Can anyone tell me the story of Stuart-Hobson?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Most depressing SH thread either, nearly 300 posts and little to give us hope that the school would work out for our excellent in-boundary 3rd grade student (both math and ELA) in a Hill DCPS. Getting involved at the school doesn't sound worth it.

+1 welcome to the club

Pretty much all of the Hill threads end this way.

Until Hill parents stop acting ridiculously entitled, selfish, and clueless, they will all end this way. I for one wish we could just ban discussion of Stuart Hobson and Watkins on here. Everyone who thinks it is doom for their snowflake - move to Arlington. Everyone who actually wants to give it a go - get to work.

Do the professional educators, planners, administrators at DCPS have NO responsibility here at all? Are they completely let off the hook? See, your plan for school improvement is unrealistic because we don't have to put up with dysfunction--people can live in their homes on the Hill and choose to go private, choose to home school or choose to go charter. That's our right. DCPS ( and you ) would like to pretend that is not so. It is also our prerogative to discuss Stuart Hobson as much as we'd like. Also our right. That's reality. You ( and DCPS ) would do well to live in reality rather than thrown silly names at people and tell them to move.

+1000. Can't stand name-calling snowflake basher guy. He stalks these Hill threads relentlesly like the loser he is. What a racist, immature asshole.

Signed. AA Parent Living IB for the Cluster with No Short, Medium or Long-term Plans to Enroll Elementary School-Age Offspring at Watkins or SH, or Move to Arlington Either

not PP you're referring to but you won't be missed

Actually, she will be missed. Committed, involved parents are a precious commodity that can make a big difference to a school. I’m another IB-for-Watkins parent who sends her children to a charter and I really wish that I didn’t feel like that was the better choice. I would love to walk my children to our neighborhood school instead of driving them across the city to a charter. But Watkins makes it very hard for parents to make the choice to turn down solid options and enroll there.

AA mom here, thanks PP. I'm in the same situation and couldn't agree more.

What should DCPS do about SH and Watkins? Simple, copy what MoCo does with popular Silver Spring International School and its feeders. At least 40% of the kids in the school are poor (mostly Latino). MoCo offers advanced "compacted" math to the 3rd-5th graders in the feeders (along with other GT services), along with advanced English, math and foreign languages at SSIS. This isn't grade-level English and math wrapped in an "honors" package as at SH, but true, above-grave level offerings for kids who can test into the advanced classes. MoCo also puts more resource staff in a middle school building to provide targeted interventions for kids who struggle academically and emotionally, partly to maintain good order. We won't choose SH partly because of the zoo-like atmosphere in the hallways and cafeteria.

Again. You want a solution not available anywhere in DCPS or DCPCS just for Watkins. Don't you think many families throughout the system would embrace that if it were feasible? You're talking about something exclusive to Watkins which in and of itself is a nonstarter from a system level (extra teachers for Watkins? More supports?). You also assume the poor kids in MOCO are well served by being segregated. Of course there are less of them and results vary by location).

Your argument puzzles me. - you're a no go on Arlington (and presumably moco) but you want that exact solution. That can be solved with a moving van. DC is a very different school district with different populations, far more generational poverty, and different demographics in general. I'm not sold a moco model would even work in D.C. even if it would work in moco. Maybe if fewer families irrationally fled the system without giving it a real shot, or would stand up to peer pressure to embrace charters.

Families fleeing the system are acting rationally, and that’s the problem for DCPS. Watkins and SH are not high performing schools. If DCPS wants neighborhood buy in, which they should since they are losing both elementary and middle school students to charters, they need to do something to convince neighborhood families to give Watkins and then SH a shot in the face of less than stellar academic results.

and of course those academic results will trend up with more buy in which is self reinforcing. it wasn't that long ago that no one in Ward 3 would touch Deal either

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't agree. The DCPS schools mostly serving high SES/white kids routinely offer above grade-level math instruction, mostly with PTA funds. So when parents can and will come together to pay, it's fine for DCPS offer advanced pullouts, and even classes, but not when they don't? What kind of BS system is that?

Deal and Hardy offer 7th grade algebra, but not Hobson, though many kids in the catchment area could handle the math. If the mayor and our city council members were demanding that above grade-level instruction was offered system-wide (under pressure from voter lobbies) it would be offered. Michelle Rhee was giving speeches about starting GT programs before Fenty went down.

Segregation? Give me a break. My Latino cleaning lady of a decade lives in Silver Spring. Both of her children were identified as math gifted in the 2nd grade and give special supports from then on, including all expenses paid summer math camps in the upper elementary school grades. They currently take advanced math classes at Silver Spring International School. The lady tells me that most of their math classmates are high SES and white, but certainly not all.

