Autonomy considered as way to improve struggling Dunbar High School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem is what to do with the children that the neighborhood schools send - they live geographically nearby and are the most likely feeders in all cases and are not academically prepared for the success the principal and alumni apparently dream of. I love that the principal especially is dreaming himself into a promotion from Dunbar Remedial High School into Dunbar Selective Prep.

The local students NEED A PLACE TO GO TO SCHOOL. Magnets are wonderful, but WHERE WILL THE LOCAL KIDS CONTINUE TO GO FOR HIGH SCHOOL?

Magnets are NOT supposed to be geographically focused. You wouldn't just get rid of all other schools and just have magnets, you'd have smaller neighborhood schools and more magnets - potentially tailored to different areas like arts, STEM, or other areas.

[Anonymous]

OK, tell me which one gets the new smaller building, in addition to the $122 million new Dunbar?

The majority of Dunbar students that the principal doesn't want, or the minority who would be eligible for Magnet Dunbar?

Again, where will the kids who live inside the attendance zone go to school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only.

I reposted that so everyone could read it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, tell me which one gets the new smaller building, in addition to the $122 million new Dunbar?

The majority of Dunbar students that the principal doesn't want, or the minority who would be eligible for Magnet Dunbar?

Again, where will the kids who live inside the attendance zone go to school?

They can share the same 122 million space (which is beau-ti-ful) since according to a pp, the current student body is ~500 in a building that is built for 1100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only.

I reposted that so everyone could read it again.

Reposting it won't make it any more true. Sure, people are looking out for themselves but they aren't looking out for "them only". Improving a school to benefit them will also benefit anyone else who comes along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only.

I reposted that so everyone could read it again.

Reposting it won't make it any more true. Sure, people are looking out for themselves but they aren't looking out for "them only". Improving a school to benefit them will also benefit anyone else who comes along.

It was its ridiculousness and jaw-dropping lack of self-awareness, not its truthiness, that led me to repost.

[Anonymous]

They are building/renovating these schools for 20 years out. Don't you think the population of DC and especially surrounding these buildings will be completely transformed in 20 years? Not a bad investment for the future.

[Anonymous]

Bad investment. Invest in entirely new spaces much much larger than enrollment? An enrollment that won't increase until population increases starting now roll up to AGE 14!???! So these places will have 10 years useful life wasted below capacity. What does that add up to besides millions of waste, literally wasted space?

We should have built the new mega schools 10 years from now, not today. Modernize square footage needed for current enrollments, but no 100% new schools until the places start to actually fit growth. DC lost student age population in wide swathes 2000-2010. This was predictable and could have been planned for!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bad investment. Invest in entirely new spaces much much larger than enrollment? An enrollment that won't increase until population increases starting now roll up to AGE 14!???! So these places will have 10 years useful life wasted below capacity. What does that add up to besides millions of waste, literally wasted space?

We should have built the new mega schools 10 years from now, not today. Modernize square footage needed for current enrollments, but no 100% new schools until the places start to actually fit growth. DC lost student age population in wide swathes 2000-2010. This was predictable and could have been planned for!

+1. Enrollment is decreasing in DCPS and no one who has an alternative and/or care about education will send their kid to Dunbar High School. DCPS is remarkable on how they throw money into the wind... Now they have a gorgeous facility utilized at less than 1/2 capacity. Who plans like this?!?

Dunbar is not Los Vegas or Disneyland. Just b/c you build it, doesn't mean people will come.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bad investment. Invest in entirely new spaces much much larger than enrollment? An enrollment that won't increase until population increases starting now roll up to AGE 14!???! So these places will have 10 years useful life wasted below capacity. What does that add up to besides millions of waste, literally wasted space?

We should have built the new mega schools 10 years from now, not today. Modernize square footage needed for current enrollments, but no 100% new schools until the places start to actually fit growth. DC lost student age population in wide swathes 2000-2010. This was predictable and could have been planned for!

+1. Enrollment is decreasing in DCPS and no one who has an alternative and/or care about education will send their kid to Dunbar High School. DCPS is remarkable on how they throw money into the wind... Now they have a gorgeous facility utilized at less than 1/2 capacity. Who plans like this?!?

Dunbar is not Los Vegas or Disneyland. Just b/c you build it, doesn't mean people will come.

Good point. Perhaps someone is thinking he's the Major of Las Vegas

[Anonymous]

I don't get making Dunbar into a test in school. McKinley is a test in school and the people on this board aren't sending their children, so why would Dunbar be different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think this is all about Black and White, although there are quite a few White folks in this town who thinks it is all about them and them only.

I reposted that so everyone could read it again.

Reposting it won't make it any more true. Sure, people are looking out for themselves but they aren't looking out for "them only". Improving a school to benefit them will also benefit anyone else who comes along.

It was its ridiculousness and jaw-dropping lack of self-awareness, not its truthiness, that led me to repost.

Nah, I think the post was appropriate and on point for this crowd.

[Anonymous]

Thought this was an interesting article in the question of selective schools and the history of Dunbar.

Learning Why the Caged Bird Sings
First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School
by Alison Stewart
Chicago Review Press, 2013, $26.95, 352 pages

The story of DC’s Dunbar High School, told brilliantly by Alison Stewart in First Class, is equal parts uplifting and maddening.

The school’s story from its opening in 1870 to the 1960s is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the African-American community of the District at that time. Though relegated to second-class status and stifled at every turn, Dunbar produced a coterie of graduates that the most elite schools in the country would envy. Doctors, lawyers, Ivy League professors, generals, and titans of business all graced and were graced by Dunbar’s faculty and community
http://educationnext.org/learning-why-the-caged-bird-sings/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thought this was an interesting article in the question of selective schools and the history of Dunbar.

Learning Why the Caged Bird Sings
First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School
by Alison Stewart
Chicago Review Press, 2013, $26.95, 352 pages

The story of DC’s Dunbar High School, told brilliantly by Alison Stewart in First Class, is equal parts uplifting and maddening.

The school’s story from its opening in 1870 to the 1960s is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the African-American community of the District at that time. Though relegated to second-class status and stifled at every turn, Dunbar produced a coterie of graduates that the most elite schools in the country would envy. Doctors, lawyers, Ivy League professors, generals, and titans of business all graced and were graced by Dunbar’s faculty and community
http://educationnext.org/learning-why-the-caged-bird-sings/

Check out the article: DC could not have a school today that, to paraphrase, had selective admissions by an 8th grade exam, one hour of homework per class per night, failed out huge numbers of students, tracked students by academic levels, and even pushed nonperformers into Cardozo.

I think some people would be willing to go along with this, but I would be very, very careful in screening for a school with hyper-accelerated standards and easy flunk-out. DC has very few students ready for this, and it would be a tiny school. Not one that deserves a huge $122 million building.

Perhaps more realistically you would start the Banneker "Double Down" Academy, which would draw from the Banneker and other selective DCPS student body to create a small academy with admissions requirements, ultra-advanced classes, lots of homework and the possibility of failing out and getting sent back to the Banneker main student body.

And DC certainly has some parents who believe their very own children are exactly the ones who deserve that kind of school yet would be SHOCKED to see their children fail a class, get sent back to regular school, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The same plan that's going to renovate Roosevelt for 120 million for less than 500 students. Gotta love DCPS---meanwhile NO charter can be test-in or exclude anyone. Utter bullshit.

Yes, but charters kick out the students they don't want or can't deal with. That makes them about even with test-in, frankly. Some charters are more egregious than others, but this absolutely happens, and anyone who says it doesn't is lying or clueless.