DCI's first graduating class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I roll my eyes when parents come to DCUM to post about how quickly any particular public school will go from primarily serving low SES students to high SES.

The reality is that most parents will vote with their feet for many years before this happens, if it ever happens.

DCI at risk is only 19% and last year they only moved 18 spots out of 340 on their Spanish waitlist (similar to Latin) so both of your points of low SES and families leaving are wrong by DC standards.

It was so much easier to understand school demographics when FARMs was the operative term for low SES kids. It's true that DCI doesn't have many homeless kids and very poor families. But it's attracts plenty of lower middle-class minority kids who just aren't equipped to keep up with the mostly white and Asian children of uber-educated UMC parents. That's the elephant in the room.

What the f%*#?? Is this a real belief?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I roll my eyes when parents come to DCUM to post about how quickly any particular public school will go from primarily serving low SES students to high SES.

The reality is that most parents will vote with their feet for many years before this happens, if it ever happens.

DCI at risk is only 19% and last year they only moved 18 spots out of 340 on their Spanish waitlist (similar to Latin) so both of your points of low SES and families leaving are wrong by DC standards.

It was so much easier to understand school demographics when FARMs was the operative term for low SES kids. It's true that DCI doesn't have many homeless kids and very poor families. But it's attracts plenty of lower middle-class minority kids who just aren't equipped to keep up with the mostly white and Asian children of uber-educated UMC parents. That's the elephant in the room.

What the f%*#?? Is this a real belief?

As in, you would rather focus on getting your kids in a homogenously white school, than in a school with proper rigor coming from the curriculum and staff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fundamentally misunderstanding education priorities in DC, my foot.

DC voters decide on education priorities, and vote accordingly.

The best prepared students at DCI deserve rigor, good discipline, and authentic cultural experiences as much as the least prepared, all the way from 6th to 12th grades. City council members and the Mayor can only ignore rising and well-resourced voting blocks for so long without taking big political risks. Parents of middle and high school students in gentrifying and gentrified swathes of the District are such a block.

And get, here we are. You are not as big of a voting bloc as you think you are. Especially when half of the families with kids in Ward 3 choose private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fundamentally misunderstanding education priorities in DC, my foot.

DC voters decide on education priorities, and vote accordingly.

The best prepared students at DCI deserve rigor, good discipline, and authentic cultural experiences as much as the least prepared, all the way from 6th to 12th grades. City council members and the Mayor can only ignore rising and well-resourced voting blocks for so long without taking big political risks. Parents of middle and high school students in gentrifying and gentrified swathes of the District are such a block.

Wrong. There is no political risk - you will never find a candidate for Mayor or even City Council that is committed to the needs of the "best prepared students" in the city.

[Anonymous]

Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

[Anonymous]

Especially when half of the families with kids in Ward 3 choose private schools.

Citation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

You think they're doing this for Ward 3 families? They're doing this so families outside of the Wilson zone (with the wherewithal to enter the lottery and shlep their kids across the park) still have a chance at OOB seats, and Hardy/Deal/Wilson don't become 75% white.

[Anonymous]

They're doing for Ward 3 families AND OOB families. Take your preachy cynicism and reverse classism and shove it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

You think they're doing this for Ward 3 families? They're doing this so families outside of the Wilson zone (with the wherewithal to enter the lottery and shlep their kids across the park) still have a chance at OOB seats, and Hardy/Deal/Wilson don't become 75% white.

+100

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They're doing for Ward 3 families AND OOB families. Take your preachy cynicism and reverse classism and shove it.

Since when did they ever listen to ward 3 families. It’s all about equity because that’s what DCPS is all about. No one is convinced it’s for ward 3 and you can take your racism card rebuttal elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're doing for Ward 3 families AND OOB families. Take your preachy cynicism and reverse classism and shove it.

Since when did they ever listen to ward 3 families. It’s all about equity because that’s what DCPS is all about. No one is convinced it’s for ward 3 and you can take your racism card rebuttal elsewhere.

Just like honors for all at Wilson you mean? Yep, they sure are doing it for ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

You think they're doing this for Ward 3 families? They're doing this so families outside of the Wilson zone (with the wherewithal to enter the lottery and shlep their kids across the park) still have a chance at OOB seats, and Hardy/Deal/Wilson don't become 75% white.

Ingenious plan by DCPS. They could give a crap about all the overcrowding in all the elementary schools WOTP.

