CHEC

[Anonymous]

What's the deal with Columbia Heights Education Campus? I met a teacher who works there this weekend, she was lovely. Very well spoken, intelligent, but said it's a hard work environment due to all of the ELL students who speak absolutely no English. I read a few threads on dcum but they were from a few years ago, and it seemed people are terrified of the principal and that the school is awful. The teacher I spoke to mentioned that several of her colleagues went to top school, seems strange that such a bad school with have teachers from Duke, Penn, etc

[Anonymous]

OP - there are also "well-spoken, intelligent" teachers at Eastern, Dunbar and Ballou.

CHEC is a big (1300-1400 students) majority Latino (60%) application school, but there are no minimum grades or tests required for admission. One must demonstrate 'interest' in attending and go through an interview and get teacher recommendations.

There are also always a handful of students who get into top colleges from there. They have AP for all and some other specialty programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's the deal with Columbia Heights Education Campus? I met a teacher who works there this weekend, she was lovely. Very well spoken, intelligent, but said it's a hard work environment due to all of the ELL students who speak absolutely no English. I read a few threads on dcum but they were from a few years ago, and it seemed people are terrified of the principal and that the school is awful. The teacher I spoke to mentioned that several of her colleagues went to top school, seems strange that such a bad school with have teachers from Duke, Penn, etc

Oh, so you can't imagine that highly qualified teachers would be interested in helping at-risk kids? Why would you think that?

FWIW I recently met a mom who sends her daughter to CHEC all the way from Anacostia, so she likes it.

[Anonymous]

You know, a lot of teachers are well spoken and lovely.

And, gasp!, some even choose to work at tough schools.

[Anonymous]

I know 2 students from my kids' elementary school who now attend CHEC. They both started at Banneker and were counseled out.

Good students who got a couple Cs.

[Anonymous]

I think you're all missing my point. All of the past posts that I've seen essentially say that the administrators at chec are horrible, verbally abusive, tyrants, and that the academics are horrible. That's why I was so surprised

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's the deal with Columbia Heights Education Campus? I met a teacher who works there this weekend, she was lovely. Very well spoken, intelligent, but said it's a hard work environment due to all of the ELL students who speak absolutely no English. I read a few threads on dcum but they were from a few years ago, and it seemed people are terrified of the principal and that the school is awful. The teacher I spoke to mentioned that several of her colleagues went to top school, seems strange that such a bad school with have teachers from Duke, Penn, etc

Oh, so you can't imagine that highly qualified teachers would be interested in helping at-risk kids? Why would you think that?

FWIW I recently met a mom who sends her daughter to CHEC all the way from Anacostia, so she likes it.

It has nothing to do with highly highly qualified teachers helping at risk students. It has more to do with what I've read about administrators and teacher turnover there. You don't hear comments like that about Dunbar or even Anacostia admins

[Anonymous]

OP, nothing has changed at CHEC since what you may have seen a few years ago. So long as Principal Tukeva is there, and so long as WaPo columnist/broken record Jay Mathews keeps hyping CHEC's AP for All as proof of the validity of his Challenge Index, she will rule with an iron fist and burn through teachers.

There is a long, long history of why CHEC is the way it is. It won't be anything different until Tukeva retires.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, nothing has changed at CHEC since what you may have seen a few years ago. So long as Principal Tukeva is there, and so long as WaPo columnist/broken record Jay Mathews keeps hyping CHEC's AP for All as proof of the validity of his Challenge Index, she will rule with an iron fist and burn through teachers.

There is a long, long history of why CHEC is the way it is. It won't be anything different until Tukeva retires.

Teachers who are lovely getting burnt out at many schools across the city! But CHEC takes the cake.

[Anonymous]

Tukeva recently hired one of the top ap teachers in the district. I'm waiting for her (the teacher) to call me and tell me she quit, she's already nervous talking about evaluations.

[Anonymous]

Have any of you ever been to the school or know anyone who has? My kid went there for middle school. It was not perfect, but we had a mostly great experience. The facilities are great, most if the teachers are great, and there is plenty of Spanish that they learn. They bring kids from a low level to on grade level. Kids who were already advanced like mine are pushed. What I like is the diversity among minorities there. It is very friendly for low income families who care about their kids education. My kid scored high on all standardized tests while there.

[Anonymous]

CHEC isn't an application school. Why do you think it is? There are at least 5 feeder elementary schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CHEC isn't an application school. Why do you think it is? There are at least 5 feeder elementary schools

CHEC is an education campus. The high school is application. It's true that it isn't as competitive as other application high schools in DC but it is still one of them. The middle school (Lincoln) is a regular middle school.

[Anonymous]

I don't think people think the admin are abusive. I think they find the student body to be lacking. High poverty generally means weaker academics, family support, more behavioral problems. yes some families love it. High income families with choice or non POC, take a hard pass.

[Anonymous]

My spouse used to work there. She's amazing and while it's not on the level of your application high schools in DC, it's a decent school doing great things for the ELL community it serves.