New Mcarthur High School

[Anonymous]

It get people not being trusting, but it seems obvious to me that they would offer Algebra 2. As some said they will need several sections of math anyway. The math teacher will be full-time so she/he will be able to teach several sections of math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It get people not being trusting, but it seems obvious to me that they would offer Algebra 2. As some said they will need several sections of math anyway. The math teacher will be full-time so she/he will be able to teach several sections of math.

For 200 kids they will need at least two math teachers. They should be able to cover algebra 1 and 2, geometry and even pre Calc. The faculty should increase for an additional 200 kids every year. I think they need to identify the principal and then families can get a feel for how this will go. My kids are too old, current 9 th and 12th graders, but I would probably have been interested in sending my kids if it were an option (both went to Deal and are currently at application high schools). For me, the size off JR has always been my biggest issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sigh. It’s called Jackson-Reed, not Wilson.

Relax man! Are you always this uptight?
Name changes are hard.

Don’t be racist.

How is this racist? Or do you just like throwing around that word to shut down conversations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

I don’t think they will, and that’s the problem.

During the first 1-3 years of ramp-up, the school needs extra budget or it ensures a very limited experience for the early students.

Indeed. There are several (10+) students in Geometry now at Hardy, who will be ready for Alg II, some kids even beyond that who will be ready for pre-Calculus, for instance. There are nearly 30 kids in Italian II. Not having diverse offerings even for math or languages will do them a disservice. If DCPS does not have concrete plans to address this, the kids/parents will vote with their feet. And this is before we get to the clubs/extracurriculars.

What is the point of getting that far ahead in math? The highest math offered by DCPS is AP Calculus BC. Suburban schools offer more advanced options like multivariable calculus and linear algebra but in DCPS you max out pretty quickly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a taxpayer and parent, I fail to see why it’s a problem if for the first few years MacArthur fills up with kids who want a smaller school with more limited options, while J-R continues to be the go-to school for kids who crave the experience of a 40-person AP class in a school operating at 1.5x capacity. That certainly seems more reasonable than paying a teacher to sit in an empty classroom marked “AP Italian.”

Why are you being rude? No one craves a 40 person AP class. Kids go to JR because it has a variety of academic options along with clubs and sports teams - like any real high school should have

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also, Banneker HS has the IB program. Anyone have experience with how its implemented there?

The Banneker IB program is very much a school-within-a-school type program. The DCPS presentation deck seems to think that’s a bad model for a neighborhood school, and I agree. They’re proposing something more like Eastern, or Robinson in FCPS, where some students sign up for the whole IB diploma, but other students just take one or two IB courses. Every such program I‘ve looked at offers some AP courses as well, and DCPS seems to assume that’s how it would work at MacArthur. Also the deck says an IB program comes with extra money, which would help to get extra resources to the school as they ramp up.

I would love DC to get a strong public IB program, like BCC or other suburban schools, but I worry this will turn into a watered down, low expectations program like DCI's IB for all. Not all kids can and should try to do IB and DC does not need another IB program with insufficient rigor.

Given the teacher shortage, I think it will be a little bit easier to find experienced teachers to hire who are familiar with AP courses rather than IB.
I also think IB is a mixed bag. It may be stronger than AP in developing writing and research skills but the new AP seminar courses are designed to correct that deficiency. AP STEM courses (Science, Math and CS) are stronger in the AP pathway than IB.
DCPS is terrible at juggling multiple things. They should stick to AP rather than trying to create a hodgepodge that will be a nightmare to manage effectively

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless their collective bargaining agreement forbids it, the Algebra 2 teacher will also have sections of Algebra 1. And maybe even a section of Geometry or Trig. Teachers are usually certified to teach more than just one course, especially in high school math, English, languages, and history. It happens all the time in other public and private schools. Ideally, the teacher gets an extra stipend for the additional teacher preps needed to teach multiple courses.

Most high school teachers teach multiple preps with no extra stipends

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

YES YES YES I am only now going to panic because it didn't even occur to me that my kid could show up to their public high school and be held back in their math path because the school is too new to offer the class they need. You can't do that!! Can they really do that?

This is DCPS. Of course, they can do that. They really don’t give a damn what parents think or what the repercussions are. How have you not learned that already?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me add, I write the above sadly. The call this week left me very discouraged.

I want to be excited about the new school. I want it to be a success. I want my now-Hardy DC to attend with enthusiasm.

I want DCPS to tell us all something that will assure us that the school will get off to an smashing start and that will give the first couple of years of students good reasons to choose it.

But that was not what the DCPS liaisons accomplished in the call.


One more detail of the f’ed-up planning: You know why the first two years of students were given the option of choosing JR? For “historical consistency” because that is what happened in the last boundary review. No better reason than that.

So, unless DCPS alters the balance of pros and cons, current Hardy 7th and 8th graders will choose JR, and Macarthur will start filled with all OOB students from far afield. Which will do nothing to ease crowding at JR.

There's nothing they can say to guarantee this! It's going to be full of on-grade-level students and programmed accordingly and will be very good for students who attend. I agree that there should be no choice option though, unless maybe a sibling is a JR.

