Thoughts on Dunbar?

[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:2% of students are proficient in math.

This. It’s shocking the school continues to operate when less than 2% of the kids are on grade level in math. Less than 2%. DC social promotion at its best. It’s probably worst now after the pandemic.

We are zoned for Dunbar and it’s a non-starter. Just no way we are sending DS there. I don’t care how nice the building is.

Curious what you think the solution is to this besides rezoning (I support rezoning).

Rezoning is not going to help these kids. DCPS failed these kids. It’s been said on here so many times. Provide the support early K-3rd whatever that entails - pull outs, after school and summer tutoring, mentorship, etc….Hold them back a year in these grades if they are really struggling even with support to give them time. Just passing them every year does no good. By high school, it’s way to late.

For some kids, even with all the support in the world, they still might not do well, then present and encourage other options like vocational tracks.

I totally agree with you (and live inbounds for Dunbar), except I would say it’s not just DCPS who failed these kids. Yes DCPS is failing these kids but also, literally everyone in this city is failing these kids.

The city has a lot of social services and programs for these kids. I know it is still not working but what should the city do?

I think they should rezone schools.

I think for the most part these are good kids who just have a low literacy level. They’ve made it to high school without advancing in reading/writing/math past an elementary level.

I’m not sure how rezoning them to different schools would help them?

Because putting a bunch of poor kids in the same school is a recipe for strife. The data is clear that kids do better in racially and economically integrated schools.

You can rezone every student in DCPS, and still the (vast?) majority of students would not be in racially or economically integrated schools.

This. If you look at the demographics of DCPS high school students it is clear that rezoning would do nothing.

Well we could mix Wards 2 and 3 into other schools and have honors classes. That would do "something" but not sure it would help the kids that are failing at Dunbar.

Even if you could make that happen, there aren't enough high performing (or even medium performing) students to make any difference.

[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:2% of students are proficient in math.

This. It’s shocking the school continues to operate when less than 2% of the kids are on grade level in math. Less than 2%. DC social promotion at its best. It’s probably worst now after the pandemic.

We are zoned for Dunbar and it’s a non-starter. Just no way we are sending DS there. I don’t care how nice the building is.

Curious what you think the solution is to this besides rezoning (I support rezoning).

Rezoning is not going to help these kids. DCPS failed these kids. It’s been said on here so many times. Provide the support early K-3rd whatever that entails - pull outs, after school and summer tutoring, mentorship, etc….Hold them back a year in these grades if they are really struggling even with support to give them time. Just passing them every year does no good. By high school, it’s way to late.

For some kids, even with all the support in the world, they still might not do well, then present and encourage other options like vocational tracks.

I totally agree with you (and live inbounds for Dunbar), except I would say it’s not just DCPS who failed these kids. Yes DCPS is failing these kids but also, literally everyone in this city is failing these kids.

The city has a lot of social services and programs for these kids. I know it is still not working but what should the city do?

I think they should rezone schools.

I think for the most part these are good kids who just have a low literacy level. They’ve made it to high school without advancing in reading/writing/math past an elementary level.

I’m not sure how rezoning them to different schools would help them?

Because putting a bunch of poor kids in the same school is a recipe for strife. The data is clear that kids do better in racially and economically integrated schools.

You can rezone every student in DCPS, and still the (vast?) majority of students would not be in racially or economically integrated schools.

This. If you look at the demographics of DCPS high school students it is clear that rezoning would do nothing.

Well we could mix Wards 2 and 3 into other schools and have honors classes. That would do "something" but not sure it would help the kids that are failing at Dunbar.

there aren't enough of them to even make a dent in the overall population at DCPS and most parents would send their kids to private or move out of the city before sending their kids to Anacostia or HD Woodson

[Anonymous]

Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are uncomfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Sorry, should say UNcomfortable, fixed and bolded above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Only Wilson, Walls, Banneker, Latin, Ellington and maybe one other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Only Wilson, Walls, Banneker, Latin, Ellington and maybe one other.

Only one of those is a "takes everyone in bound" school, and that's Wilson.

[Anonymous]

I'm a high-SES black parent and my kids would get destroyed at most of those schools. We have enough problems to worry about than subjecting our kids to that foolishness. It'll be Latin or private for us, so reallistically probably private starting in 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Only Wilson, Walls, Banneker, Latin, Ellington and maybe one other.

Only one of those is a "takes everyone in bound" school, and that's Wilson.

Wilson is the only IB school to consider and I would only even consider listening to someone telling me differently if they had a current child of their own enrolled at one of the other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Only Wilson, Walls, Banneker, Latin, Ellington and maybe one other.

Only one of those is a "takes everyone in bound" school, and that's Wilson.

Wilson is the only IB school to consider and I would only even consider listening to someone telling me differently if they had a current child of their own enrolled at one of the other schools.

You wouldn’t send your child to Walls if they got in? Really?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious on people's thought on the other IB DC public high schools - obviously lots of DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson. Based on this thread, most are not comfortable with Dunbar. What about the others? Cardozo? Roosevelt? Coolidge? Eastern? I presume if folks are comfortable with Dunbar, they would not consider Woodson, Anacostia, or Ballou.

