Middle Schools for Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Ok, I'll agree with you that sending a kid with academic potential to Eastern seems crazy.

But your point of view doesn't explain all the judging of people who lottery for charters in 5th grade. You either move out of DCPS in 5th or in 9th (unless the Walls crapshoot goes your way). Why is one choice more morally correct than another? Moving in 5th seems to make more sense, if it is an option, because there is less risk involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Weedon and Schoell are very nice people, but they're kumbaya, strident, unabashedly far out there on the Left. They're not mainstream Hill parents by any stretch of the imagination. More power to them for sending their kids to Eastern but they've hardly launched a movement, not yet anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Weedon and Schoell are very nice people, but they're kumbaya, strident, unabashedly far out there on the Left. They're not mainstream Hill parents by any stretch of the imagination. More power to them for sending their kids to Eastern but they've hardly launched a movement, not yet anyway.

Yeah this is more of a political stunt than a reasoned educational choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think many parents bail for Basis or Latin l/ll (if they can) not because SH is that bad but to have a guarantee HS option (and no application headaches) that is better than Eastern.

Some parents, not many. Come on, no secret that SH throws a bunch of kids working at an 7th, 8th, even 9th grade level into the very same social studies and science classes as kids working 2,3 even 4 grade levels behind them.

What middle school tracks for social studies and science?

It’s called differentiation and teachers have to meet all the levels in the same class that’s the expectation

Easy to say. Very hard to do. Especially when you have class sizes over 20 kids

[Anonymous]

Exactly. Which is why parents prefer classes that have a narrower range of kids. You either move or hope for tracking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Good for your kid. But I am not sure how you "know" how your kid would have done at other schools.

Looking at PARCC, I certainly agree that there is no comparison between Jefferson and Basis:

Jefferson: 36.6% 4+ ELA, 20.9% 4+ math
Basis: 80.2% 4+ ELA, 64.5% 4+ math

The BASIS score is actually much lower than I had expected.

Sure, but that is for all grades. BASIS is 100% lottery for 5th grade so you would expect the 5th grade PARCC scores there to be relatively lower than, say, 8th grade.

The fair comparison is to look at 8th grade PARCC scores, when kids have been at BASIS for at least 3 years. Looking at those scores, BASIS has the top PARCC scores in both reading and math in DC (82% 4+ ELA and 82% 4+ math).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Good for your kid. But I am not sure how you "know" how your kid would have done at other schools.

Looking at PARCC, I certainly agree that there is no comparison between Jefferson and Basis:

Jefferson: 36.6% 4+ ELA, 20.9% 4+ math
Basis: 80.2% 4+ ELA, 64.5% 4+ math

The BASIS score is actually much lower than I had expected.

Sure, but that is for all grades. BASIS is 100% lottery for 5th grade so you would expect the 5th grade PARCC scores there to be relatively lower than, say, 8th grade.

The fair comparison is to look at 8th grade PARCC scores, when kids have been at BASIS for at least 3 years. Looking at those scores, BASIS has the top PARCC scores in both reading and math in DC (82% 4+ ELA and 82% 4+ math).

We’re headed to BASIS but why would it be more fair to compare 8th grade, after BASIS weeded out the kids who can’t hack it, instead of 5th grade, where BASIS is stuck with all the kids who lottery in, just like Jefferson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Weedon and Schoell are very nice people, but they're kumbaya, strident, unabashedly far out there on the Left. They're not mainstream Hill parents by any stretch of the imagination. More power to them for sending their kids to Eastern but they've hardly launched a movement, not yet anyway.

Yeah this is more of a political stunt than a reasoned educational choice.

I don't know those people personally but damn DCUM, you gotta pick a side here. Many of you (I'm guessing you too, PP) were all up in arms that this man wasn't going to send his kid to Eastern. He was roundly lambasted. Then he sends his kid there and it is a "political stunt"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Weedon and Schoell are very nice people, but they're kumbaya, strident, unabashedly far out there on the Left. They're not mainstream Hill parents by any stretch of the imagination. More power to them for sending their kids to Eastern but they've hardly launched a movement, not yet anyway.

Yeah this is more of a political stunt than a reasoned educational choice.

I don't know those people personally but damn DCUM, you gotta pick a side here. Many of you (I'm guessing you too, PP) were all up in arms that this man wasn't going to send his kid to Eastern. He was roundly lambasted. Then he sends his kid there and it is a "political stunt"?

+1. I actually give them credit that, despite their obvious beliefs, they didn't force their kid not to go to Walls when she wanted to. But they did let the kid who wanted to go to Eastern go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Good for your kid. But I am not sure how you "know" how your kid would have done at other schools.