MoCo does a decent job identifying and supporting FARMs talent, particularly for math. DCPS could do the same, it just doesn't bother to fund the initiatives.

We're heading to BASIS, at least if the waiting list continues to clear each fall.

Anecdote . . . but if your cleaning lady says so

MOCO 2017:
3rd grade
47.5 met/exceeded ELA
54.3 met/exceeded for math

4th grade
52.2 met/exceeded ELA
48.4 met/exceeded math

51.6 met/exceeded ELA
45.5 met/exceeded math

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:
Again. You want a solution not available anywhere in DCPS or DCPCS just for Watkins. Don't you think many families throughout the system would embrace that if it were feasible? You're talking about something exclusive to Watkins which in and of itself is a nonstarter from a system level (extra teachers for Watkins? More supports?). You also assume the poor kids in MOCO are well served by being segregated. Of course there are less of them and results vary by location).

Your argument puzzles me. - you're a no go on Arlington (and presumably moco) but you want that exact solution. That can be solved with a moving van. DC is a very different school district with different populations, far more generational poverty, and different demographics in general. I'm not sold a moco model would even work in D.C. even if it would work in moco. Maybe if fewer families irrationally fled the system without giving it a real shot, or would stand up to peer pressure to embrace charters.

Peer pressure. LOL

LOL for me too -- at how many parents reflectively end up in charter they hate that don't fit their values whatsoever. But to each their own

Seems like many people here assume and project that onto other parents, talk about the herd mentality, etc. with few concrete cases of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Again. You want a solution not available anywhere in DCPS or DCPCS just for Watkins. Don't you think many families throughout the system would embrace that if it were feasible? You're talking about something exclusive to Watkins which in and of itself is a nonstarter from a system level (extra teachers for Watkins? More supports?). You also assume the poor kids in MOCO are well served by being segregated. Of course there are less of them and results vary by location).

Your argument puzzles me. - you're a no go on Arlington (and presumably moco) but you want that exact solution. That can be solved with a moving van. DC is a very different school district with different populations, far more generational poverty, and different demographics in general. I'm not sold a moco model would even work in D.C. even if it would work in moco. Maybe if fewer families irrationally fled the system without giving it a real shot, or would stand up to peer pressure to embrace charters.

Peer pressure. LOL

LOL for me too -- at how many parents reflectively end up in charter they hate that don't fit their values whatsoever. But to each their own

Seems like many people here assume and project that onto other parents, talk about the herd mentality, etc. with few concrete cases of it.

right -- everyone loves their perfect charter and will stay through 12th grade. Got it. Keep drinking the kool aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Again. You want a solution not available anywhere in DCPS or DCPCS just for Watkins. Don't you think many families throughout the system would embrace that if it were feasible? You're talking about something exclusive to Watkins which in and of itself is a nonstarter from a system level (extra teachers for Watkins? More supports?). You also assume the poor kids in MOCO are well served by being segregated. Of course there are less of them and results vary by location).

Your argument puzzles me. - you're a no go on Arlington (and presumably moco) but you want that exact solution. That can be solved with a moving van. DC is a very different school district with different populations, far more generational poverty, and different demographics in general. I'm not sold a moco model would even work in D.C. even if it would work in moco. Maybe if fewer families irrationally fled the system without giving it a real shot, or would stand up to peer pressure to embrace charters.

Peer pressure. LOL

LOL for me too -- at how many parents reflectively end up in charter they hate that don't fit their values whatsoever. But to each their own

Seems like many people here assume and project that onto other parents, talk about the herd mentality, etc. with few concrete cases of it.

right -- everyone loves their perfect charter and will stay through 12th grade. Got it. Keep drinking the kool aid

This is the typical response from someone Mad Online that parents aren't flocking to enroll their children in whatever school you think they should.
in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Families fleeing the system are acting rationally, and that’s the problem for DCPS. Watkins and SH are not high performing schools. If DCPS wants neighborhood buy in, which they should since they are losing both elementary and middle school students to charters, they need to do something to convince neighborhood families to give Watkins and then SH a shot in the face of less than stellar academic results.

Reality check again. Is it not the case that Watkins IS having an increase in IB enrollment? I understand why someone with a 5YO kid wants things to turn around now, but if you are DCPS, isn't 7 or 8 or even 10 years to turnaround enough? Don't most DCPS elementaries that flip (sorry) take about that long?

