What’s going on at DCI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCI parent here 6th grade, there are a number of children in the Chinese track with native speaking and fluent 2nd gen parents... not certain why the PP feels the need to shoot down 12 year olds...

Just not true, and 12 year olds are not to blame. Ask one of the DCI Chinese teachers about which families speak what, preferably in any dialect she speaks Mandarin, Fujian,Shang'haiese or Hakka currently. There are no kids on the advanced Chinese track with fluent 2nd gen ethnic parents. There are several 6th graders whose parents scrape by in Cantonese, Mandarin or both, and speak little to the kids.

Some of us have grown weary of the chronic lack of ambition in DCPC over the years. Most things they seem to do brilliantly at first glance just sound good on paper. We're applying to privates this winter, hoping for good fi aid.

[Anonymous]

There are other important things in a school besides Chinese language fluency.

[Anonymous]

Just leave the silly DCI parents to pretend that the kids' are fluent after all those years of Mandarin. The parents don't know any better and don't care. Same w/French.

The Spanish (which we speak) is much more serious. But the program still isn't really worth the long commute from our hood (Cap Hill).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are other important things in a school besides Chinese language fluency.

Yea, there are, like math, science and English. DCI is hardly knocking those subjects out of the park in my books. THe art isn't bad though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI parent here 6th grade, there are a number of children in the Chinese track with native speaking and fluent 2nd gen parents... not certain why the PP feels the need to shoot down 12 year olds...

Just not true, and 12 year olds are not to blame. Ask one of the DCI Chinese teachers about which families speak what, preferably in any dialect she speaks Mandarin, Fujian,Shang'haiese or Hakka currently. There are no kids on the advanced Chinese track with fluent 2nd gen ethnic parents. There are several 6th graders whose parents scrape by in Cantonese, Mandarin or both, and speak little to the kids.

Some of us have grown weary of the chronic lack of ambition in DCPC over the years. Most things they seem to do brilliantly at first glance just sound good on paper. We're applying to privates this winter, hoping for good fi aid.

+1. Go private if you can afford it, or buy IB for Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has significantly different demographics from Latin and BASIS which is just plain harder. It is also significantly larger with 804 students (and it's still growing/adding a grade).

It is also a newer school.

From the beginning DCI intended to allow students an option not to pursue an IB diploma (read their charter application). They know a significant portion of their students may not ever attend college, and are supposed to be offering them the IB career diploma and training.

So why not just make DCI a vocational program with a bit of language instruction? Sheesh. We really need more high-performing schools in this city to serve taxpayers, not skim milk IB program BS. DCI can't built a critical mass of strong students without a more serious curriculum, teaching and higher standards.

Theres’s nothing inherently skim milk or not-rigorous about the IB diploma or career track programs. DCI is offering both.

But like all start up schools, it will probably take a few years at full capacity before they hit their stride. The bleeding edge kids (and their parents) are always in for a bumpy ride.

Disagree. We're native Mandarin speakers, fairly new to DC, who were given permission to sit in on the most advanced Chinese class early this year. We visited to help us decide if we'd take our DCI spot. The kids' Chinese didn't impress, and that's putting it mildly. We'd read about poor Chinese skills on DCUM threads but took the posts with a grain of salt. A teacher told us that there are NO students in the MS who speak Chinese at home with native-speaking parents.

As a parent who got a high score on higher level IB diploma Chinese in the 90s, it looked to me like the kids are on track to score low on standard level IB diploma Chinese. We also sat in on an advanced 9th grade math class that didn't impress us. We observed 9th graders at BASIS knocking it out the park in AB and BC calc classes. We saw chaos in hallways and at dismissal. DCPC just can't build a truly rigorous IB diploma program this way. Not even close.

9th graders taking BC calculus would be a huge red flag for me. I teach physics at a well regarded state university, and my experience has been that the majority of kids who fail or are at risk of failing my classes seem to be kids who were rushed through math curricula without really grasping how to use math as a tool to solve problems. We actually have special remedial calculus classes that those kids end up having to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why did the MS principal resign? Didn't she just start at DCI over the summer after relocating for the job?

