How long are you planning on staying in DCPS or charter?

[Anonymous]

Like I said, I understand a parent doing what they believe is in the best interest of their children.

However, real change will come from the families up, not from the system down.

DCPS could put language immersion, gifted-talented programs, after school enrichment programs, etc. etc, and yet—IMO-- we will not see major gains until there is a paradigm shift in the thinking and perceptions of a large number of DC parents. It is possible that simple economics will ultimately force the change. As long as people have a choice to bail, they will. When those choices begin to narrow, many parents will be forced to invest in their local public school or their charter of choice.

[Anonymous]

Like I said, I understand a parent doing what they believe is in the best interest of their children.

However, real change will come from the families up, not from the system down.

DCPS could put language immersion, gifted-talented programs, after school enrichment programs, etc. etc, and yet—IMO-- we will not see major gains until there is a paradigm shift in the thinking and perceptions of a large number of DC parents. It is possible that simple economics will ultimately force the change. As long as people have a choice to bail, they will. When those choices begin to narrow, many parents will be forced to invest in their local public school or their charter of choice.

[Anonymous]

Like I said, I understand a parent doing what they believe is in the best interest of their children.

However, real change will come from the families up, not from the system down.

DCPS could put language immersion, gifted-talented programs, after school enrichment programs, etc. etc, and yet—IMO-- we will not see major gains until there is a paradigm shift in the thinking and perceptions of a large number of DC parents. It is possible that simple economics will ultimately force the change. As long as people have a choice to bail, they will. When those choices begin to narrow, many parents will be forced to invest in their local public school or their charter of choice.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the repeat posts. The post did not appear to load until the thrid time.

[Anonymous]

"we will not see major gains until there is a paradigm shift in the thinking and perceptions of a large number of DC parents."

I think we will see major gains when the schools are not the dumping ground for low-income children.

Middle class parents will use DCPS until 3 or 5th grade, then they will flee. (Deal has gentrified enough that it's the Middle School exception to this rule.)

Remember, the only reason the DCPS total population didn't decline again this past year was due to the increase in seats for 3 and 4 year olds.

Parents will take a chance on PS where they will not for MS. Like the PP stated, those who can bail, will bail. The poverty will remain and with it, the lackluster test scores.

This lousy economy and the number of young parents who over-extended themselves on their homes was the best thing that ever happened to DCPS. However, I doubt these folks will be around long enough to have their kid take a standardized test. Case in point, a parent in bounds for Garrison that Rhee was personally courting was serving on the Garrison PTA board. He just sold his house. Smart money says he's not moving in boundary for another low performing DCPS.

So it goes.

[Anonymous]

At one of the popular charters, we're taking things year-by-year and happily will stay public as long as DCs' needs are being met. That said, I think we're very likely to go private for high school and likely to go private for middle school. We hope not to bail as early as the 3rd/4th entry years, but certainly will take a hard look at the privates again then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another YY parent here. I may move my child after 4th grade. I feel the school really doesn't care about the leading class.

Hey troll, what's for dinner?

Why do you call the poster a troll because she/he has a different experience or opinion than you. I am also a YY parent and am not positive if my DC will be there for the long haul. I personally don't care for the last minute planning for the upper grades. Fortunately my child is in a younger grade and will benefit from the trailblazers in 3rd and 4th. But, the way administration has handled the upper grades is not promising. Also, I am not convinced by the new tracking system. I think it is wrong, wrong, wrong. And if in the future YY attempted to track my child, we are out of there. And the departure date will be before YY receives the beginning year funding not afterwards.

If YY decides to track your child, leaving makes perfect sense since immersion is clearly not working. I am sure that the school would wish you the best regardless of when you made your decision.

I don't think that is a true statement. The school needs the funding for every child. The school has a very large note right now and I understand Mary's BIL was contracted to do the construction. The school needs to pay for all that and school funding is important. So I think you owe that poster an apology.

