DCI Parent Petition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Materially, what does it mean to end IB for all, and what explicit actions are the school taking to lead to it? No one knows! I was assuming people were freaking out over new AP classes, which I think is wrongheaded, but it’s not clear that’s the case.

Can someone provide an answer for this? I don’t care about the walkout, the video, anything. I just want to understand what they mean by putting IB at risk.

I think some are worried about addition of APs drawing from resources to staff a robust IB program. (That shouldn't be an issue if leadership can attract, retain, and pay good staff.)

A more real worry seems to be the school not investing in staff capacity to support IB implementation, with fewer full time roles than in prior years.

Neither of these seem as problematic as staff being unhappy enough that they will leave. Yes, accountability is good and should be expected. But, if it's being carried out in such a way that morale is bottoming out and teachers keep leaving, it doesn't matter what courses you offer on paper. One example, an upper level INS class taught in English most of the year because the subs couldn't teach in Spanish.

If the parent protestors are against AP classes for the kids that want them then I am 100% against them and pro Rosskamm. I want my kids to have access to AP exams as well if only to make them look attractive to colleges. IB schools offer AP all the time for kids to take as freshman and sophomores or for those kids who choose the career track. This is ridiculous.

+10000

Wut? DCI is primarily an IB school but does offer some AP courses as well. Nobody in this organizing effort has said anything about removing AP classes or limiting access to them. That's not part of any conversation that has happened anywhere in this effort.

The people organizing to protect DCI are fighting to keep it fully staffed, IB accredited, and academically rigorous. That includes AP access.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

So isn’t bad enough to go to DCPS which can be done on Monday, but the school leadership and the board need to be replaced because they are ruining the school. So the parents and kids decide to ruin the reputation of the school they won’t leave because DCI makes the teachers show up on time and won’t involve students in personnel decisions.

You can really tell what side of the argument the lawyers are on on this one, in part because the evidence against the board is so weak and in part because the people arguing for change really suck at marshaling evidence and negatively polarize anyone who has to write persuasively for a living.

You get to the point where you just frame the other sides argument in the least charitable way possible so the other side can at least give you something solid to work with, but bad news PP, you’re gonna get either some 5 paragraph gpt emotion dump pretending to be argument OR a “but the kids and you have to listen to the kids and treat them seriously but not so seriously that you interrogate their argument” bull.

The evidence is weak? A formal staff letter signed by 175 people. Two petitions with over 1,000 people signing. A student walkout with hundreds of students. Not to mention, audited financial statements showing a $1.3 million jump in leadership compensation while staff development was cut 41%. And a board chair who is a former partner at the firm at the center of DC's most documented charter school governance scandal.

That's just some of the evidence and it's all public record. It's all verifiable. None of it has been disputed on the facts. If that reads as weak to you, tell us specifically what's wrong with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

NP. Sorry but you are wrong. We turned down private and Latin. Know families who turn down Basis and Walls. Know families who chose DCI over their IB Deal.

DP. But that’s not the situation for *most* of the kids at DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

So isn’t bad enough to go to DCPS which can be done on Monday, but the school leadership and the board need to be replaced because they are ruining the school. So the parents and kids decide to ruin the reputation of the school they won’t leave because DCI makes the teachers show up on time and won’t involve students in personnel decisions.

You can really tell what side of the argument the lawyers are on on this one, in part because the evidence against the board is so weak and in part because the people arguing for change really suck at marshaling evidence and negatively polarize anyone who has to write persuasively for a living.

You get to the point where you just frame the other sides argument in the least charitable way possible so the other side can at least give you something solid to work with, but bad news PP, you’re gonna get either some 5 paragraph gpt emotion dump pretending to be argument OR a “but the kids and you have to listen to the kids and treat them seriously but not so seriously that you interrogate their argument” bull.

The evidence is weak? A formal staff letter signed by 175 people. Two petitions with over 1,000 people signing. A student walkout with hundreds of students. Not to mention, audited financial statements showing a $1.3 million jump in leadership compensation while staff development was cut 41%. And a board chair who is a former partner at the firm at the center of DC's most documented charter school governance scandal.

That's just some of the evidence and it's all public record. It's all verifiable. None of it has been disputed on the facts. If that reads as weak to you, tell us specifically what's wrong with it.

