Eliot-Hines Middle School

[Anonymous]

9:55 here and you're right there's a common goal. Can Eliot-Hine be the school of innovation when it comes to a unified diverse group? Who knows? It will take many willing bodies but that old adage of once bitten and twice shy has evolved.

We all know that pre-k through 3rd grade had its own issues (the first negative bite), then 3rd through 5th grade had those issues (the second negative bite) and here we are at middle-school and the shyness (or most cases the skepticisms). The aloofness is magnified ten-fold and even the anxiety compounded. Combination of it all can just be enough to put those who are a minority but the majority on edge.

Talking about seeking psychiatric advice have you noticed the drama among the AA community when it comes to charter and tradtional schools. Then to add the superficial nonsense of, what is your economical class status in regards to a free public educaton? Which can lead into the argument that if you don't make enough, how dare you send your child to a public school. Which can lead to the other argument if I don't agree with the financial enhancements then I am the one labled as the racist. Then in my defense but in my AA dialect I respond "how did we get there, Boo!?! The rest is negative history.

How many are guilty of these two questions; who's your child and what do you do? The AA response is, my child is Tamika and I work for McDonalds'. The white person response, oh, that is nice I've always wanted to work for McDonnell Douglas myself. The AA response no I work for McDonald's, then the painful silence and instantly a class distinction. I know that scenario is a stretch but you see where I am going, hopefully?

Then there's that sense of solidarity that, we as AA parents get from the AA staff when they truly know, if they can pit certain groups against each other that results will be favorable.

I have stated earlier that the foremer Chancellor stated to a group of AA in regards to Eastern, that she didn't have time to worry about the stroller brigade, Well those words are just as strong as when Romney said that he didn't worry about the poor. All I can say the first statement garnered conversation and second one is offering an explanation.

I love the reference to the Birkenstock crew. Because as we write, those who own them have probably thrown them out into the trash. Friday's trash pick-up will have an abundance of Birkenstock shoes in the garbage. LOL!!!

[Anonymous]

Middle-class families would surely flock to both EH and Eastern if the schools copied Mo. Co and Fairfax schools by offering color and race-blind academic magnet programs that kids tested into, with no more than, say, one-quarter of those applying admitted. The city could offer intensive test prep programs for all low-income and lower middle-class comers, as NYC has long done for its Talented and Gifted MS programs and its famous magnet high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.

Consider that Takoma Park MS offers a math, science and computer magnet program with a county-wide draw admitting only 18% of applicants. Most of the graduates feed into Silver Spring's Blair High School's math magnet, admitting a similar percentage. Blair students routinely win INTEL science prizes etc. (to my knowlege, unheard of in DCPS) and low-income and black and Latino kidsd are strongly represented in these programs (but not, unsurprinsgly as strongly as white and Asian students). "Test-in" magnets are also possible for humanities and the arts at the MS level. They can be seen as a lesser-of-the-evils approach to building high-achieving schools in gentrifying neighborhoods. Current resistance to academic magnets means that both Hill middle schools and Eastern will limp along with populations that don't come close to mirroring neighborhood demographics for at least a decade to come, probably a lot longer. I fail to see how the low-income kids benefit when the affluent vote with their feet in large numbers on the Hill after ES. Perhaps better to keep them on board, even via "elitist" programs, than to lose the great majority altogether. Tommy Wells clearly isn't interested in "exam schools" being set up in the ward, leaving me less than optimistic that this obvious solution will see the light of day as long as he's at the helm.

Incidentally, IB doesn't necessarily do all that much for schools when few, if any students, can receive the "full diploma" by the end of senior year in HS. I say this having attended one of the first public IB schools in the US (in Massachusetts) in the 1980s. You need serious MS rigor, like 7th grade algebra (not taught at ES or SH) for many kids to get on the full diploma track. IB curriculum is poory understood because few parents went through it. It's just a comprehensive TaG MS and academic magnet HS curriculum by another name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle-class families would surely flock to both EH and Eastern if the schools copied Mo. Co and Fairfax schools by offering color and race-blind academic magnet programs that kids tested into, with no more than, say, one-quarter of those applying admitted. The city could offer intensive test prep programs for all low-income and lower middle-class comers, as NYC has long done for its Talented and Gifted MS programs and its famous magnet high schools like Stuyvesant and Bronx Science.

Consider that Takoma Park MS offers a math, science and computer magnet program with a county-wide draw admitting only 18% of applicants. Most of the graduates feed into Silver Spring's Blair High School's math magnet, admitting a similar percentage. Blair students routinely win INTEL science prizes etc. (to my knowlege, unheard of in DCPS) and low-income and black and Latino kidsd are strongly represented in these programs (but not, unsurprinsgly as strongly as white and Asian students). "Test-in" magnets are also possible for humanities and the arts at the MS level. They can be seen as a lesser-of-the-evils approach to building high-achieving schools in gentrifying neighborhoods. Current resistance to academic magnets means that both Hill middle schools and Eastern will limp along with populations that don't come close to mirroring neighborhood demographics for at least a decade to come, probably a lot longer. I fail to see how the low-income kids benefit when the affluent vote with their feet in large numbers on the Hill after ES. Perhaps better to keep them on board, even via "elitist" programs, than to lose the great majority altogether. Tommy Wells clearly isn't interested in "exam schools" being set up in the ward, leaving me less than optimistic that this obvious solution will see the light of day as long as he's at the helm.