[Anonymous]

Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Just come out and say it -- you don't like that Watkins' black parents behave like real stakeholders in their children's school and demand a real voice advocating for the school and their children even if the school sits geographically in a largely white community that wants their school to look like their community. That's the real issue to you.

Replace South Boston in the 70s and you start to get the idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

no one has a stranglehold on any school -- every family enrolled is an equal stakeholder.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Isn't it kind of artificial to talk about attempts to flip Watkins decades ago, though? I mean the entire situation in the City was different back then. Rather than look at the pace of change over the last 30 years, doesn't make more sense to look at the pace over the last one or two years? Which shows a pace of change just as fast as at Brent when it was "flipping"??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Oh miss me with the "flipping" talk. Nobody has a stranglehold on Watkins. If IB parents want to enroll THEY CAN.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Just come out and say it -- you don't like that Watkins' black parents behave like real stakeholders in their children's school and demand a real voice advocating for the school and their children even if the school sits geographically in a largely white community that wants their school to look like their community. That's the real issue to you.

Replace South Boston in the 70s and you start to get the idea.

No you just come out and say it, I'm a myopic a race baiter and proud of it.

I'm AA and want a neighborhood elementary school in my neighborhood, not a school dominated by families living outside my neighborhood, with a principal catering to meet their children's needs, not mine. I want the student body at my neighborhood school mirror that of my diverse but mostly high SES and white community, yes, I do. The "real issue" to me is having a neighborhood school my children can walk to in the community where I choose to own real estate and live. Oh, and did I mention that I graduated from Boston Latin?

My children attend a charter. OK, granted, PP above, Watkins may become mostly in-boundary and Brent-like in five or six years, far too late for my own children.

Go away race-baiting troll and while you're at it, grow up and enter the 21st century mentally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Oh miss me with the "flipping" talk. Nobody has a stranglehold on Watkins. If IB parents want to enroll THEY CAN.

Yes THEY CAN, and they can also expect their children to be roughed up by little toughs as early as 2nd grade, and to be bored silly by 3rd grade if they're academically advanced.

Signed,
IB Parent who Bailed on Watkins

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Just come out and say it -- you don't like that Watkins' black parents behave like real stakeholders in their children's school and demand a real voice advocating for the school and their children even if the school sits geographically in a largely white community that wants their school to look like their community. That's the real issue to you.

Replace South Boston in the 70s and you start to get the idea.

No you just come out and say it, I'm a myopic a race baiter and proud of it.

I'm AA and want a neighborhood elementary school in my neighborhood, not a school dominated by families living outside my neighborhood, with a principal catering to meet their children's needs, not mine. I want the student body at my neighborhood school mirror that of my diverse but mostly high SES and white community, yes, I do. The "real issue" to me is having a neighborhood school my children can walk to in the community where I choose to own real estate and live. Oh, and did I mention that I graduated from Boston Latin?

My children attend a charter. OK, granted, PP above, Watkins may become mostly in-boundary and Brent-like in five or six years, far too late for my own children.

Go away race-baiting troll and while you're at it, grow up and enter the 21st century mentally.

Touche, 9:29.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good question.

Apparently, a decade is long enough for any particular Hill DCPS ES to flip IF it's not Watkins.

Watkins is effectively owned by parents living in Wards 5, 7 and 8, many of them city employees. Lots of these parents attended Watkins, see it as their by-right school, and won't let go of their grasp. Looks like it will take a generation for this to change.

Just come out and say it -- you don't like that Watkins' black parents behave like real stakeholders in their children's school and demand a real voice advocating for the school and their children even if the school sits geographically in a largely white community that wants their school to look like their community. That's the real issue to you.

Replace South Boston in the 70s and you start to get the idea.

No you just come out and say it, I'm a myopic a race baiter and proud of it.

I'm AA and want a neighborhood elementary school in my neighborhood, not a school dominated by families living outside my neighborhood, with a principal catering to meet their children's needs, not mine. I want the student body at my neighborhood school mirror that of my diverse but mostly high SES and white community, yes, I do. The "real issue" to me is having a neighborhood school my children can walk to in the community where I choose to own real estate and live. Oh, and did I mention that I graduated from Boston Latin?

My children attend a charter. OK, granted, PP above, Watkins may become mostly in-boundary and Brent-like in five or six years, far too late for my own children.

Go away race-baiting troll and while you're at it, grow up and enter the 21st century mentally.

you're as entitled as the white parents too chickens*%! to make the school work.

Truth be told, I'm glad there's a safety valve for people like you. It's perplexing why so many charter parents feels obliged to dump on their neighborhood school in a pathetic way to recruit neighbors to their way of thinking.