Feedback on SWW@Francis-Stevens

[Anonymous]

00:25

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:sounds like some benefit for FS but none for the true SWW High School…another screw up by DCPS to drag down one of the better high schools by stretching the duties of the Principal. Why couldn't they just improve FS and leave SWW alone. I hope the high school kids never have to trek over there.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:sounds like some benefit for FS but none for the true SWW High School…another screw up by DCPS to drag down one of the better high schools by stretching the duties of the Principal. Why couldn't they just improve FS and leave SWW alone. I hope the high school kids never have to trek over there.

+1

So the needs of a top-tier high school -- which seems to be doing quite fine -- are trumped by the needs of a struggle Elementary and Middle School?

[Anonymous]

My DD is eligible to attend PS3 next year. Does the looping also effect them or is it only in upper grades?

[Anonymous]

Your struggling ES and MS is not trumped by the HS. But your q is stupid. I see zero benefit to my high schooler going back and forth to your school. I don't see a benefit to you either. Making your school better is the responsibility of you the parents of kids at that school, not me the high school parent or my high schooler. So the point is why do something that is inconvenient and detrimental to a well-functioning school when there is no benefit to anyone. You already have the principal paying way more attention to your needs than to those of the high school.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you have great questions that the chancellor could only answer!

[Anonymous]

Decisions like this merger are why kaya needs to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone please explain to me how the new SWW@FS is in any way substantively different from the old SWW? I understand that the name is different, and the Principal and some of the teachers are different. But by "substance," I mean: what is the long-term plan for the future (I can't find any firm information on this, anywhere)? Is there a plan to increase in-boundary attendance or change the feeder system? What is the relationship with "Walls," really, other than the name change (believe me, I've looked, and I've seen no firm plan in this regard)?

Disclosure: my child attended F-S Campus a few years ago, and the rumors about one or two violent kids not being removed from the school are accurate. Many (I mean, a lot) of the cars at drop-off were from Maryland. Test scores were bad. I would like to learn more about whether there is any basis to be optimistic that things will change.

I am interested in whether or not there is actually a difference, but for a different reason than the previous posters. My DC graduated from Francis-Stevens and was accepted into Banneker and I have to say that I was pleased with the education she received there. I travel a lot and felt comfortable with her there instead of our neighborhood school option. She was challenged and supported while she was there and she grew tremendously as a person and student. My question is are they changing the school for the previous population/demographic of children (Low income minorities) or are they changing the people and demographics of the students in the school? Let's be real about this, the more non-poor (regardless of race) and non-black and brown students there are in ANY school the better their scores are. Was this decision made to serve the current population (which was alienated during the transition) or to recruit the neighborhood white families and upper-middle class blacks that roam this forum.

whatever the reasons, success will mean fewer OOB students and more IB / richer kids, with OOB kids eventually being excluded altogether. As has been seen in the upper NW an IB preference that trumps all is a recipe for elite capture of public educational resources. I hope the boundary revision addresses this.

[Anonymous]

^^
While maintaining the balance needed to keep higher SES families in the system. Flight of those who have the choice to private schools, charters and the suburbs doesn't help DCPS.

[Anonymous]

iB parents at FS pushed for the merger hoping the name change would draw more IB families- let's call a spade a spade. I'm sure those IB families will the push to feed to the magnet HS- eliminating spots from everyone. FS is a very divided school right now with mainly IB below K and OOB in the middle school. No plan for melding those two groups together, let alone merging the school with SWW.