Middle and high school on Capitol Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is Charles Allen doing to this end? I know his platform included a Hill Middle school. Still waiting for that.

He's doing absolutely nothing. Because he is useless.

What should he be doing? He's on the Education Cmte. DME reports to mayor and has far more say in this process than Council

PP, you don't understand DC politics. Councilmembers wield mucho power in this small pond.

I do and you're wrong. It's mostly a bullhorn but the Mayor calls most of the shots on public ed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is that feeding sws, Brent and Maury to a common middle school ( along with other elementaries ) is gerrymandering.

However the biggest gerrymander EVER is the weird, diagonal swath across Capitol Hill that formed the Capitol Hill Cluster School SO THAT people like pp could AVOID going to middle school with anyone other than Watkins graduates. J.O. Wilson and LT were added as feeder schools in only the last 5-6 years. This is what PP and his/her kids benefited from and now enrages him/her about others

Hyperbole much? The boundary travels east/west to accomodate ECE at Peabody. If Peabody went away you'd see some of its boundary absorbed by Brent, Ludlow Taylor and Watkins. As it stands, K is compulsory and children IB for Watkins require an IB K option.

The weider boundary is the eastern portion of Watkins which surgically carves itself around Payne

[Anonymous]

Jefferson when it was a junior high run by principal Vera White was quite good. There was a strong math program where algebra started in seventh grade.

By the way, some out of boundary residents are competitive salary wise with residents on the Hill or at least on this forum. Some choose to live in neighborhoods with bigger houses and yards but don't have excessively high mortgages. OOB is not a negative. Let's just focus on creating good safe schools for all.

[Anonymous]

I'd just like Deal for Ward 6 with all ESes currently feeding to SH, EH or Jefferson feeding into it. It could be split across 2 of the existing properties by grade level. (I, personally, think SH and EH would make the most sense, but I understand the case for Jefferson over EH.) I think LOTS of parents would support this and it would only take ~5 years for it to be very comparable to Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd just like Deal for Ward 6 with all ESes currently feeding to SH, EH or Jefferson feeding into it. It could be split across 2 of the existing properties by grade level. (I, personally, think SH and EH would make the most sense, but I understand the case for Jefferson over EH.) I think LOTS of parents would support this and it would only take ~5 years for it to be very comparable to Deal.

This has been floated before but the Cluster contingent will never let us touch SH. So, it would have to be a pan-Ward 6 middle school that would feed SWS, Maury, Brent, Payne, Miner, Tyler, Van Ness, Amidon-Bowen, Seaton, Walker-Jones. Apparently either Jefferson or E-H would be big enough. I think to make it happen they'd have to have a "fresh start" and be prepared to offer advanced programming from the beginning, perhaps based on everyone with PARCC scores in the 4s and 5s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd just like Deal for Ward 6 with all ESes currently feeding to SH, EH or Jefferson feeding into it. It could be split across 2 of the existing properties by grade level. (I, personally, think SH and EH would make the most sense, but I understand the case for Jefferson over EH.) I think LOTS of parents would support this and it would only take ~5 years for it to be very comparable to Deal.

This has been floated before but the Cluster contingent will never let us touch SH. So, it would have to be a pan-Ward 6 middle school that would feed SWS, Maury, Brent, Payne, Miner, Tyler, Van Ness, Amidon-Bowen, Seaton, Walker-Jones. Apparently either Jefferson or E-H would be big enough. I think to make it happen they'd have to have a "fresh start" and be prepared to offer advanced programming from the beginning, perhaps based on everyone with PARCC scores in the 4s and 5s.

I'd be OK with that too. I'd rather get Watkins + LT + JO Wilson too (and I think, ultimately, those schools would regret opting out b/c SH is only "OK" even by DC crappy standards), but it could work with those listed above. I'd also put in CHML for those who want to opt out for Montessori middle school, but that might be picking an unnecessary fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd just like Deal for Ward 6 with all ESes currently feeding to SH, EH or Jefferson feeding into it. It could be split across 2 of the existing properties by grade level. (I, personally, think SH and EH would make the most sense, but I understand the case for Jefferson over EH.) I think LOTS of parents would support this and it would only take ~5 years for it to be very comparable to Deal.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

I wouldn't say there are "plenty" of hill families "more than satisfied" with Eastern.

There are plenty of families happy with Eastern. You likely don't socialize with them because they are not your SES.

Why would they be happy with such terrible test scores?

Why are you endorsing the soft bigotry of low expectations?

- Person of color

We're on track to go to Stuart-Hobson and I'd love for Eastern to be an option, but looking at the school profile, I see:
- It's rated "priority" (lowest of five levels).
- "100%" free and reduced lunch (which I know doesn't mean 100%, but is above some very high threshold).
- Only 1% of students met expectations (level 4) on the PARCC math test, and 0% exceeded expectations.

Can anyone with direct knowledge share any positive information on the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson when it was a junior high run by principal Vera White was quite good. There was a strong math program where algebra started in seventh grade.

