New Jackson-Reed HS (Wilson HS) School Principal - Sah Brown from Eastern High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, Sah Brown is a tall, dark skinned black man. That may be informing the perceived lack of deference that was shown to the IB Mommy who wanted to have her ass kissed and some of the unease at having a black man from a school with poor kids taking over JR. The subtext here is "Can a black man really understand the UMC needs of our JR population?"

He went to Lehigh University for undergrad. He knows the UMC and UC.

huh ever stop to think … that black people can be UMC themselves? shocker I know!!!

Holy shit, right!!! I cannot believe someone typed that and hit "PUBLISH"

I just imagine the incredibly thick skin professional black people must have … “Oh, I guess you KNOW middle class people since you went to college?”

professional = work dealings

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That principal?!

We live on Capitol Hill. My spouse and I met with Brown when when we were looking into the IB Diploma program at Eastern for our oldest in early 2020, before the pandemic began.

Brown seemed clueless about what it would take to attract high SES in-boundary families like ours to Eastern, without any real interest in doing so. He claimed that the program offered "real rigor and challenge to all" repeatedly, and wouldn't answer our questions about Eastern's average IBD points totals. He also wouldn't talk about how many of the "full Diploma" students at Eastern actually earn the Diploma.

Later on, we learned that Eastern's average points total has been mired in the mid 20s, on a 24-45 points pass scale, since the program's inception a decade ago. We also learned that most of the Eastern students who try to earn the Diploma have failed since the get go. We left the meeting unimpressed with Brown and Eastern's IBD program and didn't enroll our child.

So, let me get this right. You walked into this man’s office with your white hood on, took it off, handed it to him and asked him to put it on. He rebuffed your offer and you decided you didn’t like him. Eastern HS kids test poorly due to various reasons (poverty, trauma, inequality, etc). He does not have to explain any of that to you. Your child could have obtained a good education there, but your classism and racism prevented you from entertaining the thought of your child in that school.

ha ha, normally I dislike this kind of invective, but seems to hit the mark.

PP who talked to Brown. My spouse and I are people of color who come from working-class backgrounds. We attended college on full Pell Grants.

We wouldn't have bothered going to Eastern to speak to Brown if we hadn't been trying to keep an open mind. What are you posters slamming us celebrating? Brown's able leadership at Eastern?

I agree with you. I work for a neighborhood organization and Principal Sah asked for a meeting with us. He said he was interested in attracting more in-boundariy students but he was clueless how to do it. He shot down any ideas that were brought up and acted like in-boundary students should attend just because. It was a weird meeting

So basically it’s the same prisoners dilemma that none of us know how to break out of. If Hill parents send their kids to Eastern then the IB diploma rates would be much better. The advanced program everyone claims to want is literally there. All they have to do is send their kids. He’s not wrong. Parents need to organize themselves to send their kids en masse - this is a parent problem.

Exactly. I’m white and volunteered at Eastern over a decade ago.

Snap your fingers, hold a parent meeting or two and, voila, a sizeable cohort of in-boundary families rushes to Eastern for 9th grade. Are you even vaguely aware that very few UMC families in Ward 6 even bother with DCPS middle schools? So they're going to drop out of privates, Latin and BASIS to rush to Eastern as a group? Silly.

If that’s your belief, why are you posting here? So Ward 6 families are a lost cause and Eastern will always be majority OOB.

Like it or not, making a school likr Eastern and IB school takes drive and willpower from parents en masse. And that just is not happening, and it’s the fault od the parents primarily for failing to organize in this particular case. Point being, it is not the principal’s fault.

That is BS. It is not the parents fault. It is DCPS fault for not meeting the needs of these kids and putting kids 3-4 grade levels apart in the same class. Actually have tracking in all courses like all the suburban middle and high schools around do and the families will come.

Instead DCPS only cares about the bottom and lowers academic rigor with the top to close the achievement gap. They DGAF about anybody else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That principal?!

We live on Capitol Hill. My spouse and I met with Brown when when we were looking into the IB Diploma program at Eastern for our oldest in early 2020, before the pandemic began.

Brown seemed clueless about what it would take to attract high SES in-boundary families like ours to Eastern, without any real interest in doing so. He claimed that the program offered "real rigor and challenge to all" repeatedly, and wouldn't answer our questions about Eastern's average IBD points totals. He also wouldn't talk about how many of the "full Diploma" students at Eastern actually earn the Diploma.

