Question for Supporters of New WotP High School

[Anonymous]

Again, any other part of the city would like a more generalist high quality high school, not Ellington. Ellington is an asterisk addition above and beyond what neighborhoods need. So I can't see why any other neighborhood would prefer it over a new generalist facility. Location wise Cardozo would have been better than Roosevelt for an arts school anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the reason you think it's too big of a switch for WOTP families is because the Roosevelt building is located in a neighborhood that is majority AA. However, I'm not pitching the DC-CAS proficient HS idea to WOTP families.

There are quite enough involved EOTP parents of all races and incomes to populate a high school. That's really the issue EOTP---that while in the aggregate you have enough motivated engaged students (and families) to create another decently performing HS, you do not have enough of those families concentrated in any one EOTP HS boundary-area in sufficient numbers to make a qualitative performance difference. So lump all those kids (and their families) together at one DC-CAS proficient MS/HS.

I don't think that's true. Maybe not at this point in time, but you certainly would in the next 6 - 10 years. There's more and more turnover EOTP from older households to younger families and all these kids will need a middle school and a high school. Roosevelt/MacFarland are easily accessible from Petworth Metro

Thank you, Jeff, for starting this thread.

The number of DC-CAS proficient students EOTP is a statistic that is readily available via OSSE by any member of the public who can navigate the site. It would take a bit more work, but is also possible, to learn the proficiency rate of eotp kids currently attending wotp schools

We're talking about a future high school for future students.

[Anonymous]

Jeff you build it up from the bottom. Follow the surge of diverse growth up DCPS now in 2nd grade up through middle school in Petworth by placing quality programs ahead of those families all the way through 12th. That's 10 years worth of work. But it is reasonable and doable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:people here keep talking about how a new roosevelt would be too far for Key kids -- I don't think the idea was for for them to go to Roosevelt, but for kids for whom that school is more convenient, to have a good school within reach.

If the proposal is for Hardy kids to go to Roosevelt - that includes Key.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best opportunity seemed to be to relocate the Duke Ellington school (to Roosevelt even?) and have a closer location for the students who would be coming from Hardy - but given that renovation is now about to start & is has an emphasis on the arts focus of the mission, that seems like a painfully bad lost opportunity.
It's also a shame that the redistricting of having more Eaton & Oyster etc also come to Hardy could mean nearly all of Hardy could be IB in just a couple years - which would quickly get closer to a "Deal for All" - it's about half the size of Deal -- smaller middle schools can be highly preferable.
Key School families would have to go more than 5 miles to get to either Roosevelt or Cardozo during rush hour traffic vs. around 2 to get to Wilson -- so that sounds untenable (right now extremely few Key School kids go to Hardy as it is - having been shut out of the Deal boundary for years)
P.S. As a DC-native, changing the name of a school like Roosevelt would cause riots - it has too deep history and roots in the city.

I have first-hand knowledge that it is now too late to relocate Ellington to a different location (which could have saved its students thousands of commute hours/year. That's another DCPS missed trains). So for the purpose of this thread I suggest that we keep it off the list.

Why - if everything else is on the table for potential change?? It's ridiculous to say something's impossible in a conversation that is taking boundaries that have been in place since before Home Rule and busing everyone all over the city... if you said that would even be a conversation 2 years ago everyone would say impossible

[Anonymous]

I think the proposal is that if DCPS built a high quality Roosevelt with admission criteria (DC cas proficient) it would alleviate the crowding in Wilson and deal and hardy could both still feed Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the reason you think it's too big of a switch for WOTP families is because the Roosevelt building is located in a neighborhood that is majority AA. However, I'm not pitching the DC-CAS proficient HS idea to WOTP families.

There are quite enough involved EOTP parents of all races and incomes to populate a high school. That's really the issue EOTP---that while in the aggregate you have enough motivated engaged students (and families) to create another decently performing HS, you do not have enough of those families concentrated in any one EOTP HS boundary-area in sufficient numbers to make a qualitative performance difference. So lump all those kids (and their families) together at one DC-CAS proficient MS/HS.