Incidentally, IB doesn't necessarily do all that much for schools when few, if any students, can receive the "full diploma" by the end of senior year in HS. I say this having attended one of the first public IB schools in the US (in Massachusetts) in the 1980s. You need serious MS rigor, like 7th grade algebra (not taught at ES or SH) for many kids to get on the full diploma track. IB curriculum is poory understood because few parents went through it. It's just a comprehensive TaG MS and academic magnet HS curriculum by another name.

Myself something of an opponent to magnets, I've never heard anyone make this case so elegantly and convincingly. This honestly makes me rethink my position on this.

[Anonymous]

The only thing that needs to be done is to leave both schools alone and let the educational trek setforth be absorbed. Everyone, please stop having these eureka moments about E-H and ESHS.

[Anonymous]

The fastest and perhaps only way that Eliot Hine becomes a great school is for Stuart Hobson to moves its program (and its $) to Eliot Hine.

[Anonymous]

Wow!!! This is what so many have been mumbling about. It is not the need or the wanting to help E-H, the pure reasoning of taking over is being a perhaps.

Not knowing how serious 09:24 is in regards to suggesting the only way E-H becomes a great school is to have S-H move its program and $$ to E-H.

Then we wonder why the arm-folded brigade and birkenstock collaborative never get together.

[Anonymous]

I thought we were through with that discussion (live and let live). But in contemplating a up to $38 mio renovation of Stuart-Hobson, undoubtedly affecting other Ward 6 school investment needs, I think all cards need to be on the table. Stuart-Hobson is in dire need of renovation, no doubt about that!

[Anonymous]

When confronted with issues, just ignore them and implemented S-H needs and wants.

[Anonymous]

SH is in need of a facility renovation and EH is in need of a complete facility/educational renovation. I know other PPs have tried to point this out but EH will never get that renovation if SH gets theirs. It just won't happen to two MS in Ward 6. So unless EH (and its feeders) gets their act together the Cluster will roll over everyone leaving all the non-Cluster children without a viable MS option.

[Anonymous]

This is too true. Right now there are the beginnings of a well-worn path from 4th grade in Ward 6 elementary schools straight into charter middle/high schools that can get the job done in style.

Somebody better come up with some style at Stuart Hobson and Eliot Hine before this goes farther down that path. And guess what? Stuart Hobson is getting some style with its renovation, but leaving the rest of Ward 6 in the dust.

[Anonymous]

don't know why you say it can't happen to 2 MSs in Ward 6. the two feeder schools to Wilson, Deal & Hardy both got expensive renovations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't know why you say it can't happen to 2 MSs in Ward 6. the two feeder schools to Wilson, Deal & Hardy both got expensive renovations.

Ward Six has ~325 of its kids in middle school. Deal is bursting at the seams with enrollment projected to be 1,300 next year. Hardy has over 500 students and has plenty of room to grow within a facility designed to accommodate a middle school If you were on the Council would you give $34 million X 3 to Ward Six and its severly underutilized schools? Of if you would only give it to two schools, which ones (Eliot Hine, Stuart Hobson or Jefferson)? Keep in mind Stuart Hobson has the fewest number of Ward Six residents. Keep in mind that Eliot Hine and Jefferson are proper middle schools, while Stuart Hobson is a retrofitted elementary school wedged into a residential area. Keep in mind that Stuart Hobson is eight blocks from Eliot Hine.

If Stuart Hobson get is its $34 million, do you think Eliot Hine and Jefferson will get another $34 million a piece? What makes you think the Council will look favorably upon giving Ward Six all this money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:don't know why you say it can't happen to 2 MSs in Ward 6. the two feeder schools to Wilson, Deal & Hardy both got expensive renovations.

Besides PP's accurate assessment of the situation, writing something like this completely ignores the fact that the city budget is obviously in a different place than when those renovations were approved and undertaken, still rolling in tax dollars from years of income and property tax growth.

[Anonymous]

Another problem with the naive analogy above is that Stuart-Hobson, as part of a school cluster model long past its prime, has purposefully branded itself as serving a select few, namely the Capitol Hill Cluster School. Of course the reality is different but the advocating constituents are part of that very narrow base of insiders. So it's really hard for everyone else in Ward 6 (and that's most of us waiting for a decent middle school option) to be told for years "that's our school" and "why would anyone else have a say in it but us". And now all of a sudden it should be in everybody's interest to invest in it, quite likely even at the expense of our own future. We can all talk that talk ("sure, why can't there be both, live and let live"), including our Council Member, but you don't need to do more than one step behind the scenes and the reality is different.
The saddest part is that no one will have the political courage to provide some sort of leadership that goes beyond promising everybody everything and doing nothing in the process!

[Anonymous]

1/2 of SH's students come from Ward 7 & 8. It only serves a few actual residents of Ward 6.

If the principal could fill the seats with Brent and Maury students, SH would be a very different place, very quickly. After several years of lackluster leadership, I'm curious to see what this new principal will do.