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Anonymous
Both of these conversations can be true. The prior poster had the uninformed and inaccurate picture that all families at EH had already tried and struck out lottery. My family and many others never did the lottery and intended ongoing to EH from the get go. As for high school, we are not ruling out Eastern but plan to learn about other public school options as well. Participating in the city's school choice system, especially for high school when there are very different programs does not mean you cannot be interested in and choose to go to your neighborhood middle school. |
Anonymous
So you’re saying you didn’t play the lottery? You sir, are a liar. |
Anonymous
Not to stir the pot, but I actually think there are three. My kid is not at Jefferson or a feeder, but ask anyone who actually works for the district if it's a well-run middle school and they will tell you it's among the best in the city. |
Anonymous
We didn’t get into Latin but I absolutely know people who chose EH over Latin and Basis and others who didn’t lottery at all. We turned down ITS, TR. Everyone wishes there were a better HS path but the number of Maury & Payne families choosing EH speaks for itself. |
Anonymous
Not even entering the lottery is the picture of entitlement. In order to have acted in that manner you must have access to resources that informed that decision. There's nothing wrong with that, by the way. I would love to have mommy/daddy money to pay for private school. I would love to have a job that allows me to cash flow Sidwell in 9th. I would love to be able to move houses at the drop of a hat without regard to financial impact. Good for you. But here's the thing. People like you ought not lecture people without those options or advantages about what they could or should do. It's the equivalent of having a parachute on under your jacket and encouraging others to get on a plane that is likely to crash, because "what if it doesn't and we reach our destination?" I stand by my position that no one without HS options chose E-H without at least considering alternatives that solved for HS. |
Anonymous
Ok. What’s your point again? The actual EH families’ point is that EH is going fine and we are reasonably happy. Not that we love the HS options or might have taken a spot at Latin. There’s always something potentially better so I struggle to understand why “striking out in the lottery” means EH is bad. |
Anonymous
If by entitled you mean willing to maybe play the lottery in high school for other public high schools, then EH parents are just as entitled as parents from all wards of the city who enter the lottery. Private school is not an option for many families, but that still doesn't mean there are not choices for high school - one of which is Eastern which is not off the table for an increasing number of families. What I think a few of the prior posters are saying is that there are a lot of families who consciously chose not to enter the lottery for Latin or BASIS for middle school because they didn't see the need to leave the neighborhood for a good middle school option. By high school some kids may leave the neighborhood to go to various high schools with different programs, and they can more easily travel across the city if needed. To many parents it is very appealing to have a middle school in the neighborhood that they can get to easily from their home, and can provide continuity of friendships during the sometimes difficult middle school years. |
Anonymous
Jefferson is among the best MS in the city? Uh, 70% of the kids there are below grade-level in reading and 90% are below-grade level in math. |
Anonymous
Oh, and what are they doing for HS? |
Anonymous
I stand behind my position that people who are there had no better options and/or exit plans for HS and are willing to take a chance that SWW or some other application HS pans out. Also, to be clear, there is nothing wrong with that. Parents spend a lot of time on DCUM attacking each other for their choices and all but absolve DCPS, Council, and Mayor for having created and enabled the circumstances we are all trying to manage. Look at the energy expended on DCUM attacking BASIS. Why aren't those people aiming their fire at DCPS and other leaders for failing to provide better options? We give the people in power cover when we attack each other. |
Anonymous
DP, but the point is that when you say lots of Maury families are "choosing EH" without acknowledging that these families often have resources that make them less stressed about HS. People will lament the families who leave Hill elementaries in 5th for Latin or BASIS and try to argue "what's wrong with EH, SH, and Jefferson?" But the MSs are not the point. The high schools are. The people who lottery for characters in 5th and take those spots are not thrilled about giving up neighborhood schools and taking on long commutes for the next 8 years. They do it because they cannot afford to risk their kid not getting into Walls or Banneker, because they have no other good options. If you absolutely, 100% cannot afford private, and if moving would be a major financial stress (keep in mind that if you don't have a ton of money for private, you will also be limited as to where you can move and will likely not have access to the best suburban high schools either), then EH could be a freaking palace and a lot of parents would still choose a charter with an okay HS feed. I often hear from Hill families that you have to be "willing to play the game." What this ignores is that some people are playing that game with extra cards. It is much easier to "roll the dice" on EH and the hope of Walls admissions if your back up is, to give a very common example, Gonzaga with with help from grandparents to cover costs. It's also easier to do if you have an HHI of 500k and you bought your Hill row house for 400k 15 years ago, so if you want to bail and move to Bethesda or Northern Virginia at any point, there are few barriers to you doing so. Some of us cannot afford to do that. I do not ever want to put my kid in the position of having to get a spot in an application high school in DC or attend Eastern. Especially when grabbing spots at those applications schools becomes more and more of a crap shoot every year. |
Anonymous
I don't believe it is. But I don't think anyone is helped by Pollyanna BS artists who come here and pretend that the status quo is fine because the trajectory is good. Unless and until actual tracking and honors is offered, EH, SH and all other schools have no chance to supplant Latin, BASIS, Deal, etc. Eastern is dead in the water unless the feeders improve. |
Anonymous
You’re creating a strawman and I’m not even sure what it is (esp since the topic of this thread is the Maury-Miner cluster). Literally nobody here has denied that the HS pathway is problematic n It can simultaneously be true that: - Some families would chose Latin over EH - Most EH families wish there were better HS options - Most EH families are having good experiences, including some that are specific to a neighborhood school (friend stability, walking, etc). |
Anonymous
So basically you’re mad that some of us like EH. Ok. |
Anonymous
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Here are the MS PARCC proficiency scores for schools for those on CH:
Basis ELA 72.0 Math 62.44 Latin ELA 68.24 Math 52.49 SH ELA 41.6 Math 16.12 EH ELA 33.8 Math 15.9 Jefferson ELA 29.86 Math 10.55 |