New principal: how to improve Oyster-Adams

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an IB Oyster parent, and I think that it's great that we no longer have Deal as an option. It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

Adams has been a fundamentally lazy place. My fear is that nothing will be improved to better serve advanced students, since Adams has lost its main public competitor. If more strong students stay rather than move on to privates, there will be some automatic benefit. But we'd need to see a willingness on Adams' part to offer an appropriate pace of instruction in all academic classes. Based on my family's experience, I'm not optimistic that Adams will demonstrate any interest in keeping in-bounds kids.

Well, you must not have attended the new principal's meet and greet (I did). She addressed the issue of academic rigor in the middle school directly. She has already made several changes, with many more to come to address the issue. I really don't have the time to list the changes here, but you really should try to speak with her in person. You seem to be suffering from PTSD from attending Oyster under Monica. Why don't you work with this new admin. to improve things instead of complaining about (possible) future problems that have not yet come to fruition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

Well, that's one way of looking at it. Or, it allows Adams not to worry about meeting the needs of all students, because they're forced to stay. Telling people that they shouldn't move in boundary unless they are willing to be school activists in DCPS is ridiculous.

In the past, response to parental calls for improvements amounted to nothing from the administration. Hopefully the new principal will be more engaged. Already she has taken steps to do so, and actually be available to parents, and present in the buildings. Things are looking up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: It forces Oyster's admins. and parents to improve whatever needs to be improved in the middle school. If some IB families don't find that appealing, they should move to a Deal feeder or private. Or better yet, don't move IB for Oyster at all.

Well, that's one way of looking at it. Or, it allows Adams not to worry about meeting the needs of all students, because they're forced to stay. Telling people that they shouldn't move in boundary unless they are willing to be school activists in DCPS is ridiculous.

In the past, response to parental calls for improvements amounted to nothing from the administration. Hopefully the new principal will be more engaged. Already she has taken steps to do so, and actually be available to parents, and present in the buildings. Things are looking up.

I agree with your second paragraph--I have already seen some improvements under the new principal. It's a little sad when you can see clear improvements over the prior principal's reign, and school hasn't even started.