Any thoughts on which schools are newly popular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My chid is not a FARMS student and she is wreaking havoc in PK3 right now!

This is the exception, not the rule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My chid is not a FARMS student and she is wreaking havoc in PK3 right now!

This is the exception, not the rule.

Please show me this rule. Are you confusing "at-risk" and FARMS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you looked at the performance scores for these schools? Have you looked at the % of students who are FARMS or ESL?

Sorry, but the single most important factor for a school is demographics, and if they swing negatively greater than 40%? It just can't be a high-performing school.

You can decide that you'll settle for low-performing when it comes to PreK, but by 1st grade you'll want something better. And by 3rd? You'll be downright scared in any of those low-performing leftovers.

Yeah because all those Kipp, DC Prep, McKinley, Ellington, Paul, and Banneker kids are so bad and poor at performing. Idiots like you make me sick to my stomach.

+1

Sure those are good schools compared to each other by get real. They are mediocre when compared to test in schools outside of the city or even a reg public school in Bethesda. You thinL Banneker or Mckinly is as good as TJ? Not even close.

Sorry, but TJ was in the top 5 public high schools as ranked by US News and World Report last year. You think anyone can get close to TJ except the Basis school from AZ that beat it out for the #2 school that beat it? Think again. NOT a fair comparison.

Md had a couple of non selective schools in the top 100, you are right about that. Banneker's test scores are below the national average for everyone who takes them in the US, I'll give you that too. The only school we had that was ranked in the top 500 last year was Walls, which was #198, which DCPS seem bent on destroying. Now Wilson sends a fair number of mostly white kids to Ivy and top SLACs every year, but given their entire population, it will NEVER be ranked.

However, Washington Latin just graduated their first class last year, and the Basis DC oldest kids are in 10th grade - do I think we have a shot with our Basis school getting into the top 100? Absolutely. Basis has NEVER had a school ranked lower than the top 100, and they are not about to start now. Is it probably the toughest school academically in DC? Yes. And it does not offer many of the things that many kids want in high school, like real sports teams, or a large group of students. The average graduating class in AZ in something like 30 kids. So it won't help many kids, but it may get DC's name on the map. And Latin has already had their seismic shift in demographics - their MS is less than 20% FARMS, and their DC CAS scores were #3 after Deal and Basis last year, (the high school scores two years ago still stank, but those kids were still 39% FARMS), so if they can up their academics - find a way NOT to teach Algebra I in 7th and 8th grade to all the kids, when many kids at other schools can and do handle math more rapidly, every year their graduating class will have the potential to be better - they just have to provide them with the education.

So there are two charter high schools out there with the potential to become ranked in the top 100. And Walls admissions were just getting better and better - their star was rising. But DCPS even before KAYA apparently internally called "School Without Walls" "School With Whiners" and now they are refusing to give them their own principal, the principal (Trogisch) who is technically in charge of them spends all his time at Francis Stevens, and had a crazed idea to make the 11th grade walk over there every day which they successfully fought but who knows what he will come up with next. This is not benign neglect this is agressive and their admissions last year were a disaster (they went through their entire waitlist and had to go back to kids who did not even make the cut on the test) so I think the writing is on the wall, so to speak........

But yes, if you want to be guaranteed to be in a school in the top 100, move to Md. The chances of getting into TJ are slim, and TJ from the parents I know whose kids go there sounds like a nightmare.

OTOH, I think there are a lot of really great things happening in DC on the education front in spite of Kaya and Bowser, mostly in charters, and it is starting from the ground up, at the ES level. I think if people can convince DCI to get away from their tablets, and more high school successful chains or parents who are willing to sacrifice their lives see us as having a group of kids who are worth it, by the time the kids all you motivated parents care so much about in PK3 are looking for MS and HS options they may really exist.

I think DC is experiencing an educational revival. And I grew up here under Barry. So I cannot believe I just wrote those words down for everyone to see, but I mean them.

And Jeff Steele, thank you so much for creating this forum because I think it is contributing a lot to the potential for a real educational future for kids in this city, by allowing all these motivated parents to share information and hopes and dreams...........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My chid is not a FARMS student and she is wreaking havoc in PK3 right now!

This is the exception, not the rule.

Please show me this rule. Are you confusing "at-risk" and FARMS?

The difference is that children who come from non-FARM households in DC are much more likely to come from stable homes. Therefore, over time their families have the time, patience, and ability to correct their children in the proper way, so that this behavior doesn't continue as they get older. In general, this doesn't happen in FARM or At risk households. Of course, you have those special cases (Like the student housed in DC General who earned a scholarship at Georgetown), but these cases are few and far between.

[Anonymous]

Ludlow-Taylor

[Anonymous]

God help those FARMs kids when it comes to DCUMers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:God help those FARMs kids when it comes to DCUMers!

Every thread touches on FARM kids. Can it be a dead horse already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My chid is not a FARMS student and she is wreaking havoc in PK3 right now!

This is the exception, not the rule.