But they decide to put a new school in an area where there’s not many kids and which does not relieve any of the other overcrowded elementary schools. Just read the recent thread about it.

So lots of OOB kids will be going there and then to WOTP Deal/Wilson which has been their goal all along and correlates well with honors for all at Wilson. Marvelous that kids 3-4 grade levels apart all in the same class. Will definitely serve the higher performing kids WOTP well, don’t you think?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

You think they're doing this for Ward 3 families? They're doing this so families outside of the Wilson zone (with the wherewithal to enter the lottery and shlep their kids across the park) still have a chance at OOB seats, and Hardy/Deal/Wilson don't become 75% white.

Ingenious plan by DCPS. They could give a crap about all the overcrowding in all the elementary schools WOTP.

But they decide to put a new school in an area where there’s not many kids and which does not relieve any of the other overcrowded elementary schools. Just read the recent thread about it.

So lots of OOB kids will be going there and then to WOTP Deal/Wilson which has been their goal all along and correlates well with honors for all at Wilson. Marvelous that kids 3-4 grade levels apart all in the same class. Will definitely serve the higher performing kids WOTP well, don’t you think?

Not every OOB student is behind. In fact many of the OOB kids at schools on the Wilson feeder pattern are white students who happen to live EOTP whose parents entered the lottery every year to try and secure a seat. Sometimes you win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disagree. Case in point: DCPS recently announced that a much-needed new elementary school is Foxhall will be built, for close to $60 million, within the next two or three years. Mary Cheh has lobbied for this development for over a decade, kudos to her and her constituents. UMC education stakeholders are less and less expendable in this City as time goes by. Who knows how the political winds will blow in the future, including where DCI is concerned.

You think they're doing this for Ward 3 families? They're doing this so families outside of the Wilson zone (with the wherewithal to enter the lottery and shlep their kids across the park) still have a chance at OOB seats, and Hardy/Deal/Wilson don't become 75% white.

Ingenious plan by DCPS. They could give a crap about all the overcrowding in all the elementary schools WOTP.

But they decide to put a new school in an area where there’s not many kids and which does not relieve any of the other overcrowded elementary schools. Just read the recent thread about it.

So lots of OOB kids will be going there and then to WOTP Deal/Wilson which has been their goal all along and correlates well with honors for all at Wilson. Marvelous that kids 3-4 grade levels apart all in the same class. Will definitely serve the higher performing kids WOTP well, don’t you think?

Not every OOB student is behind. In fact many of the OOB kids at schools on the Wilson feeder pattern are white students who happen to live EOTP whose parents entered the lottery every year to try and secure a seat. Sometimes you win.

Sure but many are. Of course there are some students inbound that are too. But it makes no sense to put in a new elementary school when there are severe overcrowding at Deal/Wilson that affects everything from academics to teacher turnover to behavior issues to support services to counseling to let even more OOB students in.

I’ve heard from Wilson families that 9th grade was a wasted year, easy, kids bored with honors for all. 10th grade will be the same with honors for all. Even the AP classes, anyone can take them. No academic criteria at all for entrance. It’s really AP for all on top of having 30-40 kids in an AP class because they cut back on the number of teachers teaching AP. I don’t call any of the issues above winning at all. Lots of issues at Deal also with the severe overcrowding. I also am not interested in a horrible commute to upper NW for above either.

We are an UMC EOTP family in a feeder to DCI and planning on going that route. We can afford to move WOTP but why spend a ton more money for above? At least in a charter, leadership is not just a puppet for DCPS for BS equity at the cost of all else, especially all the students except the bottom 1/2. No new middle or high school WOTP but let’s expand Banneker and spend billions renovating underperforming and under-enrolled high schools EOTP.

I’m sure we are not the only one that has made this calculation. I can tell you many UMC families, both white and minority, at our school are planning on going the DCI route. Worst case scenario, if DCI isn’t a good fit for our DC, we will go private with the money saved not moving. But retention rate is very high at DCI which is a promising sign.

[Anonymous]

No good choices for you, PP above. You can make Wilson or DCI's HS work...if you supplement a lot. Six of one, half dozen of the other. In both cases, you hire tutors, pay for enrichment, have your kid take more challenging classes on-line and during breaks than the school offers. Hard work, too much money. If you really don't want to move and can afford to go private, do it.