The scale of the chaos at DCI — I've been hearing about it for months — is just WILD.

Hundreds of students walking out. 175 staff members. Parents at school meetings. It is a huge revolt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

So isn’t bad enough to go to DCPS which can be done on Monday, but the school leadership and the board need to be replaced because they are ruining the school. So the parents and kids decide to ruin the reputation of the school they won’t leave because DCI makes the teachers show up on time and won’t involve students in personnel decisions.

You can really tell what side of the argument the lawyers are on on this one, in part because the evidence against the board is so weak and in part because the people arguing for change really suck at marshaling evidence and negatively polarize anyone who has to write persuasively for a living.

You get to the point where you just frame the other sides argument in the least charitable way possible so the other side can at least give you something solid to work with, but bad news PP, you’re gonna get either some 5 paragraph gpt emotion dump pretending to be argument OR a “but the kids and you have to listen to the kids and treat them seriously but not so seriously that you interrogate their argument” bull.

The evidence is weak? A formal staff letter signed by 175 people. Two petitions with over 1,000 people signing. A student walkout with hundreds of students. Not to mention, audited financial statements showing a $1.3 million jump in leadership compensation while staff development was cut 41%. And a board chair who is a former partner at the firm at the center of DC's most documented charter school governance scandal.

That's just some of the evidence and it's all public record. It's all verifiable. None of it has been disputed on the facts. If that reads as weak to you, tell us specifically what's wrong with it.

I’m still so confused. You’ve given evidence of the actions that the people who are upset have taken. Nobody is disputing that they’ve taken those actions. But you continue to not cite credible evidence of what the actual problem is (other than where you cite the misleading financial data above that was already put into context pages ago in this thread). Staff letters and walkouts and petitions and a former employer of the board chair are not evidence of wrongdoing. Personnel matters that the school can’t discuss, accountability measures, and a vague concern about “losing IB for all” with no real details are not credible evidence. Please go back to ChatGPT and ask it to create a more compelling case than the one it just gave you to post above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

NP. Sorry but you are wrong. We turned down private and Latin. Know families who turn down Basis and Walls. Know families who chose DCI over their IB Deal.

Know people who make bad choices all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow--like rats leaving a sinking ship.

RIP DCI.

Yup.

Sad end to a promising start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

NP. Sorry but you are wrong. We turned down private and Latin. Know families who turn down Basis and Walls. Know families who chose DCI over their IB Deal.

Know people who make bad choices all the time.

Not this family and ones we know with options are happy and kids love the school.

It’s great and lots of opportunities if you have a high performing kid. Even better if they like sports and have lots of interests with clubs.

[Anonymous]

Come on. It's by no means easy to change high schools a year, two or three in. DCI is OK enough for parents to hang in there for one, two, maybe three more years until the kid graduates. Maybe you supplement more, pay for pricey tutors and summer programs to compensate for turbulence at the school. The ship has sailed for most DCI families in pursuing another option for high school, even if they're very unhappy with recent developments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

So isn’t bad enough to go to DCPS which can be done on Monday, but the school leadership and the board need to be replaced because they are ruining the school. So the parents and kids decide to ruin the reputation of the school they won’t leave because DCI makes the teachers show up on time and won’t involve students in personnel decisions.

You can really tell what side of the argument the lawyers are on on this one, in part because the evidence against the board is so weak and in part because the people arguing for change really suck at marshaling evidence and negatively polarize anyone who has to write persuasively for a living.

You get to the point where you just frame the other sides argument in the least charitable way possible so the other side can at least give you something solid to work with, but bad news PP, you’re gonna get either some 5 paragraph gpt emotion dump pretending to be argument OR a “but the kids and you have to listen to the kids and treat them seriously but not so seriously that you interrogate their argument” bull.

The evidence is weak? A formal staff letter signed by 175 people. Two petitions with over 1,000 people signing. A student walkout with hundreds of students. Not to mention, audited financial statements showing a $1.3 million jump in leadership compensation while staff development was cut 41%. And a board chair who is a former partner at the firm at the center of DC's most documented charter school governance scandal.

