Boundary Focus Groups

[Anonymous]

OK, I'm ready to go down the funneling route with you.

How do you do it?

A test-in middle school in Columbia Heights?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
This is the left hand to the boundary commission right hand of this process - the Mayor can decide on the boundaries, but for them to work they need to program in some serious investment to entice people who are just knee-jerk avoiding their local school to stay. It’s really going to be incumbent on the Mayor to fund these schools to make that work.

As a parent of children who went to our local elementary school but not our in-boundary middle school, I take umbrage at the characterization of "people who are just knee-jerk avoiding their local school." We agonized over the decision, we wanted so much for our local school to improve, but at the end of the day we had to do what we thought was best for our kids. Those are the people who need to be enticed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'm ready to go down the funneling route with you.

How do you do it?

A test-in middle school in Columbia Heights?

This is the crazy thing. Why are parents trying to figure this out? DCPS should have the ability to look at similar situations in big cities with similar demographics, look at their best practices and somehow apply them to DC taking in consideration current data, feeder patterns, needs assessments and all the rest that the "experts" at central office should have a handle on.

There are school districts across the country that have the same issue. It is not novel. The problem is the political climate in DC that prohibits even discussing the issue ( while plenty of other jurisdictions have named the problem, come up with ways to address the issue and already know what works and what doesn't).

Bottom line, parents don't have enough of a bird's eye view of the school system to puzzle this out and DCPS officials refuse to puzzle this out. We need a leader who will make this happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'm ready to go down the funneling route with you.

How do you do it?

A test-in middle school in Columbia Heights?

I live in the area discussed and would be thrilled with test-in middle and high schools in Columbia Heights. But-- let's make them for "advanced" students, not for "proficient and advanced". DCPS needs to offer us the real thing for our high-achieving kids, not just a limited number of struggling students per class.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't DCPS have application only MS that follow the models of their application HS- Banneker, SWW, McKinley Tech (think I read on DCUM that DCPS nixed Tech being application only- no idea why.) The schools would have to expand at HS so that students could apply at that level too.

It seems like DCPS hires all these outside consultants who have no understanding of the problems in the system and the disparate populations it needs to serve. The needs to come up with a way to serve BOTH LIH and HIH. They have different needs but they both deserve a quality education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'm ready to go down the funneling route with you.

How do you do it?

A test-in middle school in Columbia Heights?

This is the crazy thing. Why are parents trying to figure this out? DCPS should have the ability to look at similar situations in big cities with similar demographics, look at their best practices and somehow apply them to DC taking in consideration current data, feeder patterns, needs assessments and all the rest that the "experts" at central office should have a handle on.

There are school districts across the country that have the same issue. It is not novel. The problem is the political climate in DC that prohibits even discussing the issue ( while plenty of other jurisdictions have named the problem, come up with ways to address the issue and already know what works and what doesn't).

Bottom line, parents don't have enough of a bird's eye view of the school system to puzzle this out and DCPS officials refuse to puzzle this out. We need a leader who will make this happen.

I'm going to err on the side of optimism in seeing hope that we will get such a leader next year. All signs point to Henderson exiting the DC stage next year, regardless of who wins the mayoral race and which boundaries and feeders change or don't. Catania, for one, clearly wants her gone. She seems focused on finding her next job. The political climate is changing slowly but steadily. With more and more middle-class residents coming into the city, momentum to emulate best practices from NYC, Chicago, Atlanta etc. will build. Just five years ago, I wouldn't have pictured my family sticking DCPS out even for elementary. We're digging, hoping that DCI will serve as the vehicle to get us to 12th grade.

[Anonymous]

I am getting sick of Ward 3 parents suggesting what will work for my Ward 4 family that feeds to Deal. Sure like another MS for Ross and Shepherd will be similar to Deal. BS. Our neighborhood has fed into Deal for generations and I take exception of you being so quick to kick us out. Also, there is already a good MS alternative that you describe, it's called Hardy. Stop trying to sacrifice other neighborhoods because you may be in the chopping block. Fwiw, I do not think any neighborhood will get felt out of Deal, but it's nice to know that you look at us as such outsiders that you graciously allow to attend your school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is the crazy thing. Why are parents trying to figure this out? DCPS should have the ability to look at similar situations in big cities with similar demographics, look at their best practices and somehow apply them to DC taking in consideration current data, feeder patterns, needs assessments and all the rest

OK how do we get our hands on this? I don't trust some book by Michelle Rhee or that we have geniuses running DCPS? Are there studies that can be found and read?

