Middle and high school on Capitol Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are about 90 kids per grade at Jefferson. If 10 more kids who were on grade level went to Jefferson next year, its 6th grade proficiency rate would rise from 11%/14% (ELA/Math) to 20%/23%. That's basically the same as Stuart-Hobson (6th grade there was 24%/18%)

Hardy was 42%/27% for 6th grade. Getting to that ELA level at Jefferson just through demographic changes would require about 50 more on-grade-level 6th graders...but if you assume as so many Hill families do, that mere proximity to on-grade-level students would help the underperformers, then you don't need that many.

Math is less daunting. To get to Hardy's level of math proficiency, JA would need to attract 16 more 6th graders who are on grade level. Brent has too few 5th graders to see its proficiency rate, but 13% of 5th graders at Tyler and 7% of 5th graders at Amidon were proficient in math. How many of them go to JA already, and how many more could be convinced to do so? How many proficient 5th graders will Van Ness have in a few years, and will any pick JA? And the kids don't just need to be from feeder schools. Will families in Wards 7 and 8 with proficient kids be willing to send kids to JA instead of SH or Hardy or charters? It really doesn't take that many kids to change proficiency levels at JA to match the middle schools that are currently more desired--and Jefferson used to be just as desirable, if not more so, than SH or Hardy.

But getting 10 or 16 or 50 kids who perform on grade level to pick Jefferson is not easy. Nobody want to be the first mover.

If Jefferson could guarantee honors class offerings on a par with SH's for starters, your ask would be a lot easier.

They have said, repeatedly, that if there are enough kids to fill a class, they will be there. But they aren't going to 'guarantee' it only to have 2 kids from Brent show up.

[Anonymous]

Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are the math scores at Walls and Banneker so low? They're good in comparison to the rest of DC which is trash, but really, if you are aiming to have your kids compete with the likes of kids coming out of TJ, etc., there is no way I'd send my kids to these schools.

Banneker has math scores in 60s and ELA at 98%. Walls 50s and low 80s. I'd say it's a fluke or testing error but keep in mind Banneker is like 60% poverty. what are MoCO high school's math and poverty %?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

CH families don't all keep saying they want honors classes. They are hundreds of families with kids of different ages and PARCC scores with different perceptions of what an honors course would entail, all saying different things that they want that often change over time as there own child gets closer to middle school. There are some posters on DCUM who say that want honors or test-in for middle or high school, but be careful about inferring anything about the larger population of families living in CH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From what I've observed, new arrivals to Cap Hill with babies and toddlers have a strong tendency to err on the side of optimism where MS goes. Flash forward 5 years, and at least half are gone, or on their way out (many after swearing up and down that they'd never go). After 15 years here, with kids in the lower ES grades, I'm feeling less optimistic about MS options than I was several years back.

Bowser doesn't seem interested in helping Latin or BASIS open second MS/HS campuses (e.g. by telling DCPS to hand off appealing real estate to them), and neither program appears to be pushing hard to expand locally. Deal is pretty much a closed book from the Hill now. Within 5 years, Hardy probably won't have OOB spots to auction off. Hobson and Two Rivers already have long WLs for those who aren't in the feeders or catchment areas. Test in DCPS MS programs are not on the table. Eliot-Hine and Jefferson may become crowd pleasers within 10 or 15 years, but not in 5.

Looks to me like those of us with little kids will have fewer acceptable MS options than parents of older kids.

I disagree and I think we'll know soon. We'll be in middle school within the next 5 years and would like to stay in the neighborhood. I think there are others in that boat. People think there is going to be a slow drip but actually it will happen really fast. Some year soon I think, 15 to 20 kids from a "good" ES are going to give it a go and then we'll see what happens. If Jefferson and EH become 50-60% IB, then I think you can start looking at Eastern.

Ward 6 people only seem to look at BASIS and Latin if they don't want to move or go private. There are only so many seats...

Isn't EH more likely than Jefferson? Because of housing mix? Most of the market rate housing for both Amidon-Bowen and Van Ness is multifamily, and smallish units, so not many UMC families with older kids no matter how good the schools. Whereas pretty much all the EH feeders have lots of row houses.