For some familes, I bet you are right. For my family, who lives in north Georgetown, DC's transit system is not up to snuff. If there were more E-W routes on frequent timetables as well as a metro running up Wisconsin Avenue as well as 16th Street. But there's not and I can't wrap my mind around my kids spending an hour one way on their school commute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best opportunity seemed to be to relocate the Duke Ellington school (to Roosevelt even?) and have a closer location for the students who would be coming from Hardy - but given that renovation is now about to start & is has an emphasis on the arts focus of the mission, that seems like a painfully bad lost opportunity.
It's also a shame that the redistricting of having more Eaton & Oyster etc also come to Hardy could mean nearly all of Hardy could be IB in just a couple years - which would quickly get closer to a "Deal for All" - it's about half the size of Deal -- smaller middle schools can be highly preferable.
Key School families would have to go more than 5 miles to get to either Roosevelt or Cardozo during rush hour traffic vs. around 2 to get to Wilson -- so that sounds untenable (right now extremely few Key School kids go to Hardy as it is - having been shut out of the Deal boundary for years)
P.S. As a DC-native, changing the name of a school like Roosevelt would cause riots - it has too deep history and roots in the city.

I have first-hand knowledge that it is now too late to relocate Ellington to a different location (which could have saved its students thousands of commute hours/year. That's another DCPS missed trains). So for the purpose of this thread I suggest that we keep it off the list.

That is a shame, I heard on WAMU today that the huge SW waterfront development where construction is about to start will include a new 6000 seat performance theater. Together with the Arena Stage complex down Maine Ave,, that vibrant area will soon be a second major arts venue. The present Jefferson middle school site could be rebuilt as a new Ellington, steps from the Metro (including the central L'Enfant transfer hub) and synergistically part of this new arts area. Best of all, it would have been more accessible to more of its students than the Georgetown site. The "C" in DCPS sure doesn't stand for "creative" thinking!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best opportunity seemed to be to relocate the Duke Ellington school (to Roosevelt even?) and have a closer location for the students who would be coming from Hardy - but given that renovation is now about to start & is has an emphasis on the arts focus of the mission, that seems like a painfully bad lost opportunity.
It's also a shame that the redistricting of having more Eaton & Oyster etc also come to Hardy could mean nearly all of Hardy could be IB in just a couple years - which would quickly get closer to a "Deal for All" - it's about half the size of Deal -- smaller middle schools can be highly preferable.
Key School families would have to go more than 5 miles to get to either Roosevelt or Cardozo during rush hour traffic vs. around 2 to get to Wilson -- so that sounds untenable (right now extremely few Key School kids go to Hardy as it is - having been shut out of the Deal boundary for years)
P.S. As a DC-native, changing the name of a school like Roosevelt would cause riots - it has too deep history and roots in the city.

I have first-hand knowledge that it is now too late to relocate Ellington to a different location (which could have saved its students thousands of commute hours/year. That's another DCPS missed trains). So for the purpose of this thread I suggest that we keep it off the list.

That is a shame, I heard on WAMU today that the huge SW waterfront development where construction is about to start will include a new 6000 seat performance theater. Together with the Arena Stage complex down Maine Ave,, that vibrant area will soon be a second major arts venue. The present Jefferson middle school site could be rebuilt as a new Ellington, steps from the Metro (including the central L'Enfant transfer hub) and synergistically part of this new arts area. Best of all, it would have been more accessible to more of its students than the Georgetown site. The "C" in DCPS sure doesn't stand for "creative" thinking!

That's a really great idea!!

[Anonymous]

Just made myself laugh...been spending way too much time on all of this. As for name how about " new deal" get it...roosevelts new deal?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I have first-hand knowledge that it is now too late to relocate Ellington to a different location (which could have saved its students thousands of commute hours/year. That's another DCPS missed trains). So for the purpose of this thread I suggest that we keep it off the list.

That is a shame, I heard on WAMU today that the huge SW waterfront development where construction is about to start will include a new 6000 seat performance theater. Together with the Arena Stage complex down Maine Ave,, that vibrant area will soon be a second major arts venue. The present Jefferson middle school site could be rebuilt as a new Ellington, steps from the Metro (including the central L'Enfant transfer hub) and synergistically part of this new arts area. Best of all, it would have been more accessible to more of its students than the Georgetown site. The "C" in DCPS sure doesn't stand for "creative" thinking!

That's a really great idea!!

