Up and coming DCPS schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Burroughs.

There is a lot talk about Burroughs but I'm curious to see action - like what will the first few weeks of school look like especially like after the enrollment audit. I toured the school and I'm just concerned about diversity and that Tools of the Mind crap. Hopefully, the parents who are "ALL IN" will organize before school starts. Currently, there is NO diversity in the preschool through Kindergarten classes.

Send your white kid and the rest will follow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Burroughs.

There is a lot talk about Burroughs but I'm curious to see action - like what will the first few weeks of school look like especially like after the enrollment audit. I toured the school and I'm just concerned about diversity and that Tools of the Mind crap. Hopefully, the parents who are "ALL IN" will organize before school starts. Currently, there is NO diversity in the preschool through Kindergarten classes.

Send your white kid and the rest will follow

I don't know, I prefer a more articulate parent cohort.

[Anonymous]

Turner. lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great question, PP. Three come to mind immediately:

1) HD Cooke. It has a lot going for it, including a fully renovated building, a great International Baccalaureate curriculum (with Creative Curriculum for early childhood), and some fantastic teachers, particularly for early childhood (my primary focus). However, the principal who is leaving did not focus on test scores and rejected parent participation. For this coming year, though, the school has a new principal who is fantastic--a former AP at Hearst who also spent 12 years at Ross, during which time it transformed from a primarily OOB school to a school almost entirely made up of IB students. She will bring a clear focus on increasing the quality of instruction within the IB framework and reaching out to the community/parents to make it a school of choice for the neighborhood. I think that it will become much harder to get in out of boundary in the coming years.

2) Marie Reed. We checked out this school this year reluctantly, having been by and seen the truly awful facilities. However, we loved the principal, and the test scores at the school are much better than at, say, a school like Cooke. It is getting harder to get in out of boundary, though it's certainly not impossible. I am worried, though, that what really attracted me and other families to the school was the dynamic principal. He unfortunately is leaving to become an instructional superintendent at Reed. I am feeling grateful we didn't get in there, since really our interest was 100% principal-driven.

3) Seaton. Seaton is a school that did not fill its PK3 classes in the first lottery, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why. It is not far from Garrison, and many people are IB for both right now, but saw quite a few behavior problems at Garrison and NOTHING like that at Seaton. They have a fantastic principal at Seaton, and the instruction seems top-notch. I would definitely check it out, especially if the Shaw location is convenient for you.

Best of luck! I'm curious what other schools might be on this list.

+1 for Seaton

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Burroughs.

There is a lot talk about Burroughs but I'm curious to see action - like what will the first few weeks of school look like especially like after the enrollment audit. I toured the school and I'm just concerned about diversity and that Tools of the Mind crap. Hopefully, the parents who are "ALL IN" will organize before school starts. Currently, there is NO diversity in the preschool through Kindergarten classes.

Send your white kid and the rest will follow

Tools of the mind may turn out better than you think. I am assuming you are using the PK classes that is a great age to test a school, a not great year is not a disater at 4.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

Until there is a Middle School (and not an education campus) and Takoma becomes a true Elementary School, there is little hope of Takoma gaining significant traction. It will be every year, every child lotteries and tries to find a place with a long-term outlook for MS & HS. Students leave one by one for OOB, Charter, Mont Co.

the boundary proposal leaves this part of Ward 4 high & dry! new north MS as the only school that will feed to Coolidge? There is no way that the feeder education campuses to Coolidge (Brookland, Takoma, Whittier, LaSalle Backus) will improve in any significant way until there is a real MS (it should either be in one of those 4 feeders or Coolidge MS, with Coolidge then feeding to Roosevelt).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Huh, Barnard? The OP wanted up and coming schools that she had a possibility of getting a slot in the lottery. The train left a few years ago on that school.

Since the OP wants projections, I would look at neighborhoods that are rapidly gentrifying, like Riggs Park, Michigan Park, and Woodbridge. As others have mentioned, Burroughs is up and coming and I would suspect that LaSalle would be next or possibly Brookland. Brookland is very close to the new middle school, so that is big plus.

Change at schools lags behind gentrification by many years, if not decades. You don't want to look at places that are gentrifying just now, but at places that are several years past the beginning of the gentrification process.

+1

Mount Vernon Square/Walker Jones

All those subsidized housing kids aren't leaving any time soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

Until there is a Middle School (and not an education campus) and Takoma becomes a true Elementary School, there is little hope of Takoma gaining significant traction. It will be every year, every child lotteries and tries to find a place with a long-term outlook for MS & HS. Students leave one by one for OOB, Charter, Mont Co.

the boundary proposal leaves this part of Ward 4 high & dry! new north MS as the only school that will feed to Coolidge? There is no way that the feeder education campuses to Coolidge (Brookland, Takoma, Whittier, LaSalle Backus) will improve in any significant way until there is a real MS (it should either be in one of those 4 feeders or Coolidge MS, with Coolidge then feeding to Roosevelt).

