Chisholm Elementary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has Chisolm always had a dual-language track? Why? And what led to the decision to go fully dual language?

All the other dual-language schools in DCPS are located in areas with a high percentage of Spanish speakers. My understanding was that in those places, dual language options were created both as an opportunity for the native Spanish speakers to succeed in their native language and as an opportunity for others to benefit from learning a second language. In practice it doesn't seem to always play out this way (i.e., the Spanish speaking population got priced out of the neighborhood or "dual language" instead became a signal for school quality or peer group), but it does seem like the original intention. In contrast, the neighborhood around Chisolm doesn't have, and as far as I know has never had, a sizeable Spanish speaking population.

From what I've heard, now that Chisolm is fully dual language, many of the lower-income families zoned for Chisolm are opting to attend Chisolm's sister school, Payne, because they don't want Spanish. If true, I'm not sure a new middle school option is a good or equitable use of DCPS's limited resources.

Not true only 2 families transferred to Payne, please don’t spread this narrative if you don’t have facts

I’m pretty sure it’s been more than two families that have transferred to Payne and you stop trying to share the narrative you want that seems better.

Living in a district with many options, a nice percentage of families have fled in the last years to other schools besides Payne as the lottery has opened that door for opportunity.

So what they may not have all gone to Payne but they’ve definitely left.

It is fewer than 10 to Payne per the Edscape data: https://edscape.dc.gov/page/enrollments-dcps-boundary-00 For what it's worth, Chisolm's boundary participation rate (50%) is in the top quarter of DCPS elementary schools and has held pretty steady over time.

But only 26% of Chisolm students live in boundary. That puts them at or near the very bottom of all DCPS elementary schools for this metric. (It was second from last in SY23-24).

The dual language program being mandatory is so new that it has affected relatively few grades so far. And in PK, those kids don't have a right to be treated as IB at Payne for lottery purposes, so I think it's way too early to judge what will happen. Chisholm has a high IB participation rate, in part, because it includes Potomac Gardens and SES is one of the main predictors of whether a family even plays the lottery. However, many of those families were very opposed to the switch to dual language being mandatory and it will be interesting to see if they actually stay at Chisholm given that Payne is also an easy commute/they don't have to play the lottery to access it for K and up.

Chisholm is a very interesting school. Way oversized for area (hence high IB participation but low IB percentage), which may be exacerbated by the switch to dual language only. That said, it makes dual language available to a much higher percentage of the folks who want it because it takes so many OOB kids and burns through a high percentage of its waiting lists.

[Anonymous]

the boundary is very small. payne is also a great school option. the boundary is pretty far from any middle school, let alone a spanish-focused one. the problem is you cannot join the cohort after first grade without substantial prior spanish language exposure. not everyone will stay for middle school if its a small program with fewer extracurriculars than the surrounding middle schools. maybe there is real demand outside of just chisholm for a spanish focused middle school on the eastern side of the city. hard to know.

[Anonymous]

If the school is sooo great, why are 11 staff members leaving?!?!

I used to employed at Shirley. Loved my students. Did not care too much about Brann. She is a parent pleaser and could care less about CERTAIN staff members.

Changing the program at the school was a terrible decision as well.

I moved on to greener pastures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school is sooo great, why are 11 staff members leaving?!?!

I used to employed at Shirley. Loved my students. Did not care too much about Brann. She is a parent pleaser and could care less about CERTAIN staff members.

Changing the program at the school was a terrible decision as well.

I moved on to greener pastures.

Did you not speak Spanish? Because I actually think the decision to convert to all dual language was the right one, but obviously a ton of English only teachers (understandably) left and were unhappy about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school is sooo great, why are 11 staff members leaving?!?!

I used to employed at Shirley. Loved my students. Did not care too much about Brann. She is a parent pleaser and could care less about CERTAIN staff members.

Changing the program at the school was a terrible decision as well.

I moved on to greener pastures.

Did you not speak Spanish? Because I actually think the decision to convert to all dual language was the right one, but obviously a ton of English only teachers (understandably) left and were unhappy about it.

Not the PP but am curious as to why you think the conversion was a good idea? Especially with the proposal being voted down by the community the previous year and Brann sneakily submitted it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, the logistics of hiring a bunch of new bilingual teachers is a serious challenge. I know several bilingual teachers, at Chisholm and another unnamed school, and their Spanish language skills are not impressive. Like, first gen born in the US, and they speak Spanglish.

I know a nonprofit that has a really hard time recruiting bilingual social workers in DC. The workforce of Spanish teachers is just not here.[/quote

This was not our experience at Chisolm - (2 years ago - there for 4 years). I remember there was one teacher that was not fluent, but she left in the middle of the year. Everyone else were native spanish speakers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the school is sooo great, why are 11 staff members leaving?!?!

I used to employed at Shirley. Loved my students. Did not care too much about Brann. She is a parent pleaser and could care less about CERTAIN staff members.

Changing the program at the school was a terrible decision as well.

I moved on to greener pastures.

Did you not speak Spanish? Because I actually think the decision to convert to all dual language was the right one, but obviously a ton of English only teachers (understandably) left and were unhappy about it.

Not the PP but am curious as to why you think the conversion was a good idea? Especially with the proposal being voted down by the community the previous year and Brann sneakily submitted it again.

It was a very hard decision and I can see both sides, but the segregated school with one side being dual language and one side creative arts was just not healthy for anyone.

