Anybody Here Ever Have a Kid Above Grade Level Go Through DCPS Middle Schools besides Deal or Hardy?

[Anonymous]

I have a fourth-grader who I want to continue through middle school who is a high school level reader and above grade level in math.

Based on your experience, what happens to kids like this if they go to our middle schools that don't have tracking?

I'm talking about experience here, though I don't expect there to be much on DCUM.

Appreciate you sharing your kid's experiences.

[Anonymous]

You can read the WaPo article on Joe Weedon's daughter and her decision to go to SWW. Lays out some of the pitfalls, but she also was able to pass the Walls entrance exam.

She went to EH for MS.

[Anonymous]

I have friends whose kids went to Stuart-Hobson and then SWW. A friend went to Jefferson and then SWW. All of these DCPS grads are in their 20s and 30s now, done with college and doing fine. We've also interacted with Cato June, who moved to DC in high school and went to Anacostia before playing for Michigan.

They predate PARCC so I don't know if they were above grade level in that sense, but they were above average in their schools.

[Anonymous]

There is a list of application high school admits by how many came from each middle school, but I can't find it now.

[Anonymous]

My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

[Anonymous]

A friend has an exceptional daughter graduating from Banneker this year, who did middle at Whittier

[Anonymous]

TBH MS is short, and is something to get through.

I would imagine that 99% of students who meet OP's description (and stay in public for HS) wind up at one of the application high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

We've know a dozen of SH students in the neighborhood who are IB and UMC since they were tots. Most of the parents supplement considerably, particularly for science and social students (not tracked, many kids working below grade level, some bringing their behavioral problems to the classroom). Nice, resilient kids, but generally not GT material and none of them advanced foreign language students.

We've decided not to bother with SH for a rising IB 5th grader. Far too many poorly prepared and rowdy kids would be in class with ours. Hoping for BASIS, Latin or fi aid at a private. If not, we'll move and return to our Hill home as empty nesters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

We've know a dozen of SH students in the neighborhood who are IB and UMC since they were tots. Most of the parents supplement considerably, particularly for science and social students (not tracked, many kids working below grade level, some bringing their behavioral problems to the classroom). Nice, resilient kids, but generally not GT material and none of them advanced foreign language students.

We've decided not to bother with SH for a rising IB 5th grader. Far too many poorly prepared and rowdy kids would be in class with ours. Hoping for BASIS, Latin or fi aid at a private. If not, we'll move and return to our Hill home as empty nesters.

^^this is the same persistent troll with some weird fixation on SH. SH has a decent track record of application HS placements.

"GT material"? You have no F*@!ing idea what you're talking about.

[Anonymous]

I can think of a dozen kids I have come in contact with (babysitters, neighbors, older siblings, etc.) who have graduated from SH in last 10 years. They've gone to Banneker, Walls, Ellington and Wilson. And a range of decent colleges, including Ivy League and top notch state schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

We've know a dozen of SH students in the neighborhood who are IB and UMC since they were tots. Most of the parents supplement considerably, particularly for science and social students (not tracked, many kids working below grade level, some bringing their behavioral problems to the classroom). Nice, resilient kids, but generally not GT material and none of them advanced foreign language students.

We've decided not to bother with SH for a rising IB 5th grader. Far too many poorly prepared and rowdy kids would be in class with ours. Hoping for BASIS, Latin or fi aid at a private. If not, we'll move and return to our Hill home as empty nesters.

I was in an excellent gifted and talented program in the 90s (not in DC) and guess what? All of the parents still supplemented considerably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

We've know a dozen of SH students in the neighborhood who are IB and UMC since they were tots. Most of the parents supplement considerably, particularly for science and social students (not tracked, many kids working below grade level, some bringing their behavioral problems to the classroom). Nice, resilient kids, but generally not GT material and none of them advanced foreign language students.

We've decided not to bother with SH for a rising IB 5th grader. Far too many poorly prepared and rowdy kids would be in class with ours. Hoping for BASIS, Latin or fi aid at a private. If not, we'll move and return to our Hill home as empty nesters.

^^this is the same persistent troll with some weird fixation on SH. SH has a decent track record of application HS placements.

"GT material"? You have no F*@!ing idea what you're talking about.

Not the PT you're responding to and I have no fixation on with any DCPS program. But I can tell you this, Walls give strong preference to DCPS applicants. If they didn't, more spots would go to charter applicants and private school applicants.

Many SH, Deal and Hardy applicants essentially sail into Walls when they aren't well prepared. If you're arguing that DCPS MS grads routinely crack top private high schools without parents having paid to supplement, I'm calling BS. I have college pals who work as private school admins in DC. Their schools run summer programs mainly to prep top DCPS MS grads to handle HS rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can think of a dozen kids I have come in contact with (babysitters, neighbors, older siblings, etc.) who have graduated from SH in last 10 years. They've gone to Banneker, Walls, Ellington and Wilson. And a range of decent colleges, including Ivy League and top notch state schools.

Some kids will do well anywhere. Most won't. I've lived across the street from SH since the 90s. Unless their demographics shift pretty radically in the next 5 years, we're not interested for our little kids. I don't see this happening. More charters will just open to draw in the CH middle-class families who don't like their neighborhod middle school options, like Washington Latin's planned 2nd campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend's above-grade-level son is in 8th grade at Stuart Hobson - hoping to go to SWW next year.

We've know a dozen of SH students in the neighborhood who are IB and UMC since they were tots. Most of the parents supplement considerably, particularly for science and social students (not tracked, many kids working below grade level, some bringing their behavioral problems to the classroom[u]). Nice, resilient kids, but generally not GT material and none of them advanced foreign language students.

We've decided not to bother with SH for a rising IB 5th grader. Far too many poorly prepared and rowdy kids would be in class with ours. Hoping for BASIS, Latin or fi aid at a private. If not, we'll move and return to our Hill home as empty nesters.

LOL. So does our current elected federal & local leadership and half of the adults working in nearly any career path. But, by all means lets expect better behavior from tweens and teens than we do from POTUS or most adults.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you're still reading, I have a modest suggestion for you. Dive into US census data for Cap Hill NE, even though it's almost a decade old now. Also, tour the north Hill and look around.

Stuart Hobson is DCPS' #3 performing middle school, after Deal #1 and Hardy #2. Yet SH's student body is around 14% white in a school catchment area that's roughly 80% white. Five years ago, SH's student body was 12% white. What does this tell you? Have IB UMC parents falling over themselves to enroll since Hobson's spectacular $40 million renovated four years ago? No, they're mostly rushing off to BASIS, a school with really crappy facilities.