New Mcarthur High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

I don’t think they will, and that’s the problem.

During the first 1-3 years of ramp-up, the school needs extra budget or it ensures a very limited experience for the early students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

I don’t think they will, and that’s the problem.

During the first 1-3 years of ramp-up, the school needs extra budget or it ensures a very limited experience for the early students.

NP here: exactly. DCPS should be over-staffing this place to draw in families who would otherwise do the easy thing and opt for J-R. Guaranteeing that kids can take the advanced classes they want, even if the headcount is low.

I worry that DC government really has no idea how to open a truly by-right school for an on-grade level cohort. They are are accustomed to the hands-off charter school approach - i.e., here's some money and you're responsible to figure it out. Or they are focused on creating schools for at-risk populations.

Also, Banneker HS has the IB program. Anyone have experience with how its implemented there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

I don’t think they will, and that’s the problem.

During the first 1-3 years of ramp-up, the school needs extra budget or it ensures a very limited experience for the early students.

Indeed. There are several (10+) students in Geometry now at Hardy, who will be ready for Alg II, some kids even beyond that who will be ready for pre-Calculus, for instance. There are nearly 30 kids in Italian II. Not having diverse offerings even for math or languages will do them a disservice. If DCPS does not have concrete plans to address this, the kids/parents will vote with their feet. And this is before we get to the clubs/extracurriculars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish they would also give non-Hardy kids with rights to J-R priority for MacArthur. The PP is obviously upset and disappointed, but from her report it sounds like MacArthur will offer everything my current middle school student wants or needs. And when it opens, MacArthur will be an order of magnitude smaller than J-R. You want a “good reason to choose” MacArthur? That’s my reason.

+1 I would love to have the option of a new, non-crowded version of JR

That's basically what it's going to be. You just have to send your kids there. Get together with other parents and make a pact. Will be fine! If a core of highly educated parents can agree to send their kids to our (truly struggling) IB MS, you can do the same for a beautiful, new HS zoned for all on-grade-level/advanced kids. Just send your kids.

I'm still zoned for JR. I was responding to the idea that non-Hardy kids could get access

[Anonymous]

As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

Current budget model means Hardy students have 30 kids in every class. 6th graders are randomly assigned to drama or journalism as an “elective.”

I’m not going to send my kids to a high school that limited. And with no extra budget, MacArthur will be even worse off in the first couple of years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

LOL! Welcome to DCPS! Which sub-par high school experience would you like to choose?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Also, Banneker HS has the IB program. Anyone have experience with how its implemented there?

The Banneker IB program is very much a school-within-a-school type program. The DCPS presentation deck seems to think that’s a bad model for a neighborhood school, and I agree. They’re proposing something more like Eastern, or Robinson in FCPS, where some students sign up for the whole IB diploma, but other students just take one or two IB courses. Every such program I‘ve looked at offers some AP courses as well, and DCPS seems to assume that’s how it would work at MacArthur. Also the deck says an IB program comes with extra money, which would help to get extra resources to the school as they ramp up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also, Banneker HS has the IB program. Anyone have experience with how its implemented there?

The Banneker IB program is very much a school-within-a-school type program. The DCPS presentation deck seems to think that’s a bad model for a neighborhood school, and I agree. They’re proposing something more like Eastern, or Robinson in FCPS, where some students sign up for the whole IB diploma, but other students just take one or two IB courses. Every such program I‘ve looked at offers some AP courses as well, and DCPS seems to assume that’s how it would work at MacArthur. Also the deck says an IB program comes with extra money, which would help to get extra resources to the school as they ramp up.