I don't know. Sounds like the Brenties organizing to get a group to jump to Jefferson in a couple years are a lot more serious about the exercise than the Maury upper grades parents.

Jefferson also has Tyler IB as well. That might be a tougher sell as the dual program thing seems to make it complicated. Also, there is a decent change that the new SW development makes the AB neighborhood more attractive to high SES families (not that it wasn't already).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

CH families don't all keep saying they want honors classes. They are hundreds of families with kids of different ages and PARCC scores with different perceptions of what an honors course would entail, all saying different things that they want that often change over time as there own child gets closer to middle school. There are some posters on DCUM who say that want honors or test-in for middle or high school, but be careful about inferring anything about the larger population of families living in CH.

That's kind of the point. This thread is showing that CH families don't know what they want. They know what they don't want but that doesn't help much other than bringing out racist tendencies. How can DCPS create anything for families that don't know what they want? For CH to be so "civic minded", they don't seem to be good at organizing.

[Anonymous]

Pot calling the kettles black. What do you want, hon? A chance to take pot shots at Cap Hill Parents Inc.? Fun!

What a remarkably skunky thread. PPs post straightforward info and get called names in return. I've never been more thrilled that the grandparents have offered to subsidize private MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Jefferson also has Tyler IB as well. That might be a tougher sell as the dual program thing seems to make it complicated. Also, there is a decent change that the new SW development makes the AB neighborhood more attractive to high SES families (not that it wasn't already).

I think SW is already quite attractive. That's not the problem. The problem is that in this region, UMC families with kids beyond pre-school, mostly do not choose to live in multifamily, UNLESS its an already established desirable school district (like North Arlington or Upper NW). Maybe The Wharf will be so huge that even a tiny percentage of school age kids will be enough to make an impact - and maybe PP is right about the existing TH's and about getting stronger OOBs into AB.

It just seems like EH is a much easier change than JA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are about 90 kids per grade at Jefferson. If 10 more kids who were on grade level went to Jefferson next year, its 6th grade proficiency rate would rise from 11%/14% (ELA/Math) to 20%/23%. That's basically the same as Stuart-Hobson (6th grade there was 24%/18%)

Hardy was 42%/27% for 6th grade. Getting to that ELA level at Jefferson just through demographic changes would require about 50 more on-grade-level 6th graders...but if you assume as so many Hill families do, that mere proximity to on-grade-level students would help the underperformers, then you don't need that many.

Math is less daunting. To get to Hardy's level of math proficiency, JA would need to attract 16 more 6th graders who are on grade level. Brent has too few 5th graders to see its proficiency rate, but 13% of 5th graders at Tyler and 7% of 5th graders at Amidon were proficient in math. How many of them go to JA already, and how many more could be convinced to do so? How many proficient 5th graders will Van Ness have in a few years, and will any pick JA? And the kids don't just need to be from feeder schools. Will families in Wards 7 and 8 with proficient kids be willing to send kids to JA instead of SH or Hardy or charters? It really doesn't take that many kids to change proficiency levels at JA to match the middle schools that are currently more desired--and Jefferson used to be just as desirable, if not more so, than SH or Hardy.

But getting 10 or 16 or 50 kids who perform on grade level to pick Jefferson is not easy. Nobody want to be the first mover.

If Jefferson could guarantee honors class offerings on a par with SH's for starters, your ask would be a lot easier.

They have said, repeatedly, that if there are enough kids to fill a class, they will be there. But they aren't going to 'guarantee' it only to have 2 kids from Brent show up.

But then of course those families are worried there won't be a whole class the first year and there won't be anything for their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pot calling the kettles black. What do you want, hon? A chance to take pot shots at Cap Hill Parents Inc.? Fun!

What a remarkably skunky thread. PPs post straightforward info and get called names in return. I've never been more thrilled that the grandparents have offered to subsidize private MS.

Who's calling names? Sensitive much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

CH families don't all keep saying they want honors classes. They are hundreds of families with kids of different ages and PARCC scores with different perceptions of what an honors course would entail, all saying different things that they want that often change over time as there own child gets closer to middle school. There are some posters on DCUM who say that want honors or test-in for middle or high school, but be careful about inferring anything about the larger population of families living in CH.

