Overcrowding at Wilson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am skeptical of those numbers. There are at least 50 SWW 9th graders that went to Deal last year. There were not 600 kids in 8th grade at Deal last year.

I am not saying it is not overcrowded and this is not an issue, just be careful with asserting "facts"

OP here - and I am skeptical of your numbers. The Beacon gave the current enrollment - 550 from Deal was told to me by my child. They don't have enrollment numbers from last year up - but it was 537 in 7th grade for this group. My child only knows 5 people who went to Walls and they know a lot of kids. Walls hired an inept math teacher from Deal that this grade had a chance of having twice - in 6th and 7th grade. I have heard more then a handful of kids saying they didn't want to go to Walls because they hired that teacher so how good can they be. All anecdotal but I think it was a low Walls year and I would say 20-30 went. So...why don't you be just as careful.

I have a 9th trader at Walls is and I stand by my assessment of numbers, I am actually guessing low given what I have heard from my child but I do acknowledge it is a guess. I am aware of that math teacher as I heard about it from the shadow day from another student I know also now at Walls and my student is not in a class with that teacher. Walls is not perfect but it has a lot of very good things about it, including a high level of independence for the students, and I am very happy my child is there and not Wilson.

I'm glad to hear that you are so self-satisfied that you are not at Wilson. We're having a good experience, so why do you not trash something that you don't have anything to do with. You sound like a private school parent.

I apologize, I really should not have gotten so defensive to the OP whi was insulting Walls for it’s teachers that are so terrible that no more than 30 Deal kids could possibly have elected to attend.

I too have spoke with families whose students are thriving there, both before and this year. I was saying that for my child, there are a lot of good things about Walls and I also acknowledged it is not perfect. For my child, a little smaller is better.

I'm sure you can find a teacher or two to insult at Wilson It worries me more that Deal acquired a few good teachers...from Wilson. Though it far more worries me that Walls hired that particular teacher.

And my point about your numbers was that they were just a guess as well - my current enrollment number was pretty correct. And I have multiple children at Wilson/Deal who have lots of friends so compared to previous years - very, very low numbers going to Walls. Not saying they don't go there but you were so snippy about having facts. The real issue is overwcroweidng that isn't being dealt with correctly.

My child is lucky - has all they need for classes. But I heard quite a few stories about kdis waiting for hours to try to fix their schedule and failing. Why wasn't this planned for? No, I'm not freaking out about it - my kid wanted to go to Wilson as they hate small schools. I just want to make sure the issue is being raised and to see if others know more about this particular issues. There will be good and bad at every school and learning to adapt to that is good for all our kids. But if your kid doesn't go to Wilson ...go start your own thread. This is one issue you luckily do not have to deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anybody know what actual capacity is?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know what actual capacity is?

No, not even anyone at DCPS.

One of the things that came out of the crowding task force was that DCPS doesn't know the capacity of their schools and doesn't want to know. They don't have any methodology for setting capacity numbers. When they are forced to write down a number they just pick the current enrollment and add ten percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am skeptical of those numbers. There are at least 50 SWW 9th graders that went to Deal last year. There were not 600 kids in 8th grade at Deal last year.

I am not saying it is not overcrowded and this is not an issue, just be careful with asserting "facts"

OP here - and I am skeptical of your numbers. The Beacon gave the current enrollment - 550 from Deal was told to me by my child. They don't have enrollment numbers from last year up - but it was 537 in 7th grade for this group. My child only knows 5 people who went to Walls and they know a lot of kids. Walls hired an inept math teacher from Deal that this grade had a chance of having twice - in 6th and 7th grade. I have heard more then a handful of kids saying they didn't want to go to Walls because they hired that teacher so how good can they be. All anecdotal but I think it was a low Walls year and I would say 20-30 went. So...why don't you be just as careful.

I have a 9th trader at Walls is and I stand by my assessment of numbers, I am actually guessing low given what I have heard from my child but I do acknowledge it is a guess. I am aware of that math teacher as I heard about it from the shadow day from another student I know also now at Walls and my student is not in a class with that teacher. Walls is not perfect but it has a lot of very good things about it, including a high level of independence for the students, and I am very happy my child is there and not Wilson.

I'm glad to hear that you are so self-satisfied that you are not at Wilson. We're having a good experience, so why do you not trash something that you don't have anything to do with. You sound like a private school parent.

I apologize, I really should not have gotten so defensive to the OP whi was insulting Walls for it’s teachers that are so terrible that no more than 30 Deal kids could possibly have elected to attend.

I too have spoke with families whose students are thriving there, both before and this year. I was saying that for my child, there are a lot of good things about Walls and I also acknowledged it is not perfect. For my child, a little smaller is better.

I'm sure you can find a teacher or two to insult at Wilson It worries me more that Deal acquired a few good teachers...from Wilson. Though it far more worries me that Walls hired that particular teacher.