That's just some of the evidence and it's all public record. It's all verifiable. None of it has been disputed on the facts. If that reads as weak to you, tell us specifically what's wrong with it.

I’m still so confused. You’ve given evidence of the actions that the people who are upset have taken. Nobody is disputing that they’ve taken those actions. But you continue to not cite credible evidence of what the actual problem is (other than where you cite the misleading financial data above that was already put into context pages ago in this thread). Staff letters and walkouts and petitions and a former employer of the board chair are not evidence of wrongdoing. Personnel matters that the school can’t discuss, accountability measures, and a vague concern about “losing IB for all” with no real details are not credible evidence. Please go back to ChatGPT and ask it to create a more compelling case than the one it just gave you to post above.

You've gone from "nobody is concerned" to "lots of people are concerned but their concerns don't count" to "prove every allegation." The reality is that no one is asking anonymous DCUM posters to adjudicate personnel matters. People are pointing to observable facts: extraordinary staff dissatisfaction, significant student activism, concerns about turnover, concerns about IB leadership, concerns about student support, and a Board that appears remarkably uninterested in asking hard questions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow--like rats leaving a sinking ship.

RIP DCI.

Yup.

Sad end to a promising start.

Sorry explain why you think this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

So isn’t bad enough to go to DCPS which can be done on Monday, but the school leadership and the board need to be replaced because they are ruining the school. So the parents and kids decide to ruin the reputation of the school they won’t leave because DCI makes the teachers show up on time and won’t involve students in personnel decisions.

You can really tell what side of the argument the lawyers are on on this one, in part because the evidence against the board is so weak and in part because the people arguing for change really suck at marshaling evidence and negatively polarize anyone who has to write persuasively for a living.

You get to the point where you just frame the other sides argument in the least charitable way possible so the other side can at least give you something solid to work with, but bad news PP, you’re gonna get either some 5 paragraph gpt emotion dump pretending to be argument OR a “but the kids and you have to listen to the kids and treat them seriously but not so seriously that you interrogate their argument” bull.

The evidence is weak? A formal staff letter signed by 175 people. Two petitions with over 1,000 people signing. A student walkout with hundreds of students. Not to mention, audited financial statements showing a $1.3 million jump in leadership compensation while staff development was cut 41%. And a board chair who is a former partner at the firm at the center of DC's most documented charter school governance scandal.

That's just some of the evidence and it's all public record. It's all verifiable. None of it has been disputed on the facts. If that reads as weak to you, tell us specifically what's wrong with it.

I’m still so confused. You’ve given evidence of the actions that the people who are upset have taken. Nobody is disputing that they’ve taken those actions. But you continue to not cite credible evidence of what the actual problem is (other than where you cite the misleading financial data above that was already put into context pages ago in this thread). Staff letters and walkouts and petitions and a former employer of the board chair are not evidence of wrongdoing. Personnel matters that the school can’t discuss, accountability measures, and a vague concern about “losing IB for all” with no real details are not credible evidence. Please go back to ChatGPT and ask it to create a more compelling case than the one it just gave you to post above.

You've gone from "nobody is concerned" to "lots of people are concerned but their concerns don't count" to "prove every allegation." The reality is that no one is asking anonymous DCUM posters to adjudicate personnel matters. People are pointing to observable facts: extraordinary staff dissatisfaction, significant student activism, concerns about turnover, concerns about IB leadership, concerns about student support, and a Board that appears remarkably uninterested in asking hard questions.

I am not the person you’re talking to but I did see a lot of DCI people this past week and every single one of them were rolling their eyes at this “protest”. Most of the people that are activated were considered crazies at their feeders and no one is paying them attention at all. My kids didn’t walk out and didn’t know about it. All I care about is whether my kids are getting a top notch education.

The sad truth about DCI is that we don’t have another place to go. DCPS is uniformly terrible (yes even the very weak application schools), and Latin and basis don’t offer the same language options and are impossible to get in! I don’t see how IB for all is at risk, no credible board will discuss personnel matters no matter how mad you are, and staff can handle their own business.

I want stability and a focus on excellence!!

[Anonymous]

I’m the person who finds level of argument from, for lack of a better term, “petition boosters” depressing. You can tell they’ve never had anything redlined in their life.

