Middle Schools for Cap Hill

[Anonymous]

I don't disagree, but what's your solution?

Every UMC 4th grade Hill family that strikes out in the lottery for BASIS and the Latins should avoid EH, JA and SH...to do what, exactly? Hang on for 5th in DCPS before moving to Upper NW, the burbs, a state or a foreign country? Dip into college savings or refinance the house to go private? Homeschool for MS? Go private until the money runs out, then move? Lead other parents in madly lobbying the city council in the hopes that a great by-right MS will emerge in a flash? Some of us tried that during the Fenty years, when our kids were tiny, and got precisely nowhere. Worse than nowhere, we were branded as racists for calling for change at JA, EH, SH and Eastern.

Come on, there are no easy answers for parents of modest means who are dug in on the Hill, who've put down neighborhood roots over many years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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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!

Uh … it does matter. Because for every couple people who stay, others choose private school or moving. An in-bound school should not be a place of last resort, particularly given the wealth of the neighborhood. It’s ridiculous that DCPS can’t get its act together to get middle and upper middle class families to choose a school they can WALK to, vs driving/putting their kids on public transit to a far away school.

It’s very telling to me that Black middle class and UMC families are a “hell no” when it comes to Hill middle schools.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's clearly not the "last resort." I guess it annoys you that what you think should happen, is actually happening? People are sending their kids there, and are fine with it. There are basically no UMC Black families on the Hill anyway, but likely plenty of black MC class families at Eliot-Hine.

Please. The middle schools on the Hill are go folks with no options. Nobody is lotterying into Latin and saying “gee I think I’ll send my kid to Elliot-Hine.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 disingenous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

Uh … it does matter. Because for every couple people who stay, others choose private school or moving. An in-bound school should not be a place of last resort, particularly given the wealth of the neighborhood. It’s ridiculous that DCPS can’t get its act together to get middle and upper middle class families to choose a school they can WALK to, vs driving/putting their kids on public transit to a far away school.

It’s very telling to me that Black middle class and UMC families are a “hell no” when it comes to Hill middle schools.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's clearly not the "last resort." I guess it annoys you that what you think should happen, is actually happening? People are sending their kids there, and are fine with it. There are basically no UMC Black families on the Hill anyway, but likely plenty of black MC class families at Eliot-Hine.

I guess it depends where you draw the line for MC vs UMC in DC, but there are definitely a number of AA or multi-race including AA families that I would describe as UMC. Families with 2 parents who are professionals/GS 13+ Feds (clearly UMC) and then a bunch that are some combo of DC govt employee/teacher/similar (making in the $200K range). I would say roughly 25% of the school falls into this category. I’m also not clear that the difference between UMC and MC matters in the school context. Lots of people are worried about what a very high percentage of FARMS eligible kids means for a school; few who send their kids to schools as diverse as most Hill schools care one way or the other about the UMC vs MC balance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Have you actually walked into the building, met any Stuart-Hobson teachers, or engaged with anyone in the administration?

Yes, I have walked into the building. I have volunteered in two capacities at the school and been to the (fantastic) musicals they put on. No, since my kids aren’t in 4th yet, I have not bothered anyone in the administration (which seems sensible to me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Have you actually walked into the building, met any Stuart-Hobson teachers, or engaged with anyone in the administration?

I'm not the PP you're responding to but I've done all of the above, multiple times, yet my perception of SH differs little from that of the PP above. A school culture dominated by mean kids and indifferent admins, unfortunately, yes. It's old hat on DCUM for an IB parent to stand accused of having done inadequate research in lacking confidence that her child(ren) will thrive at SH.

No denying that SH is a tough middle school. Hardly the toughest around, but plenty tough.

[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 ...

This reeks of privilege. In those middle school years students are forming their identity vis a vis studentship, academics, are they "smart", do they try at school, is it cool or not to try at school, do they enjoy learning or is it a chore, are their teachers people they admire and want to emulate. 5,6,7 grade id often the last time you can capture a kid's enthusiasm and harness that toward good work habits, executive function skills and an achievement oriented identity.

