The Sojourner Truth School - possible new public middle and high school option

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to Sojourner Truth for being approved.

I thought this part of the approved application was interesting given all the talk about needing/wanting a Montessori MS for students at Lee/Shining Stars and Breakthough (not to mention LAMB).

How do elementary families feel about this not being a guarantee for their kids? The projection is for an average of 80 available seats for 6th each year, and new students being added until the high school classes reach about 120 students per grade. The K grades at Lee/Shining Stars/Breakthrough will total 220 students in a couple years. Do the founders expect just 48 of those 220 to want to continue to a MS middle?

"The Sojourner Truth School will remain in compliance with all federal anti-discrimination laws governing public schools and will be open to all students regardless of race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, nation of origin, aptitude, or ability. The leadership of the Truth School, along with the potential member-school stakeholder community, is advocating for legislation that will allow for a feeder pathway and the establishment of seats at Truth for students matriculating from the District’s public Montessori elementary schools. Because Truth also aims to expand Montessori access to all families around the District regardless of experience, if this pattern is in fact established then Truth will commit to taking a maximum of 60% of students from its feeders in any given year, thus reserving a signicant number of seats for open enrollment. Truth stresses, meanwhile, that its model and approach will be transformative for students regardless of Montessori experience, and that its success is not at all contingent on the establishment of this or any other feeder pattern.


https://dcpcsb.egnyte.com/dl/8LGGBHEHcH/

It will be a long, long time until those schools have that many graduates, so it's fine for me. People tend to peel off Montessori in the upper grades. It is really, really hard to make a strong middle school and it will be many years before Truth is hard to get into.

Where are those numbers from?

I can imagine that they had to do this in order to get approved, but wow there is going to be a big difference between those kids from feeders and those new to montessori. Having so many who are new to it could easily upend the model and reduce impact, I would imagine.

Their proposal had to include a year by year enrollment matrix (see link above) showing how they will grow to their ceiling.

The Lee/Breakthrough/SSMA numbers are from the OSSE enrollment audit.

[Anonymous]

Great - more unneeded MS and HS seats. Thank you for inefficiently sucking dry DC public public education dollars.

[Anonymous]

My children are at a Montessori school and we have zero interest in this option.

[Anonymous]

I'm a fairly negative person, but this is nuts. This is a really interesting attempt to create something new. Current Montessori kids will have a path in because Montessori like a pyramid with many more primary students than in elementary and upper elementary. If the 60% comes through, that should be more than enough.

We now have a progressive option for high school, something we didn't have before. And it will be very diverse at least for the first 5 years, and then it will be at most 40% white, which is still pretty diverse by most standards. I doubt we'll take the leap, but I'm happy to have the option. Congrats and good luck to this school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fairly negative person, but this is nuts. This is a really interesting attempt to create something new. Current Montessori kids will have a path in because Montessori like a pyramid with many more primary students than in elementary and upper elementary. If the 60% comes through, that should be more than enough.

We now have a progressive option for high school, something we didn't have before. And it will be very diverse at least for the first 5 years, and then it will be at most 40% white, which is still pretty diverse by most standards. I doubt we'll take the leap, but I'm happy to have the option. Congrats and good luck to this school!

It will probably turn out like ITS-- adequate racial diversity but economic diversity in short supply, and lots of excuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fairly negative person, but this is nuts. This is a really interesting attempt to create something new. Current Montessori kids will have a path in because Montessori like a pyramid with many more primary students than in elementary and upper elementary. If the 60% comes through, that should be more than enough.

We now have a progressive option for high school, something we didn't have before. And it will be very diverse at least for the first 5 years, and then it will be at most 40% white, which is still pretty diverse by most standards. I doubt we'll take the leap, but I'm happy to have the option. Congrats and good luck to this school!

It will probably turn out like ITS-- adequate racial diversity but economic diversity in short supply, and lots of excuses.

