Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:demographic comparison from 2011 DC-CAS...
My younger two kids go to a very high poverty DCPS school and since they are young (preschool), I feel like its in many ways an advantage over being in a middle class school. Maybe they won't advance academically as much, but school when you are 3 is all about developing social skills. ... Obviously the higher up in school you get, this changes. Academics matter more and more.

Then let me chime in as someone who does have a child "higher up" and share that the "maybe they won't advance academically as much" is untrue. This is not to discount your perception, as the socio-economic and racial composition of classrooms is an honest concern all around. As someone whose child can be spotted from a mile away in a sea of black hair and skin (other than official stats, I'm having a much harder time seeing the socio-economic picture), I have to say that I've come to understand that it truly does not matter on the ground. My child does very well, academically and socially, and has an excellent set of friends and opportunities in school as well as outside. What mattered in the course of the past few years in the all too soon to conclude elementary school years was the quality of the teacher, the leadership at the school, and the parental community supporting it all, the teacher/leadership part characterized by ups and downs in our case but overall successful. And we parents are happy with our pick because we're involved and see first hand what's going on; that too impacts our children positively, socially and academically. While I now understand what to look for better than I did a couple of years ago, I am not naive. I know that perceptions and fears like these stifle our all success. Fortunately, I also know that it only takes a few to take others by the hand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is foreign language offered at any of the KIPP campuses. If so, which languages. TIA

We're at the Benning Road campus. Spanish is offered as well as music (violin). The recital is scheduled for April for the 1st graders.

[Anonymous]

Anybody hear from Abigail Smith after her departure was announced?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From my perspective, here’s the key point in the paper:

“Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature.”

This bears repeating.

The key problem facing DC is that there just aren't enough middle-class families. This poses two conundrums: first, do you allow the middle-class families to concentrate, so that some kids have the experience of attending a middle-class school, even if it means that other schools lose out? Second, do you try to attract middle-class families -- who often have the option of leaving the system -- even if it's at the expense of other families?

No easy answers.

[Anonymous]

I think it is easy. If the middle class families aren't able to concentrate by the results of neighborhood demographics, or choosing some special program en mass, they leave! For charters, private whatever. So dcps has to choose. Concentrate them, or lose them. That is what has gone on unofficially for years at Hardy, Stuart Hobson and Jefferson long ago. Middle class families finding a place to concentrate themselves. Question is, as those middle class families begin to appear different ( more white ) will this concentrating be a political problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is easy. If the middle class families aren't able to concentrate by the results of neighborhood demographics, or choosing some special program en mass, they leave! For charters, private whatever. So dcps has to choose. Concentrate them, or lose them. That is what has gone on unofficially for years at Hardy, Stuart Hobson and Jefferson long ago. Middle class families finding a place to concentrate themselves. Question is, as those middle class families begin to appear different ( more white ) will this concentrating be a political problem.

The last two posts are good descriptions.

What about creating a school that concentrates strong students, but also has a fair representation of struggling kids? Eliot Hine can hold 800+ kids. If half of those students were proficient or advanced, then you would have the critical mass for advanced classes and all the good stuff Deal has. Also, with Eastern next door, advanced programming, music and arts programming and what-not would benefit from the economy of scale that would come with Eliot Hine and Eastern working together. The thing needed to make it work is collecting enough strong middle grade students to make it work - DCPS has to earn the trust of parents that they will actually make it happen.

And if you started getting people used to goign to Eliot Hine / Eastern then you'd develop vertical integration between the schools and hopefully generate momentum for students to stay in DCPS through 12th grade.

