DCPS Elementary Schools Question

[Anonymous]

Is there much difference between Janney and Hearst? Someone told me that they would be ok if her child got into Janney but they are zoned for Hearst, which she claimed is unacceptable. This struck me as an odd statement given the neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

There are lots of differences, so it depends on how you define "unacceptable."

--Janney is mostly in-bound and thus pretty heterogeneous. Hearst has many out-of-bounds families and is more diverse.

--Janney has 600+ students and is busting at the seams. Some grade levels have 4 or more classes and each class packed. Hearst has about 275 students, 2 classes her grade, most classes capped at 20 kids.

--Janney gets better test scores. Lots of potential reasons for this that I don't have time to lay out right now.

It really depends on what you are looking for in a school. My kids happen to go to Hearst and we are very happy, so obviously I don't find it "unacceptable." I appreciate the close-knit community, the small class size, the committed faculty, and the diverse population of the school. Sure, I'd love the overall test scores to be better but my kids do very well academically. We have friends and family at other DCPS schools and I see no difference in their kids' academic abilities.

We welcome all families, in-bound and out-of-bound, to be part of our community, but honestly, if your friend deems our school "unacceptable" without knowing anything about it other than some statistics, then she'd probably be happier elsewhere (and probably shouldn't have bought a house in-bound for Hearst, since there is no chance she will get into Janney OOB).

[Anonymous]

Let's lay it out there, super-raw, and have other people qualify it around the edges:

Hearst has way more black students from east-of-the-Park and way fewer children of families with $1M homes.

Slice, dice and qualify it, and I'm sure your friend wouldn't put it that way openly in 2013 in DC, but them's the breaks.

[Anonymous]

That someone told you that Janney would be just OK for her kids and Hearst unacceptable ?
What a PITA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Let's lay it out there, super-raw, and have other people qualify it around the edges:

Hearst has way more black students from east-of-the-Park and way fewer children of families with $1M homes.

Slice, dice and qualify it, and I'm sure your friend wouldn't put it that way openly in 2013 in DC, but them's the breaks.

OP here. Thank you. This is actually what I suspected. I am reconsidering my opinion of this person. I don't know much about Hearst but this was my initial thought, just wanted to check with people who might know. People are endlessly disappointing me.

[Anonymous]

OP there's also the OOB factor. We considered a hearst-zoned school, but while we have no issue with the diversity or the student population there, Hearst is 88% OOB, which really makes it not a neighborhood school.

To me being able to walk to friends' houses, play in the alley with school buddies etc. is really important. It helps build the sense of community as well.

Hearst's figures suggest that won't happen.

[Anonymous]

So what will you do, pp, move? If you go OOB or to a charter, you won't have that either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's lay it out there, super-raw, and have other people qualify it around the edges:

Hearst has way more black students from east-of-the-Park and way fewer children of families with $1M homes.

Slice, dice and qualify it, and I'm sure your friend wouldn't put it that way openly in 2013 in DC, but them's the breaks.

OP here. Thank you. This is actually what I suspected. I am reconsidering my opinion of this person. I don't know much about Hearst but this was my initial thought, just wanted to check with people who might know. People are endlessly disappointing me.

It's probably a little more nuanced than that - SES has a lot to do with it.

OP, if you find this distasteful, you must also find the many people who live east of the park and send their kids to charter schools distasteful as well. You're going to be pretty lonely if that's your criteria for friendship.

[Anonymous]

OP, before completely condemning your friend, ask why she feels the way she does. Test levels for reading and math are only at 60%, as compared to 90% for Janney. I would assume that would mean that the teachers will spend a good amount of time working with the 40% of students who are not at grade level, leaving the rest of the class who is at grade level not learning up to their potential because of the diverted teacher time. Wouldn't the test scores alone give you at least some pause-- especially if you had the means to send your children elsewhere? Of course, test scores are not everything, but I think they are a valid factor to consider when choosing a school that is the best fit for your child. And the fact is that only 20% of in-bounds Hearst families send their kids there, so your friend is certainly not alone in her thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP there's also the OOB factor. We considered a hearst-zoned school, but while we have no issue with the diversity or the student population there, Hearst is 88% OOB, which really makes it not a neighborhood school.