Are you HIGH??? Mary's brother-in-law is NOT the contractor for construction!!! Her UNCLE-IN-LAW who is in construction VOLUNTEERS his time to help insure that the project gets done on time. He did so the with the first building (Potomac Lighthouse's Building) and is THE ONLY reason Yu Ying (and the Potomac kids) got into the building in the nick of time. Sheesh! How dare you make such insinuations??? I HATE when people state absolute crap as if it's truth and THEN demand apologies from others! I'm not going to ask for an apology from you---only that you cease spreading your poison. Ick.

[Anonymous]

To describe our public schools as "dumping grounds" for low income students would be incorrect. That implies that they were in some way placed there, when the fact is that they were left behind when middle class families fled --and continue to flee-- the schools. It's encouraging when I hear parents taking it year by year. That's fair.

[Anonymous]

New poster here, and responding to original question...

My child will be starting in preschool this fall, so obviously our experience with DCPS is limited at this point. But I agree with the statement of a previous poster about wanting to stay in DCPS as long as it's working for the child.

HOWEVER, I am pretty irked by the fact that I cannot afford to buy a 2 bedroom house in DC and I have a pretty good job. That may ultimately be a larger factor in my decision to move out of DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like I said, I understand a parent doing what they believe is in the best interest of their children.

However, real change will come from the families up, not from the system down.

DCPS could put language immersion, gifted-talented programs, after school enrichment programs, etc. etc, and yet—IMO-- we will not see major gains until there is a paradigm shift in the thinking and perceptions of a large number of DC parents. It is possible that simple economics will ultimately force the change. As long as people have a choice to bail, they will. When those choices begin to narrow, many parents will be forced to invest in their local public school or their charter of choice.

Disagree. It's up to DCPS to offer a quality product that people want. That's obvious when you look at the popular charters here on DCUM and even more obvious with charters that have not opened their doors yet like Inspired Teaching and Mundo Verde - they have wait lists. People are willing to take a chance if they perceive the quality is there.

Then again, DCPS reputation is in the toilet so maybe it won't work if they offered programs that middle class parents want... but so far they aren't even willing to take the chance.

[Anonymous]

I think it will require a combination of parents working with the schools, and the schools working seriously on academics for the upper years.

We're starting at a bilingual charter next year and will of course reevaluate if it's not working, but I'm very much hoping and planning to keep my DC there through middle school. Middle school at the charter is in fact one of the reasons we pulled our child from her private school, which only ran through 6th. I'd observed that many of the middle school charter options require you to have been enrolled all along, and I'm hoping not to have to find another school and switch again.

[Anonymous]

You argued my point. If they offered it, you wouldn't come...well maybe for PreS because it's tuition free and you could save a bit of money before you transferred the kid to private.

This is my point. Schools need committed parents to grow and thrive as much as kids do. Without a good core parent population willing to invest energy and resource, there's no way your average public school is going to turn the corner. Committed parents are probably the most important ingredient in successful schools.

I'd love to see more magnets; I went to a big city magnet myself. However, the parents fleeing to the suburbs aren't racing there because of wonderful magnets or innovative education, they're trying to get into good local public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You argued my point. If they offered it, you wouldn't come...well maybe for PreS because it's tuition free and you could save a bit of money before you transferred the kid to private.

This is my point. Schools need committed parents to grow and thrive as much as kids do. Without a good core parent population willing to invest energy and resource, there's no way your average public school is going to turn the corner. Committed parents are probably the most important ingredient in successful schools.

I'd love to see more magnets; I went to a big city magnet myself. However, the parents fleeing to the suburbs aren't racing there because of wonderful magnets or innovative education, they're trying to get into good local public schools.

[Anonymous]

Middle class parents at schools like Thomson, Garrison, and Francis-Stevens weren't met halfway so they won't stay. DCPS is not ready to put the resources into these schools so parents will flee if they have options. How can you blame them?

[Anonymous]

We're got into a popular immersion charter and are hoping to stay til 8th. Going private for high school. Will pull out sooner if the school does not live up to it's promise. Concerned that the academics maybe sub par for higher grades and DC will not be adequately prepared for a rigorous high school. Will take it year by year.

I'd admit we don't particularly care about DCPS. We are transient here like a lot of people, don't have any family here, and certainly not planning to stay any longer than necessary. Will be out of here by the time DC reaches high school.