I would love DC to get a strong public IB program, like BCC or other suburban schools, but I worry this will turn into a watered down, low expectations program like DCI's IB for all. Not all kids can and should try to do IB and DC does not need another IB program with insufficient rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Well, we are an Italian-speaking family IB for Wells/Coolidge who will be playing the lottery for Hardy, and from convos in our weekend heritage classes, we are not the only ward 4/5 families willing to make the drive for Hardy but unable to move IB. The assumption that there are no high-performing, language literate kids outside of the Hardy/Deal catchment is so classist…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Well, we are an Italian-speaking family IB for Wells/Coolidge who will be playing the lottery for Hardy, and from convos in our weekend heritage classes, we are not the only ward 4/5 families willing to make the drive for Hardy but unable to move IB. The assumption that there are no high-performing, language literate kids outside of the Hardy/Deal catchment is so classist…

Sorry to give offense. It was my understanding that the 8th graders taking Italian at Hardy typically don’t take AP Italian in 9th grade, so it wouldn’t make sense to offer the course in a 9th-grade-only school. Of course I expect the school will grow into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Well, we are an Italian-speaking family IB for Wells/Coolidge who will be playing the lottery for Hardy, and from convos in our weekend heritage classes, we are not the only ward 4/5 families willing to make the drive for Hardy but unable to move IB. The assumption that there are no high-performing, language literate kids outside of the Hardy/Deal catchment is so classist…

Sorry to give offense. It was my understanding that the 8th graders taking Italian at Hardy typically don’t take AP Italian in 9th grade, so it wouldn’t make sense to offer the course in a 9th-grade-only school. Of course I expect the school will grow into it.

9th graders may not take AP Italian. But what about when the are 10th or 11th graders but there are no 12th graders yet?

Math is a better example. What about the ~10 9th graders needing Algebra II? Will they get that in Year 1, as well as the ensuing classes in years after? DCPS needs to commit to this, or these students will choose elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Well, we are an Italian-speaking family IB for Wells/Coolidge who will be playing the lottery for Hardy, and from convos in our weekend heritage classes, we are not the only ward 4/5 families willing to make the drive for Hardy but unable to move IB. The assumption that there are no high-performing, language literate kids outside of the Hardy/Deal catchment is so classist…

Sorry to give offense. It was my understanding that the 8th graders taking Italian at Hardy typically don’t take AP Italian in 9th grade, so it wouldn’t make sense to offer the course in a 9th-grade-only school. Of course I expect the school will grow into it.

9th graders may not take AP Italian. But what about when the are 10th or 11th graders but there are no 12th graders yet?

Math is a better example. What about the ~10 9th graders needing Algebra II? Will they get that in Year 1, as well as the ensuing classes in years after? DCPS needs to commit to this, or these students will choose elsewhere.

And what happens if all the kids who might have taken algebra 2 go to J-R, Walls, Banneker, McKinley, or private? Is DCPS committed to paying the algebra 2 teacher to sit there one period a day in an empty classroom? If that’s not what you mean, maybe you could explain what you mean by “DCPS needs to commit to this.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Well, we are an Italian-speaking family IB for Wells/Coolidge who will be playing the lottery for Hardy, and from convos in our weekend heritage classes, we are not the only ward 4/5 families willing to make the drive for Hardy but unable to move IB. The assumption that there are no high-performing, language literate kids outside of the Hardy/Deal catchment is so classist…

Sorry to give offense. It was my understanding that the 8th graders taking Italian at Hardy typically don’t take AP Italian in 9th grade, so it wouldn’t make sense to offer the course in a 9th-grade-only school. Of course I expect the school will grow into it.

9th graders may not take AP Italian. But what about when the are 10th or 11th graders but there are no 12th graders yet?

Math is a better example. What about the ~10 9th graders needing Algebra II? Will they get that in Year 1, as well as the ensuing classes in years after? DCPS needs to commit to this, or these students will choose elsewhere.

And what happens if all the kids who might have taken algebra 2 go to J-R, Walls, Banneker, McKinley, or private? Is DCPS committed to paying the algebra 2 teacher to sit there one period a day in an empty classroom? If that’s not what you mean, maybe you could explain what you mean by “DCPS needs to commit to this.”

Those other high schools will have students in higher grades taking Algebra 2, so they won’t have the problem of just a few kids wanting the class. (And a few is not “empty.”)

[Anonymous]

Unless their collective bargaining agreement forbids it, the Algebra 2 teacher will also have sections of Algebra 1. And maybe even a section of Geometry or Trig. Teachers are usually certified to teach more than just one course, especially in high school math, English, languages, and history. It happens all the time in other public and private schools. Ideally, the teacher gets an extra stipend for the additional teacher preps needed to teach multiple courses.