How things change in a decade!

[Anonymous]

These 2 things are both true. Takoma is getting more neighborhood buy in and many local families do choose charters (especially charters with a DCI feed).

For example Takoma used to drop enrollment much more significantly in higher grades (having only 1 cohort in 5th grade for example when 1st had 4 cohorts). This year they have 3 cohorts consistently across 3-5th grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think 10 years after it opens, Euclid might be marginally acceptable. Frances EC and several charters will still be substantially better.

Any thoughts on MacFarland?

MacFarland is on a long-term trend toward gentrification because of its neighborhood. In ten years it will look like Bancroft, BMPV, or Powell. Right now, if you were in MacFarland, you would see the number of white (or white-appearing, e.g., including White Hispanic and mixed background) students is significant, and their parents are engaged in the school. Ten years from now, that will mean a full-on money-raising PTO and all of that. There will be much fewer English-language learners with very little English, and there will be less Black students.

Long-term, the neighborhoods of Petworth/16H/Upper Ward 1 that support MacFarland are becoming much more expensive. As it is I am surprised at how long Spanish speakers have persisted. Rents cannot be good compared to say just east of DC in Chillum or Hyattsville or wherever. Given its housing stock I think of this neighborhood long-term turning into another version of the WOTP rowhouse areas: expensive starter homes for families that later move out of DC.

In addition, Wells is becoming popular and unavailable for many. For those who can't get into DCI, Wells, etc., at least some will come to MacFarland.

A downside will probably be wariness of Roosevelt, which I think will persistently not be able to focus resources on students who don't need remedial assistance to get to minimal high school competence. Coolidge is further along in this regard, and I would be surprised if there isn't another citywide high school with advanced programming in 10 years (along with McKinley Tech growing into a third 'high income family choice.')

People in Petworth have been hoping MacFarland will improve for decades. It will never actually gain momentum due to it feeding to Roosevelt.

+100

Sorry to say this. I’ve lived in Takoma/Brightwood/16th st heights for over 15 years. Almost none of the schools people have gotten excited about in that time have remained on an upward trajectory. Powell? Bruce-Monroe? Takoma? EL Haynes? Nope nope nope. Whittier and Wells have boosters on here, but they are still woefully behind wotp schools.

It’s anecdotal but Takoma seems to be on the upswing. Based on who we talk to in the area, parents sending in boundary there (or Whittier) instead of feeling real pressure for charter.

Almost our entire neighborhood goes to Takoma as their IB.

I would not say that. We know families in Takoma who are in immersion charters. It’s a no brainer because DCI is right there - a charter neighborhood middle/high school that your kid could walk or bike to school.

[Anonymous]

I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I like your optimism.

If Eastern would really throw its shoulder behind the EPIC program and expand it then sure it could become more popular. I have my doubts though. DCPS still does not prioritize the needs of college bound and academically sound students. I don’t really see that changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On the MacFarland post: I wrote that MacFarland will be like Powell, Bruce
Monroe and Bancroft. SOME white kids. Not a Ward 3 school.

Skeptical. Elementary schools seem a million times easier to turn around the middle and high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I like your optimism.

If Eastern would really throw its shoulder behind the EPIC program and expand it then sure it could become more popular. I have my doubts though. DCPS still does not prioritize the needs of college bound and academically sound students. I don’t really see that changing.

Some of these really terrible schools would get more neighborhood buy-in if they had aggressive tracking. But the woke warriors who run our schools hate anything that results in white kids mostly being in one class and black kids mostly being in another.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I’m the “Dunbar will close” person. I think one of Roosevelt, Dunbar, or Cardozo will have to close and restart with some sort of strategy to get IB kids to go because middle school improvement, and increased enrollment will put too much pressure on Eastern.
(And McKinley will be too hard to get into)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I like your optimism.

If Eastern would really throw its shoulder behind the EPIC program and expand it then sure it could become more popular. I have my doubts though. DCPS still does not prioritize the needs of college bound and academically sound students. I don’t really see that changing.

I was at the Eastern open house and they spent a lot of time telling us about EPIC and their offerings for advanced students. I came out feeling good about it. There were a lot of Stuart-Hobson kids there.

[Anonymous]

Does the Bard college school have any prospect of gaining traction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I like your optimism.

If Eastern would really throw its shoulder behind the EPIC program and expand it then sure it could become more popular. I have my doubts though. DCPS still does not prioritize the needs of college bound and academically sound students. I don’t really see that changing.

Some of these really terrible schools would get more neighborhood buy-in if they had aggressive tracking. But the woke warriors who run our schools hate anything that results in white kids mostly being in one class and black kids mostly being in another.

So true.

The aversion to tracking in DCPS starts in late elementary, in our experience. Seems like in middle school it is unavoidable (I had DCPS middle school teacher bluntly tell me not to send my high scoring kid there, because she is not allowed to assign challenging work), but DCPS "solves" it with Walls and Banneker in high school.

It could also be solved by raising the standards for everyone, a la Mississippi. But no tracking + social promotion is a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Agree that Banneker will start to attract more of those who would have only considered Walls. Plus, the facility blows Walls out of the water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t live on the Hill but close enough that my prediction or maybe just hope is that Eastern will be look almost like JR in ten years except you could actually lottery in.

I also envision Walls having more students of color, Banneker having more white students and McKinley getting almost as hard to get into as those schools.

Roosevelt, Dunbar and Cardozo will still be chronically low-performing.

What can I say…I’m a mostly optimist who doesn’t want to move to the burbs.

I like your optimism.

If Eastern would really throw its shoulder behind the EPIC program and expand it then sure it could become more popular. I have my doubts though. DCPS still does not prioritize the needs of college bound and academically sound students. I don’t really see that changing.

Some of these really terrible schools would get more neighborhood buy-in if they had aggressive tracking. But the woke warriors who run our schools hate anything that results in white kids mostly being in one class and black kids mostly being in another.

You get the schools you voted for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the Bard college school have any prospect of gaining traction?

It's intentionally designed to be super small, so it doesn't make much difference in the big picture either way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Banneker will start to attract more of those who would have only considered Walls. Plus, the facility blows Walls out of the water.

Seriously, I'm a Bloomingdale parent questioning whether Walls is enough better to justify the longer commute. Yes the stats are stronger, but both are good overall, so why should my DC spend so much time on the bus?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Banneker will start to attract more of those who would have only considered Walls. Plus, the facility blows Walls out of the water.

Seriously, I'm a Bloomingdale parent questioning whether Walls is enough better to justify the longer commute. Yes the stats are stronger, but both are good overall, so why should my DC spend so much time on the bus?

I have a bias towards the old school mentality at Banneker but I bet if you did a proper matched comparison between Banneker and Walls students they wouldn’t be significantly different

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that Banneker will start to attract more of those who would have only considered Walls. Plus, the facility blows Walls out of the water.

Seriously, I'm a Bloomingdale parent questioning whether Walls is enough better to justify the longer commute. Yes the stats are stronger, but both are good overall, so why should my DC spend so much time on the bus?

I have a bias towards the old school mentality at Banneker but I bet if you did a proper matched comparison between Banneker and Walls students they wouldn’t be significantly different

I'm not sure exactly what you mean here. For instance, the Walls SAT scores are MUCH better than Banneker; these are not the same quality of student. That does not mean that the same kid at Walls and Banneker wouldn't do equivalently well and that the teaching might not even be better at Banneker (while the cohort is sufficient for adequate challenge). So if you mean "matched comparison" of kid to equivalent kid looking at outcome, I agree. But if you mean Banneker and Walls students themselves "wouldn't significantly different," you are very wrong.