And imagine Ward 6 fielding really good sports teams because our school is as big as Ballou and Wilson / or Deal.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it would take much. If there are families that live three blocks from Stuart-Hobson MS willing to trek almost an hour each way to Deal, if you can offer something comparable around here, academics, specials, extra-curricular, and facilities included, they'll take it. Imagine the life, leisure, and friendships you recover in the process, parents and students!
But I think at another level, there is also no getting around the need to deconstruct the narrative that one's middle class child, black or white, cannot thrive in proximity to less well off students. It may take a little more outreach and involvement at times but that comes for free if families live near-by. This may sound cynical, but teachers at schools that have a wide mix of students, from a wide spectrum of homes and socioeconomic backgrounds, don't get around practicing all kinds of different differentiated teaching models, which (and I speak from experience in a struggling upper ES) benefit advanced students, where they are more likely to get lost in the average shuffle of a middle-class school. Also, let's face it, schools with high percentages of students from poor backgrounds get additional resources and attention (I mean actual programs and staffing), again resources that help support and differentiate classrooms. In a nutshell, in a poor school you cannot get by with average teaching, no longer anyway. Works for me!

[Anonymous]

Totally agree with the above poster and I know that the majority of parents choosing to use public schools on Capitol Hill are very comfortable putting their students in a setting with kids from all walks of life. In fact that diversity is seen as a strength and an asset.

BUT when it comes time to transition out of elementary school into 6th, 7th, 8th grade where the rubber hits the road academically, they will ONLY put their kids in a school where there is a significant portion of the population making the grade and serious about doing well in school ( no matter what walk of life ). So proportions of high performing / low performing students becomes an issue, not necessarily proximity to less well-off students.

[Anonymous]

I would bet that if a program was set up at the Eliot Hine building (co-located?) which was majority proficient, it would also be majority African American for as far as teh eye can see.

At our Ward Six school, the ones most concerned about middle school, and the ones favoring a selective admissions process, are the AA parents of strong students.

[Anonymous]

Ditto. At my ward 6 school it is the AA parents who seem to have the highest standards about having their kids in middle school with the "right" kind of students and families who share their values. Yet it is white parents who get singled out for being "racist" when they express an extremely mild version of the same thing. Incredible.

[Anonymous]

I think it would make sense to take these controversial insights into class, race, and educational achievement back to the question that started this thread: How do we get (a) top-notch middle school(s) in Ward 6? Wouldn't a large, diverse, well-run middle school, which offers high academics as well as a broad range of specials and enrichment, housed in a nice building and well connected to the community supporting and overseeing it be the answer?
Besides size, I think community connections matter. I don't have much to go by but imagine that the especially difficult MS years (as stated in today's WP article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-parents-raise-concerns-about-middle-schools/2011/09/23/gIQAeTqOxK_story.html) can be weathered more successfully in the midst of a well connected community with watchful eyes overseeing and checking in on our youth.

[Anonymous]

Let's remember that Deal used to be the school of last resort only 6 years ago. Only half of the families from Lafayette and Murch were moving on to Deal. The school has done a complete 180 in 3 years. We should learn from this story.

The very first thing we need for Eliot Hine is a principal with a vision who will get us there.

[Anonymous]

I think it's pointless to wring your hands over things you can't control, such as socio-economic status of students. Far better to concentrate on programs -- offer a rich, challenging curriculum along with excellent facilities to students across the city. Offer Latin. Supplement the Common Core Standards with Core Knowledge Sequence for 6th, 7th, and 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

As a Ward Six parent, I feel like the only way I am going to buy into a DCPS middle school is if I have a strong connection to it, and if lots of other parents (whom I have gotten to know) from other Ward Six schools are also connected to it. But to be sure, Ward Six parents cannot do it alone, there's not enough of us, and we need parents from other Wards to also put their shoulder into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ditto. At my ward 6 school it is the AA parents who seem to have the highest standards about having their kids in middle school with the "right" kind of students and families who share their values. Yet it is white parents who get singled out for being "racist" when they express an extremely mild version of the same thing. Incredible.

and

Anonymous wrote:
Let's remember that Deal used to be the school of last resort only 6 years ago. Only half of the families from Lafayette and Murch were moving on to Deal. The school has done a complete 180 in 3 years. We should learn from this story.

To tie those two thoughts together, remember that 6 years ago there were parents protesting out on the sidewalk in front of Deal with signs and drums, accusing Melissa Kim of being a racist because she dared speak of making the school more academically ambitious.