I will say, the middle school math had a hellacious time this year finding a teacher (a sub who basically told kids that the sub wanted to leave the day they got there, and they never found a permanent hire). There’s a lot of really bad stuff at the middle school that people put up with because the high school is good to very good.


See. There you go. A material issue of concern that, collected with other material issues, composes a body of evidence that change is needed.

The problem is, is that real rot accumulated under the previous ED and they had to change. This is natural! Institutions have problems if they sit static for too long and staff discontentment could well just be a function of a new ED demanding teachers attend to problems they let go (famously, discipline slid a long way during the pandemic and immediately after in the middle school).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School newspaper just dropped a special edition expose. Amazing.

Is that online? Link?

https://www.instagram.com/dci_newspaper/

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tFezsBJ2KJM2uDW37Gq0kZQyf7Fcqi5fVEjUbl5m_jU/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.4z2kyyema2et

Holy sh*t! This is bad.

DCI is really sinking.

I don’t agree. Seems like a small group is complaining about ensuring teachers are on time. A few people were let go for reasons we can’t legally know. I don’t know why you think a school is “sinking”. By that measure dcps as a whole is fully sunk (wait that might be accurate).

What do these protestors mean by “loss of IB for all”? It makes little sense to me but I’m an outsider.

I am once again asking in what world is 94% of staff, thousands of petition signers, and hundreds of students walking out a "small group"? Stop trying to make small group happen.

I think there were like 12 kids in the walkout, most of the kids didn’t even know it was happening. The staff number is unsurprising, given how teachers rebel against any and all accountability at every school.

Your continued "teachers hate accountability" argument doesn't really explain why students walked out, alumni spoke out, parents organized, and community members testified publicly. At some point, it becomes statistically improbable that every group raising concerns is the problem.

When your explanation for every criticism is that the critic is lazy, uninformed, manipulated, or disgruntled, you're no longer evaluating evidence. You're protecting your (wrong) conclusion.

The evidence we have is weak and all you’re doing is appealing to essentially unfalsifiable claims.

I dispute that the walkout was that big (and students claim it was the usual suspects, backing me up there). I dispute that the parental organization was any great number outside of dramatic LAMB parents who have caused trouble their entire time in the Charter system (and the behavior of other parents and the board backs me up here).

I don’t dispute the petition, but it appears in response to a truly necessary call for staff accountability.

I have no kids at DCI and no horse in this race. The video posted flies in the face of bolded. So either the video is AI or you are just making things up and sticking with your story. If an outsider is trying to figure out who is credible, it isn't you.

I don’t have a kid at DCI either but it looked pretty small for a student population with 1600 kids. It’s not like the whole school or even 10% walked out.

You seem very confident for someone who wasn’t there.

The middle school was in testing, so the walkout was limited to the high school. Anyone who was actually present knows almost all students walked out and there was representation from across grades, programs, backgrounds, and friend groups… not just “the usual suspects.”

More importantly, you’re missing the point. Whether it was 300 students or 500 students, that’s an extraordinary event in the life of a school. Students generally don’t leave class, risk disciplinary consequences, organize petitions, testify publicly, and spend months advocating because they’re upset about employee badge swipes.

And since we’re talking about leadership, it’s worth noting that while students were outside making their concerns known, Rosskamm exited through the back of the building rather than facing the students directly. Many people viewed that as emblematic of the broader concern: when confronted with difficult feedback, the response has too often been avoidance rather than engagement.

How many students are not returning next year? That is more of a metric for there displeasure than a silly walkout.

Not really. Most of the kids at DcI have no better option.

NP. Sorry but you are wrong. We turned down private and Latin. Know families who turn down Basis and Walls. Know families who chose DCI over their IB Deal.

Based on this, you’d think DCI is the top middle and high school in DC, but the reality is quite different.

[Anonymous]

Riddle me this - hundreds of students walk out in protest of Rosskamm. So then he thinks it's a good idea to get in the dunk tank today? A mile long line quickly forms of students who can't wait to dunk him and another group of students form to taunt him each time he gets dunked. READ THE ROOM.

We know the teachers have lost all respect for Rosskamm. We know the parents have lost all respect for him. When will he take the hint?