J.O. Wilson or Ludlow Taylor?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to open house at LT recently and was appalled by some of the things the principal said. It was pretty incredible - in a negative way.

The part where she said that each student could choose up to 5 schools in the lottery?!? Then when someone corrected her to say that each student could choose 12 schools, she said essentially dismissed them and said "so, let's just say there were 100 schools you could pick..." Then, she got other facts wrong. Instead of saying she didn't know, she gave misinformation and then put down the folks that were trying to help her out. That part??

Here goes the Cobbs bashing again. So, should she be more focused on the day to day operations of the school or the lottery? Is she the most eloquent or effective speaker? No. Does she hire very good teachers, yes. I didn't hear you say anything about the physical plant of the school, continued improvement in test scores, quality of the teachers, etc. All we get from you is how APPALLED you are by incorrect facts about the lottery. I'm sure you never get anything incorrect. Obviously your uber-brilliant & advanced 3 year old could never attend this school. Probably should burn the place down and start from scratch.

Do you think it's just possible that the attitude of your principal has the tiniest bit to do with the fact the school has been unable to retain more than a couple of in-bounds families past kindergarten? I've been IB for LT long enough to remember the guy who preceded her, so she's an improvement over him, but absolutely nowhere near on par with the principals at Maury and Brent who actively embraced the in-bounds neighbors and looked for ways to work together with them to build a stronger school. In the 10+ years I've been IB for LT, there has been very, very little of the progress you see at many other Hill schools, and nor will there be until there's a principal in place at LT with a very different attitude toward community engagement.

In the short term, LT will continue to be primarily a gap-filler for families waiting to get into Peabody, SWS, Logan, and elsewhere. Good enough in the early grades that it's a fine place to kill time trying to get off other wait lists. Long term, virtually no IB families have been willing to stick it out. People get fed up and move on. I have no doubt that eventually LT will become a neighborhood school of choice, but not in the next 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB LT parents -- you should reach out on MOTH to other families who are thrilled (yes, thrilled) with the school. We would be glad to chat with you about everything we love about the school. Our family turned down Peabody earlier this year b/c the ECE kids at LT seem to be MUCH happier than many at Peabody, which seems to have some pretty hit-or-miss teachers. And then you end up at Watkins!

Former Watkins parent here (DC aged out) -- my child got a very good education at Watkins. We are IB for LT and had no regrets.

Um, DOZENS of LT IB families are at Watkins, happily supporting the Cluster, including many who really tried to make a go of it at LT.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the newbie (to DC and to the forum) kind of question, but what makes LT or Wilson (or DCPS in general) so attractive to MD residents, that they are willing to cheat?

From what I gather, the general opinion is that the quality of DCPS is not that great, so why all the "address cheaters" to attend a DCPS school?

[Anonymous]

1). Free ECE for two years (PK3 and 4)

2). Some DCPS programs are actually far better than PG County

3). Grandma can pickup after school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the newbie (to DC and to the forum) kind of question, but what makes LT or Wilson (or DCPS in general) so attractive to MD residents, that they are willing to cheat?

From what I gather, the general opinion is that the quality of DCPS is not that great, so why all the "address cheaters" to attend a DCPS school?

I think it comes from a couple of different factors


1) DCPS has basically universal preschool. There are no income requirements and your odds of getting in are very high. By contrast the head start programs in PG are much smaller, therefore to get into and require a certain income and there are more waiting lists every if you do qualify.

2) Convenience. If you live in PG but work in the district it might be easier to send your kid to school in the city, especially if you are using a relative's address because said relative will be caring for the kid after school/before school.

3)Stability- people in poverty tend to have more life disruptions that require them to move around more. I have an acquaintance who is a single mother of two kids. She has lived in 4 different homes in the last 4 years, due to losing her job, domestic violence issues etc. She kept her kids going to the same school because she felt that her kids had enough upheaval in their lives an they were better off going to the same school every day. (I want to add in here her kids are in a charter school that is never discussed on DCUM so rest assure she isnt't stealing a spot away from your kids) I have also known students who may go back and forth from living with parents to living with other relatives for a variety of reasons. Which leads to the next one...

4) Loyalty- the families really like the school and the services it provides, its teachers etc. One DCPS teacher told me that some families send their kids to annother school OOB just because that was elementary school where the family went to and even if they've had to move they are going to continue that tradition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to open house at LT recently and was appalled by some of the things the principal said. It was pretty incredible - in a negative way.

The part where she said that each student could choose up to 5 schools in the lottery?!? Then when someone corrected her to say that each student could choose 12 schools, she said essentially dismissed them and said "so, let's just say there were 100 schools you could pick..." Then, she got other facts wrong. Instead of saying she didn't know, she gave misinformation and then put down the folks that were trying to help her out. That part??