Yes, there is! They can guarantee that continuity of courses is offered, even if it means unusually small classes! So if a post-Hardy kid wants to take AP Italian or Algebra II or whatever, even if only a few students at the partially-filled school are ready for it, they should commit to making that available.

High school is more complicated than ES or MS. If the kids showing up early on only have a very limited number of course options, virtually no sports, and no clubs, no reputation with colleges, then they are foregoing a lot of a standard high school experience.

They are not going to overstaff the school for 4 years. Sorry, that's not how it's going to work.

I don’t think they will, and that’s the problem.

During the first 1-3 years of ramp-up, the school needs extra budget or it ensures a very limited experience for the early students.

Indeed. There are several (10+) students in Geometry now at Hardy, who will be ready for Alg II, some kids even beyond that who will be ready for pre-Calculus, for instance. There are nearly 30 kids in Italian II. Not having diverse offerings even for math or languages will do them a disservice. If DCPS does not have concrete plans to address this, the kids/parents will vote with their feet. And this is before we get to the clubs/extracurriculars.

what makes you think they won’t offer Algebra II?

Sigh. We’re only talking about the early years. Surely they will offer Algebra II by time the school has 11th Graders. But will they offer it when the school only has 9th graders? That’s the question.

If not, I’m sure they can work something out with Georgetown or the likes.

Yes. Or go to NASA for astrophysics classes.

Ha ha! This exactly

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Also, Banneker HS has the IB program. Anyone have experience with how its implemented there?

The Banneker IB program is very much a school-within-a-school type program. The DCPS presentation deck seems to think that’s a bad model for a neighborhood school, and I agree. They’re proposing something more like Eastern, or Robinson in FCPS, where some students sign up for the whole IB diploma, but other students just take one or two IB courses. Every such program I‘ve looked at offers some AP courses as well, and DCPS seems to assume that’s how it would work at MacArthur. Also the deck says an IB program comes with extra money, which would help to get extra resources to the school as they ramp up.

I would love DC to get a strong public IB program, like BCC or other suburban schools, but I worry this will turn into a watered down, low expectations program like DCI's IB for all. Not all kids can and should try to do IB and DC does not need another IB program with insufficient rigor.

Given the teacher shortage, I think it will be a little bit easier to find experienced teachers to hire who are familiar with AP courses rather than IB.
I also think IB is a mixed bag. It may be stronger than AP in developing writing and research skills but the new AP seminar courses are designed to correct that deficiency. AP STEM courses (Science, Math and CS) are stronger in the AP pathway than IB.
DCPS is terrible at juggling multiple things. They should stick to AP rather than trying to create a hodgepodge that will be a nightmare to manage effectively

IB math and stem courses are very strong, they are just more integrated math(s) than being oddly divided into algebra or geometry as completely separate. But the rigor and depth is real.

[Anonymous]

What are the boundary/ feeder patterns for MacArthur high? Is that set in stone? Does Hearst fully feed JR still?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What are the boundary/ feeder patterns for MacArthur high? Is that set in stone? Does Hearst fully feed JR still?

If your elementary school feeds to Hardy MS, then MacArthur will be your HS.

So Eaton, Hyde, Key, Mann and Stoddert.

[Anonymous]

Another big issue I see with MacArthur is administrative turnover. They need an executive team that will be absolutely committed to being there for 5 years minimum to get it off the ground and execute on the vision for the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It get people not being trusting, but it seems obvious to me that they would offer Algebra 2. As some said they will need several sections of math anyway. The math teacher will be full-time so she/he will be able to teach several sections of math.

For 200 kids they will need at least two math teachers. They should be able to cover algebra 1 and 2, geometry and even pre Calc. The faculty should increase for an additional 200 kids every year. I think they need to identify the principal and then families can get a feel for how this will go. My kids are too old, current 9 th and 12th graders, but I would probably have been interested in sending my kids if it were an option (both went to Deal and are currently at application high schools). For me, the size off JR has always been my biggest issue.

Maybe it will work out; maybe it won’t. But two things;

— Algebra 2 is not the only question. It’s science, language, and any other course that is elective.

— The standard budget at work at Hardy right now translates to every class having 30 kids and there being *very* limited choice of electives. Why would that be different at Macarthur, especially when it is even smaller?

— DCPS needs to provide this kind of information NOW. Will they commit to certain classes? Will they provide additional budget as needed to meet those commitments?

People can’t just wait and show up and then find out the answers. People have to decide quickly whether to apply to private schools or Walls, go to JR, or move. Of course there are never guarantees — even Wilson could quit offering a class last minute — but there is a big, unique unknown here that DCPS seems to have not even considered, much less provided any answers about.

Students have to commit to the school, foregoing a number of alternatives before they actually have to choose between JR and MacArthur. DCPS should manage to make some commitments too.

At this point, they can’t tell parents anything about programming. But they have promised to include everyone in the selection of the name, so there’s that….

[Anonymous]

^ three things, not two. Not qualified for Algebra 2!