Middle and high school on Capitol Hill

[Anonymous]

Not to sound inflammatory, but a lot of high SES parents pull their kids out after elementary school and move to NW or the burbs. Is there movement afoot to improve middle and high school choices? Can anyone forecast the outlook over the next 10 years?

[Anonymous]

lol

[Anonymous]

::grabs the popcorn::

[Anonymous]

DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

[Anonymous]

People are not moving as much as in the past. More and more families stay on the Hill to raise their teenagers, using charter schools that go through high school or else applying to DCPS high schools with selective admissions. PP is right, there is persistent hope that more Stuart Hobson Middle School students will choose Eastern for high school and that the same will happen with more Hill parents choosing Jefferson or Eliot Hine middle schools. It's really unknowable if that will happen and if those schools will meet your tweets/teens needs. It's a leap of faith and a commitment, not a sure thing.

Overall, Capitol Hill is a great place to raise teenagers, there are many here and you can figure out schooling. Some go private as well.

[Anonymous]

What is "SES"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is "SES"?

socioeconomic status

[Anonymous]

Come on, spare us the drama. Plenty of high SES Hill families who can't afford privates find ways to stay on the Hill through middle and high school, managing to avoid just-OK SH and low-performing Elilot-Hine and Jefferson middle schools. Maybe half the families do bail, but it's no longer a mass exodus, like it was when I landed in the neighborhood 15 years ago. High SES families do not use Eastern, regardless of race.

Some Hill families use Hardy OOB, preferring it to Hobson. BASIS is jammed with Hill families, with more and more staying on for their HS program, and many others moving on to Walls, Banneker and Duke Ellington after 8th grade. Latin is also jammed with Hill families from 5th -12th grades. Loads of Hill families have enrolled in DCI language immersion feeders. Some parents use fairly affordable private middle schools, like St. Peter's and the Friends Community School (both under 20K) to get through the middle school years, then the kids return to public schools for high school, using application programs like Walls.

[Anonymous]

To the other points, I think it is already starting to change for Middle Schools. People want to stay in the city, it is really hard to get into Latin, some people have concerns about BASIS, etc.

I know there are groups working hard to support both Jefferson and E-H. I could see half the families that start out in K at the "desired schools" moving onto the middles schools in 3 or 4 years. My total guess is Eastern will be a whole other ball of wax that will happen once the neighborhoods have embraced the MSs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the other points, I think it is already starting to change for Middle Schools. People want to stay in the city, it is really hard to get into Latin, some people have concerns about BASIS, etc.

I know there are groups working hard to support both Jefferson and E-H. I could see half the families that start out in K at the "desired schools" moving onto the middles schools in 3 or 4 years. My total guess is Eastern will be a whole other ball of wax that will happen once the neighborhoods have embraced the MSs.

There is also a set of kids from Brent who go to Hardy OOB as a cohort. That may be changing because of BASIS - but that's been a *thing.*

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

I wouldn't say there are "plenty" of hill families "more than satisfied" with Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Assuming OP's post is real, not just some troll, it comes to show how unbelievably long it takes for "hear-say" to finally catch on to the reality. (OP's post echos from about 10 years behind, not 15 quite and definitely not everything is rosy, but where in the world is it that?) I think it has to do with the high turn-over of opinion leaders in education. Parents (and their heated opinions) float in that space from about preschool to 5th or 6th grade, so roughly those 10 years. Thereafter, they have it figured out and cede that space to the next cohort, which again takes about 10 years to read up.

OP, you'll be fine, seriously. Many of those who respond here - including myself - have made it work very well (incidentally minus the heroin, violence, and waves of suicides increasingly threatening the suburban schools). Our teenage kids are doing very well. You might not see them out and about all the time because they spend time on projects, homework, out-of school activities, and - well, let's face it - video games. Just hit some of them up, or their parents (if their kids aren't too embarrassed to be seen out with their parents and ask them what they do, how they feel about their school, what worked for them and all. Competent answer won't come to you here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the other points, I think it is already starting to change for Middle Schools. People want to stay in the city, it is really hard to get into Latin, some people have concerns about BASIS, etc.

I know there are groups working hard to support both Jefferson and E-H. I could see half the families that start out in K at the "desired schools" moving onto the middles schools in 3 or 4 years. My total guess is Eastern will be a whole other ball of wax that will happen once the neighborhoods have embraced the MSs.

There is also a set of kids from Brent who go to Hardy OOB as a cohort. That may be changing because of BASIS - but that's been a *thing.*

That will be less of an option as more families IB for Hardy send their children there, but agree that other options will emerge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

But Stuart Hobson IS NOT the "Capitol Hill" middle school!!!!! Instead the elementary school feed to THREE different middle schools. If there were just one, then there wouldn't be a problem. I'm IB for Brent but even though Stuart Hobson is much closer, we are zoned for Jefferson! Jefferson has a lot of great things going for it, but it is NOT on Capitol Hill. Since DCPS won't let kids that live closer to Stuart Hobson attend SH by right, we look elsewhere. And we see Latin and we see BASIS and we decide if we can't have SH, may as well go charter. Doesn't have to be this way. But it is what it is until DCPS decides to make Stuart Hobson a true neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't sympathetic to these families bc there are plenty of others that are more than satisfied with Stuart Hobson and Eastern. Either these high SES families make a decision to send their children to these schools and become the change they want to see or continue to flee to Upper NW or the burbs.

But Stuart Hobson IS NOT the "Capitol Hill" middle school!!!!! Instead the elementary school feed to THREE different middle schools. If there were just one, then there wouldn't be a problem. I'm IB for Brent but even though Stuart Hobson is much closer, we are zoned for Jefferson! Jefferson has a lot of great things going for it, but it is NOT on Capitol Hill. Since DCPS won't let kids that live closer to Stuart Hobson attend SH by right, we look elsewhere. And we see Latin and we see BASIS and we decide if we can't have SH, may as well go charter. Doesn't have to be this way. But it is what it is until DCPS decides to make Stuart Hobson a true neighborhood school.

I think Deal/Wilson boundary is part of the problem as it sets a standard. No one within that boundary complains about commuting distance and many families have a commute to their "neighborhood" school which is far beyond walking distance. Some families have a 5 mi. commute to Deal but they'd sooner give up their right arm before giving up that designation. Their 11-14 year olds may be fine taking the bus

Yes Brent is closer to Stuart Hobson, but it's only 1.5 miles to either Jefferson or Eliot Hine and on the outer limit of a walkable commute for 11-14 yr old. That may not be ideal, but it would be far less of a deal breaker if there was genuine interest in either school.