Shaw Middle School -- what's the plan?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland and Roosevelt are on the same block and have their own principals.

What's your point?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland and Roosevelt are on the same block and have their own principals.

What's your point?

+1. Separate principals is best. Sorry but APs do not stick around indefinitely, and being principal of one troubled school is a full time job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^THIS^^^ This in the end is why you lose. Because they don’t believe you are in any way committed to attend.

Because quite frankly, they’re not committed. They will absolutely leave for middle and high school. They’ll sell their houses and move to the suburbs, citing the need for more space and definitely not the schools as their reason. The ones who can’t do that will enter the lottery for mediocre charter middle school options or try for private - anything without a DCPS label on it - and later they’ll explain why it was the right decision for their kid but ho hum DCPS better work on a better middle school pattern!

I know a bunch of people who are actively lobbying DCPS to “save” Shaw middle school. None of them will actually consider sending their kids to DCPS middle school. That would not change if there was a Shaw middle school.

So what makes it okay for Cardozo Middle to carry on the way it is now? Oh no, high-SES kids will never enroll, guess that means we can treat the kids who go to Cardozo like crap?

What do you want them to have--better separation from the high schoolers (though you probably don't know how separated they are now)? A dedicated principal with a contract longer than one year? Different extracurriculars or course offerings (if so, what)? Not one of these things requires its own building. If the PTA presidents (or other families) from Cardozo feeders grouped up and talked with the Cardozo MS AP and principal to ask how they could help, what would they hear? I bet it would not be "lobby furiously for a dedicated MS building in Shaw."

They are not separate enough because they are together at arrival and dismissal. And because having to jointly administer a building between two struggling schools is a level of complexity they do not need.

I am not aware of any middle school sited with a high school that has its own principal.

OK, so it sounds like what you want to advocate for is staggered arrival and dismissal times and a separate principal. Those seem doable (though I have no idea if this is what would really make things better for Cardozo MS students) and definitely don't require constructing a separate building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The ice rink would have been nice, too https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/13123687/ice-skating-rink-coming-to-shaw

Can parents of kids enrolled in the feeders speak to where those kids actually end up for middle & high school?

Sure. We ended up in private, at least for middle school (where we are now with 1 year left).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^THIS^^^ This in the end is why you lose. Because they don’t believe you are in any way committed to attend.

Because quite frankly, they’re not committed. They will absolutely leave for middle and high school. They’ll sell their houses and move to the suburbs, citing the need for more space and definitely not the schools as their reason. The ones who can’t do that will enter the lottery for mediocre charter middle school options or try for private - anything without a DCPS label on it - and later they’ll explain why it was the right decision for their kid but ho hum DCPS better work on a better middle school pattern!

I know a bunch of people who are actively lobbying DCPS to “save” Shaw middle school. None of them will actually consider sending their kids to DCPS middle school. That would not change if there was a Shaw middle school.

So what makes it okay for Cardozo Middle to carry on the way it is now? Oh no, high-SES kids will never enroll, guess that means we can treat the kids who go to Cardozo like crap?

What do you want them to have--better separation from the high schoolers (though you probably don't know how separated they are now)? A dedicated principal with a contract longer than one year? Different extracurriculars or course offerings (if so, what)? Not one of these things requires its own building. If the PTA presidents (or other families) from Cardozo feeders grouped up and talked with the Cardozo MS AP and principal to ask how they could help, what would they hear? I bet it would not be "lobby furiously for a dedicated MS building in Shaw."

They are not separate enough because they are together at arrival and dismissal. And because having to jointly administer a building between two struggling schools is a level of complexity they do not need.

I am not aware of any middle school sited with a high school that has its own principal.

OK, so it sounds like what you want to advocate for is staggered arrival and dismissal times and a separate principal. Those seem doable (though I have no idea if this is what would really make things better for Cardozo MS students) and definitely don't require constructing a separate building.

Sorry, no. I want separate entities because otherwise one drags the other down. And I want real parent engagement, not promising one thing and suddenly snatching it away.

[Anonymous]

This stuff about reputation and ‘one dragging the other down’ is so much perceptual BS. Are you one of these people who won’t ride the bus ‘because it’s dirty?’ Do you listen to what your parents say about race or politics or do you judge things on their merits?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This stuff about reputation and ‘one dragging the other down’ is so much perceptual BS. Are you one of these people who won’t ride the bus ‘because it’s dirty?’ Do you listen to what your parents say about race or politics or do you judge things on their merits?

