Current experience at Stuart Hobson?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no really great middle school option in this area. Read some of the posts about Basis. It has a for-profit parent company, high teacher turnover rate, and a not so great facility. It also self-selects for a smart and motivated peer group which makes it the overall best option for some students but being self-motivated and willing to do a large volume of homework is important and a lot of kids are not developmentally going to be ready for or happy at that type of middle school program.

Never fails that a BASIS hater comes out of the blue. You probably don't even have a kid at BASIS/

OP- BASIS is fine, great even. Convenient location, likeminded peers, sports, a Spring musical. Yes, the building sucks, but it goes through 12th grade, so you don't need to deal with the HS application process. If your child is smart and likes to learn, I don't see why you wouldn't at least apply.

Why not apply? No outdoor space, uninspired leadership, high teacher turnover, essentially no performing arts, weak sports/no playing fields, essentially no recognition of kids' talents outside a narrowly academic sphere, no languages taught before 8th grade (then just for beginners). Need I go on? The truth is that SH offers most of what BASIS is lacking outside serious academics. If only there was a way to meld BASIS academics and SH enrichment with a stable faculty and a good Head in this obnoxious DC political climate. I'd sign up for that in-boundary middle school fast.

Ridiculous.

You are comparing a school where most of the students are below grade level to Basis, the top public school in the city?

No, BASIS isn't the top public school in the city. Walls, JR top tier and possible Banneker are. Look at their college admissions successes for their upper echelon. They beat BASIS. Weak high school ECs, cramming four years of HS academics into three and too much math acceleration for average students hurt most BASIS students.

A good many SH students end up at Walls and Banneker. I know of 10 kids from my boy's cohort at a DCPS ES who applied to Walls, 3 from SH, 3 from BASIS, 4 from Latin. All 3 from SH were admitted along with 1 from Latin. That's it. Sure, this evidence of preferential treatment in Walls admissions from SH is anecdotal but it's still interesting.

Where does one find this data?
and I meant top middle school in the city, as this thread is about SH.

I can't find the data on admissions to selective DCPS high schools by middle school and I've looked hard and called DCPS and OSSE (leaving messages).

If anybody knows where to find it, please let us know.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

Lots of n<10, which makes it harder to get a good sense, but you can get a rough sense based on the variety of selective high schools students are admitted to and the consistency of admission over multiple school years.

Deal, Hardy, Oyster and DCI are the only ones with exact numbers (10 or over), everyone else is less than 10. includes SH, EH, Basis, Latin, Francis, ITS, etc. Many middle schools on the list.

Keep in mind the overall class size at each of these schools. It would be unrealistic for Deal (400+ 8th graders) and ITDS (40+ 8th graders) to send an equivalent number of students. It helps here to look over multiple years. Which schools are consistently sending students to Walls?

There are TON of schools that send between 1 and 9 kids to Walls every year. Like, 20 different schools.

So look at it the other way. Since this thread is about Stuart-Hobson, Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Walls in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: n<10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Banneker in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: n<10
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to McKinley in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 14
SY21-22: 12
SY22-23: 23

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Duke Ellington in
SY19-20: 14
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: 14

This is useful information, and it's pretty impressive. No stake in SH (not in bounds and have a kid already in a different middle school.) If I was at a feeder and my kid really wanted to go, I would have a hard time saying no.

No not really. SH is similar size to Deal and Deal sends significantly more kids to Walls.

The other elephant in the room is just because you got into Walls doesn’t mean you will be prepared and competitive with many of the other kids from much higher performing schools who took more rigorous and more advance class offerings

Recent Stuart-Hobson classes are 163-170 students. Recent Deal classes are 475-503 students.

Above was an obvious error. It’s Hardy

[Anonymous]

my kid comes home every day from his Hill MS saying “I had a good day mom.” That’s worth it to me! Is it the most “rigorous” school possible - obviously not. But kids being happy, making friends, learning to navigate a system - all really important too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sort of. The SH students who crack Walls generally went to Brent, Maury or Watkins. We’ve known some of the the current Walls 9th graders who are SH grads from the neighborhood since they were tiny tots. These kids have always been real go getters who read a lot and rock at math. They essentially supplement on their own. My lazy kid would have cruised at SH.

They are still supplementing reading on their own or doing extra math or whatever. And doing that on their own is not remotely equivalent to an actual rigorous class taught by a teacher with an interactive high performing peer group. Not even close.

And what about all the other subjects? They are going to learn it by osmosis?

I bet they are the weaker students and less prepared going in no matter what they do on their own to supplement.

The goal in your child’s education is to have your child learn and reach their full potential. That is not going to happen at SH if they are not academically challenged at all. If that is not your top goal but rather to stay in your house in CH, well that’s your priority. But let’s not pretend all things are equal.