Looking at PARCC, I certainly agree that there is no comparison between Jefferson and Basis:

Jefferson: 36.6% 4+ ELA, 20.9% 4+ math
Basis: 80.2% 4+ ELA, 64.5% 4+ math

The BASIS score is actually much lower than I had expected.

Sure, but that is for all grades. BASIS is 100% lottery for 5th grade so you would expect the 5th grade PARCC scores there to be relatively lower than, say, 8th grade.

The fair comparison is to look at 8th grade PARCC scores, when kids have been at BASIS for at least 3 years. Looking at those scores, BASIS has the top PARCC scores in both reading and math in DC (82% 4+ ELA and 82% 4+ math).

We’re headed to BASIS but why would it be more fair to compare 8th grade, after BASIS weeded out the kids who can’t hack it, instead of 5th grade, where BASIS is stuck with all the kids who lottery in, just like Jefferson?

Because the 5th grade results reflect what the kids learned at their previous school not Basis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Weedon and Schoell are very nice people, but they're kumbaya, strident, unabashedly far out there on the Left. They're not mainstream Hill parents by any stretch of the imagination. More power to them for sending their kids to Eastern but they've hardly launched a movement, not yet anyway.

I know one of these families personally and a traditional college education is not high on the priority list for the parents or the student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://twitter.com/WeedonAmy/status/1523766022020698113

https://twitter.com/christineclapp/status/1510316803423096834

https://twitter.com/HeatherSchoell

Yeah, ok. But there is a reason these three are busy tweeting about their kid’s school choices. Seriously how many of us tweet out our kid’s school name and activities constantly. And pretty much no one else at Eastern doing that. Check the tags🙄

There’s an agenda/identity thing going on. If they were just casually sending their kid to school we wouldn’t be hearing about it on twitter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Good for your kid. But I am not sure how you "know" how your kid would have done at other schools.

Looking at PARCC, I certainly agree that there is no comparison between Jefferson and Basis:

Jefferson: 36.6% 4+ ELA, 20.9% 4+ math
Basis: 80.2% 4+ ELA, 64.5% 4+ math

The BASIS score is actually much lower than I had expected.

Sure, but that is for all grades. BASIS is 100% lottery for 5th grade so you would expect the 5th grade PARCC scores there to be relatively lower than, say, 8th grade.

The fair comparison is to look at 8th grade PARCC scores, when kids have been at BASIS for at least 3 years. Looking at those scores, BASIS has the top PARCC scores in both reading and math in DC (82% 4+ ELA and 82% 4+ math).

We’re headed to BASIS but why would it be more fair to compare 8th grade, after BASIS weeded out the kids who can’t hack it, instead of 5th grade, where BASIS is stuck with all the kids who lottery in, just like Jefferson?

Because the 5th grade results reflect what the kids learned at their previous school not Basis.

How does that make sense? Testing occurs 7-8 months after school starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Thank you for sharing such a positive personal experience, PP.

Contributions from parents with actual experience with how a school functions are truly valuable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:High achieving boy who went on to doing very well in a test-in high school: We went with Jefferson and never had any regrets. I'm convinced he'd have done well at Elliot-Hine or Stuart-Hobson. He'd have been fine at Basis, too. The reason he excelled at Jefferson and became the academically strong and well-rounded person he now is is because he had committed and caring teachers who "get" middle schoolers and who worked with him to get him where he wanted and let him own the process. And because it's close by, he was able to pursue sports and scouts, which enriched his pandemic experience. And he had a set of genuine and funny and also some academically strong friends. Had he been in a place like Basis, he'd have become a kid worried and "pressed" about academics. As it stands, he became a caring, well-rounded, and academically strong teenager.

Good for your kid. But I am not sure how you "know" how your kid would have done at other schools.

Looking at PARCC, I certainly agree that there is no comparison between Jefferson and Basis:

Jefferson: 36.6% 4+ ELA, 20.9% 4+ math
Basis: 80.2% 4+ ELA, 64.5% 4+ math

The BASIS score is actually much lower than I had expected.

Sure, but that is for all grades. BASIS is 100% lottery for 5th grade so you would expect the 5th grade PARCC scores there to be relatively lower than, say, 8th grade.

The fair comparison is to look at 8th grade PARCC scores, when kids have been at BASIS for at least 3 years. Looking at those scores, BASIS has the top PARCC scores in both reading and math in DC (82% 4+ ELA and 82% 4+ math).

We’re headed to BASIS but why would it be more fair to compare 8th grade, after BASIS weeded out the kids who can’t hack it, instead of 5th grade, where BASIS is stuck with all the kids who lottery in, just like Jefferson?

Because the 5th grade results reflect what the kids learned at their previous school not Basis.

You’re reaching.