MacFarland - am I missing something?

[Anonymous]

Wasn't the school closed for low enrollment and poor performance? What makes anyone think it will be a viable option by 2022? Has something major changed in terms of local demographics? I honestly don't get it - please help me understand what all the hope/hullabaloo is about.

[Anonymous]

There are plans to reopen McFarland MS in the 2017-2018 school year I believe. Performance was improving there, but there was low enrollment.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Wasn't the school closed for low enrollment and poor performance? What makes anyone think it will be a viable option by 2022? Has something major changed in terms of local demographics? I honestly don't get it - please help me understand what all the hope/hullabaloo is about.

There has been significant demographic change in the neighborhood. But, more important, the elementary schools that will feed it have improved. Those students who at one time might have gone OOB to Deal, no longer have that option. So, there will soon be a well-prepared cohort ready to attend the middle school.

[Anonymous]

Is that who the Sat. math school is targeted for? The schools feeding MF?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Is that who the Sat. math school is targeted for? The schools feeding MF?

In part, yes.

[Anonymous]

I think demographics show a significantly larger number of middle school aged children coming through compared to when the school shut down.

Most of the schools that feed the middle school are "rising" with scores to back that up.

[Anonymous]

So basically there's a lot of hope that without OOB slots available at Deal, more people will send their kids to MacFarland. But is this based on any polling of any kind? I wonder if those families will just go to charters for middle or private. Were there really that many OOB slots happening for EoTPers?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:So basically there's a lot of hope that without OOB slots available at Deal, more people will send their kids to MacFarland. But is this based on any polling of any kind? I wonder if those families will just go to charters for middle or private. Were there really that many OOB slots happening for EoTPers?

Many of those currently going to the Powell, West, etc. wouldn't have gone there a few years back. They would have tried to go OOB west of the park or to charters. Now that they have bought into their local elementary schools, they are more than ready to buy into a local middle school. They have been actively pushing for the school to be re-opened. This is particularly true for the families in dual-language programs, which MacFarland will offer. It's not just that there are fewer OOB slots at Deal (actually none), but that there is a larger pool of prepared students in the pipeline.

[Anonymous]

It's an exercise in faith, but as we've seen with several improving elementary schools and newly established charters, sometimes that leap of faith is rewarded.

[Anonymous]

I think MacFarland's success will also rely on how successful Brookland MS is with attracting neighborhood kids. Hardy to some degree as well.

[Anonymous]

MacFarland is supposed to house the only DCPS immersion program outside of (Oyster)Adams right? I'd think, that would make a huge difference. Although it seems strange to me to put immersion at MacFarland rather than yet-to-be-built Shaw MS, since most of the ES immersion programs are further south...

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland is supposed to house the only DCPS immersion program outside of (Oyster)Adams right? I'd think, that would make a huge difference. Although it seems strange to me to put immersion at MacFarland rather than yet-to-be-built Shaw MS, since most of the ES immersion programs are further south...

Not that I'm saying MacFarland shouldn't have an immersion program, but I think it is even more strange that Columbia Heights EC is just down the road.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MacFarland is supposed to house the only DCPS immersion program outside of (Oyster)Adams right? I'd think, that would make a huge difference. Although it seems strange to me to put immersion at MacFarland rather than yet-to-be-built Shaw MS, since most of the ES immersion programs are further south...

Not that I'm saying MacFarland shouldn't have an immersion program, but I think it is even more strange that Columbia Heights EC is just down the road.

+1 There should be a another middle school immersion/language option, but not so close to CHEC.

[Anonymous]

We do need a bilingual program at MacFarland. Columbia Heights EC has a bilingual program designed to serve students who are just starting out in Spanish, not students who will be graduating after 5-7 years of language immersion at Powell, BMPV, Bancroft, and other DCPS bilingual schools.

Why not put the bilingual program at the hypothetical re-opened Shaw? in terms of DCPS bilingual programs, Shaw middle school only has Marie Reed in its feeder. Bancroft goes to Deal (although some parents at Bancroft are pushing for a strong DCPS bilingual option this side of the park and would attend MacFarland if other factors were right). Oyster has its own middle school, and Tyler is all by itself on Capitol Hill. Am I missing any? Powell and BMPV will both go to the New MacFarland, so that is actually the highest concentration of bilingual elementary schools for any middle school in the city.

In addition, MacFarland will feed into Roosevelt, which is currently being re-envisioned as the DCPS flagship school for international studies. Powell, MacFarland, and Roosevelt are literally right next door to each other, so you would have a thriving internationally-focused campus with opportunities for cross-pollination and coordination (older students tutoring younger students, teachers collaborating, and the ability to build on specialized skills and programs as students grow).

Perhaps most importantly, there is strong community support for re-opening MacFarland. By contrast, Shaw parents are not really organizing or pushing for a stand-alone middle school in their neighborhood. This may be because many of the Shaw feeder schools currently feed into Deal, while a number of the MacFarland schools currently feed into under-funded education campuses, so parents can see a clear benefit to re-opening MacFarland, which they may not see for Shaw.

Why didn't all these factors stop MacFarland from closing? Part of it is the community was a blind-sided by the MacFarland closure. Parents from different feeder schools were not well-networked at the time and while individuals (including myself) did attempt to reach out to express our concerns about closing the school, the whole process moved very quickly with few opportunities for public input.

MacFarland was under-enrolled, but Wards 4 and 1 are in the midst of an epic baby boom, and most elementary schools have pyramid-shaped populations, with huge enrollment in early childhood petering off in the upper grades. We are all looking for a reliable middle school option, and the sheer level of interest will do much to address the collective action problem that led to the closure in the first place. Had these parents with young children been better organized, I don't think the closure would have happened.

[Anonymous]

IMO the MacFarland language immersion program should have a beginners track for IB students who have not attended an immersion ES program, but also a language proficiency test-in track for students from all over the city who have completed a bilingual ES program or who have achieved bi-literacy by another route. It's important that students in all of our DCPS immersion ES have a shot at continuing their immersion experience if they have achieved a certain level of proficiency by the end of ES. If it wasn't their thing and they didn't really get it, as can often be the case even in immersion programs, then presumably they wouldn't pass the second-language placement test and would not be allowed into the program. IBs would be guaranteed a spot no matter what, although placed with the beginners if their immersion experience had not led to proficiency, and there would, at least in the early years, be OOB spots available for beginners as well via lottery. Proficiency testing could be structured the way Walls does their placement, ie students results are ranked and school accepts the top X number of students per their available slots in the fluent speakers track.