Fix the Cluster/Stuart Hobson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:True. Kaya and DCPS are too ignorant and provincial to look to our close by neighbors for models that work.

Yea, she's not the sharpest knife in the drawer to avoid replicating what Southeastern MoCo/Downcounty Consortium schools do to cater to a highly diverse group of students and parents. Rockville, Bethesda and Potomac schools are less than 10% FARMS and AA, but Takoma Park is 1/4 for both, and Silver Spring schools are nearly 1/2 low-SES Latino. Even so, upper-middle-class families in the Consortium catchment area are disclined to run off to privates or charters, and high-SES Hill parents are still inclined to run off to Southeastern MoCo.

I see SH as becoming the preserve of a few Cluster die-hards, high-SES parents who strike out in charter lotteries, and low-SES parents who who don't enter. Not a pretty picture in the years to come. I hope DCPS follows through on fixing up the building at any rate, to give Stanton Park neighborhood property values a little boost. Looks more like a correctional facility than a MS.

[Anonymous]

"I see SH as becoming the preserve of a few Cluster die-hards, high-SES parents who strike out in charter lotteries, and low-SES parents who who don't enter."

I think SH is already exactly as you describe.

There are gaping holes in the back half of the building. Hopefully they will be filled in 2 weeks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I see SH as becoming the preserve of a few Cluster die-hards, high-SES parents who strike out in charter lotteries, and low-SES parents who who don't enter."

I think SH is already exactly as you describe.

There are gaping holes in the back half of the building. Hopefully they will be filled in 2 weeks?

DOn't worry -- new academic charters will come to take care of the high SES families and the low SES kids will be stuck in DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

DOn't worry -- new academic charters will come to take care of the high SES families and the low SES kids will be stuck in DCPS.

They'll often be stuck even if they lottery into middle school charters, lacking transportation. The Hill-to-Latin bus parents arrange runs local families nearly $1,000 a school year. To my knowledge n DC, charter kids don't even get Metro fare from home to school, standard practice in NYC regardless of school type. If you're going to effectively exclude MS kids from certain types of schools and programs, wouldn't it be more honest to do so on academic grounds?

[Anonymous]

Any student who

(1) lives in DC
(2) goes to school in DC, school can be charter, DCPS, private, parochial

qualifies for $30 a month student metro card

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any student who

(1) lives in DC
(2) goes to school in DC, school can be charter, DCPS, private, parochial

qualifies for $30 a month student metro card

nice, but doesn't provide direct service from the Hill to Latin

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"That school is in Montgomery County, not DC. Not an option for DCPS families, and not a model for Kaya and DCPS."

Funny you should argue this when 2 Cluster families (one AA) we know who struck out in the Latin lottery and were't sold on Basis just left so that a child could attend MoCo schools. MD schools are of course an option for middle-class families who don't STAY. One dad is a journalist (can't afford privates) with a kid so far above grade level in math that the man didn't know what else to do. He probably wouldn't have hung on for Latin anyway - not a HS school on track for MIT admissions, and neither is Wilson. The Blair HS math magnet in Silver Spring (where Takoma kids often end up) does like crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: nice, but doesn't provide direct service from the Hill to Latin

To be fair to Latin, they're going to provide a shuttle bus service from Fort Totten Metro to the new campus. But the charters transportation problem for poor kids is real. I used to tutor a bright kid at Miner, whose mom lives on the E. Hill mainly so the family can visit the dad in the prison. The boy lotteried into Latin but with no good way of getting a 5th grader there, even with the free Metro pass, the mom sent him to EH.

[Anonymous]

Not the sharpest knife but she's the utensil to be used. You tool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any student who

(1) lives in DC
(2) goes to school in DC, school can be charter, DCPS, private, parochial

qualifies for $30 a month student metro card

nice, but doesn't provide direct service from the Hill to Latin

True, but I was responding to a PP who said students don't even get the subway fare that is standard in NYC
With this pass, coming from Cap Hill, a student could metro to Silver Spring, and take a 16th St bus South, to be dropped off in front of Latin's location.
It would probably also work to metro to U St and take a 14th St bus north to be 2 blocks east of Latin
These routes would take about 1 1/2 hours each way, each day, but would only cost $30 a month
As someone else pointed out, Latin is planning a shuttle (presumably free) from Fort Totten to the new location

Obviously, it's better if every school in every neighborhood is a good school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Obviously, it's better if every school in every neighborhood is a good school.

Bingo, but five years of reform in DCPS has failed to do this because 1) they pursued the misguided belief that threatening principals and teachers was the route to better schools 2) They've sold their souls (to keep their jobs) by supporting the charter movement. There's no indication that charters are better overall than traditional public schools, but yet we have more and more charters - and more and more kids (whose parents can afford it) traveling across town and parents moving to the burbs when they strike out in the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: True, but I was responding to a PP who said students don't even get the subway fare that is standard in NYC
With this pass, coming from Cap Hill, a student could metro to Silver Spring, and take a 16th St bus South, to be dropped off in front of Latin's location.
It would probably also work to metro to U St and take a 14th St bus north to be 2 blocks east of Latin
These routes would take about 1 1/2 hours each way, each day, but would only cost $30 a month
As someone else pointed out, Latin is planning a shuttle (presumably free) from Fort Totten to the new location

Obviously, it's better if every school in every neighborhood is a good school.

Not every family would be OK with having an 11 year old tackle such a commute solo. It is wrong that poor kids can't take advantage of the private buses/vans high-SES parents are using. Yy Ying has the same issue. Their Hill van doesn't stop out by RFK and isn't paid for by DC Charter. Municipal funding should fill the gap but who'd lobby for that? Without selective admissions, and very little ability grouping at MS charters, high-SES families aren't going to push to include more low-SES kids, even briliant ones.

If I had a true GT kid and couldn't afford a private, I'd head to MoCo myself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Obviously, it's better if every school in every neighborhood is a good school.

Bingo, but five years of reform in DCPS has failed to do this because 1) they pursued the misguided belief that threatening principals and teachers was the route to better schools 2) They've sold their souls (to keep their jobs) by supporting the charter movement. There's no indication that charters are better overall than traditional public schools, but yet we have more and more charters - and more and more kids (whose parents can afford it) traveling across town and parents moving to the burbs when they strike out in the lottery.

There is, though. Once again the DC-CAS results prove that charters are out-performing district schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Obviously, it's better if every school in every neighborhood is a good school.

Bingo, but five years of reform in DCPS has failed to do this because 1) they pursued the misguided belief that threatening principals and teachers was the route to better schools 2) They've sold their souls (to keep their jobs) by supporting the charter movement. There's no indication that charters are better overall than traditional public schools, but yet we have more and more charters - and more and more kids (whose parents can afford it) traveling across town and parents moving to the burbs when they strike out in the lottery.

There is, though. Once again the DC-CAS results prove that charters are out-performing district schools.

By a few points, that waver year to year. It's more accurate and meaningful to say that ward 2-3 DCPS schools are out-performing wards 7-8 DCPS schools.

I was speaking from a national perspective. Most charters are worse the traditional public schools, from a score perspective. A few are better and a few are the same.

[Anonymous]

PP, that is some charters out perform some DCPS schools. The story will be revealed when we see the results by SES, ELL and SPED numbers. There are some highly touted charters that do no better for low income students than any other school, and some who are not doing so great for higher SES students - even with a low student to teacher ratio.