Hill Middle Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly. Depressing that honors English didn’t survive Covid at SH. I’m not aware of any real pushback at the school, or plans to reinstate honors English, even in 8th grade. Situation for advanced math seems much better at Hobson.

My 6th grader is in honors English right now at S-H.

[Anonymous]

NP. So honors English at SH was actually reinstated this year? Just for 6th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

A lot of it has to do with being shut out of the lottery, not having enough money for private MS and HS, and not being able to move because of the mortgage rates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too
many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

Key words - UMC & white

I have total confidence that my brown kids would be left to rot by dcps. They make a lot of excuses about how they can’t differentiate because it would make brown families unhappy but that is a bold faced lie. I would love to send my kids to my local middle school, but they just warehouse brown kids and do just enough to make the white families think they’re super woke and special.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too
many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

Key words - UMC & white

I have total confidence that my brown kids would be left to rot by dcps. They make a lot of excuses about how they can’t differentiate because it would make brown families unhappy but that is a bold faced lie. I would love to send my kids to my local middle school, but they just warehouse brown kids and do just enough to make the white families think they’re super woke and special.

To be fair, all kids are left to rot. It's not like the UMC white kids are getting truly advance classes. Advanced at EH, SH or Jefferson is grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

Ha, you might group my kid in there, but I’d gladly share his IQ tests to disabuse you of that notion … The kids I know going to EH come from very accomplished families who are comfortable with EH likely because of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

Ha, you might group my kid in there, but I’d gladly share his IQ tests to disabuse you of that notion … The kids I know going to EH come from very accomplished families who are comfortable with EH likely because of that.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

Ha, you might group my kid in there, but I’d gladly share his IQ tests to disabuse you of that notion … The kids I know going to EH come from very accomplished families who are comfortable with EH likely because of that.

Why?

My kids don't go to SH or EH, but I can answer that question. It's because I assumed my kid wouldn't need much to keep thriving, based on elementary experience. And in some ways, that has been true, but in other ways, the boredom has been pretty severe. No one in our family wants to leave the district, and the grass isn't really much greener (from stories I hear), so we do our best to supplement (harder in middle school, when kids have their own ideas, but still doable).

[Anonymous]

Just curious—where have you considered and what have folks you’ve spoken to said? I feel like this board is always talking about how magical and advanced mcps and aps and fcps are, but then I look at those boards and people seem to be making the same complaints. It’s hard to get a reliable picture of who is really happy with their middle and high school experience so I can weigh that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

Ha, you might group my kid in there, but I’d gladly share his IQ tests to disabuse you of that notion … The kids I know going to EH come from very accomplished families who are comfortable with EH likely because of that.

Why?

My kids don't go to SH or EH, but I can answer that question. It's because I assumed my kid wouldn't need much to keep thriving, based on elementary experience. And in some ways, that has been true, but in other ways, the boredom has been pretty severe. No one in our family wants to leave the district, and the grass isn't really much greener (from stories I hear), so we do our best to supplement (harder in middle school, when kids have their own ideas, but still doable).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're not wrong but I'm a little surprised by how many neighborhood families seem OK with Eliot-Hine, Jefferson Academy and Stuart Hobson these days though. I'm not hearing too many complaints from friends and neighbors who are using these schools, most of them UMC and white.

There are stats on this that were posted recently. It’s actually not that many families choosing their IB middle school, no matter what boosters like you post (repeatedly).

Give me a break. I'm no booster. My children attend a parochial middle school in VA. I've been fed up with our DCPS ES post Covid, thrilled that we only have one week of 5th grade left. But I'm genuinely surprised by how many of the brainy families we've known on the Hill for many years are actually sending their children to Eliot Hine, Jefferson or Stuart Hobson for 6th or 7th grade. You don't have to be a booster to notice the uptick in Hill enrollment or to comment on it here.

Your alleged surprise doesn’t trump the actual numbers, which actually tell the opposite story.

I know quite a few parents who are sending their kids to Stuart Hobson and Eliot. None of them have kids who are really academic achievers so they feel comfortable in a low key environment where academics isn’t such a priority.

This is not true in my experience. Yes, the academic high flyers at our IB mostly try for Latin and Basis, but if they don't get in, they typically do head to SH. It's parents whose kids who are doing fine but not great who are more likely to move in those circumstances. This year's 4th grade at our school has a ton of kids coming back for 5th as of now and weirdly the best students are all returning (some got shut out in the lottery, some had a miserable BASIS shadow day and refused to go, and some have true believer parents... so it's a mixed bag). If they actually go on to SH the next year in any meaningful percentage, I think it could start a trend at the school because parents looking at the fifth grade next year and then at who goes to SH the following year will no longer have the same FOMO. We'll see.

[Anonymous]

Bottom line, Hill parents need to get organized. W3 is doing a good job of attending IB and creating scarcity for lottery seats which will have medium and longterm impacts for HMS and MHS. Even H-A ES, generally a safer bet, had few lottery seats this year, and even fewer offers have been made. It seems like the HA-ES backdoor to UNW ES/ Hard/JR/MHS feeder is quickly closing and with it, so goes the issue of 'feeder-rights' which will inevitably give them the demographic they want. No doubt with a stronger IB contingent they will start pushing for higher curriculum standards; if IB kids start making up the majority of these schools, it's going to be hard to ignore them. No reason the Hill can't organize in the same way.

[Anonymous]

If only it were so easy. NW and Deal have the demographics to maintain reasonably high academic standards. The Ward 6, the Hill and DCPS middle schools simply don't. UMC families are just too small a slice of the demographic pie in Ward 6 to influence political outcomes like parents can in NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bottom line, Hill parents need to get organized. W3 is doing a good job of attending IB and creating scarcity for lottery seats which will have medium and longterm impacts for HMS and MHS. Even H-A ES, generally a safer bet, had few lottery seats this year, and even fewer offers have been made. It seems like the HA-ES backdoor to UNW ES/ Hard/JR/MHS feeder is quickly closing and with it, so goes the issue of 'feeder-rights' which will inevitably give them the demographic they want. No doubt with a stronger IB contingent they will start pushing for higher curriculum standards; if IB kids start making up the majority of these schools, it's going to be hard to ignore them. No reason the Hill can't organize in the same way.

Oh honey. There's a 20-year history of trying to organize this.