To me being able to walk to friends' houses, play in the alley with school buddies etc. is really important. It helps build the sense of community as well.

Hearst's figures suggest that won't happen.

Well 83%

It's interesting to me that schools with very high OOB populations weren't considered for closing. If a school is designed to serve a neighborhood and less than 20% of the neighborhood is utilizing it, maybe they should close it.

. Sure the test scores were by DCPS standards good and by more objective standards closer to medicore.

[Anonymous]

One big distinction that I would make between Janney and Hearst is the infrastructure. Once Hearst gains a cafteria, gym etc. through the renovation, I'm sure more people will be interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Well 83%

It's interesting to me that schools with very high OOB populations weren't considered for closing. If a school is designed to serve a neighborhood and less than 20% of the neighborhood is utilizing it, maybe they should close it.

. Sure the test scores were by DCPS standards good and by more objective standards closer to medicore.

I have no idea where this 20% number is coming from (that less than 20% of the neighborhood is utilizing it); is there some source for that? I am not aware of any statistics that can tell you what % of an in-bounds population actually go to the neighborhood school. 17% in bounds at the school does not mean that only 17% of in bounds families are choosing to go there. In fact the Hearst boundaries are quite small and I think it's conceivable that even if every elementary school-aged kid in the neighborhood went there it would only be at about capacity.

And I will just point out the obvious, which is that if more neighborhood families chose it it would become more of a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

I would like to point out something when considering why Hearst has a low in-bound percentage. There are many issues at play here, but one of them is simply geography. Other nearby schools with high in-bound percentages also have a much higher number of actual families to draw from. If you look at the Hearst boundaries, you realize that a huge part of that boundary includes UDC, 20+ embassies, 5 school campuses, Fannie Mae, Rock Creek Park, Hearst Park, and a retirement home. You can also rule out the $1m+ houses on Tilden and Upton, who wouldn't send their kids to any public school. So that leaves less than 20 city blocks or so of actual families that might consider Hearst. This is a much smaller number than other neighborhoods. Even if every school-aged kid in boundary went to Hearst it still wouldn't even fill the school to capacity.

The IB numbers will be shifting soon enough. The pre-k and kindergarten classes are closer to 30% in-bound and everyone we know is staying except a few people who are leaving the area altogether.

And to the person who is ruling out the neighborhood because you want a neighborhood school, I had that concern as well but I can tell you that we've made many local friends, regularly walk to and from school with other kids, have other parents pick up our kids when we are late, etc. Sure, I'd love to have even more neighbors go to Hearst but I don't feel isolated. And we enjoy hanging out with friends in other neighborhoods as well.

[Anonymous]

Well stated, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Well 83%

It's interesting to me that schools with very high OOB populations weren't considered for closing. If a school is designed to serve a neighborhood and less than 20% of the neighborhood is utilizing it, maybe they should close it.

. Sure the test scores were by DCPS standards good and by more objective standards closer to medicore.

I have no idea where this 20% number is coming from (that less than 20% of the neighborhood is utilizing it); is there some source for that? I am not aware of any statistics that can tell you what % of an in-bounds population actually go to the neighborhood school. 17% in bounds at the school does not mean that only 17% of in bounds families are choosing to go there. In fact the Hearst boundaries are quite small and I think it's conceivable that even if every elementary school-aged kid in the neighborhood went there it would only be at about capacity.

And I will just point out the obvious, which is that if more neighborhood families chose it it would become more of a neighborhood school.

Yo. Check out the DCPS school profiles, which include in-boundary numbers:

http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Hearst+Elementary+School

It's not exactly a state secret.