what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so much simpler than it seems. It's a collective action problem. If everyone sent their kids to the local middle school, then the school would reflect the economic and social diversity of the community. Just do it.

AAARRRRGHHH! But there IS no one "local middle school" for Capitol Hill! There are 3 schools that serve the area and those 3 schools are packed with OOB kids. If Stuart-Hobson were limited to only Capitol Hill residential kids (best of the 3 since is is most centrally located), then, sure, it would be easy for Stuart-Hobson to reflect the Capitol Hill community. Brent feeds into TWO capitol hill middle schools and neither are S-H, even though S-H is closest to Brent. IT's NOT a collective action problem-- it's DCPS having a screwed up feeder system that undermines any collective action by the parents.

For all the energy going into Hill elementaries, there's a bit of resignation for a lot of Hill families that neighborhood MS isn't viable. Charters have largely filled this void. As a parent of younger school aged children, it's the main reason I keep an open mind in the DCPS vs. charters debate. I can see a case for both depending on circumstances.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so much simpler than it seems. It's a collective action problem. If everyone sent their kids to the local middle school, then the school would reflect the economic and social diversity of the community. Just do it.

AAARRRRGHHH! But there IS no one "local middle school" for Capitol Hill! There are 3 schools that serve the area and those 3 schools are packed with OOB kids. If Stuart-Hobson were limited to only Capitol Hill residential kids (best of the 3 since is is most centrally located), then, sure, it would be easy for Stuart-Hobson to reflect the Capitol Hill community. Brent feeds into TWO capitol hill middle schools and neither are S-H, even though S-H is closest to Brent. IT's NOT a collective action problem-- it's DCPS having a screwed up feeder system that undermines any collective action by the parents.

DCPS had a chance to feed Brent to SH and decided instead to keep the feed to Jefferson in hopes that the well-organized parents and relatively academically successful students coming from Brent would breathe life into Jefferson. It kind of worked with the Jefferson Academy starting off with a great new principal and a refreshed teaching staff and sort of an International Baccalureate program. Not sure how that is going. Problnis that students from Brent never did and still don't choose to go there. Historically, they found a way into Hardy, Stuart Hobson, Deal privates or their own Maryland middle schools. In the last three years, many have peeled off for charter middle schools and others continue to find places at SH or Hardy.

Denied a Stuart Hobson feed and not on board with Jefferson a few parents asked for a feed to Eliot Hine as well with the feeling they could possibly unite forces with Maury and Tyler down the road a few years. The dual feed was granted but I know of zero Brent students who move on to Eliot Hine although a few parents are involved with a transition committee there.

DCPS was not thinking of bolstering collective action by uniting strong elementary feeds in a single middle school, they were attempting to spread the wealth and at least for the time being, the wealth is slipping through their hands to the charter middle schools instead. Expect this same philosophy of spreading the wealth to underpin the whole process of boundary and school assignment revisions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is so much simpler than it seems. It's a collective action problem. If everyone sent their kids to the local middle school, then the school would reflect the economic and social diversity of the community. Just do it.

AAARRRRGHHH! But there IS no one "local middle school" for Capitol Hill! There are 3 schools that serve the area and those 3 schools are packed with OOB kids. If Stuart-Hobson were limited to only Capitol Hill residential kids (best of the 3 since is is most centrally located), then, sure, it would be easy for Stuart-Hobson to reflect the Capitol Hill community. Brent feeds into TWO capitol hill middle schools and neither are S-H, even though S-H is closest to Brent. IT's NOT a collective action problem-- it's DCPS having a screwed up feeder system that undermines any collective action by the parents.

DCPS had a chance to feed Brent to SH and decided instead to keep the feed to Jefferson in hopes that the well-organized parents and relatively academically successful students coming from Brent would breathe life into Jefferson. It kind of worked with the Jefferson Academy starting off with a great new principal and a refreshed teaching staff and sort of an International Baccalureate program. Not sure how that is going. Problnis that students from Brent never did and still don't choose to go there. Historically, they found a way into Hardy, Stuart Hobson, Deal privates or their own Maryland middle schools. In the last three years, many have peeled off for charter middle schools and others continue to find places at SH or Hardy.

Denied a Stuart Hobson feed and not on board with Jefferson a few parents asked for a feed to Eliot Hine as well with the feeling they could possibly unite forces with Maury and Tyler down the road a few years. The dual feed was granted but I know of zero Brent students who move on to Eliot Hine although a few parents are involved with a transition committee there.

