Difference between NW parent involvement and Capitol Hill parent involvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To clarify:

Please show me where high SES DCPS students (or even big city students) have worse outcomes compared to high SES students in school districts where they are catered to? I would love to see actual data to back up these “feelings.”

Easy enough. Look at our neighbors in VA and MD that start G & T in elementary, full tracking in middle and high school. Then rigorous requirements for magnets like Blair and TJ - rigorous requirements to take the advanced courses that require high tracking that starts in middle.

Look at the course offerings and how many kids taking advanced level courses. Look at SAT scores and college acceptance. All easy data to see.

Are you kidding me?! Please offer actual research, not anecdotal evidence.

Please show research showing that they perform equally well. I understand there is research that the facotr most corrolated with high educational outcomes is the education of the mother. I also understand that there is research showing that a mix of about 30% low SES with 70% high SES provides benefits to the lower SES cohort and the higher SES cohort does about the saem.

I am not, however, aware of any research showing that there are no educational benefits for high performing students to attend school with high performing peers studying a challenging curriculum with solid teachers over attending a school with a large percentage of students performing below grade level, a medicre curriculum (one that is lowered so as not to be too challenging for the low performing students) and average teachers. I would love to see that research.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hill parents have reason to be fed up and pissed off with DCPS and the city council on ed issues. Many of us got involved in providing input to DCPS back during the boundary/feeder review of 2013-2014. We trooped to stakeholder meetings across town. The collective advice we gave was that we wanted a strong pan-Ward 6 middle school, possibly spanning two campuses (Eliot-Hine and Stuart Hobson). There broad support among parents for this solution, but resistance from the politically powerful Cluster's leadership. We were totally ignored.

Flash forward a decade without a pan-Ward 6 by-right middle school and every DCPS program that's majority UMC on the Hill (Maury, Brent, SWS, Watkins UMC families) loses most of its IB families between 4th and 5th grades, as families jump on the Washington Latin, BASIS and DCI trains. Many families go charter even earlier, choosing language immersion programs over thriving neighborhood schools to be sure to have a viable path to 12th grade. There are two other unfortunate by-products of having been ignored. The first is that DCPS pours money into pricey renovations of Ward 6 middle schools that are nowhere near full, with no real prospect of filling up (Eliot Hine and Jefferson Academy). The second is that Eastern HS, criminally, remains around 1% white/high SES in a catchment area that's majority white/high SES.

Call us mean, call us grumpy, call us whatever you want, but it's worth noting that we didn't throw our hands in the air a decade back. We were ready to dig in to help DCPS build high-performing neighborhood schools past elementary.

All the way back to 2013-14? There are parents who have been involved for 25 years or so that are still active on Capitol Hill schools. I started my engagement in 2009 or so, and still have kids in Hill schools.

[Anonymous]

Lady, save us your-holier/longer-than-thou screed. From what I've seen in the neighborhood, most parents who are deeply engaged in supporting DCPS CH schools burn out 5, 6 maybe 7 or 8 years in. They become empty suits at these schools. Hardly anybody can sustain the level of commitment demanded for more than a decade. The phenomenon of families bolting to Washington Latin and/or BASIS in their droves can be partially explained by the burnout factor: parents start to crave a MS/HS school that works without their constant vigilance and involvement.

[Anonymous]

feeling jealous of the nw parents who don't need to stay involved in their children's schools past elementary..

[Anonymous]

To sum up, capital hill ES parents are just like Upper NW parents early on and then a few years in part of the cost of living on capital hill becomes the stress of managing middle school options. Some luck out early with charters and OOB placements, more and more are satisfied with Stuart Hobson, some go private and some move.

I think High School is slightly less stressful because there are solid application school options but still not a good DCPS by right option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To sum up, capital hill ES parents are just like Upper NW parents early on and then a few years in part of the cost of living on capital hill becomes the stress of managing middle school options. Some luck out early with charters and OOB placements, more and more are satisfied with Stuart Hobson, some go private and some move.

I think High School is slightly less stressful because there are solid application school options but still not a good DCPS by right option.

Not really, just slight uptick in UMC/in-boundary students every year. Hobson only tracks for math and English and half the kids still don't test proficient.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lady, save us your-holier/longer-than-thou screed. From what I've seen in the neighborhood, most parents who are deeply engaged in supporting DCPS CH schools burn out 5, 6 maybe 7 or 8 years in. They become empty suits at these schools. Hardly anybody can sustain the level of commitment demanded for more than a decade. The phenomenon of families bolting to Washington Latin and/or BASIS in their droves can be partially explained by the burnout factor: parents start to crave a MS/HS school that works without their constant vigilance and involvement.

This. It's also why there are many families like mine who move from CH and other nice areas without good schools to UNW, but very few families with school-aged kids who move from UNW to CH and other areas without good schools. We were at a charter but it's the same thing. We were sick of the constant effort to try to grow a good school, and just wanted to send our kids to schools that are already good. This became even more important as our oldest approached MS and we had serious concerns about the MS/HS it fed into. Now that we're out of it, we realize even more how exhausting and often unfruitful it was. If I had a do over I wouldn't have even tried this route and would have moved into a good school zone prior to kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To sum up, capital hill ES parents are just like Upper NW parents early on and then a few years in part of the cost of living on capital hill becomes the stress of managing middle school options. Some luck out early with charters and OOB placements, more and more are satisfied with Stuart Hobson, some go private and some move.

