Trajectory for Shepherd Elementary?

[Anonymous]

We're in boundary for Shepherd Elementary, and trying to determine our lottery rankings. There are some great things about Shepherd: outdoor space, location, small school, feeds to Deal & Wilson. Commute would be great.

I'm curious why the in boundary population is so low for the upper grades? I look around my neighborhood and think that if everyone sent their kids to Shepherd, then it would be on par with the WOTP JKLMM options. Yet many of my neighbors choose privates and charters over Shepherd, and I'm too chicken to ask why. I understand that some choose religious schools (i.e. JPDS) and would choose them over any other school, but how about the rest?

There are some things that give me pause, and I wonder if these are factors for other in boundary families as well. Would anyone be able to shed some light?

- Low in boundary enrollment, especially for the upper grades. Why so low?
- Uniforms. This is a sign of a lower SES school. The in boundary populations of Shepherd Park and Colonial Village aren't lower SES. Why the uniforms?
- Concerning anecdotes regarding prioritization of discipline over social emotional learning. By all accounts Shepherd seems to lack progressive educational methods. This seems to be a particular issue with ECE and SPED.
- Under-performing test scores. Why are the scores so low?

Does anyone know the strategic path for Shepherd? Are there plans to drop the uniforms and move towards more progressive educational models?

I'm curious what past, current, and prospective families think. I'm up for supporting our future school, but I don't want to fight an uphill battle if the current parents are happy with the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Leaving for private schools is a big piece of it.

High SES African American families who don't want Deal / Wilson for their children.

High SES Jewish families who want religious education for their children.

[Anonymous]

Another plus for Shepherd is the IB PYP curriculum. Foreign language instruction is also somewhat more serious than at other traditional DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Test scores are low because of 11;35's point.

Only students in grades 3-5 are tested, and that's where some families depart for reasons unrelated to Shepherd. They are backfilled with students from other parts of the city who may or may not be as well prepared.

[Anonymous]

A lot of these issues have been discussed before here. What grade are your kids in? The lower grades are trending almost all in-boundary, and its IB % has increased a lot over the past 5 years--from like 28% when my kid started in PK3, to now around 40% or higher.

Also, this thread is a bit dated since it's from 2015, but informative.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/457484.page

Also this one, on high SES kids in the upper grades:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/457484.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of these issues have been discussed before here. What grade are your kids in? The lower grades are trending almost all in-boundary, and its IB % has increased a lot over the past 5 years--from like 28% when my kid started in PK3, to now around 40% or higher.

Also, this thread is a bit dated since it's from 2015, but informative.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/457484.page

Also this one, on high SES kids in the upper grades:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/457484.page

Whoops, I mean to link this one on upper grades:

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/index/posts/list/60/577188.page

[Anonymous]

The test scores for Shepherd are not as low as they may seem given the demographics of the school.

Also the at-risk kids do well suggesting the teaching is pretty strong.

OP - I think you need to tour, go to a couple PTA meetings, talk to current parents on the playground. I'd send my kid to Shepherd in a heartbeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

- Low in boundary enrollment, especially for the upper grades. Why so low?
- Uniforms. This is a sign of a lower SES school. The in boundary populations of Shepherd Park and Colonial Village aren't lower SES. Why the uniforms?
- Concerning anecdotes regarding prioritization of discipline over social emotional learning. By all accounts Shepherd seems to lack progressive educational methods. This seems to be a particular issue with ECE and SPED.
- Under-performing test scores. Why are the scores so low?

Does anyone know the strategic path for Shepherd? Are there plans to drop the uniforms and move towards more progressive educational models?

I'm curious what past, current, and prospective families think. I'm up for supporting our future school, but I don't want to fight an uphill battle if the current parents are happy with the status quo.

IB enrollment: Part of it may be that there may not be that many older elementary kids in the boundary, so the school takes OOB to fill the classes.
Uniforms: Plenty of very fancy expensive private schools have them too.
Lack of progressive education: it's a pretty traditional neighborhood. I think if your goal is to come in and try to change things up you will be disappointed. The families that love Shepherd the most and feel the most ownership of it are the ones who prefer a more traditional school.
low scores: tied to IB rate--many of the kids taking tests are new to the school and may have attended lower-performing schools in the past.

[Anonymous]

Which DCPS neighborhood elementary schools would qualify as following 'progressive' educational methods?

SWS is not a neighborhood school, and is the only one that comes close in my mind.

Lowell may be a good private option for you OP. Right down the road.

[Anonymous]

Most of the EOTP schools have uniforms. Some of it is a holdover from when the demographics were different; some of it is parents in gentrifying neighborhoods liking uniforms for a variety of reasons. Brent has uniforms and has a sub 10% FARMS rate. Maury has uniforms at about 20%. It's pretty ingrained in their cultures at this point.

[Anonymous]

Since most of this has been addressed, I'll talk about the uniforms and discipline as I have a bit of experience with both. We've been there for four years. I love the uniforms and personally I hope they never drop it. Also Shepherd remains like a third lower SES anyway, and I know it's helpful for those families. But if you really want to choose a school based on uniform requirements, Shepherd may not be the right fit for you anyway. I can tell you with confidence there's no move to drop uniforms from the parent community.