By the way, some out of boundary residents are competitive salary wise with residents on the Hill or at least on this forum. Some choose to live in neighborhoods with bigger houses and yards but don't have excessively high mortgages. OOB is not a negative. Let's just focus on creating good safe schools for all.

During that era Jefferson ran a de facto test in honors program that drew strong students from all over the city. They were segregated within the building from the regular ed program and then fed to Wilson HS. As far as I know all of the students in this advanced program were African American and were excellent students given an opportunity to be in a cohort with other excellent students. They thrived and so did Jefferson's reputation. The program was closed down after complaints/law suits about tracking, equity, etc. with that the principal left and the school's reputation suffered and the enrollment tanked. For many years no students from Brent matriculated to Jefferson, they avoided it by going to Hardy.

All indications are that Jefferson is doing a great job at the moment and may soon be attracting families from Brent. But in its glorious past, it had an in-house magnet program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jefferson when it was a junior high run by principal Vera White was quite good. There was a strong math program where algebra started in seventh grade.

By the way, some out of boundary residents are competitive salary wise with residents on the Hill or at least on this forum. Some choose to live in neighborhoods with bigger houses and yards but don't have excessively high mortgages. OOB is not a negative. Let's just focus on creating good safe schools for all.

During that era Jefferson ran a de facto test in honors program that drew strong students from all over the city. They were segregated within the building from the regular ed program and then fed to Wilson HS. As far as I know all of the students in this advanced program were African American and were excellent students given an opportunity to be in a cohort with other excellent students. They thrived and so did Jefferson's reputation. The program was closed down after complaints/law suits about tracking, equity, etc. with that the principal left and the school's reputation suffered and the enrollment tanked. For many years no students from Brent matriculated to Jefferson, they avoided it by going to Hardy.

All indications are that Jefferson is doing a great job at the moment and may soon be attracting families from Brent. But in its glorious past, it had an in-house magnet program.

link to lawsuits about Jefferson?

[Anonymous]

No link to lawsuits. I don't think they were directed at Jefferson in particular. About tracking in general. Here's an article about Jefferson from 1997. It had 800 students!

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-09-28/news/1997271035_1_jefferson-metal-detector-model-of-efficiency

[Anonymous]

This is also interesting-- not sure what year but written by a students and claims that Jefferson had 80% of students coming from all over the city and talks about the application process to get in

https://www.howard.edu/library/reference/cybercamps/camp98/students/MarcusW.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is that feeding sws, Brent and Maury to a common middle school ( along with other elementaries ) is gerrymandering.

However the biggest gerrymander EVER is the weird, diagonal swath across Capitol Hill that formed the Capitol Hill Cluster School SO THAT people like pp could AVOID going to middle school with anyone other than Watkins graduates. J.O. Wilson and LT were added as feeder schools in only the last 5-6 years. This is what PP and his/her kids benefited from and now enrages him/her about others

Hyperbole much? The boundary travels east/west to accomodate ECE at Peabody. If Peabody went away you'd see some of its boundary absorbed by Brent, Ludlow Taylor and Watkins. As it stands, K is compulsory and children IB for Watkins require an IB K option.

The weider boundary is the eastern portion of Watkins which surgically carves itself around Payne

No, the whole boundary is a hot mess.

-Inbounds for the cluster

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd just like Deal for Ward 6 with all ESes currently feeding to SH, EH or Jefferson feeding into it. It could be split across 2 of the existing properties by grade level. (I, personally, think SH and EH would make the most sense, but I understand the case for Jefferson over EH.) I think LOTS of parents would support this and it would only take ~5 years for it to be very comparable to Deal.

This has been floated before but the Cluster contingent will never let us touch SH. So, it would have to be a pan-Ward 6 middle school that would feed SWS, Maury, Brent, Payne, Miner, Tyler, Van Ness, Amidon-Bowen, Seaton, Walker-Jones. Apparently either Jefferson or E-H would be big enough. I think to make it happen they'd have to have a "fresh start" and be prepared to offer advanced programming from the beginning, perhaps based on everyone with PARCC scores in the 4s and 5s.

I'm inbounds for the cluster and support that. My guess is that it's the OOB cluster contingent that doesn't support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the idea is that feeding sws, Brent and Maury to a common middle school ( along with other elementaries ) is gerrymandering.

However the biggest gerrymander EVER is the weird, diagonal swath across Capitol Hill that formed the Capitol Hill Cluster School SO THAT people like pp could AVOID going to middle school with anyone other than Watkins graduates. J.O. Wilson and LT were added as feeder schools in only the last 5-6 years. This is what PP and his/her kids benefited from and now enrages him/her about others

Hyperbole much? The boundary travels east/west to accomodate ECE at Peabody. If Peabody went away you'd see some of its boundary absorbed by Brent, Ludlow Taylor and Watkins. As it stands, K is compulsory and children IB for Watkins require an IB K option.

The weider boundary is the eastern portion of Watkins which surgically carves itself around Payne

No, the whole boundary is a hot mess.

-Inbounds for the cluster

But a Clevland Park parent IB for Eaton is just supposed to swallow that while Shepherd and Bancroft keep their Deal feed

Got -- Cluster is the snowflake of DCPS boundaries