So rejecting subpar conditions and sweating an 11 year old's academics are actually crucial--especially for students who are already behind and may not have the same levels of support at home. This lazy acceptance of poor schooling because "my kid will be ok" in it and the arrogance of the unspoken bleeding heart liberal caveat [/i]and I am helping those other kids as well by enrolling[i] are toxic.

We need to demand better in DC, not accept it.

Me enrolling my kid at E-H because I value community and the neighborhood and think he'll be fine academically because he's my kid =/= not caring about other DC kids with fewer advantages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 disingenous about it. But sure if you're "sick of them" and want to move to the burbs, go ahead!

Uh … it does matter. Because for every couple people who stay, others choose private school or moving. An in-bound school should not be a place of last resort, particularly given the wealth of the neighborhood. It’s ridiculous that DCPS can’t get its act together to get middle and upper middle class families to choose a school they can WALK to, vs driving/putting their kids on public transit to a far away school.

It’s very telling to me that Black middle class and UMC families are a “hell no” when it comes to Hill middle schools.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but it's clearly not the "last resort." I guess it annoys you that what you think should happen, is actually happening? People are sending their kids there, and are fine with it. There are basically no UMC Black families on the Hill anyway, but likely plenty of black MC class families at Eliot-Hine.

Please. The middle schools on the Hill are go folks with no options. Nobody is lotterying into Latin and saying “gee I think I’ll send my kid to Elliot-Hine.”

Granted, but there are a few 4th grade parents around here these days who aren't trying to lottery in to charters and don't plan to go private either. Apparently, they've planned to go with a Hill MS all along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has already gone off the deep end, but I wanted to come back to offer two thoughts. To circle back to the programs question, just naming a few: Banneker and Eastern have IB programs, Eastern also has a Academy of Health Sciences that gets kids learning hands on and has impressive dual certifications, and internships and placements in various hospitals and medical settings. McKinley Tech has an impressive STEM program, and there are others as well. Why parents feel the need to cut each other down and judge each other over assumptions about why they go to school where is beyond me. DC is great because it has choice, both within DC and outside of DC. Kids are learning and doing great things at a lot of different types of schools. Cultivating this culture of fear that there are no options and everything is horrible is not accurate or productive.

How can Eastern have a quality Health Sciences program when 0% of its students were able to get a 4 or 5 on the math PARCC exam??? https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Eastern+High+School

This was pre-Covid, so I can only imagine how much worse the scores are now.

[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 ...

This reeks of privilege. In those middle school years students are forming their identity vis a vis studentship, academics, are they "smart", do they try at school, is it cool or not to try at school, do they enjoy learning or is it a chore, are their teachers people they admire and want to emulate. 5,6,7 grade id often the last time you can capture a kid's enthusiasm and harness that toward good work habits, executive function skills and an achievement oriented identity.

So rejecting subpar conditions and sweating an 11 year old's academics are actually crucial--especially for students who are already behind and may not have the same levels of support at home. This lazy acceptance of poor schooling because "my kid will be ok" in it and the arrogance of the unspoken bleeding heart liberal caveat [/i]and I am helping those other kids as well by enrolling[i] are toxic.

We need to demand better in DC, not accept it.

Me enrolling my kid at E-H because I value community and the neighborhood and think he'll be fine academically because he's my kid =/= not caring about other DC kids with fewer advantages.

What a leap. I didn’t write that people who enroll at EH don’t care about disadvantaged kids. Enroll away, please! This acceptance of crappy conditions and shellacking over the severe systemic problems because “my kid will be ok” becomes ugly, though. The defense of these middle schools as perfectly fine educational institutions is wrong. Kids who actually need school to be safe and high quality suffer from this gloss. I realize it puts activist parents in a tough place because they want to attract other people like them and so can’t be loud about the issues—but one needs to have clear vision and principles and the ability to call out the bad with the good in that situation. Plus, they would be ultimately more credible

[Anonymous]

Most parents I know that are vocal supporters of their DCPS school do both - highlight the good programs and offerings of the school, while also advocating to fill any needs/gaps. Many of the issues schools face (budget, staffing, librarians, nurses, HVAC or other DGS issues, etc) are citywide/systemic issues that can be pushed for while your child is in the school system.

