Middle Schools for Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Mostly true. The white families at EH and JA may not be freaked out, but the Asian and high SES minority families from the feeders certainly are. No denying this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 ….

I'm swayed by this argument for avoiding DCI (multi-leg, hour-long commute by public transportation). Not swayed for EH, SH or JA when the commute to BASIS is 20 mins by bus or Metro. The IB Ward 6 middle-school parents are spinning/ideological as a group, driven by their politics as much as anything else. I don't blame them but tire of the disingenuous arguments about what drives them. We got sick of them in ES and don't want to be around them for MS. We're hardly alone on that score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am extremely concerned about sending my kids to S-H if we lose out on the lottery. We're IB (and at our IB ES) so we know quite a few kids there now (mostly 6th graders & a few 7th graders). They almost uniformly report that the academics are OK, but that you need to be a blend in/go with the flow kind of kid or have really thick skin to survive. Multiple kids report that the other kids are "mean" and that teachers hear it and don't push back at all. The 7th grader in the family we're closest to told us that he'd heard that it had gotten much worse post-COVID, so that hopefully things improved soon, but that otherwise he thought one of my kids would be fine (sunny disposition but very chill with just a hint of class clown, upper middle of the pack academically), one of my kids would be fine but miserable (leader type but socially adept enough to turn it off as needed & very thick skinned, near the top of the pack academically but not a true standout) and one of my kids would be absolutely tortured (extremely high acheiving nerdy type and sensitive to criticism, but no trouble making friends in ES). A culture of "mean" kids = bad admin, so I'm concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but we struck out in the MS lottery 2x (for 5th and 6th) and so will be going to our IB as there are no other choices. We will fight to make it the best year possible for our rising 6th grader and evaluate how things are going in Nov, which will still give us time to plan for the next school year if need be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

I am extremely concerned about sending my kids to S-H if we lose out on the lottery. We're IB (and at our IB ES) so we know quite a few kids there now (mostly 6th graders & a few 7th graders). They almost uniformly report that the academics are OK, but that you need to be a blend in/go with the flow kind of kid or have really thick skin to survive. Multiple kids report that the other kids are "mean" and that teachers hear it and don't push back at all. The 7th grader in the family we're closest to told us that he'd heard that it had gotten much worse post-COVID, so that hopefully things improved soon, but that otherwise he thought one of my kids would be fine (sunny disposition but very chill with just a hint of class clown, upper middle of the pack academically), one of my kids would be fine but miserable (leader type but socially adept enough to turn it off as needed & very thick skinned, near the top of the pack academically but not a true standout) and one of my kids would be absolutely tortured (extremely high acheiving nerdy type and sensitive to criticism, but no trouble making friends in ES). A culture of "mean" kids = bad admin, so I'm concerned.

Teachers don't push back on the rowdy playground either. We routinely see them out there staring into phones while kids slug one another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but we struck out in the MS lottery 2x (for 5th and 6th) and so will be going to our IB as there are no other choices. We will fight to make it the best year possible for our rising 6th grader and evaluate how things are going in Nov, which will still give us time to plan for the next school year if need be.

No other choices in the public system? Not Inspired Teaching, CH Montessori or Two Rivers? Your lottery choices were too narrow? You couldn't rent a place in VA?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Mostly true. The white families at EH and JA may not be freaked out, but the Asian and high SES minority families from the feeders certainly are. No denying this.

Asian AND minority families, you say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but we struck out in the MS lottery 2x (for 5th and 6th) and so will be going to our IB as there are no other choices. We will fight to make it the best year possible for our rising 6th grader and evaluate how things are going in Nov, which will still give us time to plan for the next school year if need be.

No other choices in the public system? Not Inspired Teaching, CH Montessori or Two Rivers? Your lottery choices were too narrow? You couldn't rent a place in VA?

We are on the WL for every place you listed. It's not hard to find a list of the MS schools in DC, I found them just like you did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 ….

I'm swayed by this argument for avoiding DCI (multi-leg, hour-long commute by public transportation). Not swayed for EH, SH or JA when the commute to BASIS is 20 mins by bus or Metro. The IB Ward 6 middle-school parents are spinning/ideological as a group, driven by their politics as much as anything else. I don't blame them but tire of the disingenuous arguments about what drives them. We got sick of them in ES and don't want to be around them for MS. We're hardly alone on that score.

I'm not sure what this argument is about. If people are staying because they didn't get a lottery spot they liked, they're staying. The "staying" isn't somehow diminished by the fact that they didn't get into Latin ... there's always another option out there somewhere; none of us would be here if we won the lottery. There's nothing disingenous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but we struck out in the MS lottery 2x (for 5th and 6th) and so will be going to our IB as there are no other choices. We will fight to make it the best year possible for our rising 6th grader and evaluate how things are going in Nov, which will still give us time to plan for the next school year if need be.