Later on, we learned that Eastern's average points total has been mired in the mid 20s, on a 24-45 points pass scale, since the program's inception a decade ago. We also learned that most of the Eastern students who try to earn the Diploma have failed since the get go. We left the meeting unimpressed with Brown and Eastern's IBD program and didn't enroll our child.

So, let me get this right. You walked into this man’s office with your white hood on, took it off, handed it to him and asked him to put it on. He rebuffed your offer and you decided you didn’t like him. Eastern HS kids test poorly due to various reasons (poverty, trauma, inequality, etc). He does not have to explain any of that to you. Your child could have obtained a good education there, but your classism and racism prevented you from entertaining the thought of your child in that school.

ha ha, normally I dislike this kind of invective, but seems to hit the mark.

PP who talked to Brown. My spouse and I are people of color who come from working-class backgrounds. We attended college on full Pell Grants.

We wouldn't have bothered going to Eastern to speak to Brown if we hadn't been trying to keep an open mind. What are you posters slamming us celebrating? Brown's able leadership at Eastern?

I agree with you. I work for a neighborhood organization and Principal Sah asked for a meeting with us. He said he was interested in attracting more in-boundariy students but he was clueless how to do it. He shot down any ideas that were brought up and acted like in-boundary students should attend just because. It was a weird meeting

So basically it’s the same prisoners dilemma that none of us know how to break out of. If Hill parents send their kids to Eastern then the IB diploma rates would be much better. The advanced program everyone claims to want is literally there. All they have to do is send their kids. He’s not wrong. Parents need to organize themselves to send their kids en masse - this is a parent problem.

Exactly. I’m white and volunteered at Eastern over a decade ago.

Snap your fingers, hold a parent meeting or two and, voila, a sizeable cohort of in-boundary families rushes to Eastern for 9th grade. Are you even vaguely aware that very few UMC families in Ward 6 even bother with DCPS middle schools? So they're going to drop out of privates, Latin and BASIS to rush to Eastern as a group? Silly.

If that’s your belief, why are you posting here? So Ward 6 families are a lost cause and Eastern will always be majority OOB.

Like it or not, making a school likr Eastern and IB school takes drive and willpower from parents en masse. And that just is not happening, and it’s the fault od the parents primarily for failing to organize in this particular case. Point being, it is not the principal’s fault.

That is BS. It is not the parents fault. It is DCPS fault for not meeting the needs of these kids and putting kids 3-4 grade levels apart in the same class. Actually have tracking in all courses like all the suburban middle and high schools around do and the families will come.

Instead DCPS only cares about the bottom and lowers academic rigor with the top to close the achievement gap. They DGAF about anybody else.

It’s a race to the bottom. The end.

[Anonymous]

There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

FYI, the "forest" is the "big picture". If you are are going to use a phrase maybe understand what it means?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

I mean, what ELSE is he supposed to do? Just imagine how outraged DCUM would be if a principal of a high-performing school spent a lot of time advocating for an at-risk set aside OOB for the school, or directing resources towards the bottom performers. I don't even have to imagine, because I already know.

While it is true, and there are examples of, school principals making a concerted effort to get IB families to attend the school, it doesn't follow that a principal is doing something wrong to prioritize the kids *actually at the school.* I'm not exactly sure how it worked at Hardy, but in the examples I know about on the Hill, getting IB buy-in was a family-led effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

I mean, what ELSE is he supposed to do? Just imagine how outraged DCUM would be if a principal of a high-performing school spent a lot of time advocating for an at-risk set aside OOB for the school, or directing resources towards the bottom performers. I don't even have to imagine, because I already know.

While it is true, and there are examples of, school principals making a concerted effort to get IB families to attend the school, it doesn't follow that a principal is doing something wrong to prioritize the kids *actually at the school.* I'm not exactly sure how it worked at Hardy, but in the examples I know about on the Hill, getting IB buy-in was a family-led effort.

dp: I don’t know if the principal is to blame. I do know that DCPS should care and should task the principal with increasing IB enrollment. Because that’s how a competent school system would work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That principal?!

We live on Capitol Hill. My spouse and I met with Brown when when we were looking into the IB Diploma program at Eastern for our oldest in early 2020, before the pandemic began.

Brown seemed clueless about what it would take to attract high SES in-boundary families like ours to Eastern, without any real interest in doing so. He claimed that the program offered "real rigor and challenge to all" repeatedly, and wouldn't answer our questions about Eastern's average IBD points totals. He also wouldn't talk about how many of the "full Diploma" students at Eastern actually earn the Diploma.