That's kind of the point. This thread is showing that CH families don't know what they want. They know what they don't want but that doesn't help much other than bringing out racist tendencies. How can DCPS create anything for families that don't know what they want? For CH to be so "civic minded", they don't seem to be good at organizing.

I don't think this thread really reflects the entirity of Cap Hill and lots of posters clearly not engaged in Cap Hill schools and just chiming in. Half the posts are from Boston Latin tiger mom turning up her nose at anything less than Ivy bound uber achievers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

CH families don't all keep saying they want honors classes. They are hundreds of families with kids of different ages and PARCC scores with different perceptions of what an honors course would entail, all saying different things that they want that often change over time as there own child gets closer to middle school. There are some posters on DCUM who say that want honors or test-in for middle or high school, but be careful about inferring anything about the larger population of families living in CH.

That's kind of the point. This thread is showing that CH families don't know what they want. They know what they don't want but that doesn't help much other than bringing out racist tendencies. How can DCPS create anything for families that don't know what they want? For CH to be so "civic minded", they don't seem to be good at organizing.

I don't think this thread really reflects the entirity of Cap Hill and lots of posters clearly not engaged in Cap Hill schools and just chiming in. Half the posts are from Boston Latin tiger mom turning up her nose at anything less than Ivy bound uber achievers.

Ok I'll give you that much. Still, a 35 page thread is big. It would be nice if somehow it turned into actionable take always rather than constant rumblings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are SH's "honors" classes actually on grade level, or are they just really tiny? They don't seem to have that many kids who are proficient, let alone advanced.

They had no proficient 8th graders for math (where I think tracking is most important), and only 18% of 6th graders were proficient--so about 25 kids. Were they placed in a single "honors" section? Were the 2% of kids who were advanced in math (so about 3 kids) given differently targeted work?

Figuring out what SH does could help those of us IB for JA formulate an ask.

I wanted to chime in to say something similar. CH families keep saying they want honors classes (or test in middle/high) but they should be more clear in saying they want separate classes for their average kids. For ELA Brent only has 10% of 3rd graders scoring 5s, 17% of 4th. Maury has 6% of 3rd graders, 10% of 4th, and 0 5th.

CH families don't all keep saying they want honors classes. They are hundreds of families with kids of different ages and PARCC scores with different perceptions of what an honors course would entail, all saying different things that they want that often change over time as there own child gets closer to middle school. There are some posters on DCUM who say that want honors or test-in for middle or high school, but be careful about inferring anything about the larger population of families living in CH.

That's kind of the point. This thread is showing that CH families don't know what they want. They know what they don't want but that doesn't help much other than bringing out racist tendencies. How can DCPS create anything for families that don't know what they want? For CH to be so "civic minded", they don't seem to be good at organizing.

I don't think this thread really reflects the entirity of Cap Hill and lots of posters clearly not engaged in Cap Hill schools and just chiming in. Half the posts are from Boston Latin tiger mom turning up her nose at anything less than Ivy bound uber achievers.

Ok I'll give you that much. Still, a 35 page thread is big. It would be nice if somehow it turned into actionable take always rather than constant rumblings.

Does it matter? Bowser hates Capitol Hill. David Grosso is an empty suit. Charles Allen is out of his league and cares more about being reeelected and photo ops. We have no representation and when we ask for anything, people call us gentrifier racists.

[Anonymous]

Not sure any collective action needs to happen. The advice above that folks could just try their IB middle school at 6th grade (if they don't get into a charter they want for fifth, or just on general principal, or because those other schools aren't a good fit) and give it a shot. Maybe it will work! If it doesn't, try something else.

I agree with folks that things change faster than you can imagine. Brent was on the list to close because of low enrollment-- and it was like 80% out of boundary just 8 years ago. It is entirely possible that Jefferson and EH will be completely different places than they are now.

Now would it have been better if DCPS had focused on developing middle schools before renovation Eastern? Maybe, but that ship has sailed. And maybe eastern really did need the renovation and couldn't wait any longer. And wasn't it the chancellor that admitted charters just do middle schools better than DCPS? Maybe DCPS can learn from the successes (and Mis steps) of Latin and Basis and is now ready at this point to do middle school right. Just in time as those schools are becoming very difficult to get into!