Middle Schools for Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am a little late to this thread, and may be speaking into the void here, but I wanted to offer a different perspective. There are great programs and good things happening at a lot of schools across the city - in addition to the few select schools that are always mentioned on DCUM. As we know from this website, many people make decisions and assumptions about schools without actually knowing anybody at the school, and without any firsthand experience. What some may view as over-sharing may also be an effort to share their experience so people can make more informed decisions and avoid stereotypes/assumptions about schools.

Please go ahead and tell us specifically which schools have great programs and good things happening. And please do explain why the middle school test scores are so low, and why so many people who give Jefferson and Eliot-Hine a try in 6th grade do not stick around for 7th.

So many? If you're going to make an assertion like this, I assume you have some statistics. What percentage of students who attend sixth grade at Eliot-Hine and Jefferson do not return for seventh grade? And how does that percentage compare to that other schools?

Because it's people I know. It won't be easily visible in the data that is publicly available because they aren't all white.

Weren't you going to tell us specifically which schools you think are good, and why? And do tell, how is it that such great schools produce such low test scores.

[Anonymous]

If these are people who you know, then why are asking an anonymous poster on the internet why those students left?

For what it's worth, we have a sixth grader at one of those schools. All of the high-achieving kids we know are returning for seventh grade next year. I can't speak for how things went in prior years though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:hardy has over the past decade transformed from being a school that umc neighborhood families largely flatout avoided in droves to becoming a school large number of inbound elementary students at all socioeconomic levels opt into attending. is it still an imperfect urban dcps middle school? sure. why wont that happen for hobson/jefferson/eh?

Because Wilson is way overcrowded and was a big driver of people going to Hardy. That’s not the situation in Capitol Hill at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hardy has over the past decade transformed from being a school that umc neighborhood families largely flatout avoided in droves to becoming a school large number of inbound elementary students at all socioeconomic levels opt into attending. is it still an imperfect urban dcps middle school? sure. why wont that happen for hobson/jefferson/eh?

Because Wilson is way overcrowded and was a big driver of people going to Hardy. That’s not the situation in Capitol Hill at all.

Typo Deal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hardy has over the past decade transformed from being a school that umc neighborhood families largely flatout avoided in droves to becoming a school large number of inbound elementary students at all socioeconomic levels opt into attending. is it still an imperfect urban dcps middle school? sure. why wont that happen for hobson/jefferson/eh?

Because Wilson is way overcrowded and was a big driver of people going to Hardy. That’s not the situation in Capitol Hill at all.

Hence back to square one, it's not the middle schools, it's Eastern at the end that most DCUM folks don't want their kids attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am a little late to this thread, and may be speaking into the void here, but I wanted to offer a different perspective. There are great programs and good things happening at a lot of schools across the city - in addition to the few select schools that are always mentioned on DCUM. As we know from this website, many people make decisions and assumptions about schools without actually knowing anybody at the school, and without any firsthand experience. What some may view as over-sharing may also be an effort to share their experience so people can make more informed decisions and avoid stereotypes/assumptions about schools.

Please go ahead and tell us specifically which schools have great programs and good things happening. And please do explain why the middle school test scores are so low, and why so many people who give Jefferson and Eliot-Hine a try in 6th grade do not stick around for 7th.

So many? If you're going to make an assertion like this, I assume you have some statistics. What percentage of students who attend sixth grade at Eliot-Hine and Jefferson do not return for seventh grade? And how does that percentage compare to that other schools?

NP. The thing is, hard info about high SES/in-boundary Jefferson and Eliot-Hine isn't available. DCPS doesn't publish it. You can ask around if you know Maury and Brent families who've tried the middle schools to get rough estimates but that's about it. But the in-boundary UMC parents who enroll at these schools are pretty ideological, constantly spinning positive no matter what the story is. I admire their fighting spirit, but never really know what to think about their take on the schools. Fact is, the great majority of UMC Hill families still vote with their feet out of DCPS after 4th or 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If these are people who you know, then why are asking an anonymous poster on the internet why those students left?

For what it's worth, we have a sixth grader at one of those schools. All of the high-achieving kids we know are returning for seventh grade next year. I can't speak for how things went in prior years though.

Tell me you’re at Stuart Hobson without telling me you’re at Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:hardy has over the past decade transformed from being a school that umc neighborhood families largely flatout avoided in droves to becoming a school large number of inbound elementary students at all socioeconomic levels opt into attending. is it still an imperfect urban dcps middle school? sure. why wont that happen for hobson/jefferson/eh?

Because Wilson is way overcrowded and was a big driver of people going to Hardy. That’s not the situation in Capitol Hill at all.

Hence back to square one, it's not the middle schools, it's Eastern at the end that most DCUM folks don't want their kids attending.

No, it IS the middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If these are people who you know, then why are asking an anonymous poster on the internet why those students left?