Please show me this rule. Are you confusing "at-risk" and FARMS?

The difference is that children who come from non-FARM households in DC are much more likely to come from stable homes. Therefore, over time their families have the time, patience, and ability to correct their children in the proper way, so that this behavior doesn't continue as they get older. In general, this doesn't happen in FARM or At risk households. Of course, you have those special cases (Like the student housed in DC General who earned a scholarship at Georgetown), but these cases are few and far between.

NP here. You are behind the curve. Farms doesn't mean much in terms of prediction of behavior (Hell, I was FARMS growing up - dad in school getting a Ph.D and mom a sahm, we were poor poor but very stable). At-risk is now the designation that matters. There is a difference.

[Anonymous]

So it's the at-risk kids we gotta watch out for ...not the FARMS kids. Thanks for the clarification.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So it's the at-risk kids we gotta watch out for ...not the FARMS kids. Thanks for the clarification.

Consider "have compassion for" rather than (or at least before) "watch out for"...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you looked at the performance scores for these schools? Have you looked at the % of students who are FARMS or ESL?

Sorry, but the single most important factor for a school is demographics, and if they swing negatively greater than 40%? It just can't be a high-performing school.

You can decide that you'll settle for low-performing when it comes to PreK, but by 1st grade you'll want something better. And by 3rd? You'll be downright scared in any of those low-performing leftovers.

Yeah because all those Kipp, DC Prep, McKinley, Ellington, Paul, and Banneker kids are so bad and poor at performing. Idiots like you make me sick to my stomach.

+1

Sure those are good schools compared to each other by get real. They are mediocre when compared to test in schools outside of the city or even a reg public school in Bethesda. You thinL Banneker or Mckinly is as good as TJ? Not even close.

Sorry, but TJ was in the top 5 public high schools as ranked by US News and World Report last year. You think anyone can get close to TJ except the Basis school from AZ that beat it out for the #2 school that beat it? Think again. NOT a fair comparison.

Md had a couple of non selective schools in the top 100, you are right about that. Banneker's test scores are below the national average for everyone who takes them in the US, I'll give you that too. The only school we had that was ranked in the top 500 last year was Walls, which was #198, which DCPS seem bent on destroying. Now Wilson sends a fair number of mostly white kids to Ivy and top SLACs every year, but given their entire population, it will NEVER be ranked.

However, Washington Latin just graduated their first class last year, and the Basis DC oldest kids are in 10th grade - do I think we have a shot with our Basis school getting into the top 100? Absolutely. Basis has NEVER had a school ranked lower than the top 100, and they are not about to start now. Is it probably the toughest school academically in DC? Yes. And it does not offer many of the things that many kids want in high school, like real sports teams, or a large group of students. The average graduating class in AZ in something like 30 kids. So it won't help many kids, but it may get DC's name on the map. And Latin has already had their seismic shift in demographics - their MS is less than 20% FARMS, and their DC CAS scores were #3 after Deal and Basis last year, (the high school scores two years ago still stank, but those kids were still 39% FARMS), so if they can up their academics - find a way NOT to teach Algebra I in 7th and 8th grade to all the kids, when many kids at other schools can and do handle math more rapidly, every year their graduating class will have the potential to be better - they just have to provide them with the education.

So there are two charter high schools out there with the potential to become ranked in the top 100. And Walls admissions were just getting better and better - their star was rising. But DCPS even before KAYA apparently internally called "School Without Walls" "School With Whiners" and now they are refusing to give them their own principal, the principal (Trogisch) who is technically in charge of them spends all his time at Francis Stevens, and had a crazed idea to make the 11th grade walk over there every day which they successfully fought but who knows what he will come up with next. This is not benign neglect this is agressive and their admissions last year were a disaster (they went through their entire waitlist and had to go back to kids who did not even make the cut on the test) so I think the writing is on the wall, so to speak........

But yes, if you want to be guaranteed to be in a school in the top 100, move to Md. The chances of getting into TJ are slim, and TJ from the parents I know whose kids go there sounds like a nightmare.

OTOH, I think there are a lot of really great things happening in DC on the education front in spite of Kaya and Bowser, mostly in charters, and it is starting from the ground up, at the ES level. I think if people can convince DCI to get away from their tablets, and more high school successful chains or parents who are willing to sacrifice their lives see us as having a group of kids who are worth it, by the time the kids all you motivated parents care so much about in PK3 are looking for MS and HS options they may really exist.

I think DC is experiencing an educational revival. And I grew up here under Barry. So I cannot believe I just wrote those words down for everyone to see, but I mean them.

And Jeff Steele, thank you so much for creating this forum because I think it is contributing a lot to the potential for a real educational future for kids in this city, by allowing all these motivated parents to share information and hopes and dreams...........

What a great post.
May I add that as the mom of a rising PK3-er I was unprepared for how many appealing options the public school system in DC offered our son. I know that EC is kind of its own category and issues can creep in in the higher grades, but still.

[Anonymous]

Takoma Edu Campus. Doubling IB enrollment year after year.