DCPS was not thinking of bolstering collective action by uniting strong elementary feeds in a single middle school, they were attempting to spread the wealth and at least for the time being, the wealth is slipping through their hands to the charter middle schools instead. Expect this same philosophy of spreading the wealth to underpin the whole process of boundary and school assignment revisions

This is a really nice summary. I like that it doesn't blame the Brent community or the Cluster community. I am a Brent parent who has been there for a long time. I wasn't involved in the middle school committee at Brent years ago beyond filling out a couple of surveys, but my feeling is that the Hill parents I know are trying to get a good education for their kids. I am hopeful that there is incramental progress at EH, SH and Jefferson. I hope that the Maury community has the strength and cohesiveness to go as a group to EH. If my kid wanted to go to any of these schools I would wholeheartedly support him. He is talking about the charters because that's what his friends are talking about.

I would say that something that Brent has done well has been well publicizing PTA meetings and providing free and fun childcare during the meetings. If EH did this and had the meeting later in the evening (6:30 as opposed to 5:30), I would be much more likely to go.

[Anonymous]

Interesting that a good PTA could help draw parents.

[Anonymous]

How does Stuart-Hobson compare to Deal, if a comparison could be made?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that a good PTA could help draw parents.

Your children spend three years at a middle school. This is not long enough for parent involvement or a pta to make a difference if the administration is not already doing an excellent job and knows how to manage central office ( ala Melissa Kim and Deal )

[Anonymous]

But EH could suck in parents with little kids now if the PTA meetings were more inviting (ie not during my work day/pick up time).

Multiple parents who have toured SH have told me its totally chaotic in the hallways between classes - like pretty scary. I see really nice looking, polite Stuart Hobson kids all the time in the neighborhood. I haven't heard that EH is chaotic and loud, but I have heard about boys fighting.

[Anonymous]

When I toured Eliot Hine a few years ago, it was pretty much a lock-down situation and therefore very calm. They had extra long classes ( fewer per day ) with the idea that fewer passing periods equals less chaos. They also had entirely separate lunch and recess periods for boys and girls to minimize that frisson. Not sure how it goes now. Probably worth another tour given that there is a new principal and new IB MYP program

[Anonymous]

Rising Brent and SWS parents may want to try to coalesce over the middle school feeder/OOB issue. I am not sure if a middle school has been assigned for SWS but remember hearing that the school lost the SH feed due to overcrowding. Ms. Forte, who is the sole Ward 6 rep on the redistricting committee, apparently is also a SWS parent and LSAT member.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Cluster parent who thinks this boundary/feeder revision process is an opportunity to discuss splitting SH off from Watkins & Peabody. It would be very wrong to think of Cluster parents as some monolithic group of SH cheerleaders. Lots of IB and near-IB families would love to see SH off on its own for all kinds of reasons. There are some interesting ideas floating around out there about making SH a citywide test-in Museum Magnet MS program with neighborhood proximity preference.

[Anonymous]

^^this would be much easier to achieve if cluster parents who would like to see SH transformed in this way would join forces with Hill parents at large. You would have a huge group of support for this idea.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, PPs, for an interesting, if sobering, thread. Thanks for keeping things civil. I'm new to these issues and would be glad to learn more.

If S-H actually offered a serious test-in program, and broke off from the Cluster, momentum for dramatic change would surely build fast. Doubt it, particularly if Gray runs again and wins, as he probably will, and Kaya sticks around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a Cluster parent who thinks this boundary/feeder revision process is an opportunity to discuss splitting SH off from Watkins & Peabody. It would be very wrong to think of Cluster parents as some monolithic group of SH cheerleaders. Lots of IB and near-IB families would love to see SH off on its own for all kinds of reasons. There are some interesting ideas floating around out there about making SH a citywide test-in Museum Magnet MS program with neighborhood proximity preference.

Replace "SH" with Winston Education (Hillcrest) you're getting warmer. SH is never going to be test-in. CM Catania is getting feelers on a test-in application MS in Hillcrest at the Winston Education site, which is only 3 miles from the Hill and easily accessible by bus/car (and against traffic). He wants to know if the parents who will schlep from the Hill to Basis, Latin, DCI, Deal, Hardy, etc will consider commuting east of the Potomac. It's actually a promising idea, and worth exploring if the program offers the kind of rigor in MS sought by many Hill families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding it that it is now much more difficult under IMPACT to get rid of a teacher as long as students are showing the requisite progression, which can be a function of a number of factors including changing demographics. Rhee and her cadre of new principals had no tolerance for the old guard of teachers mired in a culture of social promotion.

It is the system, not the teachers that tolerate and demand social promotion. Impact has nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous]

I pray that you are not a teacher.