Should DCPS add or shutdown any schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this assumes growth will continue despite declining birth rates and federal meddling in the city.

I don’t think growth will continue; in addition to declining birth rates, a lot of DC growth recently has been driven by international migration in, and that’s also probably not continuing.

That said, I think a lot of the coming collapse will be in the charter sector, so it’s possible DCPS locations will see at least a blip of growth when those kids move school.

Could be. Or maybe they'll go to other underenrolled charters. I think historically it's been a real mixture of destinations and people don't just default to their neighborhood school. Or sometimes other charters step in and actively recruit or almost absorb. I think the Friendship Armstrong location did that back when City Arts and Prep closed, some years ago.

I think DCPS should be ready for change in either direction and wait and see how things shake out at the PCSB this cycle.

Missing from this discussion is that the privates have spiked astronomically in price in the last 15 years, and the weird financial aid tricks haven’t kept up for the most part. 20 years ago a high school teacher could send more than one kid to TCS at a time, now even my orthopedic surgeon friends aren’t able to swing it. The only people I know who can keep two or more kids in the higher end privates work in finance. Outside of those people, you either move to the suburbs or go to your inbounds. The move in the past was almost always to move to the suburbs. Now at least anecdotally that isn’t happening. However, my kids are in elementary at a DCI feeder. My friends’ kids are at Janney or other charters, with a couple at Hill elementary schools and Ward 5 schools. The rubber will meet the road at middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

That seems awfully close geographically to Truth, though I agree chml would be better focused on the early grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I think a test in magnet makes a lot more sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I don’t understand the support for Montessori past ECE. The results elsewhere are terrible, the results in DC aren’t good either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

This is a wonderful idea- To solidly invest in and properly implement a Montessori public school. Perhaps a dedicated DCPS Montessori middle and high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I don’t understand the support for Montessori past ECE. The results elsewhere are terrible, the results in DC aren’t good either.

Also, Sojourner Truth already fills that need for parents who really want a Montessori education at the Middle School and High School levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

This is a wonderful idea- To solidly invest in and properly implement a Montessori public school. Perhaps a dedicated DCPS Montessori middle and high school.

What would be the advantage of a DCPS public school rather than the existing Public Charter school that does this exact same thing about a mile north?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this assumes growth will continue despite declining birth rates and federal meddling in the city.

I don’t think growth will continue; in addition to declining birth rates, a lot of DC growth recently has been driven by international migration in, and that’s also probably not continuing.

That said, I think a lot of the coming collapse will be in the charter sector, so it’s possible DCPS locations will see at least a blip of growth when those kids move school.

Could be. Or maybe they'll go to other underenrolled charters. I think historically it's been a real mixture of destinations and people don't just default to their neighborhood school. Or sometimes other charters step in and actively recruit or almost absorb. I think the Friendship Armstrong location did that back when City Arts and Prep closed, some years ago.

I think DCPS should be ready for change in either direction and wait and see how things shake out at the PCSB this cycle.

Missing from this discussion is that the privates have spiked astronomically in price in the last 15 years, and the weird financial aid tricks haven’t kept up for the most part. 20 years ago a high school teacher could send more than one kid to TCS at a time, now even my orthopedic surgeon friends aren’t able to swing it. The only people I know who can keep two or more kids in the higher end privates work in finance. Outside of those people, you either move to the suburbs or go to your inbounds. The move in the past was almost always to move to the suburbs. Now at least anecdotally that isn’t happening. However, my kids are in elementary at a DCI feeder. My friends’ kids are at Janney or other charters, with a couple at Hill elementary schools and Ward 5 schools. The rubber will meet the road at middle school.

I'd add a category of private school kids as family money, but yeah this.

Even vouchers can't make private school work for a lot of families. And scholarships might help for one but again multiple kids makes private school really tough.

I agree the MS and HS years will be a test for a lot of families but the suburbs are so expensive and when you look at the issues in MCPS there are a lot of folks weary to trade convenient distinction for less convenient distinction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I don’t understand the support for Montessori past ECE. The results elsewhere are terrible, the results in DC aren’t good either.

100% agree. Montessori is great for the primary grades but absolutely terrible for anything above 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I don’t understand the support for Montessori past ECE. The results elsewhere are terrible, the results in DC aren’t good either.

100% agree. Montessori is great for the primary grades but absolutely terrible for anything above 3rd grade.

“Absolutely terrible”? Based on what data/references? You seem to be making grand and generalized conclusions. What do you know about the Montessori pedagogy?
And pls. Do not refer to CHML as an example; the issues at that school have been addressed and they are not necessarily Montessori-related.
There has been a persistent anti-Montessori-Karen on this forum with zero understanding of what the pedagogy actually entails.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should take 50% empty space at brookland middle and make it a true test in gifted program for middle schoolers

Another option would be to make a Montessori program there. Have chml, nalle, and Langdon all have programmatic feeder rights, and then open it up in the lottery for others. It would fill BMS and allow chml to be pk-5, which would create more ECE spaces in a pretty central location (union station and many buses nearby) where some nearby schools can't fit all ib pk kids.

I don’t understand the support for Montessori past ECE. The results elsewhere are terrible, the results in DC aren’t good either.

100% agree. Montessori is great for the primary grades but absolutely terrible for anything above 3rd grade.

“Absolutely terrible”? Based on what data/references? You seem to be making grand and generalized conclusions. What do you know about the Montessori pedagogy?
And pls. Do not refer to CHML as an example; the issues at that school have been addressed and they are not necessarily Montessori-related.
There has been a persistent anti-Montessori-Karen on this forum with zero understanding of what the pedagogy actually entails.

True Montessorism has never been tried

[Anonymous]

Montessori in DC isn't showing superior results to traditional schools. At the elementary level, CHML and the charter Montessori schools all fall well short of DCPS schools with similar demographics. Other districts that also have public Montessori aren't showing superior results, either. If anything, they show below-average results when compared to their peer traditional schools with similar demographic profiles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Montessori in DC isn't showing superior results to traditional schools. At the elementary level, CHML and the charter Montessori schools all fall well short of DCPS schools with similar demographics. Other districts that also have public Montessori aren't showing superior results, either. If anything, they show below-average results when compared to their peer traditional schools with similar demographic profiles.

Montessori schools barely use computers in the classroom because they're montessoris, which means the kids are terrible at typing, which means if you give them a test on a computer they will probably do badly because it takes them forever and a day to find each key on the keyboard. If you ask them to write sentences on a computer, forget it...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Montessori in DC isn't showing superior results to traditional schools. At the elementary level, CHML and the charter Montessori schools all fall well short of DCPS schools with similar demographics. Other districts that also have public Montessori aren't showing superior results, either. If anything, they show below-average results when compared to their peer traditional schools with similar demographic profiles.

Montessori schools barely use computers in the classroom because they're montessoris, which means the kids are terrible at typing, which means if you give them a test on a computer they will probably do badly because it takes them forever and a day to find each key on the keyboard. If you ask them to write sentences on a computer, forget it...

Montessori can never fail the people. The people can only fail Montessori