I think High School is slightly less stressful because there are solid application school options but still not a good DCPS by right option.

Not really, just slight uptick in UMC/in-boundary students every year. Hobson only tracks for math and English and half the kids still don't test proficient.

+1 not a whole lot of buy in from CH families for SH

[Anonymous]

This thread is exactly why I left teaching at one of your schools for a school you wouldn’t dare step foot in!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is exactly why I left teaching at one of your schools for a school you wouldn’t dare step foot in!

Good for you! I have always wondered why idealistic, mission-driven teachers who joined DCPS to add to efforts to support the neediest kids stay at schools with high numbers of more privileged kids. It must wear on them and their sense of purpose. Hopefully this is an organic way of getting higher numbers of good, committed teachers to the neediest schools within DCPS. No financial/other incentives needed! Just allow the annoying parents to push them out...

[Anonymous]

What nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lady, save us your-holier/longer-than-thou screed. From what I've seen in the neighborhood, most parents who are deeply engaged in supporting DCPS CH schools burn out 5, 6 maybe 7 or 8 years in. They become empty suits at these schools. Hardly anybody can sustain the level of commitment demanded for more than a decade. The phenomenon of families bolting to Washington Latin and/or BASIS in their droves can be partially explained by the burnout factor: parents start to crave a MS/HS school that works without their constant vigilance and involvement.

This. It's also why there are many families like mine who move from CH and other nice areas without good schools to UNW, but very few families with school-aged kids who move from UNW to CH and other areas without good schools. We were at a charter but it's the same thing. We were sick of the constant effort to try to grow a good school, and just wanted to send our kids to schools that are already good. This became even more important as our oldest approached MS and we had serious concerns about the MS/HS it fed into. Now that we're out of it, we realize even more how exhausting and often unfruitful it was. If I had a do over I wouldn't have even tried this route and would have moved into a good school zone prior to kindergarten.

The most logical post on a thread laced with magical thinking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a disconnect above between the use of "IB" to mean "in-boundary" and the use in the phrase "IB certification" that refers to an International Baccalaureate program certification for the schools.

I am a NW parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler that has observed the Capital Hill parents' struggle with schools via DCUM (and the 2013 boundary review) with empathy for the past 10 years DCPS is not interested in doing what it takes to address the needs of the high performing high SES students on Capital Hill. DCPS cannot see the forest for the trees, they are afraid of the political cost of doing what it takes to create a viable feeder path as they will be seen as pandering to high SES families. Nevermind that it woudl create a better educational path for many kids, including lower SES kids.

That causes angst.

I love our home in upper NW. That said, if we did not have children we would not be living here, we would be on Capital Hill or Dupont Circle or somewhere else more urban.

Many of us parents in both locales are both good people and difficult to deal with when our kids' educations are at risk.

This is a great post, PP. My question from here on Capitol Hill is, at what point do we reach a tipping point politically, where "pandering to high SES families" is no longer fraught with such political risk that DCPS can see the forest for the trees. Are we talking five years out, ten, fifteen? Too late for my own children surely, but will the better educational path ultimately be created, perhaps once the "temporary" Mayoral control of ed Fenty brought us is finally a thing of past? When will an elected school board with real power return??

When will city council members start to get voted out because they're not bothering to create the viable feeder path high SES families in their catchment areas want? Two decades hence? Obviously, nobody has the answers, but predictions would be interesting to consider.

[Anonymous]

When Capitol Hill has NW demographics, it will also have a middle school like Deal and a high school like Wilson! 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think there is a disconnect above between the use of "IB" to mean "in-boundary" and the use in the phrase "IB certification" that refers to an International Baccalaureate program certification for the schools.

I am a NW parent of a middle schooler and a high schooler that has observed the Capital Hill parents' struggle with schools via DCUM (and the 2013 boundary review) with empathy for the past 10 years DCPS is not interested in doing what it takes to address the needs of the high performing high SES students on Capital Hill. DCPS cannot see the forest for the trees, they are afraid of the political cost of doing what it takes to create a viable feeder path as they will be seen as pandering to high SES families. Nevermind that it woudl create a better educational path for many kids, including lower SES kids.

That causes angst.

I love our home in upper NW. That said, if we did not have children we would not be living here, we would be on Capital Hill or Dupont Circle or somewhere else more urban.

Many of us parents in both locales are both good people and difficult to deal with when our kids' educations are at risk.

This is a great post, PP. My question from here on Capitol Hill is, at what point do we reach a tipping point politically, where "pandering to high SES families" is no longer fraught with such political risk that DCPS can see the forest for the trees. Are we talking five years out, ten, fifteen? Too late for my own children surely, but will the better educational path ultimately be created, perhaps once the "temporary" Mayoral control of ed Fenty brought us is finally a thing of past? When will an elected school board with real power return??

When will city council members start to get voted out because they're not bothering to create the viable feeder path high SES families in their catchment areas want? Two decades hence? Obviously, nobody has the answers, but predictions would be interesting to consider.

Things sucked more in DC with a school board. Everyone in charge = no one in charge.

CH will get the MSs it wants in 5-10 years when high SES students dominate every grade of the ESs and continue to MS. Then people will realize that most of the teachers in the MSs are actually quite good etc. I think the comprehensive high schools may never happen but more city-wide, application or not, will be available.