Here goes the Cobbs bashing again. So, should she be more focused on the day to day operations of the school or the lottery? Is she the most eloquent or effective speaker? No. Does she hire very good teachers, yes. I didn't hear you say anything about the physical plant of the school, continued improvement in test scores, quality of the teachers, etc. All we get from you is how APPALLED you are by incorrect facts about the lottery. I'm sure you never get anything incorrect. Obviously your uber-brilliant & advanced 3 year old could never attend this school. Probably should burn the place down and start from scratch.

Do you think it's just possible that the attitude of your principal has the tiniest bit to do with the fact the school has been unable to retain more than a couple of in-bounds families past kindergarten? I've been IB for LT long enough to remember the guy who preceded her, so she's an improvement over him, but absolutely nowhere near on par with the principals at Maury and Brent who actively embraced the in-bounds neighbors and looked for ways to work together with them to build a stronger school. In the 10+ years I've been IB for LT, there has been very, very little of the progress you see at many other Hill schools, and nor will there be until there's a principal in place at LT with a very different attitude toward community engagement.

In the short term, LT will continue to be primarily a gap-filler for families waiting to get into Peabody, SWS, Logan, and elsewhere. Good enough in the early grades that it's a fine place to kill time trying to get off other wait lists. Long term, virtually no IB families have been willing to stick it out. People get fed up and move on. I have no doubt that eventually LT will become a neighborhood school of choice, but not in the next 5 years.

And yet I also wonder if you constantly see families who use up all your ECE spots, you invest a lot of time and energy in developing those children's social/emotional skills and getting them ready for kindergarten and beyond and then they up and vanish, the families just using your school as a waystation for something better it's hard not to want to build a community with those people who aren't committed.

As for the JO principal knowing she has address cheaters- you can't investigate based on circumstantial evidence like license plates and offhand comments from children. But you can certainly make some fairly accurate assumptions. And as the PP said if the school was overcrowded with IB kids it would be a different situation.

[Anonymous]

Principals do not investigate. DCPS has an office that investigates. Principals and other school staff can certainly request an investigation based on comments by students, license plates, returned mail, etc. The residency office works very hard and does a thorough job. Principals and school staff need to make requests for investigations.

[Anonymous]

If a school can't be filled with DC residents, it needs to close. Condoning cheating to keep your job= cheating.

[Anonymous]

I think this is all Martin O'Malley's fault. He needs to keep his residents in line.

[Anonymous]

It's not that we're too big to listen to the rumors...we're just too damn big to pay attention to them. That's the difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ Unfortunately, a home visit wouldn't work. The MD cheaters either own homes in DC that they are renting out (while they live in big houses with yards in suburban Maryland) OR they have relatives in DC who allow them to use their address.

The folks I know plan to "set up" the appearance of the child living in the house even though they plan to go home to Maryland everyday.

They are learning how the system works and then covering their tracks.

I thought MD had the highest ranked public school system in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sorry for the newbie (to DC and to the forum) kind of question, but what makes LT or Wilson (or DCPS in general) so attractive to MD residents, that they are willing to cheat?

From what I gather, the general opinion is that the quality of DCPS is not that great, so why all the "address cheaters" to attend a DCPS school?

I think it comes from a couple of different factors


1) DCPS has basically universal preschool. There are no income requirements and your odds of getting in are very high. By contrast the head start programs in PG are much smaller, therefore to get into and require a certain income and there are more waiting lists every if you do qualify.

2) Convenience. If you live in PG but work in the district it might be easier to send your kid to school in the city, especially if you are using a relative's address because said relative will be caring for the kid after school/before school.

3)Stability- people in poverty tend to have more life disruptions that require them to move around more. I have an acquaintance who is a single mother of two kids. She has lived in 4 different homes in the last 4 years, due to losing her job, domestic violence issues etc. She kept her kids going to the same school because she felt that her kids had enough upheaval in their lives an they were better off going to the same school every day. (I want to add in here her kids are in a charter school that is never discussed on DCUM so rest assure she isnt't stealing a spot away from your kids) I have also known students who may go back and forth from living with parents to living with other relatives for a variety of reasons. Which leads to the next one...

4) Loyalty- the families really like the school and the services it provides, its teachers etc. One DCPS teacher told me that some families send their kids to annother school OOB just because that was elementary school where the family went to and even if they've had to move they are going to continue that tradition.

I am the PP who asked the question.
Thank you for the detailed answer. All these seem very reasonable points.