Anyone want to share great experiences they have with their charter or magnet middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense. DCUM "boosters" aren't the parents who thoughtfully discuss what they consider to be the pros and cons of particular DC public schools they have direct experience with. Rather, they're armchair hills for weak admins and senior planners at DCPS and OSSE along with those on the charter boards of their children's schools and the Mayor's hopeless ed team. When such parents claim that Latin, BASIS, Deal, ITDS, Walls, Wilson etc. are every bit as wonderful at the best public suburban MS and HS programs in the DMV, they get called out here by fellow taxpayers. Good.

NP. I can't argue with the above.

The most pretentious twits on DCUM are the parents who pretend that DC public schools rock. The further we go in this system, the more screwed up it seems.

[Anonymous]

The PP is the best twit of all. Read the title. My child is having a great experience at her charter school. BASIS is perfect for her. Only a DCUM twit like you would want to be the Grinch and steal a child's happiness. Why is it great? She is liking the diversity in subjects. She is really enjoying classics and art.

[Anonymous]

Calling posters twits can't change the fact that BASIS isn't as much as a school as a tutoring program. There's no real community and little respect for individual choices, backgrounds, talents or learning styles. My kid wasn't unhappy there, but he was getting a good education outside AP prep in STEM subjects. If you start a thread asking parents to share great experiences about DC public middle schools, you're going to get this thread because there aren't any great DC public middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calling posters twits can't change the fact that BASIS isn't as much as a school as a tutoring program. There's no real community and little respect for individual choices, backgrounds, talents or learning styles. My kid wasn't unhappy there, but he was getting a good education outside AP prep in STEM subjects. If you start a thread asking parents to share great experiences about DC public middle schools, you're going to get this thread because there aren't any great DC public middle schools.

This is a better comment.

Yeah, name-calling isn't the best but it made me feel better.

No community? It has been tough with covid. They are holding their supernova event next month. Do any other schools do this?

[Anonymous]

I'm currently looking for a middle school in DC. The three options are McKinley MS, Brookland MS, or Perry Street Prep. Any current information from parents on these particular schools would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm currently looking for a middle school in DC. The three options are McKinley MS, Brookland MS, or Perry Street Prep. Any current information from parents on these particular schools would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

I would look at Sojourner Truth for a post-lottery application if that's the area you are looking in

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had a good experience in DCI’s middle school and an AMAZING one in its High School. Middle school is challenging everywhere. A lot of it is the kids are in the throes of adolescence. At DCI I would add that the middle school principal is less than stellar. High School teachers are wonderful overall.

We are not at DCI but was impressed with the college admissions of this years class and even more impressed with how much college scholarship money they got. The high school must be doing something right or maybe it’s because of the IB diploma track.

Keep in mind the differences in the playing field between URM and “regular” white kids, if you have one of those. The admissions and scholarship money were impressive, but it looked like a lot of kids that have a “hook” that mine won’t. It’s awesome for those kids, but not necessarily representative of what my kids would experience.

Just putting it out there that my URM kid matters too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm currently looking for a middle school in DC. The three options are McKinley MS, Brookland MS, or Perry Street Prep. Any current information from parents on these particular schools would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

No on Perry street prep. Very popular for Maryland parents though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Perfect schools have.....gyms, playing fields, libraries and librarians, stages & auditoriums, computer labs, music programs and more. If the logic I'm following makes me a BASIS-hating troll, I am one.

Signed
Former BASIS 5th grade parent

Sorry to hear your disgruntled opinion and even sorrier that you can't stand the fact that my child is happy and yours was not. There in lies your problem. I'm no booster. I can see the negatives of BASIS but if my child likes it, I'll take it.

It has no gym nor library, but MLK is around the corner and DD spends more time there than your child has every spent in a school library. It has a great location for us. When Shaw MS was taken away from us, DCPS told us to send our child to Cardozo MS, the worst performing MS in the city, and help make it a better neighborhood MS. That was our final straw. We are very happy with BASIS. My DD loves the learning of new subjects such as classics and Latin. She has met kids from all over the city. This year has been a great experience and she will look back at it very fondly.

We felt the same way in 5th grade. By 7th, we were starved for rigorous academics, good facilities, a strong school community, and enrichment in one package. If you can afford independent school, or are willing to move to the burbs to do better than BASIS, you bail. Go away boosters in denial.

I'm the PP. I assume your child is no longer at BASIS. Why? Care to share? Which perfect school did you go to? And how much are you paying? Care to share? Or did you move to the burbs? We don't want to move from downtown. We are all very content. We are not in denial. This is a thread about great experiences. I'm sharing.

Our Lady of Victory in Upper NW and we're not Catholic. 11K. Not a perfect school but a humane one offering rigor and a well-rounded education. We didn't want to move from downtown either. I used to work at BASIS. Very content is a 5th grade BASIS parent speaking about...great experiences.

Different poster but I would sooner die than subject anyone to a catholic school education.

- Catholic school alum who witnessed multiple friends get abused and was abused herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Perfect schools have.....gyms, playing fields, libraries and librarians, stages & auditoriums, computer labs, music programs and more. If the logic I'm following makes me a BASIS-hating troll, I am one.

