Capitol Hill Middle School and High School situation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the problem, as I see it, is that the best way to improve the schools in general and get batter return on investment would be to track. And that is anathema and is considered to be racist, even though we should be beyond the time of when white administrators placed only white children in such programs. Shouldn't DCPS be able to do this equitably in 2021 with POC in charge?

When your child is at or above grade level in 4th grade and the lone teacher is supposed to be teaching all the children where they are, you know what happens? The teacher spends a lot of time trying to fix the past mistakes that have led to 9 year olds reading/writing at a 1st grade level - so then there is little time given to teaching the student who are ready to learn new things. All my child did in 4th grade was read Harry Potter books, which the teacher was fine with since DC wasn't causing problems and tested well - even though DC could have used a lot more support in math.

So you play the lottery and leave for a charter. And find out how much your "smart" kid doesn't know in math and science and history.

You all need to brush up on Hobson v. Hansen, and why the type of tracking you seek is unlawful in DC. I'm tired of the white parents hand-wringing. I've sent two kids through SH to competitive high schools (one public and one private). We are IB, Cluster family.

We had tracking by subject in my 100% white middle and high school. Guess what? It worked well. Kids who were great at math were challenged. Kids who were great at humanities were challenged. Kids who struggled in certain subjects got the support they needed.

The only reason we don’t do that in DC is optics. And that’s dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, and I just want to give a huge thank you to all the PPs who have taken the time to explain the history of the situation -- so much of this is stuff I've heard referenced and discussed in the neighborhood and on these boards, but often the assumption is that everyone knows it all and I don't. I didn't really pay that much attention until we had a baby and even then, honestly, I don't think I really started thinking critically about it until she was 2 and this became imminent. Ridiculous, I know, but as a PP said -- I was naive and just had no experience with this kind of complexity around school choice because I grew up somewhere that everyone just went to their in-boundary schools and that was it. I had no idea.

One question that is still lingering for me (I mean, a lot of questions still but most things have been at least touched on):

We know that Trinidad is in Ward 5 and that the school there (Wheatley) is a K-8 and is not particularly well regarded. A teacher friend of ours who has been in DCPS for a long time actually specifically warned us against K-8s in general, which she thinks have a harder time turning around because so many resources go to support the MS age kids and in a struggling school, all the parents who have an option leave before MS.

However, I see Wheatley feeds to Dunbar in Ward 5 and I feel like I never hear anything about Dunbar as a high school option. I've driven by it and the facility looks nice, but I don't know anyone with a kid there or know anything about it. I'm still not sure how I feel about Wheatley (with housing prices going up up up in Trinidad, it seems like it will have to improve and retain more parents? maybe that's naive), but given the angst around Eastern, could buying in Trinidad and going to Dunbar be one option for families who want to stay Hill-adjacent but are worried about MS/HS.

Sorry if this is a dumb question. I just haven't seen it discussed, even though from a real estate perspective, Trinidad has become a really desirable option if you want to be close to H Street but can't quite afford the Capitol Hill prices.

Dunbar is worse than Eastern. Your kid will get stabbed. Not kidding.

[Anonymous]

Send your kid to Basis if you want academic rigor or Latin if you don't. If you can't lottery into either one, then head for WOTP, the burbs, or private.

Note that Latin will be harder to get into for many starting next year because they are going to give priority to at-risk kids.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Yep. I'd bet on Eastern over Dunbar for sure. But have you considered the Coolidge feeder group, OP? I know it's farther north, but you get more house for your money and I think the middle and high schools up there show promise.

It's important to understand that you can live near Wheatley and go to a charter or a nearby DCPS too. Maybe not for PK3 but after that it is pretty easy to get into Langdon, Langley, and Burroughs just to name a few. The thing about Ward 5 is there are a ton of charters and acceptable DCPS elementaries too, so something is sure to work out. I think Brookland Middle is on the upswing as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because everyone on the hill leaves those elementary schools by 3rd grade, if not sooner, so in theory those could all be great schools if these obnoxious parents that are so reoccupied with "education" aka all white schools would just keep their kids in their in bound school with their grade cohort of kids and they get better over time. No one wants to be the test dummy so no one stays, it's a vicious cycle and its killing DCPS. Charters are a total joke and robbing public schools of resources and the kids they could bring in to continuously improve. I don't live on the hill, but rather in petworth but have several friends on the hill and its the same whining and everyone scratching their head when in reality, its that the wealthy or even normal by this areas standards well meaning parents of white kids leave. Period. It's causing me so much frustration in my own area because my childrens cohort of parents keep saying we love the area, we like the school but yeah we gotta move before middle, and it's like hmm i think if everyone stayed we'd be just fine. If you figure out a solution let me know.

Tbh, many parents are happy when those obnoxious white parents leave. One of the things that makes SH a great school is that the vibe is really relaxed and much more friendly, mostly because those white parents have left.