[Anonymous]

The reality is that Dual Language Program and everything Principal Brann is doing is working. People complain about older staff leaving? Good riddance! All you parents complaining about the school? You are part of the problem! Parents that don't see the value in another language are definitely part of the problem. If it negatively affected test scores is one thing. The crazy thing is it not only did not affect them negatively, test scores have risen! The more of you difficult parents leave, the better the test scores of the school become. The more of you leave, the less I see bullying in the school. The big problem Chisolm had has been close minded, stubborn, racist, and angry parents and the more of you leave the better the school becomes. And I hope they do make the middle school happen. Would be great. We need a middle school option that performs better than Elliot Hine and Jefferson, so we can all stop fighting to make it to Basis Middle School on a prayer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is that Dual Language Program and everything Principal Brann is doing is working. People complain about older staff leaving? Good riddance! All you parents complaining about the school? You are part of the problem! Parents that don't see the value in another language are definitely part of the problem. If it negatively affected test scores is one thing. The crazy thing is it not only did not affect them negatively, test scores have risen! The more of you difficult parents leave, the better the test scores of the school become. The more of you leave, the less I see bullying in the school. The big problem Chisolm had has been close minded, stubborn, racist, and angry parents and the more of you leave the better the school becomes. And I hope they do make the middle school happen. Would be great. We need a middle school option that performs better than Elliot Hine and Jefferson, so we can all stop fighting to make it to Basis Middle School on a prayer.

Test scores are rising as the school gentrifies. Switching to dual language only drives gentrification further. I do not blame Principal Brann one bit and agree with the PP that the split school was toxic and unsustainable, but this post is way OTT and doesn't make a ton of sense. The allegations of racism are especially weird given that white parents were very pro the switch to dual language whereas black parents were majority anti and the demographics of the school are moving in that direction.

[Anonymous]

Some of this is nonsense. The new and improved CAPE scores still include the students on the Creative Arts track as it hasn’t been phased out on that level yet. The improved scores are a result of teachers and staff working very hard with students. I would love someone to show the comparison of scores of PARCC pre-Covid era and then make this determination.

Also, Chisholm lost at least 14 staff members this year, including ones on the Spanish side that weren’t old. I think that staff at the time of PARCC or CAPE plus attendance supports should all be evaluated within this as Chisholm has seen a lot of movement in the last several years.

Dr. Brann is great to you all that don’t know the other side of her and probably won’t. People stay because they love the school and community. Also, historically the inbound population was majority black. For so many white, privileged families and other affluent families to come in and essentially take over and not want to look at educating this population equitably at Chisholm speaks volumes and is ridiculous.

PS. That’s why you guys aren’t getting an education campus. You can’t get everything you want, which also your precious Dr. Brann doesn’t support the expansion either. Now go cry to mama.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of this is nonsense. The new and improved CAPE scores still include the students on the Creative Arts track as it hasn’t been phased out on that level yet. The improved scores are a result of teachers and staff working very hard with students. I would love someone to show the comparison of scores of PARCC pre-Covid era and then make this determination.

Also, Chisholm lost at least 14 staff members this year, including ones on the Spanish side that weren’t old. I think that staff at the time of PARCC or CAPE plus attendance supports should all be evaluated within this as Chisholm has seen a lot of movement in the last several years.

Dr. Brann is great to you all that don’t know the other side of her and probably won’t. People stay because they love the school and community. Also, historically the inbound population was majority black. For so many white, privileged families and other affluent families to come in and essentially take over and not want to look at educating this population equitably at Chisholm speaks volumes and is ridiculous.

PS. That’s why you guys aren’t getting an education campus. You can’t get everything you want, which also your precious Dr. Brann doesn’t support the expansion either. Now go cry to mama.

Yikes. Bitter much?

[Anonymous]

I think this is the first year with automatic K rights to Payne. Payne is a really good school option and Watkins is also very nearby. But I imagine that the upper grades non-immersion population is probably already dwindling now before being fully phased out because its well-know the school is transitioning to being full-immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the first year with automatic K rights to Payne. Payne is a really good school option and Watkins is also very nearby. But I imagine that the upper grades non-immersion population is probably already dwindling now before being fully phased out because its well-know the school is transitioning to being full-immersion.

To be 100% honest, the non-immersion sides population is higher than the immersion side in the upper grades which we may or may not continue to see but has historically happened even before Dr. Brann arrived.

Without a strong middle school option, parents are still moving their children in the upper grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think this is the first year with automatic K rights to Payne. Payne is a really good school option and Watkins is also very nearby. But I imagine that the upper grades non-immersion population is probably already dwindling now before being fully phased out because its well-know the school is transitioning to being full-immersion.

To be 100% honest, the non-immersion sides population is higher than the immersion side in the upper grades which we may or may not continue to see but has historically happened even before Dr. Brann arrived.

Without a strong middle school option, parents are still moving their children in the upper grades.

This was by design though. The dual language program had a WL they chosen not to draw from; the arts side was the auto admit for IB/close to it for OOB.

[Anonymous]

you cannot join an immersion program after about first grade if you didnt start in one. the split school wasnt working. but it will be interesting to see if the school can avoid upper grade attrition once its fully immersion. adding a middle school like oyster-adams is only sort of a solution for that. i also think the current non-immersion hill middle schools are fine to improving with lots of sports/clubs/electives and more advanced math that an educational campus might be able to offer.