[Anonymous]

Great post, PP. I've thought along the same lines for a decade. Gloss is no more constructive than pity.

[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 ...

This reeks of privilege. In those middle school years students are forming their identity vis a vis studentship, academics, are they "smart", do they try at school, is it cool or not to try at school, do they enjoy learning or is it a chore, are their teachers people they admire and want to emulate. 5,6,7 grade id often the last time you can capture a kid's enthusiasm and harness that toward good work habits, executive function skills and an achievement oriented identity.

So rejecting subpar conditions and sweating an 11 year old's academics are actually crucial--especially for students who are already behind and may not have the same levels of support at home. This lazy acceptance of poor schooling because "my kid will be ok" in it and the arrogance of the unspoken bleeding heart liberal caveat [/i]and I am helping those other kids as well by enrolling[i] are toxic.

We need to demand better in DC, not accept it.

Me enrolling my kid at E-H because I value community and the neighborhood and think he'll be fine academically because he's my kid =/= not caring about other DC kids with fewer advantages.

What a leap. I didn’t write that people who enroll at EH don’t care about disadvantaged kids. Enroll away, please! This acceptance of crappy conditions and shellacking over the severe systemic problems because “my kid will be ok” becomes ugly, though. The defense of these middle schools as perfectly fine educational institutions is wrong. Kids who actually need school to be safe and high quality suffer from this gloss. I realize it puts activist parents in a tough place because they want to attract other people like them and so can’t be loud about the issues—but one needs to have clear vision and principles and the ability to call out the bad with the good in that situation. Plus, they would be ultimately more credible

Yes, wrong. The activist parents we've known on the Hill for many years haven't been vocal about the bad.

As a New Yorker who attended test-in magnets from 6th-12th, I used to advocate for test-in middle-school programs here in DC. It was a hard, lonely, naive slog that paid no dividends. I can't stand the way charters treat parents as expendable and have run out of patience with DCPS incompetence, lack of vision and rigor. We've gone with a parochial MS in NW (runs us 11K a school year, completely worth it).

[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 ...

This reeks of privilege. In those middle school years students are forming their identity vis a vis studentship, academics, are they "smart", do they try at school, is it cool or not to try at school, do they enjoy learning or is it a chore, are their teachers people they admire and want to emulate. 5,6,7 grade id often the last time you can capture a kid's enthusiasm and harness that toward good work habits, executive function skills and an achievement oriented identity.

So rejecting subpar conditions and sweating an 11 year old's academics are actually crucial--especially for students who are already behind and may not have the same levels of support at home. This lazy acceptance of poor schooling because "my kid will be ok" in it and the arrogance of the unspoken bleeding heart liberal caveat [/i]and I am helping those other kids as well by enrolling[i] are toxic.

We need to demand better in DC, not accept it.

Me enrolling my kid at E-H because I value community and the neighborhood and think he'll be fine academically because he's my kid =/= not caring about other DC kids with fewer advantages.

What a leap. I didn’t write that people who enroll at EH don’t care about disadvantaged kids. Enroll away, please! This acceptance of crappy conditions and shellacking over the severe systemic problems because “my kid will be ok” becomes ugly, though. The defense of these middle schools as perfectly fine educational institutions is wrong. Kids who actually need school to be safe and high quality suffer from this gloss. I realize it puts activist parents in a tough place because they want to attract other people like them and so can’t be loud about the issues—but one needs to have clear vision and principles and the ability to call out the bad with the good in that situation. Plus, they would be ultimately more credible

What makes you think that enrolling my keed means "acceptance of crappy conditions"? It actually means the exact opposite. You're not even sending your kid to the school and your "gloss" is entirely unproductive. "Please get out of the way if you can't lend a hand ... "

[Anonymous]

Everybody doesn't care for the way you IB parents are lending a hand. Boycotts have their uses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everybody doesn't care for the way you IB parents are lending a hand. Boycotts have their uses.

So we should boycott the school we think has a good chance of working for our kid, because you don’t think it works for your kid? makes a lot of sense.