I won’t even go into the behavior issues at low performing schools that daily impacts the learning of all students. Sure high performing schools have behavior issues too but if you think these are equal too, good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my kid comes home every day from his Hill MS saying “I had a good day mom.” That’s worth it to me! Is it the most “rigorous” school possible - obviously not. But kids being happy, making friends, learning to navigate a system - all really important too.

It’s not one or the other. You can say the same at Hardy, Deal, Latin, DCI if you ask kids and they are being challenged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no really great middle school option in this area. Read some of the posts about Basis. It has a for-profit parent company, high teacher turnover rate, and a not so great facility. It also self-selects for a smart and motivated peer group which makes it the overall best option for some students but being self-motivated and willing to do a large volume of homework is important and a lot of kids are not developmentally going to be ready for or happy at that type of middle school program.

Never fails that a BASIS hater comes out of the blue. You probably don't even have a kid at BASIS/

OP- BASIS is fine, great even. Convenient location, likeminded peers, sports, a Spring musical. Yes, the building sucks, but it goes through 12th grade, so you don't need to deal with the HS application process. If your child is smart and likes to learn, I don't see why you wouldn't at least apply.

Why not apply? No outdoor space, uninspired leadership, high teacher turnover, essentially no performing arts, weak sports/no playing fields, essentially no recognition of kids' talents outside a narrowly academic sphere, no languages taught before 8th grade (then just for beginners). Need I go on? The truth is that SH offers most of what BASIS is lacking outside serious academics. If only there was a way to meld BASIS academics and SH enrichment with a stable faculty and a good Head in this obnoxious DC political climate. I'd sign up for that in-boundary middle school fast.

Ridiculous.

You are comparing a school where most of the students are below grade level to Basis, the top public school in the city?

No, BASIS isn't the top public school in the city. Walls, JR top tier and possible Banneker are. Look at their college admissions successes for their upper echelon. They beat BASIS. Weak high school ECs, cramming four years of HS academics into three and too much math acceleration for average students hurt most BASIS students.

A good many SH students end up at Walls and Banneker. I know of 10 kids from my boy's cohort at a DCPS ES who applied to Walls, 3 from SH, 3 from BASIS, 4 from Latin. All 3 from SH were admitted along with 1 from Latin. That's it. Sure, this evidence of preferential treatment in Walls admissions from SH is anecdotal but it's still interesting.

Where does one find this data?
and I meant top middle school in the city, as this thread is about SH.

I can't find the data on admissions to selective DCPS high schools by middle school and I've looked hard and called DCPS and OSSE (leaving messages).

If anybody knows where to find it, please let us know.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

Lots of n<10, which makes it harder to get a good sense, but you can get a rough sense based on the variety of selective high schools students are admitted to and the consistency of admission over multiple school years.

Deal, Hardy, Oyster and DCI are the only ones with exact numbers (10 or over), everyone else is less than 10. includes SH, EH, Basis, Latin, Francis, ITS, etc. Many middle schools on the list.

Keep in mind the overall class size at each of these schools. It would be unrealistic for Deal (400+ 8th graders) and ITDS (40+ 8th graders) to send an equivalent number of students. It helps here to look over multiple years. Which schools are consistently sending students to Walls?

There are TON of schools that send between 1 and 9 kids to Walls every year. Like, 20 different schools.

So look at it the other way. Since this thread is about Stuart-Hobson, Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Walls in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: n<10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Banneker in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: n<10
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to McKinley in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 14
SY21-22: 12
SY22-23: 23

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Duke Ellington in
SY19-20: 14
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: 14

This is useful information, and it's pretty impressive. No stake in SH (not in bounds and have a kid already in a different middle school.) If I was at a feeder and my kid really wanted to go, I would have a hard time saying no.

No not really. SH is similar size to Deal and Deal sends significantly more kids to Walls.

The other elephant in the room is just because you got into Walls doesn’t mean you will be prepared and competitive with many of the other kids from much higher performing schools who took more rigorous and more advance class offerings

Recent Stuart-Hobson classes are 163-170 students. Recent Deal classes are 475-503 students.

Above was an obvious error. It’s Hardy

Why is someone talking about Deal vs Hardy in a Stuart-Hobson thread?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no really great middle school option in this area. Read some of the posts about Basis. It has a for-profit parent company, high teacher turnover rate, and a not so great facility. It also self-selects for a smart and motivated peer group which makes it the overall best option for some students but being self-motivated and willing to do a large volume of homework is important and a lot of kids are not developmentally going to be ready for or happy at that type of middle school program.

Never fails that a BASIS hater comes out of the blue. You probably don't even have a kid at BASIS/

OP- BASIS is fine, great even. Convenient location, likeminded peers, sports, a Spring musical. Yes, the building sucks, but it goes through 12th grade, so you don't need to deal with the HS application process. If your child is smart and likes to learn, I don't see why you wouldn't at least apply.