And my point about your numbers was that they were just a guess as well - my current enrollment number was pretty correct. And I have multiple children at Wilson/Deal who have lots of friends so compared to previous years - very, very low numbers going to Walls. Not saying they don't go there but you were so snippy about having facts. The real issue is overwcroweidng that isn't being dealt with correctly.

My child is lucky - has all they need for classes. But I heard quite a few stories about kdis waiting for hours to try to fix their schedule and failing. Why wasn't this planned for? No, I'm not freaking out about it - my kid wanted to go to Wilson as they hate small schools. I just want to make sure the issue is being raised and to see if others know more about this particular issues. There will be good and bad at every school and learning to adapt to that is good for all our kids. But if your kid doesn't go to Wilson ...go start your own thread. This is one issue you luckily do not have to deal with.

The original assertion - not clear if you are OP - was that 550 kids came from Deal, more than were in the class that were promoted out of Deal last year. All I said was that was unlikely and probably overstated by at least 10%. I did. It even mention the kids I know of that have gone private or to Ellington. A follow up post was that Wilson registered all the kids from its feeder schools regardless of whether they attend so the truth is we do not have real numbers even now. As I said in my original response, this is a real problem but posting numbers that are inflated does not help.

You turned this into a discussion of the merits of Walls by stating Deal kids are generally no longer interested in attending because of the bad teaching. I have cast no aspersions on Wilson. Saying I am not sorry that my child is not going through the challenges you have described as troubling is not casting aspersions on Wilson. I don’t know if they are true or not. I will repeat, I know many happy kids at Wilson. I have friends whose children have gone to elite, including Ivy League, schools from Wilson. That still doesn’t mean that 550 of last year’s Deal 8th graders are going to Wilson this fall.

I get it, Wilson is overcrowded and they need to do a much better job of managing resources to support the kids that are there. I hope they do. I have another child that may ended up there in a few years. Peace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

I like this idea and sending Bancroft kids to McFarland.

Bancroft and Oyster. Let Oyster-Adams be PK3 to 5 and more neighborhood families will get in for PK (giving them 2 more years of immersion) plus more spots for Spanish-dominant families in a high-performing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am skeptical of those numbers. There are at least 50 SWW 9th graders that went to Deal last year. There were not 600 kids in 8th grade at Deal last year.

I am not saying it is not overcrowded and this is not an issue, just be careful with asserting "facts"

OP here - and I am skeptical of your numbers. The Beacon gave the current enrollment - 550 from Deal was told to me by my child. They don't have enrollment numbers from last year up - but it was 537 in 7th grade for this group. My child only knows 5 people who went to Walls and they know a lot of kids. Walls hired an inept math teacher from Deal that this grade had a chance of having twice - in 6th and 7th grade. I have heard more then a handful of kids saying they didn't want to go to Walls because they hired that teacher so how good can they be. All anecdotal but I think it was a low Walls year and I would say 20-30 went. So...why don't you be just as careful.

I have a 9th trader at Walls is and I stand by my assessment of numbers, I am actually guessing low given what I have heard from my child but I do acknowledge it is a guess. I am aware of that math teacher as I heard about it from the shadow day from another student I know also now at Walls and my student is not in a class with that teacher. Walls is not perfect but it has a lot of very good things about it, including a high level of independence for the students, and I am very happy my child is there and not Wilson.

I'm glad to hear that you are so self-satisfied that you are not at Wilson. We're having a good experience, so why do you not trash something that you don't have anything to do with. You sound like a private school parent.

I apologize, I really should not have gotten so defensive to the OP whi was insulting Walls for it’s teachers that are so terrible that no more than 30 Deal kids could possibly have elected to attend.

I too have spoke with families whose students are thriving there, both before and this year. I was saying that for my child, there are a lot of good things about Walls and I also acknowledged it is not perfect. For my child, a little smaller is better.

I'm sure you can find a teacher or two to insult at Wilson It worries me more that Deal acquired a few good teachers...from Wilson. Though it far more worries me that Walls hired that particular teacher.

And my point about your numbers was that they were just a guess as well - my current enrollment number was pretty correct. And I have multiple children at Wilson/Deal who have lots of friends so compared to previous years - very, very low numbers going to Walls. Not saying they don't go there but you were so snippy about having facts. The real issue is overwcroweidng that isn't being dealt with correctly.

My child is lucky - has all they need for classes. But I heard quite a few stories about kdis waiting for hours to try to fix their schedule and failing. Why wasn't this planned for? No, I'm not freaking out about it - my kid wanted to go to Wilson as they hate small schools. I just want to make sure the issue is being raised and to see if others know more about this particular issues. There will be good and bad at every school and learning to adapt to that is good for all our kids. But if your kid doesn't go to Wilson ...go start your own thread. This is one issue you luckily do not have to deal with.

I am shocked they have such pi££ poor planning. I went to a high school about the same size and our schedules where done the month before school started. The two weeks before class, the front office dealt with schedule changes. The only kids dealing with schedule problems the first week of school were the new kids/late enrollment kids. It blows my mind that Wilson can’t get their act together better than this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

I like this idea and sending Bancroft kids to McFarland.

