Good schools EoTP
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Anonymous
Because the ES kids peel off starting in 5th (BASIS, Latin, private, parochial) and then again in 6th. The reality of ES on the Hill is that ECE is very strong but parents who really wanted to buy in realize in upper ES that the academics are lackluster and behavioral issues get much worse as hormones kick in. At that point a lot of parents who wanted to buy in can't take the risk. In all fairness I think this is also the reality at several HCS as well. This is the fundamental challenge facing DCPS/Charters and education in general. How much (if at all) wills schools cater to or even care about high performing kids? What does "equity" mean? |
Anonymous
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It's also because educated parents can supplement themselves during ECE and elementary, especially early elementary. They can read to their kids every night. They know basic phonics, so if a kid isn't taught that ph sounds like f, a parent can teach him. They can teach their kid how to carry a one in addition if their teacher didn't explain it well.
At some point in early to middle ES, they start signing their kids up for Mathnasium or some other math program because, while they may know the math involved, the way it's taught is quite different. In some cases, in early elementary school, almost no math is taught. Parents figure this out and "supplement." As the kids get older...parents don't know how to teach them chemistry or physics or geometry or a foreign language they may have studied but have almost totally forgotten. Or their kids are studying a language they never studied. And the parents realize...they just can't do it anymore. |
Anonymous
This is exactly why to ask. One hears incredibly different takes on SH among Hill parents and generally. I guess seeing the argument here I can understand why it's hard to make a call -- no consensus |
Anonymous
This is a huge issue -- the fact that outside of a few places in Mount Pleasant "diversity" in DCPS just means combining black intergenerational poverty and upper middle class white kids. That isn't at all what real diversity means in 21st century America. Modern diversity involves all kinds of upwardly mobile and working class first generation immigrants, black UMC, etc. Those groups all head out to the suburbs for exactly the same reasons UMC white parents are tarred as "racists" for doing so. |
Anonymous
Some of the MCPS high schools have real diversity - Wheaton HS, Kennedy HS, Blair non-magnet, Northwood HS. They are lower ranked than the Bethesda high schools but still pretty decent. I wish DCPS could somehow pull off something similar. |
Anonymous
The shared PTA predates adding LT and JO as feeders to SH. They also share an LSAT. SWS also has participated in the musical — they were part of the cluster, along with CH Montessori, as preschools for years before the preschools were split up. I’m not particularly defending the Cluster model — it was set up in the 80s and is probably a solution for another time. But it’s not like the current parents set it up to exclude LT and JO. |
Anonymous
No, not hard to make a call. Asking is neither here nor there. Positive reviews for SH are invariably the byproduct of lefty politics, and possibly a commitment to drama and brass bands (they do have a decent band and school musicals). You're white and get into BASIS, and/or Latin 1, for 5th grade, you go. If you don't, maybe you go for a lesser charter, Latin 2, Inspired Teaching, CH Montessori, Two Rivers. If you wind up without an appealing charter option and you're AA, Asian or Latino, you penny pinch for a private or move. You go with SH only if you don't get into BASIS or Latin 1, can't afford a private, and are determined not to move. Those are your MS options EotP. |
Anonymous
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Every spring, some IB 4th grade parents EotP make a show of considering SH over BASIS, Latin etc.
They do this out of politeness to the tiny number of their longtime fellow ES parents who prefer the by-right MS to a charter, private or move to the burbs. Same with Jefferson Academy and Eliot-Hine. |
Anonymous
Thanks Captain Obvious. No one was questioning why there was a connection when the schools were actually connected with a shared admin, etc. After SWS split from Peabody it was de facto also still part of that community. But JO and LT have fed into SH for a very long time (10 years at this point?). There is no reason or excuse or explanation for it now. |
Anonymous
| Not the view of the Cluster’s parent leadership at any level. Things could change, but bit soon. |
Anonymous
Some of the charters in DC have real diversity too. |
Anonymous
Which charter has this kind of diversity in HS? |
Anonymous
Perhaps it is an subconscious response to all the over the top LT parents on here who try to force meme the idea that LT is, first, far better than Watkins and, second, just like Brent and Maury now. |
Anonymous
I am not IB for LT and I have no kids at LT. I am IB for SH. LT is empirically a better school than P/W and JO. You would have to be delusional not to know that. What was the point of our post, may I ask? Are you IB for P/W and having a moment of inferiority? Or are you a Brent or Maury family that feels better putting others down, as if another school rising is somehow bad for your perceived superiority? |
Anonymous
I am sure all the Watkins families will throw up the doors so that their betters at LT can save them from their demise. Seems to me a lot of people on here are a bit tone deaf. If you want to be part of something, it’s usually not a great strategy to spend your time talking about how awful the group is. |