Yeah, the whole education campus debacle is really holding back progress in Ward 4. The population, need, and desire - all are there for good schools - but the middle school situation is like walking a plank and it's undermining the elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

Until there is a Middle School (and not an education campus) and Takoma becomes a true Elementary School, there is little hope of Takoma gaining significant traction. It will be every year, every child lotteries and tries to find a place with a long-term outlook for MS & HS. Students leave one by one for OOB, Charter, Mont Co.

the boundary proposal leaves this part of Ward 4 high & dry! new north MS as the only school that will feed to Coolidge? There is no way that the feeder education campuses to Coolidge (Brookland, Takoma, Whittier, LaSalle Backus) will improve in any significant way until there is a real MS (it should either be in one of those 4 feeders or Coolidge MS, with Coolidge then feeding to Roosevelt).

All good points, but to me, this is definition of up and coming. If you wait until Takoma is only pk3-5, it may be too late to have chances of getting in OOB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

Until there is a Middle School (and not an education campus) and Takoma becomes a true Elementary School, there is little hope of Takoma gaining significant traction. It will be every year, every child lotteries and tries to find a place with a long-term outlook for MS & HS. Students leave one by one for OOB, Charter, Mont Co.

the boundary proposal leaves this part of Ward 4 high & dry! new north MS as the only school that will feed to Coolidge? There is no way that the feeder education campuses to Coolidge (Brookland, Takoma, Whittier, LaSalle Backus) will improve in any significant way until there is a real MS (it should either be in one of those 4 feeders or Coolidge MS, with Coolidge then feeding to Roosevelt).

I see your point but we and many others are sticking around longer than others have. And we are happy about it. So I don't see how this isn't "up and coming?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Turner. lol.

That's mean to joke about. It's easy for some to laugh at others challenges when you come from privilege and are entitled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where do people feel Takoma Education Campus is on the spectrum of desirability?

There is a robust group of neighborhood parents working to get the word out to others in the neighborhood that the school is a positive place to be. There are many neighborhood early childhood kids there now and many (most?) are sticking around. The principal is really great, as is the new assistant principal. My child will be in K next year and we're happy there. So I would say that Takoma ranks high on the spectrum of desirability, as you put it.

Until there is a Middle School (and not an education campus) and Takoma becomes a true Elementary School, there is little hope of Takoma gaining significant traction. It will be every year, every child lotteries and tries to find a place with a long-term outlook for MS & HS. Students leave one by one for OOB, Charter, Mont Co.

the boundary proposal leaves this part of Ward 4 high & dry! new north MS as the only school that will feed to Coolidge? There is no way that the feeder education campuses to Coolidge (Brookland, Takoma, Whittier, LaSalle Backus) will improve in any significant way until there is a real MS (it should either be in one of those 4 feeders or Coolidge MS, with Coolidge then feeding to Roosevelt).

I see your point but we and many others are sticking around longer than others have. And we are happy about it. So I don't see how this isn't "up and coming?"

You are right, this is certainly the definition of "up and coming". Personally, too late for me as I live the IB, but with MS age kids. And what I've seen (never had students at Takoma) is that the cohorts don't stick together, but peel off one by one (Deal feeder, Latin, Basis, DCI, Mont County, VA, private, etc.). I truly wish the boundary proposal would not have a future based New North MS, but would reallocate an existing education campus to that purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have never, ever, seen a discussion about "behavior problems" that wasn't code for "I don't want my kid to go to school with too many black kids -- just enough that I can call the school diverse, but not so many that it's scary!!"

GAG ME.

I'm usually on the side of anti racism but in this case it's a fair question. Lots of low performing DC schools have a higher rate of behavior issues. If the school and it's teachers are not prepared to deal with it then it can really disrupt the entire class.

That said, even in a school where there are a lot of behavioral issues the early childhood section is not affected as much because the behavioral issues of a 3 or 4 year old are handled differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another vote for Burroughs.

There is a lot talk about Burroughs but I'm curious to see action - like what will the first few weeks of school look like especially like after the enrollment audit. I toured the school and I'm just concerned about diversity and that Tools of the Mind crap. Hopefully, the parents who are "ALL IN" will organize before school starts. Currently, there is NO diversity in the preschool through Kindergarten classes.

Send your white kid and the rest will follow

Tools of the mind may turn out better than you think. I am assuming you are using the PK classes that is a great age to test a school, a not great year is not a disater at 4.

Didn't read the whole thread so this may have been pointed out, but Burroughs principal said this spring that they may move away from tools of the mind next year. I haven't followed up though to see what the final decision was.