PLEASE abandon the idea of moving Ellington, the re-do of Ellington as a top performing arts school is a done deal, shovel in the ground as soon as they get design approval. This thread should focus on the most viable strategy to provide a good HS east of the park. I think a test-in high school would be the trick to making such a school evolve the fastest, but it's going to be near-impossible politically, unless.....we think outside the box. For example, find out how SWW developed as a test-in school. Did the fact that it takes on a large number of foreign exchange students every year (through the State Dept.) have something to do with how that was finessed? Ellington is an application school because of its magnet for the arts. What could this new school offer that could only be done via an application process of some kind? Maybe this is an AP-oriented school (a la BasisDC)? Maybe this is a serious STEM school where there might be a tie-in to NIH or Walter Reed, or even to the health sciences facility that would be going into the old Walter Reed campus between Georgia and 16th Streets? Maybe this is foreign service/international magnet connected to the large State Dept. presence on the old Walter Reed campus? Maybe this is a law/social justice campus with ties to Howard U? Maybe this is a design/urban planning/sustainability magnet with ties to Catholic U and/or UMd.?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just made myself laugh...been spending way too much time on all of this. As for name how about " new deal" get it...roosevelts new deal?

Wrong Roosevelt but creative thinking!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just made myself laugh...been spending way too much time on all of this. As for name how about " new deal" get it...roosevelts new deal?

Got it -- also the new (Alice) Deal - or the new deal for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I have first-hand knowledge that it is now too late to relocate Ellington to a different location (which could have saved its students thousands of commute hours/year. That's another DCPS missed trains). So for the purpose of this thread I suggest that we keep it off the list.

That is a shame, I heard on WAMU today that the huge SW waterfront development where construction is about to start will include a new 6000 seat performance theater. Together with the Arena Stage complex down Maine Ave,, that vibrant area will soon be a second major arts venue. The present Jefferson middle school site could be rebuilt as a new Ellington, steps from the Metro (including the central L'Enfant transfer hub) and synergistically part of this new arts area. Best of all, it would have been more accessible to more of its students than the Georgetown site. The "C" in DCPS sure doesn't stand for "creative" thinking!

That's a really great idea!!

PLEASE abandon the idea of moving Ellington, the re-do of Ellington as a top performing arts school is a done deal, shovel in the ground as soon as they get design approval. This thread should focus on the most viable strategy to provide a good HS east of the park. I think a test-in high school would be the trick to making such a school evolve the fastest, but it's going to be near-impossible politically, unless.....we think outside the box. For example, find out how SWW developed as a test-in school. Did the fact that it takes on a large number of foreign exchange students every year (through the State Dept.) have something to do with how that was finessed? Ellington is an application school because of its magnet for the arts. What could this new school offer that could only be done via an application process of some kind? Maybe this is an AP-oriented school (a la BasisDC)? Maybe this is a serious STEM school where there might be a tie-in to NIH or Walter Reed, or even to the health sciences facility that would be going into the old Walter Reed campus between Georgia and 16th Streets? Maybe this is foreign service/international magnet connected to the large State Dept. presence on the old Walter Reed campus? Maybe this is a law/social justice campus with ties to Howard U? Maybe this is a design/urban planning/sustainability magnet with ties to Catholic U and/or UMd.?



I get that you're protecting your turf, I really do. But Ellington is NOT a done deal. Stop trying to puff out your chest in a feeble attempt to intimidate.

[Anonymous]

This is an interesting thread and an interesting idea. In fleshing out a plan for remaking Roosevelt, one would need to be clear about whether the existing student body (those who don't meet new enrollment criteria) would be reassigned to another high school, or whether the existing student body would somehow be incorporated into or exist alongside a separate program.

Even though Roosevelt is under enrolled for the size of the building, there are projected to be 446 students next year. And by many measures, these are struggling students. Roosevelt's on-time graduation rate is only 48%, and 53% of students are "chronically truant". Proficiency rates in the DC CAS were 19.7% (math) and 21.1% (reading). Roosevelt's 2014-15 initial budget allocation indicates that 34% of all students are special education students, and 43% of the teaching staff are special education teachers.

For me, co-locating a magnet program alongside the current program, without innovative programming to also address the current population, would not be attractive enough for me to choose Roosevelt for my kids. But pushing these 400-ish kids off to another school doesn't seem right, either.

So, what about looking at a model like St. John's HS? They have a general ed program, an honors program, and a well-funded, well-regarded program for students with learning disabilities. Could people imagine a Roosevelt that, along with whatever program attracts new students, is also a model/magnet for special education?

I'm just trying to think outside the box about what would make me send my kids to a remade Roosevelt.



http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Budget+and+Finance/FY14+Fiscal+Report+Card/Updated+School+Budget+Allocations

http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/2013%20Adjusted%20Cohort%20Graduation%20Rates%20School%20by%20School%20-%20ACGR.pdf

http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412712-Variation-in-2010-11-Truancy-Rates-Among-District-of-Columbia-Public-Schools.pdf