OP here. That’s what I’d like to know. Why did she resign already? Were things ThAT bad? Makes me think I should look else where for my kid. Very concerned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why did the MS principal resign? Didn't she just start at DCI over the summer after relocating for the job?

OP here. That’s what I’d like to know. Why did she resign already? Were things ThAT bad? Makes me think I should look else where for my kid. Very concerned.

Or perhaps she was that bad, and they asked her to resign and you should be hopeful? They did move very quickly to replace her with an internal person.

There is a lot of turnover at DCI, especially teachers. Check their annual reports filed with the PCSB -- for 2016-17 they reported 27% teacher attrition. https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/report/2016-2017%20Annual%20Report%2853FO%29%28DCInternPCS%28DCI%29%29.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI has significantly different demographics from Latin and BASIS which is just plain harder. It is also significantly larger with 804 students (and it's still growing/adding a grade).

It is also a newer school.

From the beginning DCI intended to allow students an option not to pursue an IB diploma (read their charter application). They know a significant portion of their students may not ever attend college, and are supposed to be offering them the IB career diploma and training.

So why not just make DCI a vocational program with a bit of language instruction? Sheesh. We really need more high-performing schools in this city to serve taxpayers, not skim milk IB program BS. DCI can't built a critical mass of strong students without a more serious curriculum, teaching and higher standards.

Theres’s nothing inherently skim milk or not-rigorous about the IB diploma or career track programs. DCI is offering both.

But like all start up schools, it will probably take a few years at full capacity before they hit their stride. The bleeding edge kids (and their parents) are always in for a bumpy ride.

Disagree. We're native Mandarin speakers, fairly new to DC, who were given permission to sit in on the most advanced Chinese class early this year. We visited to help us decide if we'd take our DCI spot. The kids' Chinese didn't impress, and that's putting it mildly. We'd read about poor Chinese skills on DCUM threads but took the posts with a grain of salt. A teacher told us that there are NO students in the MS who speak Chinese at home with native-speaking parents.

As a parent who got a high score on higher level IB diploma Chinese in the 90s, it looked to me like the kids are on track to score low on standard level IB diploma Chinese. We also sat in on an advanced 9th grade math class that didn't impress us. We observed 9th graders at BASIS knocking it out the park in AB and BC calc classes. We saw chaos in hallways and at dismissal. DCPC just can't build a truly rigorous IB diploma program this way. Not even close.

9th graders taking BC calculus would be a huge red flag for me. I teach physics at a well regarded state university, and my experience has been that the majority of kids who fail or are at risk of failing my classes seem to be kids who were rushed through math curricula without really grasping how to use math as a tool to solve problems. We actually have special remedial calculus classes that those kids end up having to take.

OK, but what if the 9th graders taking BC calculus score 5s on the BC calculus AP test? To my knowledge, two BASIS 9th graders did that in the spring. These are the sort of kids who get into MIT eventually. Believe it or not, there are a few such kids in DC public schools these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IB Geneva actually allows student to take 1-3 IB tests in June of jr. year, so they have the scores to submit to colleges. In the DC burbs, students in IB diploma programs commonly double up taking the AP tests that correspond to IB subject tests, to have more scores to submit to colleges (versus just submitting BS "predicted IB scores" schools manufacture, the common practice). My nieces in an IB diploma program at a Fairfax school are doing this.

All I know about PSAT scores at DCI is that they did not produce any National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists this year.

+100, nephew at an IB school in MoCo did the same. He actually said the AP exam was easier than the IB subjects exam. He throughly enjoyed the program. DCI is fairly new so I’d give it 5-10 before trying to compare it to top surburban schools, BASIS or Private IB programs like Washington International School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB Geneva actually allows student to take 1-3 IB tests in June of jr. year, so they have the scores to submit to colleges. In the DC burbs, students in IB diploma programs commonly double up taking the AP tests that correspond to IB subject tests, to have more scores to submit to colleges (versus just submitting BS "predicted IB scores" schools manufacture, the common practice). My nieces in an IB diploma program at a Fairfax school are doing this.

All I know about PSAT scores at DCI is that they did not produce any National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists this year.