So true. Not all white parents are obsessed with being in the demographic majority, and many don't identify with white parents who are obsessed with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, others have implied this but let me make it crystal clear for you. What BASIS and Latin and some other charters get you is a good middle school AND a guaranteed spot at an acceptable high school. So sometimes people who would be okay with SH or Eliot-Hine choose charters for the high school access. There's nothing dumb about wanting some predictability and security that you have access to an adequate school. And there's nothing dumb about having low confidence in DCPS. The sooner you wrap your head around the idea that DCPS' management is the problem, the faster you'll get it. It's not like demographics and academic cohort and racism etc aren't present here, but the *adults* who operate DCPS are a big reason people don't attend. Not just because of the demographics or the behaviors or kids being academically behind. It's the management and their decisions and their incompetence and dishonesty.

Can someone elaborate. I have no clue what you guys are talking about. Specific examples please.

Here are just a few. I'm sure there is more that I don't know about.

Antwan Wison and his lottery cheating. And the amount of residency and boundary cheaters who are DCPS employees. It's on the attorney general of DC website. The cheating at Ellington alone was astonishing and went on for years.

The insane thing with the teachers at JO Wilson, link up thread.

The principal of Miner getting fired for slapping a child in front of multiple adult witnesses.

Ellington renovations running massively over budget.

City Paper article about a whistleblower and school lunch contract procurement

I forget which school but they let CPS pick up the wrong kid from school.

Cleveland elementary teacher charged with assaulting a 4th grader.

$200,000 contractor fraud in 2018 for falsely claiming to provide special needs services.

Those allegations at Duke were largely proven false.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of the problem, as I see it, is that the best way to improve the schools in general and get batter return on investment would be to track. And that is anathema and is considered to be racist, even though we should be beyond the time of when white administrators placed only white children in such programs. Shouldn't DCPS be able to do this equitably in 2021 with POC in charge?

When your child is at or above grade level in 4th grade and the lone teacher is supposed to be teaching all the children where they are, you know what happens? The teacher spends a lot of time trying to fix the past mistakes that have led to 9 year olds reading/writing at a 1st grade level - so then there is little time given to teaching the student who are ready to learn new things. All my child did in 4th grade was read Harry Potter books, which the teacher was fine with since DC wasn't causing problems and tested well - even though DC could have used a lot more support in math.

So you play the lottery and leave for a charter. And find out how much your "smart" kid doesn't know in math and science and history.

You all need to brush up on Hobson v. Hansen, and why the type of tracking you seek is unlawful in DC. I'm tired of the white parents hand-wringing. I've sent two kids through SH to competitive high schools (one public and one private). We are IB, Cluster family.

Give me a break, pp. I can't tell by your post if you are one of the "white parents" or not, but it is not THAT hard to get into Walls, especially from SH (thank you BASIS and Latin) nor is it hard to get into a private, just expensive and a long commute, especially if you have a daughter.

[Anonymous]

AND - the earlier poster noted that with POC in charge at DCPS, tracking should no longer be the third rail. Hobson v. Hansen was about tracking based on race, which should not be a problem in 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yep. I'd bet on Eastern over Dunbar for sure. But have you considered the Coolidge feeder group, OP? I know it's farther north, but you get more house for your money and I think the middle and high schools up there show promise.

It's important to understand that you can live near Wheatley and go to a charter or a nearby DCPS too. Maybe not for PK3 but after that it is pretty easy to get into Langdon, Langley, and Burroughs just to name a few. The thing about Ward 5 is there are a ton of charters and acceptable DCPS elementaries too, so something is sure to work out. I think Brookland Middle is on the upswing as well.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, others have implied this but let me make it crystal clear for you. What BASIS and Latin and some other charters get you is a good middle school AND a guaranteed spot at an acceptable high school. So sometimes people who would be okay with SH or Eliot-Hine choose charters for the high school access. There's nothing dumb about wanting some predictability and security that you have access to an adequate school. And there's nothing dumb about having low confidence in DCPS. The sooner you wrap your head around the idea that DCPS' management is the problem, the faster you'll get it. It's not like demographics and academic cohort and racism etc aren't present here, but the *adults* who operate DCPS are a big reason people don't attend. Not just because of the demographics or the behaviors or kids being academically behind. It's the management and their decisions and their incompetence and dishonesty.

Can someone elaborate. I have no clue what you guys are talking about. Specific examples please.

Here are just a few. I'm sure there is more that I don't know about.

Antwan Wison and his lottery cheating. And the amount of residency and boundary cheaters who are DCPS employees. It's on the attorney general of DC website. The cheating at Ellington alone was astonishing and went on for years.

The insane thing with the teachers at JO Wilson, link up thread.

The principal of Miner getting fired for slapping a child in front of multiple adult witnesses.