For what it's worth, we have a sixth grader at one of those schools. All of the high-achieving kids we know are returning for seventh grade next year. I can't speak for how things went in prior years though.

It's a rhetorical question. People love to shame others for not wanting to attend these schools, but they have no explanation for what is good about the schools, why the test scores are so low, or why people leave.

I hope that your cohort stays together but it's only June. The lottery is young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these are people who you know, then why are asking an anonymous poster on the internet why those students left?

For what it's worth, we have a sixth grader at one of those schools. All of the high-achieving kids we know are returning for seventh grade next year. I can't speak for how things went in prior years though.

Tell me you’re at Stuart Hobson without telling me you’re at Stuart Hobson.

No, we’re not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am a little late to this thread, and may be speaking into the void here, but I wanted to offer a different perspective. There are great programs and good things happening at a lot of schools across the city - in addition to the few select schools that are always mentioned on DCUM. As we know from this website, many people make decisions and assumptions about schools without actually knowing anybody at the school, and without any firsthand experience. What some may view as over-sharing may also be an effort to share their experience so people can make more informed decisions and avoid stereotypes/assumptions about schools.

Please go ahead and tell us specifically which schools have great programs and good things happening. And please do explain why the middle school test scores are so low, and why so many people who give Jefferson and Eliot-Hine a try in 6th grade do not stick around for 7th.

So many? If you're going to make an assertion like this, I assume you have some statistics. What percentage of students who attend sixth grade at Eliot-Hine and Jefferson do not return for seventh grade? And how does that percentage compare to that other schools?

NP. The thing is, hard info about high SES/in-boundary Jefferson and Eliot-Hine isn't available. DCPS doesn't publish it. You can ask around if you know Maury and Brent families who've tried the middle schools to get rough estimates but that's about it. But the in-boundary UMC parents who enroll at these schools are pretty ideological, constantly spinning positive no matter what the story is. I admire their fighting spirit, but never really know what to think about their take on the schools. Fact is, the great majority of UMC Hill families still vote with their feet out of DCPS after 4th or 5th grade.

The Maury families going to E-H are not spinning/ideological. I am still gathering info but I think they are largely motivated by wanting to send their kids to the school down the road, keeping friends together, the new building, and a supportive principal. None of that means I’ll send my kid there but it is not ideological to want to have your kid walk to MS from home ….

[Anonymous]

It's ideological to pretend that the Maury kids who go to Eliot-Hine, and the Brent kids who go on to Jefferson Academy, aren't dealing with subpar conditions for learning. These are not good middle schools. These parents are also white and liberal. Show me the conservative whites, the East Asian immigrant parents, the UMC AA and Latino parents etc. using these middle schools. We're looking for real diversity at the middle school level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's ideological to pretend that the Maury kids who go to Eliot-Hine, and the Brent kids who go on to Jefferson Academy, aren't dealing with subpar conditions for learning. These are not good middle schools. These parents are also white and liberal. Show me the conservative whites, the East Asian immigrant parents, the UMC AA and Latino parents etc. using these middle schools. We're looking for real diversity at the middle school level.

Lol. The real commonality among the "new" families sending kids to EH is that they are all very smart, involved, and not freaked out about their kid having slightly "subpar" conditions. EH offers the basic academic curriculum (math etc) and these families place more of a priority on community and lifestyle than sweating their 11 year old's academics. yes this involves a certain amount of privilege, but at the end of the day, I see very little evidence that the academics at EH are subpar to my MS in the 90s, and I seemed to do ok, so ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's ideological to pretend that the Maury kids who go to Eliot-Hine, and the Brent kids who go on to Jefferson Academy, aren't dealing with subpar conditions for learning. These are not good middle schools. These parents are also white and liberal. Show me the conservative whites, the East Asian immigrant parents, the UMC AA and Latino parents etc. using these middle schools. We're looking for real diversity at the middle school level.

Lol. The real commonality among the "new" families sending kids to EH is that they are all very smart, involved, and not freaked out about their kid having slightly "subpar" conditions. EH offers the basic academic curriculum (math etc) and these families place more of a priority on community and lifestyle than sweating their 11 year old's academics. yes this involves a certain amount of privilege, but at the end of the day, I see very little evidence that the academics at EH are subpar to my MS in the 90s, and I seemed to do ok, so ...

Let’s be real. The actual commonality is they struck out in the lottery two years in a row.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If these are people who you know, then why are asking an anonymous poster on the internet why those students left?

For what it's worth, we have a sixth grader at one of those schools. [b]All of the high-achieving kids we know are returning for seventh grade next year. [/b]I can't speak for how things went in prior years though.

Tell me you’re at Stuart Hobson without telling me you’re at Stuart Hobson.

Not buying that they're all returning. Some of the families invariably claim that they're returning so as not to open the door to awkward conversations. Some of the high-achieving kids disappear by "Count Day" in October. We know the drill.