Only Wilson, Walls, Banneker, Latin, Ellington and maybe one other.

Only one of those is a "takes everyone in bound" school, and that's Wilson.

Wilson is the only IB school to consider and I would only even consider listening to someone telling me differently if they had a current child of their own enrolled at one of the other schools.

You wouldn’t send your child to Walls if they got in? Really?

PP said any in bounds school

[Anonymous]

DCUM certainly doesn't represent a good percentage of DC parents and definitely not high school parents. Until parents of schools give their view, it's all just outside opinions. The only way to really understand the environment is to talk to current parents and get an idea where their kids are and how the school meets or doesn't meet their needs.

[Anonymous]

Maaaaaaybe Roosevelt or Eastern. That's all. And McKinley and maybe Bard, for selective schools.

[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:2% of students are proficient in math.

This. It’s shocking the school continues to operate when less than 2% of the kids are on grade level in math. Less than 2%. DC social promotion at its best. It’s probably worst now after the pandemic.

We are zoned for Dunbar and it’s a non-starter. Just no way we are sending DS there. I don’t care how nice the building is.

Curious what you think the solution is to this besides rezoning (I support rezoning).

Rezoning is not going to help these kids. DCPS failed these kids. It’s been said on here so many times. Provide the support early K-3rd whatever that entails - pull outs, after school and summer tutoring, mentorship, etc….Hold them back a year in these grades if they are really struggling even with support to give them time. Just passing them every year does no good. By high school, it’s way to late.

For some kids, even with all the support in the world, they still might not do well, then present and encourage other options like vocational tracks.

I totally agree with you (and live inbounds for Dunbar), except I would say it’s not just DCPS who failed these kids. Yes DCPS is failing these kids but also, literally everyone in this city is failing these kids.

The city has a lot of social services and programs for these kids. I know it is still not working but what should the city do?

I think they should rezone schools.

I think for the most part these are good kids who just have a low literacy level. They’ve made it to high school without advancing in reading/writing/math past an elementary level.

I’m not sure how rezoning them to different schools would help them?

Because putting a bunch of poor kids in the same school is a recipe for strife. The data is clear that kids do better in racially and economically integrated schools.

You can rezone every student in DCPS, and still the (vast?) majority of students would not be in racially or economically integrated schools.

This. If you look at the demographics of DCPS high school students it is clear that rezoning would do nothing.

Well we could mix Wards 2 and 3 into other schools and have honors classes. That would do "something" but not sure it would help the kids that are failing at Dunbar.

Even if you could make that happen, there aren't enough high performing (or even medium performing) students to make any difference.

You would probably have to close down the charters, too, to make it work.

[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:2% of students are proficient in math.

This. It’s shocking the school continues to operate when less than 2% of the kids are on grade level in math. Less than 2%. DC social promotion at its best. It’s probably worst now after the pandemic.

We are zoned for Dunbar and it’s a non-starter. Just no way we are sending DS there. I don’t care how nice the building is.

Curious what you think the solution is to this besides rezoning (I support rezoning).

Rezoning is not going to help these kids. DCPS failed these kids. It’s been said on here so many times. Provide the support early K-3rd whatever that entails - pull outs, after school and summer tutoring, mentorship, etc….Hold them back a year in these grades if they are really struggling even with support to give them time. Just passing them every year does no good. By high school, it’s way to late.

For some kids, even with all the support in the world, they still might not do well, then present and encourage other options like vocational tracks.

I totally agree with you (and live inbounds for Dunbar), except I would say it’s not just DCPS who failed these kids. Yes DCPS is failing these kids but also, literally everyone in this city is failing these kids.

The city has a lot of social services and programs for these kids. I know it is still not working but what should the city do?

I think they should rezone schools.

I think for the most part these are good kids who just have a low literacy level. They’ve made it to high school without advancing in reading/writing/math past an elementary level.

I’m not sure how rezoning them to different schools would help them?

Because putting a bunch of poor kids in the same school is a recipe for strife. The data is clear that kids do better in racially and economically integrated schools.

You can rezone every student in DCPS, and still the (vast?) majority of students would not be in racially or economically integrated schools.

This. If you look at the demographics of DCPS high school students it is clear that rezoning would do nothing.

Well we could mix Wards 2 and 3 into other schools and have honors classes. That would do "something" but not sure it would help the kids that are failing at Dunbar.

Even if you could make that happen, there aren't enough high performing (or even medium performing) students to make any difference.

You would probably have to close down the charters, too, to make it work.

UMC parents will not tolerate a HS that lacks a critical mass of high-SES peers. I honestly think that a HS with 25 percent UMC would get buy-in from some folks, but not .0001%, which it is at all by-right schools excepting Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a high-SES black parent and my kids would get destroyed at most of those schools. We have enough problems to worry about than subjecting our kids to that foolishness. It'll be Latin or private for us, so reallistically probably private starting in 6th.

Due to racism, low expectations from teachers? Overcrowding? Something else? Your voice is important for all to hear. I'm a parent of a young mixed kid and always seeking to listen to Black voices willing to share their lived experiences.