Honestly? So what. Why do we keep upholding this crazy ideal that we can avoid this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fairly negative person, but this is nuts. This is a really interesting attempt to create something new. Current Montessori kids will have a path in because Montessori like a pyramid with many more primary students than in elementary and upper elementary. If the 60% comes through, that should be more than enough.

We now have a progressive option for high school, something we didn't have before. And it will be very diverse at least for the first 5 years, and then it will be at most 40% white, which is still pretty diverse by most standards. I doubt we'll take the leap, but I'm happy to have the option. Congrats and good luck to this school!

It will probably turn out like ITS-- adequate racial diversity but economic diversity in short supply, and lots of excuses.

Honestly? So what. Why do we keep upholding this crazy ideal that we can avoid this.

When you pick out a name like Sojourner Truth it should be no surprise that people have questions about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a fairly negative person, but this is nuts. This is a really interesting attempt to create something new. Current Montessori kids will have a path in because Montessori like a pyramid with many more primary students than in elementary and upper elementary. If the 60% comes through, that should be more than enough.

We now have a progressive option for high school, something we didn't have before. And it will be very diverse at least for the first 5 years, and then it will be at most 40% white, which is still pretty diverse by most standards. I doubt we'll take the leap, but I'm happy to have the option. Congrats and good luck to this school!

It will probably turn out like ITS-- adequate racial diversity but economic diversity in short supply, and lots of excuses.

Honestly? So what. Why do we keep upholding this crazy ideal that we can avoid this.

When you pick out a name like Sojourner Truth it should be no surprise that people have questions about this.

True, tough name choice. But the issue is that any school that’s marginally successful and non traditional can only do so much about this on its own.

[Anonymous]

Please don't respond to 17:42. Clearly trolling: zero content, just bad-faith attacks.

Re: ITS: if it turns out like ITS great. Adding more high-quality middle school seats is just a win for everyone.

[Anonymous]

So 40% of the kids have no background in Montessori, but somehow the school will be a success?

No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don't respond to 17:42. Clearly trolling: zero content, just bad-faith attacks.

Re: ITS: if it turns out like ITS great. Adding more high-quality middle school seats is just a win for everyone.

there's nothing bad faith about stating the truth. ES seats could maybe be rationalized as there's little excess capacity. Adding MS and HS seats hurts everyone in public ed by creating more unused seats. Everyone loses, both DCPS and DCPCS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So 40% of the kids have no background in Montessori, but somehow the school will be a success?

No thanks.

That's my concern. I realize they're idealistic. Maybe some form of slowly building up to that, admitting only a few from outside the feeders in the first few years increasing that number. The learning model is just so VERY different...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 40% of the kids have no background in Montessori, but somehow the school will be a success?

No thanks.

That's my concern. I realize they're idealistic. Maybe some form of slowly building up to that, admitting only a few from outside the feeders in the first few years increasing that number. The learning model is just so VERY different...

There are plenty of Montessori kids of color like my own kids! No need to give us less of a priority because we stuck it out with our Montessori school.

[Anonymous]

The feeders are full of kids without a Montessori background in upper elementary as well (Shining Stars is, at least).

It’s definitely a big challenge (more with discipline than lesson planning, frankly) but I think of a school is going to claim to be a public institution it’s bullshit not to take all comers (looking at you, CHM)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So 40% of the kids have no background in Montessori, but somehow the school will be a success?

No thanks.

That's my concern. I realize they're idealistic. Maybe some form of slowly building up to that, admitting only a few from outside the feeders in the first few years increasing that number. The learning model is just so VERY different...

They weren’t going to have a prayer of getting legislation to create a feeder prefer without guaranteeing 40% of seats for new students.

It isn’t 2012 (when DCI was approved) and Grosso/Mendelsohn aren’t Catania.

Cap City initially struggled with the challenge of bringing in new students at 6th and 9th who had no background in EL. They did figured
it out but it takes work. Since there are few Montessori MS/HS in existence anywhere, it isn’t as if there isn’t room for this one to interpret Montessori in its own way including taking new students. It isn’t as if experience with beads or the pink tower Is essential.