+100, nephew at an IB school in MoCo did the same. He actually said the AP exam was easier than the IB subjects exam. He throughly enjoyed the program. DCI is fairly new so I’d give it 5-10 before trying to compare it to top surburban schools, BASIS or Private IB programs like Washington International School.

This is DCIs 5th year of operation, but they are still in add-a-grade mode.

I am surprised a bit they aren’t experiencing more attrition from 8th to 9th. Lots of families are way of unproven high schools - see Latin for its first 7-8 years of operation. Until a couple classes graduated and got into good colleges folks were wary to stay for 9-12. May say something about DCI that this pattern isn’t happening there.

[Anonymous]

Problem is that UMC feeder parents don't have a decade to wait for DCI to shape into a strong IB program. The lack of ambition in DCPC across all subjects drags programs down for far too long. BASIS came out of nowhere 7 years ago yet is clobbering competitor programs in math and science. Their main problems are a crappy building and far too much busy work homework for the younger students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB Geneva actually allows student to take 1-3 IB tests in June of jr. year, so they have the scores to submit to colleges. In the DC burbs, students in IB diploma programs commonly double up taking the AP tests that correspond to IB subject tests, to have more scores to submit to colleges (versus just submitting BS "predicted IB scores" schools manufacture, the common practice). My nieces in an IB diploma program at a Fairfax school are doing this.

All I know about PSAT scores at DCI is that they did not produce any National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists this year.

+100, nephew at an IB school in MoCo did the same. He actually said the AP exam was easier than the IB subjects exam. He throughly enjoyed the program. DCI is fairly new so I’d give it 5-10 before trying to compare it to top surburban schools, BASIS or Private IB programs like Washington International School.

This is DCIs 5th year of operation, but they are still in add-a-grade mode.

I am surprised a bit they aren’t experiencing more attrition from 8th to 9th. Lots of families are way of unproven high schools - see Latin for its first 7-8 years of operation. Until a couple classes graduated and got into good colleges folks were wary to stay for 9-12. May say something about DCI that this pattern isn’t happening there.

Completely agree. But where are DCI students going for HS if they don't get into Walls, parents can't afford a private, and don't want to move from the District? The weak Eastern HS IB program for Capitol Hill residents? Hopeless Dunbar? Failing Ballou etc? There are hardly any DCI students living in the Deal-Wilson feeder area. I don't see DCI doing anything very well at present, meaning that students risk emerging weak in two languages, along with math, science and social studies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:IB Geneva actually allows student to take 1-3 IB tests in June of jr. year, so they have the scores to submit to colleges. In the DC burbs, students in IB diploma programs commonly double up taking the AP tests that correspond to IB subject tests, to have more scores to submit to colleges (versus just submitting BS "predicted IB scores" schools manufacture, the common practice). My nieces in an IB diploma program at a Fairfax school are doing this.

All I know about PSAT scores at DCI is that they did not produce any National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists this year.

+100, nephew at an IB school in MoCo did the same. He actually said the AP exam was easier than the IB subjects exam. He throughly enjoyed the program. DCI is fairly new so I’d give it 5-10 before trying to compare it to top surburban schools, BASIS or Private IB programs like Washington International School.

This is DCIs 5th year of operation, but they are still in add-a-grade mode.

I am surprised a bit they aren’t experiencing more attrition from 8th to 9th. Lots of families are way of unproven high schools - see Latin for its first 7-8 years of operation. Until a couple classes graduated and got into good colleges folks were wary to stay for 9-12. May say something about DCI that this pattern isn’t happening there.

Completely agree. But where are DCI students going for HS if they don't get into Walls, parents can't afford a private, and don't want to move from the District? The weak Eastern HS IB program for Capitol Hill residents? Hopeless Dunbar? Failing Ballou etc? There are hardly any DCI students living in the Deal-Wilson feeder area. I don't see DCI doing anything very well at present, meaning that students risk emerging weak in two languages, along with math, science and social studies.

Roosevelt or the newly focused Coolidge?

[Anonymous]

DCI students who don't get into Walls could apply to Banneker, McKinley, Roosevelt, new Coolidge or Bard.