Ludlow-Taylor getting a new a new Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good Lord, people. It's elementary school, not prison. Your child's happiness as an adult does not hinge on whether they went to Ludlow Taylor versus Brent.

I disagree - Your child's ideas of what make a person accepted, praised, and rewarded are being defined right now. Your child is hearing what is important, how to behave, and what to say in order to "succeed" in this world all in elementary school. They're learning to play nice, defer to authority, a whole load of crap that will have an effect on how they see the world as they enter into adulthood. It's this attitude of "ain't no thang , because she knows her ABCs" that I have a beef with.

[Anonymous]

No. Your child is learning all the important things you mention at home. The difference between their experience/what they learn at Brent versus Ludlow-Taylor will be infinitesimal in the scheme of things. YOUR experience as a parent is what will be different, but don't make it out that your kid is going to be marked forever by going to a mediocre elementary school versus a slightly less mediocre elementary school.

[Anonymous]

In your expert opinion, as an Instructional Superintendent or Master Educator who is familiar with both campuses, what is the nature of the infinitesimal difference between the two schools?

[Anonymous]

It is very disheartening to believe that people can be so blatantly raciest in this day and age. It should be celebrated that black kids from lower socioeconomic circumstances are performing on par and out performing rich white children. The message you are sending is that poor black kids cannot succeeded without cheating. Is that what you really believe? The teachers and students at Ludlow Taylor should be rewarded for the school's achievement but instead you all are tearing them down and accusing them of cheating without any evidence. The district should try to replicate the strategies from Ludlow across all schools.

[Anonymous]

CALL THEM WHAT THEY ARE RACIEST PIGS. DC KKK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your expert opinion, as an Instructional Superintendent or Master Educator who is familiar with both campuses, what is the nature of the infinitesimal difference between the two schools?

Learn to read. The idea that your children's adult lives will be significantly impacted by going to Ludlow Taylor versus Brent is ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is very disheartening to believe that people can be so blatantly raciest in this day and age. It should be celebrated that black kids from lower socioeconomic circumstances are performing on par and out performing rich white children. The message you are sending is that poor black kids cannot succeeded without cheating. Is that what you really believe? The teachers and students at Ludlow Taylor should be rewarded for the school's achievement but instead you all are tearing them down and accusing them of cheating without any evidence. The district should try to replicate the strategies from Ludlow across all schools.

You might want to relieve yourself of the chip on your shoulder for a little while. Many kids who attend Brent are not really rich, whatever you consider that to mean, much less white. In matter of fact, a sizable part of the low-SES and AA cohort has been more or less concentrated in the testing grades, principally as a legacy of Brent's not-too-distant past as a OOB destination school. The academic achievements of students at one school can and should be celebrated without denigrating another. What is working for LT students might not necessarily be best for those at Brent, and vice versa, at least in terms of testing results (which I find to be a not very meaningful tool for assessing school or teacher quality and added value). The important thing is that both receive a solid foundation for their future academic successes.

[Anonymous]

Last time I checked raciest is not synonymous with racist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your expert opinion, as an Instructional Superintendent or Master Educator who is familiar with both campuses, what is the nature of the infinitesimal difference between the two schools?

Not PP, but I'll take infinitesimal differences between Brent and LT for $600, Alex. Which school does not have people being shot in cold blood on the street outside as the result of a neighborhood beef over a drug deal or illegal craps game?

[Anonymous]

As though the Brent District is perfectly safe. Remember what happened to TC Maslin there? His story still chills my blood, and I often think of him struggling to recover fully, although I only spoke to him once or twice, at Turtle, before he was attacked.

Truly, creepy neighbors are no longer L-T's main issue, or academics either. The school suffers from a cultural clash more than anything else. For many of the Stanton Park gentrifiers, the ghetto stories of struggle the current elementary school community tells are too far from their version of the American Dream to bother getting involved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your expert opinion, as an Instructional Superintendent or Master Educator who is familiar with both campuses, what is the nature of the infinitesimal difference between the two schools?

Not PP, but I'll take infinitesimal differences between Brent and LT for $600, Alex. Which school does not have people being shot in cold blood on the street outside as the result of a neighborhood beef over a drug deal or illegal craps game?

That has nothing to do with the school itself (nor would it have anything to do with the school itself if it happened near Brent). It's certainly a stretch to argue that there's any link between a nearby homicide and DC-CAS results/whether either school "teaches to the test."

[Anonymous]

As many of the parents whose children attend LT, we know that LT is a GREAT school. Instead of tearing the school down, why not congratulate them on doing so well.

[Anonymous]

What a silly statement. By definition, great neighborhood schools serve their neighborhoods. As far as I know, no parent on my entire block (where I've lived for 20 years now) sends a kid to L-T past k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to fan flames here, and I'm hopeful for L-Ts future prospects and hope these scores create even more of an environment for it to become a highly-coveted DCPS, but this brings to mind a comment I read on one of the other L-T threads not long ago and I'm curious about current families' thoughts.

Does the DCCAS data speak to L-T teaching to the test" in a way that may be great for some kids and not ideal for others? I recall one person stating that she felt the teachers were overly regimented with the upper-classes: repeating instructions 4-5 times, little to no differentiation, lots of work-book work, pretty rigid (perhaps strict) environment. She made it feel like a KIPP-lite. I suppose, if this method works, it shouldn't be questioned, but I'm also thinking perhaps the very reason for success is one of the reasons the neighbors felt the school was a little off-putting for their families, and may not be a good fit?

Can current families speak to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to fan flames here, and I'm hopeful for L-Ts future prospects and hope these scores create even more of an environment for it to become a highly-coveted DCPS, but this brings to mind a comment I read on one of the other L-T threads not long ago and I'm curious about current families' thoughts.

Does the DCCAS data speak to L-T teaching to the test" in a way that may be great for some kids and not ideal for others? I recall one person stating that she felt the teachers were overly regimented with the upper-classes: repeating instructions 4-5 times, little to no differentiation, lots of work-book work, pretty rigid (perhaps strict) environment. She made it feel like a KIPP-lite. I suppose, if this method works, it shouldn't be questioned, but I'm also thinking perhaps the very reason for success is one of the reasons the neighbors felt the school was a little off-putting for their families, and may not be a good fit?

Can current families speak to this?

I don't know how many (if any) families with kids in the upper grades are participating in this conversation.

My daughter will be starting 1st grade at LT in a few weeks. In conversations I've had with various teachers about testing, they seem to view it as a necessary evil, but I haven't spoke with the 2nd-5th grade teachers specifically.

My own child is aware of the test mostly because of the song they sang in the morning to get kids in testing grades psyched for the test. They made up new words to Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" -- "We're DC-CAS crazy" --and I heard it every night at bathtime during testing weeks. I actually thought that was a pretty good, age-appropriate tactic to keep the kids enthused and focused, approaching it like a pep rally rather than something scary.