Later on, we learned that Eastern's average points total has been mired in the mid 20s, on a 24-45 points pass scale, since the program's inception a decade ago. We also learned that most of the Eastern students who try to earn the Diploma have failed since the get go. We left the meeting unimpressed with Brown and Eastern's IBD program and didn't enroll our child.

So, let me get this right. You walked into this man’s office with your white hood on, took it off, handed it to him and asked him to put it on. He rebuffed your offer and you decided you didn’t like him. Eastern HS kids test poorly due to various reasons (poverty, trauma, inequality, etc). He does not have to explain any of that to you. Your child could have obtained a good education there, but your classism and racism prevented you from entertaining the thought of your child in that school.

ha ha, normally I dislike this kind of invective, but seems to hit the mark.

PP who talked to Brown. My spouse and I are people of color who come from working-class backgrounds. We attended college on full Pell Grants.

We wouldn't have bothered going to Eastern to speak to Brown if we hadn't been trying to keep an open mind. What are you posters slamming us celebrating? Brown's able leadership at Eastern?

I agree with you. I work for a neighborhood organization and Principal Sah asked for a meeting with us. He said he was interested in attracting more in-boundariy students but he was clueless how to do it. He shot down any ideas that were brought up and acted like in-boundary students should attend just because. It was a weird meeting

So basically it’s the same prisoners dilemma that none of us know how to break out of. If Hill parents send their kids to Eastern then the IB diploma rates would be much better. The advanced program everyone claims to want is literally there. All they have to do is send their kids. He’s not wrong. Parents need to organize themselves to send their kids en masse - this is a parent problem.

Exactly. I’m white and volunteered at Eastern over a decade ago.

Snap your fingers, hold a parent meeting or two and, voila, a sizeable cohort of in-boundary families rushes to Eastern for 9th grade. Are you even vaguely aware that very few UMC families in Ward 6 even bother with DCPS middle schools? So they're going to drop out of privates, Latin and BASIS to rush to Eastern as a group? Silly.

If that’s your belief, why are you posting here? So Ward 6 families are a lost cause and Eastern will always be majority OOB.

Like it or not, making a school likr Eastern and IB school takes drive and willpower from parents en masse. And that just is not happening, and it’s the fault od the parents primarily for failing to organize in this particular case. Point being, it is not the principal’s fault.

Parents have been trying o figure this out for decades. It cannot work without effort from the school as well. And it cannot work until they solve the middle school problem. Families that have choices will have their limits so, if the school system wants to improve, it needs to actually see having children from UMC families join the schools as a goal. If they have another plan for improving the school system they should explain that and go forth with that plan. What is I see is no DCPS plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

I mean, what ELSE is he supposed to do? Just imagine how outraged DCUM would be if a principal of a high-performing school spent a lot of time advocating for an at-risk set aside OOB for the school, or directing resources towards the bottom performers. I don't even have to imagine, because I already know.

While it is true, and there are examples of, school principals making a concerted effort to get IB families to attend the school, it doesn't follow that a principal is doing something wrong to prioritize the kids *actually at the school.* I'm not exactly sure how it worked at Hardy, but in the examples I know about on the Hill, getting IB buy-in was a family-led effort.

I think it would be HILARIOUS if Sah decide to focus on the kids he wanted to enroll instead of the ones currently enrolled at JR. The DCUM boards would light up with complaints about his focus being on social engineering and equity instead of serving the community enrolled. It would the the same posters now complaining that he isn't focusing on the not enrolled families. And they would see neither the irony nor hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My magnet high school was an IB school growing up, and it helped me get in a great college and grad school. I’m not OP, there are more than one family on the Hill that rose above generational poverty.

My point is that I also met Principal Brown at my local ANC. We were very interested in Eastern’s IB program. Principal Brown believes himself to be a “transformational education leader” by the way. He touted some vague parcc ELA increase at eastern, but couldn’t answer basic questions about the IB program at eastern. I did a lot of research and also visited dci where they answered these questions easily. There is something to be said about someone who refuses to answer basic questions. We also opted not to attend eastern, simply because the academics are weak, and there is a serious problem with lack of rigor. I don’t know how that means I’m racist, but I think my brown kids deserve a good education as well. I think all kids in dc deserve a great education! But I do not for a second think you’ll find that at Eastern High. I think that principal Brown isn’t to blame for all the problems at Eastern, but I certainly think he did little to nothing to remediate them. He also did little to nothing to attract inbound families to the school. Fwiw charter schools do a lot to attract parents, and I think quite often this benefits the charter. No one is saying entitled white parents get to run the show, but I do think a certain amount of parent buy-in is vital. And Brown gave no indication to me that he was interested in improving anything outside of his own resume. Good luck to JR Families.