No other choices in the public system? Not Inspired Teaching, CH Montessori or Two Rivers? Your lottery choices were too narrow? You couldn't rent a place in VA?

DP. At this point, I would put EH either on par or better than those three options. I'm not impressed with Two Rivers academics at all, and nobody has anything great to say about CHM MS either. ITS seems ok but more of a commute, for how much of an improvement over EH? Not to be cynical but a lot will depend on how the EH PARCC scores look this year ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

NP but we struck out in the MS lottery 2x (for 5th and 6th) and so will be going to our IB as there are no other choices. We will fight to make it the best year possible for our rising 6th grader and evaluate how things are going in Nov, which will still give us time to plan for the next school year if need be.

No other choices in the public system? Not Inspired Teaching, CH Montessori or Two Rivers? Your lottery choices were too narrow? You couldn't rent a place in VA?

DP. At this point, I would put EH either on par or better than those three options. I'm not impressed with Two Rivers academics at all, and nobody has anything great to say about CHM MS either. ITS seems ok but more of a commute, for how much of an improvement over EH? Not to be cynical but a lot will depend on how the EH PARCC scores look this year ...

I think for ITS vs EH, it really just depends on the kid. ITS is more crunchy and very progressive if you're into that, has things like 8th grade portfolio defense, very small and personalized feel. EH is larger and has more offerings, more variety, more sports and other activities. Academically I don't think there's a huge difference-- either way the number of high-performing kids isn't that big, because ITS is a small school so a smaller number of kids in each performance tier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 ….

I'm swayed by this argument for avoiding DCI (multi-leg, hour-long commute by public transportation). Not swayed for EH, SH or JA when the commute to BASIS is 20 mins by bus or Metro. The IB Ward 6 middle-school parents are spinning/ideological as a group, driven by their politics as much as anything else. I don't blame them but tire of the disingenuous arguments about what drives them. We got sick of them in ES and don't want to be around them for MS. We're hardly alone on that score.

I'm not sure what this argument is about. If people are staying because they didn't get a lottery spot they liked, they're staying. The "staying" isn't somehow diminished by the fact that they didn't get into Latin ... there's always another option out there somewhere; none of us would be here if we won the lottery. There's nothing disingenuous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

If you're sick of them, like I am, you go charter or private if you don't want to move to the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Mostly true. The white families at EH and JA may not be freaked out, but the Asian and high SES minority families from the feeders certainly are. No denying this.

Asian AND minority families, you say?

OK, so if you're in the mode of splitting hairs over categorization, where are the non-white UMC families at JA, EH, and SH for that matter? Fact is, there are hardly any, or none, in each case. These schools serve low SES AA and Latino families and UMC whites, and that's it. We're Asian, certainly not "under-served minorities," with "minorities" often serving as shorthand for the former politically. We qualified for free school meals as kids, but, apparently, our families were, nevertheless, not "under-served."

The phenomenon of Ward 6 UMC families heading to DCPS middle schools is very much a white-parent phenomenon (without this being acknowledged or discussed).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 ….

I'm swayed by this argument for avoiding DCI (multi-leg, hour-long commute by public transportation). Not swayed for EH, SH or JA when the commute to BASIS is 20 mins by bus or Metro. The IB Ward 6 middle-school parents are spinning/ideological as a group, driven by their politics as much as anything else. I don't blame them but tire of the disingenuous arguments about what drives them. We got sick of them in ES and don't want to be around them for MS. We're hardly alone on that score.

I'm not sure what this argument is about. If people are staying because they didn't get a lottery spot they liked, they're staying. The "staying" isn't somehow diminished by the fact that they didn't get into Latin ... there's always another option out there somewhere; none of us would be here if we won the lottery. There's nothing disingenuous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

If you're sick of them, like I am, you go charter or private if you don't want to move to the burbs.

You have to get in to those options first. We're another family who didn't get into anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 ….

I'm swayed by this argument for avoiding DCI (multi-leg, hour-long commute by public transportation). Not swayed for EH, SH or JA when the commute to BASIS is 20 mins by bus or Metro. The IB Ward 6 middle-school parents are spinning/ideological as a group, driven by their politics as much as anything else. I don't blame them but tire of the disingenuous arguments about what drives them. We got sick of them in ES and don't want to be around them for MS. We're hardly alone on that score.

I'm not sure what this argument is about. If people are staying because they didn't get a lottery spot they liked, they're staying. The "staying" isn't somehow diminished by the fact that they didn't get into Latin ... there's always another option out there somewhere; none of us would be here if we won the lottery. There's nothing disingenuous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

If you're sick of them, like I am, you go charter or private if you don't want to move to the burbs.

Ok, good luck to you, then.