Signed
Former BASIS 5th grade parent

Sorry to hear your disgruntled opinion and even sorrier that you can't stand the fact that my child is happy and yours was not. There in lies your problem. I'm no booster. I can see the negatives of BASIS but if my child likes it, I'll take it.

It has no gym nor library, but MLK is around the corner and DD spends more time there than your child has every spent in a school library. It has a great location for us. When Shaw MS was taken away from us, DCPS told us to send our child to Cardozo MS, the worst performing MS in the city, and help make it a better neighborhood MS. That was our final straw. We are very happy with BASIS. My DD loves the learning of new subjects such as classics and Latin. She has met kids from all over the city. This year has been a great experience and she will look back at it very fondly.

We felt the same way in 5th grade. By 7th, we were starved for rigorous academics, good facilities, a strong school community, and enrichment in one package. If you can afford independent school, or are willing to move to the burbs to do better than BASIS, you bail. Go away boosters in denial.

I'm the PP. I assume your child is no longer at BASIS. Why? Care to share? Which perfect school did you go to? And how much are you paying? Care to share? Or did you move to the burbs? We don't want to move from downtown. We are all very content. We are not in denial. This is a thread about great experiences. I'm sharing.

Our Lady of Victory in Upper NW and we're not Catholic. 11K. Not a perfect school but a humane one offering rigor and a well-rounded education. We didn't want to move from downtown either. I used to work at BASIS. Very content is a 5th grade BASIS parent speaking about...great experiences.

Different poster but I would sooner die than subject anyone to a catholic school education.

- Catholic school alum who witnessed multiple friends get abused and was abused herself.

Yikes!

Our Lady of Victory is that bad???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had a good experience in DCI’s middle school and an AMAZING one in its High School. Middle school is challenging everywhere. A lot of it is the kids are in the throes of adolescence. At DCI I would add that the middle school principal is less than stellar. High School teachers are wonderful overall.

We are not at DCI but was impressed with the college admissions of this years class and even more impressed with how much college scholarship money they got. The high school must be doing something right or maybe it’s because of the IB diploma track.

Keep in mind the differences in the playing field between URM and “regular” white kids, if you have one of those. The admissions and scholarship money were impressive, but it looked like a lot of kids that have a “hook” that mine won’t. It’s awesome for those kids, but not necessarily representative of what my kids would experience.

Just putting it out there that my URM kid matters too.

What is URM?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you, PP, but there aren't exactly "great experiences" at public middle schools, not in this particular city. There are just good middle school experiences, mediocre ones and bad ones. Great experiences are the preserve of privates and the outer burbs.

Look around. The Deal building was built for around 1000 students with about 1700 enrolled, meaning a dank classroom trailer village, and provides inadequate humanities challenge for many students (no academic tracking for English in DCPS, other than at Stuart Hobson, no formal GT anywhere). Hardy is really coming along, but doesn't provide nearly enough challenge for the strongest students there, either. Stuart Hobson lacks neighborhood buy-in on the part of at least 2/3 of eligible in-boundary families, for many good reasons. The rest of the DCPS MS programs aren't really on the radar for UMC families, though a few super ideological UMC parents will claim that Jefferson Academy and Eliot-Hine are great, even beyond great.

Top-tier charters like DCI, Inspired Teaching and Two Rivers are OK for middle school, not more. BASIS is mostly kill and drill in a joyless building w/out so much as a library, green space, gym or stage, but is far and away the best in DC public for math and science challenge (I'm not going to go as far as "STEM" in a building without much in the way of technology, including a computer lab of any kind.

It sounds like you don't have a kid in any middle school in DC, so why are you commenting in this thread??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hate to break it to you, PP, but there aren't exactly "great experiences" at public middle schools, not in this particular city. There are just good middle school experiences, mediocre ones and bad ones. Great experiences are the preserve of privates and the outer burbs.

Look around. The Deal building was built for around 1000 students with about 1700 enrolled, meaning a dank classroom trailer village, and provides inadequate humanities challenge for many students (no academic tracking for English in DCPS, other than at Stuart Hobson, no formal GT anywhere). Hardy is really coming along, but doesn't provide nearly enough challenge for the strongest students there, either. Stuart Hobson lacks neighborhood buy-in on the part of at least 2/3 of eligible in-boundary families, for many good reasons. The rest of the DCPS MS programs aren't really on the radar for UMC families, though a few super ideological UMC parents will claim that Jefferson Academy and Eliot-Hine are great, even beyond great.

Top-tier charters like DCI, Inspired Teaching and Two Rivers are OK for middle school, not more. BASIS is mostly kill and drill in a joyless building w/out so much as a library, green space, gym or stage, but is far and away the best in DC public for math and science challenge (I'm not going to go as far as "STEM" in a building without much in the way of technology, including a computer lab of any kind.

It sounds like you don't have a kid in any middle school in DC, so why are you commenting in this thread??

That is the library/computer lab fetishist poster, who doesn’t live in DC but likes to offer her dated and uninformed thoughts about various DC schools.

Ignore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm currently looking for a middle school in DC. The three options are McKinley MS, Brookland MS, or Perry Street Prep. Any current information from parents on these particular schools would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

No one on DCUM sends their kids to any of these schools, PP.

[Anonymous]

What do you even need a computer lab for when everyone uses laptops? My kid was the one who was usually sent to the computer closet to get laptops for everyone whenever needed.