[Anonymous]

New York City as an imperfect model but a decent one. They have gifted and specialty programs galore, language immersion programs with lotteries for native speakers and test-in options for older kids, many first-rate test in middle schools, a dozen excellent magnet high schools, much less white flight on the part of families who start in public schools. They are 5 hours away by road, 3 by train, 90 minutes by air. Rhee used to invite NYC school planners down, Henderson hasn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am getting sick of Ward 3 parents suggesting what will work for my Ward 4 family that feeds to Deal. Sure like another MS for Ross and Shepherd will be similar to Deal. BS. Our neighborhood has fed into Deal for generations and I take exception of you being so quick to kick us out. Also, there is already a good MS alternative that you describe, it's called Hardy. Stop trying to sacrifice other neighborhoods because you may be in the chopping block. Fwiw, I do not think any neighborhood will get felt out of Deal, but it's nice to know that you look at us as such outsiders that you graciously allow to attend your school.

Upper Ward 3 parents are so confident that they will be fine. They have already removed Ward 4 schools, except Laffeyette, from the feeder patterns -at least in my focus group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am getting sick of Ward 3 parents suggesting what will work for my Ward 4 family that feeds to Deal. Sure like another MS for Ross and Shepherd will be similar to Deal. BS. Our neighborhood has fed into Deal for generations and I take exception of you being so quick to kick us out. Also, there is already a good MS alternative that you describe, it's called Hardy. Stop trying to sacrifice other neighborhoods because you may be in the chopping block. Fwiw, I do not think any neighborhood will get felt out of Deal, but it's nice to know that you look at us as such outsiders that you graciously allow to attend your school.

Upper Ward 3 parents are so confident that they will be fine. They have already removed Ward 4 schools, except Laffeyette, from the feeder patterns -at least in my focus group.

Well it's a good thing their focus group isn't making decision. Every level I have heard states there will be no change in feeders to Deal. OOB feeder rights is another story. Funny how many of the Ward 3 parents assume that they are the only upper class families that live in DC and they have so much political power because of their income. Their are plenty of families EOTP that earn more than Ward 3, not to mention some are even brown, gasp! Assumptions are a MF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am getting sick of Ward 3 parents suggesting what will work for my Ward 4 family that feeds to Deal. Sure like another MS for Ross and Shepherd will be similar to Deal. BS. Our neighborhood has fed into Deal for generations and I take exception of you being so quick to kick us out. Also, there is already a good MS alternative that you describe, it's called Hardy. Stop trying to sacrifice other neighborhoods because you may be in the chopping block. Fwiw, I do not think any neighborhood will get felt out of Deal, but it's nice to know that you look at us as such outsiders that you graciously allow to attend your school.

Upper Ward 3 parents are so confident that they will be fine. They have already removed Ward 4 schools, except Laffeyette, from the feeder patterns -at least in my focus group.

Well it's a good thing their focus group isn't making decision. Every level I have heard states there will be no change in feeders to Deal. OOB feeder rights is another story. Funny how many of the Ward 3 parents assume that they are the only upper class families that live in DC and they have so much political power because of their income. Their are plenty of families EOTP that earn more than Ward 3, not to mention some are even brown, gasp! Assumptions are a MF.

While, yes, your statement is factually true: there are households in ward 4 that earn more than households in ward 3, it is a meaningless statement. If, instead, you are trying to say something meaningful, like Ward 4 earns almost as much as Ward 3, then you're dead wrong. Not even close.

Ward 3 average HHI: 240,000 (a gain of 17k between 2007 and 2011)
Ward 4 average HHI: 115,000 (a gain of 8k between 2007 and 2011)

Data--emphasis DATA-- from http://www.neighborhoodinfodc.org/profiles.html

I'm not trying to plant my flag atop the family income hill. I'm just trying to root out people spouting completely unsubstantiated things. Especially completely erroneous or, at best, meaningless things.

[Anonymous]

You know what else is an MF? BS.

[Anonymous]

Correction to ^^ above. The gains data are incorrect. These are error bands. The HHI data are correct.

[Anonymous]

The scariest thing I have heard is that they have floated the idea of doing away with boundaries for high school. If Wilson becomes a lottery the leaving the feeders will start earlier and earlier and we will destroy the one decent non-test in high school we have. I would really like to see tracking in MS to prepare more kids for Wilson or a tracked part of a different high school, but if they actually do this I think DCPS will be wrecked.

I am all for funneling, but believe that people can be in the same school, with a few notable exceptions. One thing NYC does very well is to funnel OUT the kids who represent serious safety threats to other students - they all go to the same school. We have to acknowledge that there are some schools where parents don't feel their kids are safe, and handle that as well.