Bancroft and Oyster. Let Oyster-Adams be PK3 to 5 and more neighborhood families will get in for PK (giving them 2 more years of immersion) plus more spots for Spanish-dominant families in a high-performing school.

Is this the same dumb poster who keeps posting this dumb idea on every school thread and is apparently unaware that Oyster ADAMS includes Adams Middle School, a high performing bilingual middle school? Look, I get that you think this is a great idea, but it will never ever happen, and constantly repeating it is really annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

I like this idea and sending Bancroft kids to McFarland.

Bancroft and Oyster. Let Oyster-Adams be PK3 to 5 and more neighborhood families will get in for PK (giving them 2 more years of immersion) plus more spots for Spanish-dominant families in a high-performing school.

Is this the same dumb poster who keeps posting this dumb idea on every school thread and is apparently unaware that Oyster ADAMS includes Adams Middle School, a high performing bilingual middle school? Look, I get that you think this is a great idea, but it will never ever happen, and constantly repeating it is really annoying.

Tell it to the posters always arguing to move Janney and/or out of Deal/Wilson. Not going to happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

I like this idea and sending Bancroft kids to McFarland.

Bancroft and Oyster. Let Oyster-Adams be PK3 to 5 and more neighborhood families will get in for PK (giving them 2 more years of immersion) plus more spots for Spanish-dominant families in a high-performing school.

Is this the same dumb poster who keeps posting this dumb idea on every school thread and is apparently unaware that Oyster ADAMS includes Adams Middle School, a high performing bilingual middle school? Look, I get that you think this is a great idea, but it will never ever happen, and constantly repeating it is really annoying.

Tell it to the posters always arguing to move Janney and/or out of Deal/Wilson. Not going to happen.

I think those posts are just to upset the high maintenance, self-absorbed, snobby Janney parents upset.

[Anonymous]

Want to count students?

Try this.

Station people at the door and count them as they pass through the door.

Do it for 5 days.

Average it.

There’s your official number. No need for teachers to report.

Thank me later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

I like this idea and sending Bancroft kids to McFarland.

Bancroft and Oyster. Let Oyster-Adams be PK3 to 5 and more neighborhood families will get in for PK (giving them 2 more years of immersion) plus more spots for Spanish-dominant families in a high-performing school.

Is this the same dumb poster who keeps posting this dumb idea on every school thread and is apparently unaware that Oyster ADAMS includes Adams Middle School, a high performing bilingual middle school? Look, I get that you think this is a great idea, but it will never ever happen, and constantly repeating it is really annoying.

NP. It actually makes a lot of sense to move Adams middle school to Macfarland. Would be good to have “semi” high performing bilingual students there. And yes, this would open up more space or better yet open a new non language elementary school in its place to relieve surround ward 3/2 WOTP schools that would feed to Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody know what actual capacity is?

No, not even anyone at DCPS.

One of the things that came out of the crowding task force was that DCPS doesn't know the capacity of their schools and doesn't want to know. They don't have any methodology for setting capacity numbers. When they are forced to write down a number they just pick the current enrollment and add ten percent.

Having gone through the renovation process where capacity is discussed a lot, the reality it that the only guideline that can stop them is the fire code. The fire code allows an incredible number of people in a public building with many wide doors -- way more bodies than is educationally appropriate. So in the end your best resource is the very flexible guidelines in the teachers union contract, which is actually based of best educational principles, but is utterly unenforceable as written.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was randomly placed in the public speaking elective. He tried it but said it was terrible and even the teacher said he was randomly assigned to teach it and is not interested in the topic. He had to wait in line for 3h to see a counselor and most anything he wanted was already maxed out. I hope the Wilson principal is advocating for more resources for Wilson because the school is clearly overstretched.

The Wilson principal is useless. That's why she was hired.

She was just named Principal of the Year.

In DCPS, those two facts are consistent, not contradictory.

This

THIS plus 100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son was randomly placed in the public speaking elective. He tried it but said it was terrible and even the teacher said he was randomly assigned to teach it and is not interested in the topic. He had to wait in line for 3h to see a counselor and most anything he wanted was already maxed out. I hope the Wilson principal is advocating for more resources for Wilson because the school is clearly overstretched.

The Wilson principal is useless. That's why she was hired.

She was just named Principal of the Year.

In DCPS, those two facts are consistent, not contradictory.

This

THIS plus 100

She is just a puppet for DCPS leadership who wants everyone to be in the same classes no matter where you are academically. Equity in education for all or to put it another way mediocrity for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Feel free to start advocating for some schools to be pulled out of the Wilson boundary. If Lafayette and Shepherd fed Wells and Coolidge, the EOTP PARCC scores would go up significantly and both feeder patterns would be closer to capacity. Even if 2/3 of the people IB for Lafayette and Shepherd moved or went private or went to selective high schools (they won't) it would still free up space at Wilson and create more diversity and higher test scores at Wells and Coolidge.

Shepherd gives 30 students a year. How does this help overcrowding??? Bus Janney or Murch