Middle Schools for Cap Hill
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
Lotteries into Latin 1 maybe. Latin 2 or BASIS, maybe not. |
Anonymous
Nobody is choosing EH over BASIS or Latin II. People universally are going to give both of those schools a try because they can always go back to their IB. Look, people, I think we all want middle schools on the Hill to succeed. It does no good denying that there is a problem and pretending that people are “choosing” their IB. It’s not a real choice if your only other option is to move. What I want is IB middle schools on the Hill that people actually WANT to attend. |
Anonymous
|
There are IB UMC families who don't bother with the lottery. Not many, but they're out there. They enroll at EH after having put in time advocating for the school on the Maury PTA.
We know half a dozen Maury families with children at EH who've shown no interest in charters. |
Anonymous
I don’t know what to tell you - we did not lottery for Basis and will likely try EH. The denial seems to be coming from you …. And also not sure why the fact that some families might have gone to a charter if they got in even matters? |
Anonymous
Ok, what else do you want? Cheeze. It’s like to refuse to accept that what you claim to want is actually happening. Almost like you are fighting some battle that actually has nothing to do with the quality of the school. Do you personally dislike the families you know going IB? |
Anonymous
I can't speak to MS because we aren't there yet, but we are at a Title 1 school on the Hill and there are definitely families there who either don't bother to lottery or have chosen to stay at the school despite getting into desirable charters and even non-Title 1 Hill schools. I think people wind up in PK after striking out on the lottery and then find they like it, their kid makes friends, they recognize how nice it is to be able to walk to school, etc. I can easily see that extending to MS. At Title 1 schools, if your kid makes it to the upper grades, you don't see the attrition that you see at a school like Brent or Maury. We have done the lottery a couple times since PK (K and 1st) but have turned down a few charter spots. In K the issue was that we were offered spots after the school year started and we did not want to disrupt. But the next year we got into an EOTR charter as well as Two Rivers and turned them both down. We were happy, our kid was doing well, there was no compelling reason to leave, and we realized we'd only done the lottery because we were expected to want out. But it turns out we didn't. I think people who can't imagine that there are people out there actively choosing IB Title 1 schools, not just defaulting to them because of they struck out on the lottery, just don't know what it's like in these schools. It's a school. There are dedicated teachers, kids learning, active parent communities, events, etc. It's not some hellhole. It's probably pretty similar to what you experience at your non-Title 1 school or a charter. I get the concern about college preparedness and that's something I absolutely think about with MS and HS. I think the odds we'll go to Eastern are pretty slim unless something changes there before we get there, and that makes a charter appealing. But I could also see us moving out of the city for HS, or maybe swing a parochial school for 4 years. I don't think Latin or BASIS or ITS or whatever is so magically better than SH/EH/JA that it's like some punishment to go IB. I think as with our ES, we'd find a lot to love, we might even like it more than certain charter options (BASIS honestly sounds like a school I would really dislike, based on my values and education expectations, for instance, no matter how good they are getting kids to test well). In other words, our IB MS may in fact already be a school we actually WANT to attend. |
Anonymous
|
How old are your kid(s)? A great many public schools in this city are fine for most until around 3rd grade. By 5th grade, you're likely to be tired of playing teacher, editor, tutor, task master for your children. With little kids, it's very easy to say, oh, my in-boundary middle school EotP will probably be my favorite of the bunch.
|
Anonymous
pandemic aside, we’re finding 4th grade quite focused. |
Anonymous
| There are several kids at SH who transferred from Basis. The numbers tell us a great many families from MS ES go to Latin and Basis; no one denies that. What is beyond perplexing is the poster(s) who frequently chimes in to state categorically that no one ever "chooses" SH. When people chime in to tell him he's wrong he comes back with certainty that he must be correct. Seems like a weird fixation. |
Anonymous
While I agree that should be true, it unfortunately isn't. Year after year people lottery into Basis even though it is clear (or should be) that it is a terrible fit for their kid. Then the kid flounders, the parents go running to the admins to tell them how they need to change the school to help their kid, the admins politely decline and then parents then turn into the annoying Basis bashers who whine and complain about the "young admins" and how no one could possibly like Basis. All because they couldn't stomach EH or SH. |
Anonymous
| A smart hardworking kid came back to our ES halfway through this year because she hated BASIS; she’ll be going to SH next year. Another friend of my kid’s who headed to BASIS this year is absolutely thriving. Different schools are good and bad for different people. That said, I totally understand why, with the crazy system where charters start in 5th and DCPSes in 6th, everyone is inclined to try BASIS even if they know it probably won’t work. What if it does? And few are sure SH or wherever will work either. |
Anonymous
Half BS. The admins are in fact inexperienced 20-somethings, not necessarily the case 4 or 5 years back. The truth is BASIS MS families leave for a great variety of reasons, not just because students are floundering academically. Terrible fit can be a euphemism families being on the receiving end of poor treatment by admins, including lack of flexibility where common sense should have carried the day. Over the years, we've known BASIS families who "whined" their way straight to the DC Public Schools Chief Student Advocate, the DC Public Schools Ombudsman, and even the judicial system and won via out of court settlements. |
Anonymous
|
“ What I want is IB middle schools on the Hill that people actually WANT to attend.”
And when people tell you they want their kids to attend SH/EH/JA for whatever reason— short commute, friends going there, the theater program or so their kid can experience being a visible minority (!), you tell them they are crazy. What you really want is a MS *you* would want to attend! |
Anonymous
+100. TR is a complete shitshow —long time TR parent fleeing after 4th grade |
Anonymous
ITS is not a shit show. It's more like a school that is pretty good if you like small schools and wokeness and don't mind having no high school plan. It isn't disorganized or sloppy, and a lot of the teachers are quite good. |