Ellington renovations running massively over budget.

City Paper article about a whistleblower and school lunch contract procurement

I forget which school but they let CPS pick up the wrong kid from school.

Cleveland elementary teacher charged with assaulting a 4th grader.

$200,000 contractor fraud in 2018 for falsely claiming to provide special needs services.

Those allegations at Duke were largely proven false.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

But enough were found to be true that it is a fair example of fraud and corruption and incompetence. At $12,000 per kid per year, even just 10 or 12 cheaters costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone point to a resource or article that discusses how Dunbar went from crown jewel of DCPS to where it is today? I saw mention of this in another thread, but I don’t know the background.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, others have implied this but let me make it crystal clear for you. What BASIS and Latin and some other charters get you is a good middle school AND a guaranteed spot at an acceptable high school. So sometimes people who would be okay with SH or Eliot-Hine choose charters for the high school access. There's nothing dumb about wanting some predictability and security that you have access to an adequate school. And there's nothing dumb about having low confidence in DCPS. The sooner you wrap your head around the idea that DCPS' management is the problem, the faster you'll get it. It's not like demographics and academic cohort and racism etc aren't present here, but the *adults* who operate DCPS are a big reason people don't attend. Not just because of the demographics or the behaviors or kids being academically behind. It's the management and their decisions and their incompetence and dishonesty.

Can someone elaborate. I have no clue what you guys are talking about. Specific examples please.

Here are just a few. I'm sure there is more that I don't know about.

Antwan Wison and his lottery cheating. And the amount of residency and boundary cheaters who are DCPS employees. It's on the attorney general of DC website. The cheating at Ellington alone was astonishing and went on for years.

The insane thing with the teachers at JO Wilson, link up thread.

The principal of Miner getting fired for slapping a child in front of multiple adult witnesses.

Ellington renovations running massively over budget.

City Paper article about a whistleblower and school lunch contract procurement

I forget which school but they let CPS pick up the wrong kid from school.

Cleveland elementary teacher charged with assaulting a 4th grader.

$200,000 contractor fraud in 2018 for falsely claiming to provide special needs services.

Those allegations at Duke were largely proven false.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

But enough were found to be true that it is a fair example of fraud and corruption and incompetence. At $12,000 per kid per year, even just 10 or 12 cheaters costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And even if most were exonerated, it was wayyyy more than 10 or 12 who were found to be defrauding the city.

[Anonymous]

Capitol Hill parents have been conditioned to accept mediocrity. The elementary schools that people love are really just ok by most objective standards given the school demographics. Then you get to MS and HS and people become open to considering options that are even worse. Theory is that if you have a kid from a nice family they will be ok regardless. For us, we want more for our kids. A 4 on the parcc is nothing to celebrate. You have to decide if the other benefits of living on the hill are worth it to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, others have implied this but let me make it crystal clear for you. What BASIS and Latin and some other charters get you is a good middle school AND a guaranteed spot at an acceptable high school. So sometimes people who would be okay with SH or Eliot-Hine choose charters for the high school access. There's nothing dumb about wanting some predictability and security that you have access to an adequate school. And there's nothing dumb about having low confidence in DCPS. The sooner you wrap your head around the idea that DCPS' management is the problem, the faster you'll get it. It's not like demographics and academic cohort and racism etc aren't present here, but the *adults* who operate DCPS are a big reason people don't attend. Not just because of the demographics or the behaviors or kids being academically behind. It's the management and their decisions and their incompetence and dishonesty.

Can someone elaborate. I have no clue what you guys are talking about. Specific examples please.

Here are just a few. I'm sure there is more that I don't know about.

Antwan Wison and his lottery cheating. And the amount of residency and boundary cheaters who are DCPS employees. It's on the attorney general of DC website. The cheating at Ellington alone was astonishing and went on for years.

The insane thing with the teachers at JO Wilson, link up thread.

The principal of Miner getting fired for slapping a child in front of multiple adult witnesses.

Ellington renovations running massively over budget.

City Paper article about a whistleblower and school lunch contract procurement

I forget which school but they let CPS pick up the wrong kid from school.

Cleveland elementary teacher charged with assaulting a 4th grader.

$200,000 contractor fraud in 2018 for falsely claiming to provide special needs services.

Those allegations at Duke were largely proven false.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html

But enough were found to be true that it is a fair example of fraud and corruption and incompetence. At $12,000 per kid per year, even just 10 or 12 cheaters costs the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.

And even if most were exonerated, it was wayyyy more than 10 or 12 who were found to be defrauding the city.

And the inquiry only went back a few years. Fraud had been going on for decades.

[Anonymous]

OP, adults talk about, "the quality of the education" but I think it's much, much more about kids losing their friends. That's pain and adjustment they have faced year after year. No child should be expected to just accept that. Every parent should want to offer their child more stability than that.