To me, the issue is not with families that intend to use the public (DCPS or charter) schools asking hard questions of principals or teachers. God knows, my partner and I did plenty of that in 18 years of having a kid in DCPS.

The issue, to me, is all of the posters who DON'T use the schools but seem to believe that the highest and best aim of DCPS should be implementing one hare-brained scheme after another to chase the dream of maybe, possibly attracting UMC kids instead of focusing on educating the kids who actually show up at the school every day. Urban school districts all over the country are doing this with immersion programs and all sorts of other specialized programs, some of which seem like odd, fleeting fads, and none of which are clearly improving the lives of the kids in those schools.

It's also insane and infuriating to me that UMC people on DCUM constantly post about how gentrification is great because it "improves the schools" -- by which they seem to mean it raises the average test scores for tests taken by whatever kids happen to be in the building when the test is administered. It's like they think the building is what matters, not the kids. They don't seem to care that improved results come by changing the kids who go to the school -- pushing out poor minority kids and replacing them with wealthy white kids. To me, that's not improving the schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My magnet high school was an IB school growing up, and it helped me get in a great college and grad school. I’m not OP, there are more than one family on the Hill that rose above generational poverty.

My point is that I also met Principal Brown at my local ANC. We were very interested in Eastern’s IB program. Principal Brown believes himself to be a “transformational education leader” by the way. He touted some vague parcc ELA increase at eastern, but couldn’t answer basic questions about the IB program at eastern. I did a lot of research and also visited dci where they answered these questions easily. There is something to be said about someone who refuses to answer basic questions. We also opted not to attend eastern, simply because the academics are weak, and there is a serious problem with lack of rigor. I don’t know how that means I’m racist, but I think my brown kids deserve a good education as well. I think all kids in dc deserve a great education! But I do not for a second think you’ll find that at Eastern High. I think that principal Brown isn’t to blame for all the problems at Eastern, but I certainly think he did little to nothing to remediate them. He also did little to nothing to attract inbound families to the school. Fwiw charter schools do a lot to attract parents, and I think quite often this benefits the charter. No one is saying entitled white parents get to run the show, but I do think a certain amount of parent buy-in is vital. And Brown gave no indication to me that he was interested in improving anything outside of his own resume. Good luck to JR Families.

To me, the issue is not with families that intend to use the public (DCPS or charter) schools asking hard questions of principals or teachers. God knows, my partner and I did plenty of that in 18 years of having a kid in DCPS.

The issue, to me, is all of the posters who DON'T use the schools but seem to believe that the highest and best aim of DCPS should be implementing one hare-brained scheme after another to chase the dream of maybe, possibly attracting UMC kids instead of focusing on educating the kids who actually show up at the school every day. Urban school districts all over the country are doing this with immersion programs and all sorts of other specialized programs, some of which seem like odd, fleeting fads, and none of which are clearly improving the lives of the kids in those schools.

It's also insane and infuriating to me that UMC people on DCUM constantly post about how gentrification is great because it "improves the schools" -- by which they seem to mean it raises the average test scores for tests taken by whatever kids happen to be in the building when the test is administered. It's like they think the building is what matters, not the kids. They don't seem to care that improved results come by changing the kids who go to the school -- pushing out poor minority kids and replacing them with wealthy white kids. To me, that's not improving the schools.

DP: Research says that gains for high needs students are greatest in integrated schools that are *minority* high needs, like schools with 70% or more grade-level students. It’s in everyone’s interest for the high SES students to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

I mean, what ELSE is he supposed to do? Just imagine how outraged DCUM would be if a principal of a high-performing school spent a lot of time advocating for an at-risk set aside OOB for the school, or directing resources towards the bottom performers. I don't even have to imagine, because I already know.

While it is true, and there are examples of, school principals making a concerted effort to get IB families to attend the school, it doesn't follow that a principal is doing something wrong to prioritize the kids *actually at the school.* I'm not exactly sure how it worked at Hardy, but in the examples I know about on the Hill, getting IB buy-in was a family-led effort.

The fact that no one sends their children to their in-boundary public high school because expectations are set so incredibly low is an embarrassment and should be a scandal.

