the alphabet.

[Anonymous]

this was posted on the "teacher turnover" thread and is very very telling about why in class differentiation is a joke. I don't blame the teacher at all-this gap starts in Kindergarten and DCPS have such a low bar for promoting students each year. By middle school its all over:

"I was fired from DCPS due to my IMPACT score. It was my first year teaching. In all honesty, they should only hire teachers with +5 years of teaching experience for those low performing schools. I had no idea what I was doing. I came in ready to teach HS English only to find that 75% of my students were reading on a second grade level. How do you scaffold a 12th grade text down to that level? The behaviors were out of this world. I've never seen so many people walk off a job before. In the middle of class, people would just walk out and never come back.

If you can manage to be successful in that environment, there's a hefty payday waiting for you. I knew teachers who made well over six figures in addition to a $20k bonus every year. If you were like me, however, it makes sense that you'd leave or get fired. It reminds me of the old American Gladiators show. Most people couldn't compete, but every now and then you'd see one person come through and really put on a show. DCPS' mistake is thinking that they can teach the average person to run their gauntlet in just a year's time"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you don't mind, please name the schools that are providing differentiation that some of you are mentioning....

I'm OP with kids who have benefited from an advanced math pathway in DCPS and say this: You're asking the wrong question. The way to look at it is that all schools do indeed look to help every student advance, including the already advanced. How exactly they do it depends on the size of the "cohort" they have, particular circumstances, and the leadership's response to it. PP's list is a good one (add Jefferson MS) but you can take my earlier question ("what would you do if my child tested...") to any middle school and get a sense. In conjunction with your attention to PARCC, whereby you should have a look at whether a school is able to sustain at least a few students in the 5th quintile, that's what can guide you.

All this said, middle school is a difficult place for many kids developmentally. While you can place all of the emphasis you want on academic excellence, you may find your student floundering around and goofing for other reasons. Finding the right fit of school culture (culture not color by the way) for your particular child, may be at least if not more important.

To me, part of the problem is that the bar is set low in DCPS for ELA and humanities in general. My kid was one of those 5th quintile kids at a DCPS middle school. He always got 4s on report cards for ELA and 5s of the PARCC. But when we switched him to a private for 7th grade, he was deemed in need of extensive remedial education for writing. That's the reality that should guide us!

This is my fear...believing all is well! But in reality you are just ok. I've seen kids have self-esteem issues because of the exact scenario you mentioned. It's more about expectations than anything. Kids at good private schools are already accustom to what is expected. DCPS is more about grade-level.

Can someone tell me if "DCPS is more about grade-level" and "was getting 4s and 5s in DCPS but private deemed him in need of extensive remedial education" applies to the JKLMMs too?

[Anonymous]

Yes, applies to all DCPS schools, JKLM, Brent etc. The question is, what should your reaction be given your circumstances? Only you can an answer that. Some parents move to the burbs. Some go private from age 3 to 18, or just for ES, or MS, or HS. Some supplement extensively, others don't.

We don't like the cocoon atmosphere at many privates, though our two children would almost certainly be admitted to a good program if they applied. We could afford a strong parochial school, if not a pricey non-sectarian private like St. Albans or Sidwell.

What we do is stay in DCPS for now and work hard to compensate for a curriculum and teaching that is just OK. We supplement a good deal, and offer the kids incentives to work diligently on a variety of on-line programs (Khan Academy etc.). We also nudge them to read a lot independently, which they do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're painting with too broad a brush. You absolutely get a cohort of bright kids at the strongest DC public charter middle school programs these days. The list is growing, and now includes Deal, Stuart Hobson, Hardy, Wash Latin, BASIS, DCI, Adams and possibly Two Rivers, Capitol City, Logan Montessori, Inspired Teaching and CMI.

What you don't get is a consistent push for kids who can work high above grade level to do so, other than at BASIS for math.

You also don't get great teaching across the board, strong writing instruction, or much individualized attention. Neither do you find a particularly rich humanities curriculum anywhere, or strong instruction in modern languages outside Adams. I speak two of the languages taught at DCI fluently, have volunteered there several times recently to work with the most "advanced" students studying both. I wasn't remotely impressed after all those years of immersion study.

In view of the above, many high SES parents are OK with getting the basics, or more, from one of the schools on the list and paying to supplement. Some pay to supplement a little, others go all out. The practice becomes less strange or unusual as time goes on in the City. DC parents dig in to avoid moving to Fairfax or MoCo for GT programs to get what they're looking for, or clobbering their retirement and college savings by paving for tony privates, where they may not like the cocoon arrangement anyway.

almost all the schools you named are charters, some very very difficult to get into. Or you need a million dollars to buy in woodly park or tenley town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're painting with too broad a brush. You absolutely get a cohort of bright kids at the strongest DC public charter middle school programs these days. The list is growing, and now includes Deal, Stuart Hobson, Hardy, Wash Latin, BASIS, DCI, Adams and possibly Two Rivers, Capitol City, Logan Montessori, Inspired Teaching and CMI.

What you don't get is a consistent push for kids who can work high above grade level to do so, other than at BASIS for math.

You also don't get great teaching across the board, strong writing instruction, or much individualized attention. Neither do you find a particularly rich humanities curriculum anywhere, or strong instruction in modern languages outside Adams. I speak two of the languages taught at DCI fluently, have volunteered there several times recently to work with the most "advanced" students studying both. I wasn't remotely impressed after all those years of immersion study.

In view of the above, many high SES parents are OK with getting the basics, or more, from one of the schools on the list and paying to supplement. Some pay to supplement a little, others go all out. The practice becomes less strange or unusual as time goes on in the City. DC parents dig in to avoid moving to Fairfax or MoCo for GT programs to get what they're looking for, or clobbering their retirement and college savings by paving for tony privates, where they may not like the cocoon arrangement anyway.

almost all the schools you named are charters, some very very difficult to get into. Or you need a million dollars to buy in woodly park or tenley town.

Not at the late es or middle school level.