No, I ride the bus every day and send my child to a Title I that is far less gentrified than other Title I schools in this city.

I think that both Cardozo High and Cardozo Middle are really struggling and would benefit from a full-time principal for each school to focus on the many, many problems and issues. I think they would be better off separate because it would be operationally simpler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ice rink would have been nice, too https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/13123687/ice-skating-rink-coming-to-shaw

Can parents of kids enrolled in the feeders speak to where those kids actually end up for middle & high school?

Sure. We ended up in private, at least for middle school (where we are now with 1 year left).

From Thomson- 2 or 3 go to FS. 2-3 got to Cardozo. 5-6 go to Basis and the rest are at various places all over the city - i.e. City Center PC, CHEC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ice rink would have been nice, too https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/13123687/ice-skating-rink-coming-to-shaw

Can parents of kids enrolled in the feeders speak to where those kids actually end up for middle & high school?

Sure. We ended up in private, at least for middle school (where we are now with 1 year left).

From Thomson- 2 or 3 go to FS. 2-3 got to Cardozo. 5-6 go to Basis and the rest are at various places all over the city - i.e. City Center PC, CHEC.

Did they actually go to Cardozo or is that just what they initially got in the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ice rink would have been nice, too https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/13123687/ice-skating-rink-coming-to-shaw

Can parents of kids enrolled in the feeders speak to where those kids actually end up for middle & high school?

Sure. We ended up in private, at least for middle school (where we are now with 1 year left).

From Thomson- 2 or 3 go to FS. 2-3 got to Cardozo. 5-6 go to Basis and the rest are at various places all over the city - i.e. City Center PC, CHEC.

Did they actually go to Cardozo or is that just what they initially got in the lottery?

I know a kid in FS who was formerly at Thomson, and he told me around 5 of his friends ended up at FS. I think more and more are considering FS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This stuff about reputation and ‘one dragging the other down’ is so much perceptual BS. Are you one of these people who won’t ride the bus ‘because it’s dirty?’ Do you listen to what your parents say about race or politics or do you judge things on their merits?

No, I ride the bus every day and send my child to a Title I that is far less gentrified than other Title I schools in this city.

I think that both Cardozo High and Cardozo Middle are really struggling and would benefit from a full-time principal for each school to focus on the many, many problems and issues. I think they would be better off separate because it would be operationally simpler.

What is your specific familiarity with how Cardozo is operating now and what the problems are? One thing I have noticed in debates both on and offline about this issue is that the people with the strongest opinions about what is or is not going on at Cardozo (or CHEC for that matter) usually do not have any direct experience in the school or know anyone whose children go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This stuff about reputation and ‘one dragging the other down’ is so much perceptual BS. Are you one of these people who won’t ride the bus ‘because it’s dirty?’ Do you listen to what your parents say about race or politics or do you judge things on their merits?

No, I ride the bus every day and send my child to a Title I that is far less gentrified than other Title I schools in this city.

I think that both Cardozo High and Cardozo Middle are really struggling and would benefit from a full-time principal for each school to focus on the many, many problems and issues. I think they would be better off separate because it would be operationally simpler.

Guaranteed this person has never set foot in Cardozo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The ice rink would have been nice, too https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/housing-complex/blog/13123687/ice-skating-rink-coming-to-shaw

Can parents of kids enrolled in the feeders speak to where those kids actually end up for middle & high school?

Sure. We ended up in private, at least for middle school (where we are now with 1 year left).

From Thomson- 2 or 3 go to FS. 2-3 got to Cardozo. 5-6 go to Basis and the rest are at various places all over the city - i.e. City Center PC, CHEC.

Did they actually go to Cardozo or is that just what they initially got in the lottery?

I know a kid in FS who was formerly at Thomson, and he told me around 5 of his friends ended up at FS. I think more and more are considering FS.

It could have been 5 in various year levels too. It tough to gauge because there is a lot of uncertainty at the end of the year about where people will be. More people may be considering it but there is still not a large cohort of students from Thomson. It's more about the location rather than quality of the program and where other siblings are attending.

[Anonymous]

Do a feasibility study! Engage the schools and listen! Gut feelings and anecdotal evidence are not enough for such a huge decisions. Shaw Middle in reality had a lot of students until it was closed. That is the factual baseline, the rest is pure conjecture.