On the discipline front, I just don't agree that it's not "progressive." Throughout our progression in the grades, our kids have always gotten a sheet each day that lets parents know where their kid was in terms of making choices throughout the day. I think that's the norm in a lot of public schools. And I appreciate it. When it comes to actual discipline, I think my little ones have gotten the equivalent of a time-out, or sitting in a chair a few minutes after a TON of warnings. (Like 10-12 warnings, not 3 or 5). Or she might be walked from here to there, holding the teacher's hand when she, for example, refuses to walk some place, which she does a fair bit. The one time I thought she had been disciplined too hard, I talked with teacher one-on-one and realized my understanding of the situation/discipline had been incredibly lost in translation.

As for my older one, and I'll just say I parent a kid who occasionally makes seriously poor choices at school DESPITE OUR BEST EFFORTS. And I generally feel like my child has been appropriately disciplined, with a call and a letter to me, a letter written by both the school and sometimes by my child apologizing to other children (assuming there was another kid negatively affected) with complete and total involvement of the school social worker. The consequences have so far been totally appropriate for the injury, including (but not limited to) a fair few lectures and conversations with affected kids, an essay on better/more appropriate behavior and/or lost fun time. I'm not saying the school is perfect by any means. (And my kids aren't perfect either.) But as an involved parent there, uniforms and discipline are the least of my concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the EOTP schools have uniforms. Some of it is a holdover from when the demographics were different; some of it is parents in gentrifying neighborhoods liking uniforms for a variety of reasons. Brent has uniforms and has a sub 10% FARMS rate. Maury has uniforms at about 20%. It's pretty ingrained in their cultures at this point.

I think OP's point is that SP/CV is not a gentrifying neighborhood. However, until recently, it was mostly OOB. I heard it was mostly IB, but then became mostly OOB related to some issues that happened during Michelle Rhee's tenure. A neighbor told me that during this turmoil, there were like 6 principals in 2 years. There was a big split about the direction of the school, with some families wanting it to become dual-language and others wanting the International Bacc. program, and a lot of IB families pulled their kids out for private or WOTP schools. The reputation has continued to suffer until the last few years, when there's been renewed interest from IB families with young kids buying in the neighborhood. Some details of the Rhee situation here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101604350.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the EOTP schools have uniforms. Some of it is a holdover from when the demographics were different; some of it is parents in gentrifying neighborhoods liking uniforms for a variety of reasons. Brent has uniforms and has a sub 10% FARMS rate. Maury has uniforms at about 20%. It's pretty ingrained in their cultures at this point.

I think OP's point is that SP/CV is not a gentrifying neighborhood. However, until recently, it was mostly OOB. I heard it was mostly IB, but then became mostly OOB related to some issues that happened during Michelle Rhee's tenure. A neighbor told me that during this turmoil, there were like 6 principals in 2 years. There was a big split about the direction of the school, with some families wanting it to become dual-language and others wanting the International Bacc. program, and a lot of IB families pulled their kids out for private or WOTP schools. The reputation has continued to suffer until the last few years, when there's been renewed interest from IB families with young kids buying in the neighborhood. Some details of the Rhee situation here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101604350.html

SP is just as -- in fact, more -- "gentrifying" as the Brent neighborhood. The Brent neighborhood has lots of $2 million homes. Both have PK3 b/c 10-15 years ago, they weren't as well off. The point is that old habits die hard and schools that have had uniforms historically don't just auto-drop them when they get wealthier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the EOTP schools have uniforms. Some of it is a holdover from when the demographics were different; some of it is parents in gentrifying neighborhoods liking uniforms for a variety of reasons. Brent has uniforms and has a sub 10% FARMS rate. Maury has uniforms at about 20%. It's pretty ingrained in their cultures at this point.

I think OP's point is that SP/CV is not a gentrifying neighborhood. However, until recently, it was mostly OOB. I heard it was mostly IB, but then became mostly OOB related to some issues that happened during Michelle Rhee's tenure. A neighbor told me that during this turmoil, there were like 6 principals in 2 years. There was a big split about the direction of the school, with some families wanting it to become dual-language and others wanting the International Bacc. program, and a lot of IB families pulled their kids out for private or WOTP schools. The reputation has continued to suffer until the last few years, when there's been renewed interest from IB families with young kids buying in the neighborhood. Some details of the Rhee situation here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101604350.html

SP is just as -- in fact, more -- "gentrifying" as the Brent neighborhood. The Brent neighborhood has lots of $2 million homes. Both have PK3 b/c 10-15 years ago, they weren't as well off. The point is that old habits die hard and schools that have had uniforms historically don't just auto-drop them when they get wealthier.

Um, no, Shepherd Park is not "gentrifying"--it has always been middle to upper middle class. Perhaps there are fewer truly middle class residents these days, but that's also true of WOTP neighborhoods, where teachers, etc. could afford to buy decades ago. Capitol Hill is a different story, and truly fits the definition of gentrification given the high concentration of poverty until recently.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gentrification

[Anonymous]

A few observations of friends who live IB for Shepherd with older elementary children.

1. Some friends moved there after their children were established in a school. The children are staying at their Charter / now OOB school.

2. They purchased IB for Shepherd b/c they could get more house for the $ and afford private school.