A principal could easily be serving the children attending the school, while taking steps to be welcoming to parents who expect academic rigor. This principal chose not to make the barest of efforts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My magnet high school was an IB school growing up, and it helped me get in a great college and grad school. I’m not OP, there are more than one family on the Hill that rose above generational poverty.

My point is that I also met Principal Brown at my local ANC. We were very interested in Eastern’s IB program. Principal Brown believes himself to be a “transformational education leader” by the way. He touted some vague parcc ELA increase at eastern, but couldn’t answer basic questions about the IB program at eastern. I did a lot of research and also visited dci where they answered these questions easily. There is something to be said about someone who refuses to answer basic questions. We also opted not to attend eastern, simply because the academics are weak, and there is a serious problem with lack of rigor. I don’t know how that means I’m racist, but I think my brown kids deserve a good education as well. I think all kids in dc deserve a great education! But I do not for a second think you’ll find that at Eastern High. I think that principal Brown isn’t to blame for all the problems at Eastern, but I certainly think he did little to nothing to remediate them. He also did little to nothing to attract inbound families to the school. Fwiw charter schools do a lot to attract parents, and I think quite often this benefits the charter. No one is saying entitled white parents get to run the show, but I do think a certain amount of parent buy-in is vital. And Brown gave no indication to me that he was interested in improving anything outside of his own resume. Good luck to JR Families.

To me, the issue is not with families that intend to use the public (DCPS or charter) schools asking hard questions of principals or teachers. God knows, my partner and I did plenty of that in 18 years of having a kid in DCPS.

The issue, to me, is all of the posters who DON'T use the schools but seem to believe that the highest and best aim of DCPS should be implementing one hare-brained scheme after another to chase the dream of maybe, possibly attracting UMC kids instead of focusing on educating the kids who actually show up at the school every day. Urban school districts all over the country are doing this with immersion programs and all sorts of other specialized programs, some of which seem like odd, fleeting fads, and none of which are clearly improving the lives of the kids in those schools.

It's also insane and infuriating to me that UMC people on DCUM constantly post about how gentrification is great because it "improves the schools" -- by which they seem to mean it raises the average test scores for tests taken by whatever kids happen to be in the building when the test is administered. It's like they think the building is what matters, not the kids. They don't seem to care that improved results come by changing the kids who go to the school -- pushing out poor minority kids and replacing them with wealthy white kids. To me, that's not improving the schools.

DP: Research says that gains for high needs students are greatest in integrated schools that are *minority* high needs, like schools with 70% or more grade-level students. It’s in everyone’s interest for the high SES students to attend.

This is exactly right. If you know anything about teaching and education, you would realize it is very difficult to succeed without a mix of kids. It is best for everyone to have inboundary students along with the out of boundary kids. Kids from Ward 8 who attend Eastern would most likely prefer a stronger more vibrant Eastern HS. The school is underenrolled. More students would mean more $$, more sports and clubs, more course offerings. The principal is being short sighted by not making an effort to attract in boundary students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is school choice in dc. Parents don’t want to drive across town for a decent high school. Homeowners in ward 6 are very interested in raising their home values by touting awesome schools nearby. Everyone wants eastern to succeed for selfish and not so selfish reasons. But the truth of the matter is that eastern doesn’t care about luring parents to their school. They’re content with doing the bare minimum and watching as Capitol Hill parents go elsewhere. That is a failure.

And everyone here who makes excuses for the school and believes that the principal should only serve the kids at his school contribute to that failure.

They can’t see the forest for the trees and the big picture.

I mean, what ELSE is he supposed to do? Just imagine how outraged DCUM would be if a principal of a high-performing school spent a lot of time advocating for an at-risk set aside OOB for the school, or directing resources towards the bottom performers. I don't even have to imagine, because I already know.

While it is true, and there are examples of, school principals making a concerted effort to get IB families to attend the school, it doesn't follow that a principal is doing something wrong to prioritize the kids *actually at the school.* I'm not exactly sure how it worked at Hardy, but in the examples I know about on the Hill, getting IB buy-in was a family-led effort.

The fact that no one sends their children to their in-boundary public high school because expectations are set so incredibly low is an embarrassment and should be a scandal.

A principal could easily be serving the children attending the school, while taking steps to be welcoming to parents who expect academic rigor. This principal chose not to make the barest of efforts.

The moment you say solutions or actions to correct, remediate or improve public education is "easy" you expose yourself as a fool who is uneducated and unserious about the subject and efforts to improve it.