Stuart Hobson Middle School?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

+1. As you can tell, most of the parents here don't have kids at S-H. If you really want to know more about the school, Stuart-Hobson is hosting an open house on Thursday, November 16 from 6-7:30 pm. You'll have a chance to see the school, meet staff, and meet parents.

I went to the open house and was generally impressed. There does seem to be a significant effort to increase offerings for advanced kids, for example offering geometry after school. And there's a much wider variety of after school activities than I had realized: not only arts, music, and sports, but clubs like science and computers. The parents and students who spoke were enthusiastic and very positive, and I know quite a few current families who are happy there. We live nearby and I have not experienced any of the negative interactions with students in the neighborhood that others have.

Of course, at any open house, there's a natural tendency to focus on the positive and downplay any problems. So: Any additional comments, either positive and negative, from parents of current and past students?

[Anonymous]

Right, so why 11% white kids last school year, maybe 13 or 14% this year in a catchment area that's nearly 3/4 white?

If the school is wonderful, what explains chronically weak neighborhood buy-in since the 1970s? Not enough of us attending open houses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Right, so why 11% white kids last school year, maybe 13 or 14% this year in a catchment area that's nearly 3/4 white?

If the school is wonderful, what explains chronically weak neighborhood buy-in since the 1970s? Not enough of us attending open houses?

She didn’t say it was wonderful. She said it had more positive sounding programs than she expected.

And yes probably not enough IB have given it a chance which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Yeah, so DCPS and the prinicipal would actually have to do outreach and assure safety; that isn't going to happen. Look at Watkins .....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Yeah, so DCPS and the prinicipal would actually have to do outreach and assure safety; that isn't going to happen. Look at Watkins .....

What about Watkins? Watkins seems to be doing better and better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Yeah, so DCPS and the prinicipal would actually have to do outreach and assure safety; that isn't going to happen. Look at Watkins .....

I'm the open-house attendee from a few posts back and current Watkins parent. I'm sorry not to have heard (yet) from any current or past S-H parents. I'm not blind to the problems at Watkins; some of my children's friends have had issues and they tell me about kids in their classes with behavioral issues. But overall, we're happy with the school. (No need to repeat the messages that we're idiots or that we're ruining their childhood; that been done enough.)

We know dozens of families that are at or have been through S-H and like the school. We also know lots of families with kids at charter schools (Latin, Basis, etc.), and some at privates. Again, any information based on firsthand experiences would be welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, so why 11% white kids last school year, maybe 13 or 14% this year in a catchment area that's nearly 3/4 white?

If the school is wonderful, what explains chronically weak neighborhood buy-in since the 1970s? Not enough of us attending open houses?

She didn’t say it was wonderful. She said it had more positive sounding programs than she expected.

And yes probably not enough IB have given it a chance which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We're in-bounds and would certainly give SH a chance if the school offered bona fide honors classes for our math gifted child. What they offer are at-grade level classes packaged as "advanced" (because the regular classes are remedial).

BASIS for us, with a little lottery luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, so why 11% white kids last school year, maybe 13 or 14% this year in a catchment area that's nearly 3/4 white?

If the school is wonderful, what explains chronically weak neighborhood buy-in since the 1970s? Not enough of us attending open houses?

She didn’t say it was wonderful. She said it had more positive sounding programs than she expected.

And yes probably not enough IB have given it a chance which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We're in-bounds and would certainly give SH a chance if the school offered bona fide honors classes for our math gifted child. What they offer are at-grade level classes packaged as "advanced" (because the regular classes are remedial).

BASIS for us, with a little lottery luck.

you won't need lottery luck for BASIS which always works through its entire 5th grade wait list.

I won't get into the "gifted" rabbit hole debate (a year or two advanced doesn't equal "gifted" fwiw), but my child is an objectively advanced math student who will be heading to Stuart without hesitation.

[Anonymous]

Based on my experience (a friend who has a gifted child and ours who is borderline gifted in math) public school may actually work out better than, say, Basis, because the public school is more likely to work out a plan. They are already in the business of working out plans, adding one more isn't going to break the bank. Basis are just not set up for that, that's not how it works there. Your middle of the road child with some advanced potential who likes to pour over worksheets may be served well. That doesn't describe our child, who'd much rather use the gift to get the work done and spend leisure delving into sports and other past times. If we find there isn't enough challenge, we sit down again and devise some more.

[Anonymous]

Serious BS, PPs.

We've lived next-door to the same neighbors for over a decade. Their kid is happily taking CALCULUS in 8th grade at BASIS. Family is in-bounds for Hobson and considered enrolling the child several years back. They were told that the only appropriate math instruction available to the child would be delivered via computer software.

You can kid yourselves endlessly without changing the fact that DCPS doesn't offer appropriate challenge to math or ELA gifted middle school students. Not even at Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, so why 11% white kids last school year, maybe 13 or 14% this year in a catchment area that's nearly 3/4 white?

If the school is wonderful, what explains chronically weak neighborhood buy-in since the 1970s? Not enough of us attending open houses?

She didn’t say it was wonderful. She said it had more positive sounding programs than she expected.

And yes probably not enough IB have given it a chance which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

We're in-bounds and would certainly give SH a chance if the school offered bona fide honors classes for our math gifted child. What they offer are at-grade level classes packaged as "advanced" (because the regular classes are remedial).

BASIS for us, with a little lottery luck.

[/quote

you won't need lottery luck for BASIS which always works through its entire 5th grade wait list.

I won't get into the "gifted" rabbit hole debate (a year or two advanced doesn't equal "gifted" fwiw), but my child is an objectively advanced math student who will be heading to Stuart without hesitation.

Get into the gifted rabbit hole debate, please. Go on, take a crack at it. How about 3 years advanced? Where are you drawing the line based on which corpus of academic research?

I'd wager that your advanced math student will be spending part of his or her future summers at math camps, working with tutors (possibly his or her math-gifted parents), or at least clocking a lot of hours on Khan Academy and/or Saxon Math. Been on the Hill for 25 years and have heard this story before, umpteen times. PC politics and liberal guilt before appropriate math, and behavior, at SH.

[Anonymous]

Can we get off the math wars and get back to SH? Please?

[Anonymous]

Sure, if SH were a solid choice, the in-boundary population wouldn't have been beating down the doors to get in to Washington Latin, BASIS, privates, and even Hardy and DCI, to stay in the neighborhood in the last five years.

There are 2 or 3 SH booster threads like this one on DCUM every year, without that changing anything. The in-boundary/high SES percentage increases by 2 or 3 percentage points annually. At this glacial pace, in 20 years, the school will finally be good enough to attract most in-boundary families.

Everybody in-boundary I know who uses the school is farther on the left politically than we are, and we're definitely on the left.

[Anonymous]

It'll be a good choice when more IB families choose it, and IB families don't choose it because it's not a good choice. Makes perfect sense....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, if SH were a solid choice, the in-boundary population wouldn't have been beating down the doors to get in to Washington Latin, BASIS, privates, and even Hardy and DCI, to stay in the neighborhood in the last five years.

There are 2 or 3 SH booster threads like this one on DCUM every year, without that changing anything. The in-boundary/high SES percentage increases by 2 or 3 percentage points annually. At this glacial pace, in 20 years, the school will finally be good enough to attract most in-boundary families.

Everybody in-boundary I know who uses the school is farther on the left politically than we are, and we're definitely on the left.

At the current pace, the school will be 20% white in what, 3 years? Add in some high SES POC's, and its got to be at least 25% high SES? Isn't that the point at which it likely flips completely in a couple of more years? Isn't that basically where Hardy is now?