Why not apply? No outdoor space, uninspired leadership, high teacher turnover, essentially no performing arts, weak sports/no playing fields, essentially no recognition of kids' talents outside a narrowly academic sphere, no languages taught before 8th grade (then just for beginners). Need I go on? The truth is that SH offers most of what BASIS is lacking outside serious academics. If only there was a way to meld BASIS academics and SH enrichment with a stable faculty and a good Head in this obnoxious DC political climate. I'd sign up for that in-boundary middle school fast.

Ridiculous.

You are comparing a school where most of the students are below grade level to Basis, the top public school in the city?

No, BASIS isn't the top public school in the city. Walls, JR top tier and possible Banneker are. Look at their college admissions successes for their upper echelon. They beat BASIS. Weak high school ECs, cramming four years of HS academics into three and too much math acceleration for average students hurt most BASIS students.

A good many SH students end up at Walls and Banneker. I know of 10 kids from my boy's cohort at a DCPS ES who applied to Walls, 3 from SH, 3 from BASIS, 4 from Latin. All 3 from SH were admitted along with 1 from Latin. That's it. Sure, this evidence of preferential treatment in Walls admissions from SH is anecdotal but it's still interesting.

Where does one find this data?
and I meant top middle school in the city, as this thread is about SH.

I can't find the data on admissions to selective DCPS high schools by middle school and I've looked hard and called DCPS and OSSE (leaving messages).

If anybody knows where to find it, please let us know.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

Lots of n<10, which makes it harder to get a good sense, but you can get a rough sense based on the variety of selective high schools students are admitted to and the consistency of admission over multiple school years.

Deal, Hardy, Oyster and DCI are the only ones with exact numbers (10 or over), everyone else is less than 10. includes SH, EH, Basis, Latin, Francis, ITS, etc. Many middle schools on the list.

Keep in mind the overall class size at each of these schools. It would be unrealistic for Deal (400+ 8th graders) and ITDS (40+ 8th graders) to send an equivalent number of students. It helps here to look over multiple years. Which schools are consistently sending students to Walls?

There are TON of schools that send between 1 and 9 kids to Walls every year. Like, 20 different schools.

So look at it the other way. Since this thread is about Stuart-Hobson, Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Walls in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: n<10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Banneker in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: n<10
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to McKinley in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 14
SY21-22: 12
SY22-23: 23

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Duke Ellington in
SY19-20: 14
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: 14

This is useful information, and it's pretty impressive. No stake in SH (not in bounds and have a kid already in a different middle school.) If I was at a feeder and my kid really wanted to go, I would have a hard time saying no.

No not really. SH is similar size to Deal and Deal sends significantly more kids to Walls.

The other elephant in the room is just because you got into Walls doesn’t mean you will be prepared and competitive with many of the other kids from much higher performing schools who took more rigorous and more advance class offerings

Recent Stuart-Hobson classes are 163-170 students. Recent Deal classes are 475-503 students.

Above was an obvious error. It’s Hardy

Why is someone talking about Deal vs Hardy in a Stuart-Hobson thread?

Because someone earlier claimed SH and Deal were the same size, so the fact that Deal sent more kids to Walls was a red flag for SH. Obviously that’s completely untrue. Later posters assume they meant Hardy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sort of. The SH students who crack Walls generally went to Brent, Maury or Watkins. We’ve known some of the the current Walls 9th graders who are SH grads from the neighborhood since they were tiny tots. These kids have always been real go getters who read a lot and rock at math. They essentially supplement on their own. My lazy kid would have cruised at SH.

They are still supplementing reading on their own or doing extra math or whatever. And doing that on their own is not remotely equivalent to an actual rigorous class taught by a teacher with an interactive high performing peer group. Not even close.

And what about all the other subjects? They are going to learn it by osmosis?

I bet they are the weaker students and less prepared going in no matter what they do on their own to supplement.

The goal in your child’s education is to have your child learn and reach their full potential. That is not going to happen at SH if they are not academically challenged at all. If that is not your top goal but rather to stay in your house in CH, well that’s your priority. But let’s not pretend all things are equal.

I won’t even go into the behavior issues at low performing schools that daily impacts the learning of all students. Sure high performing schools have behavior issues too but if you think these are equal too, good luck with that.

based on DCUM rumors, behavior is much better controlled at my kid’s “bad”
MS than the “good” ones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid comes home every day from his Hill MS saying “I had a good day mom.” That’s worth it to me! Is it the most “rigorous” school possible - obviously not. But kids being happy, making friends, learning to navigate a system - all really important too.

It’s not one or the other. You can say the same at Hardy, Deal, Latin, DCI if you ask kids and they are being challenged.

the point is it’s not a dystopian hellscape. at the risk of sounding arrogant I’m actually more concerned with my kid being happy and engaged than “challenged” at 12. He has time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid comes home every day from his Hill MS saying “I had a good day mom.” That’s worth it to me! Is it the most “rigorous” school possible - obviously not. But kids being happy, making friends, learning to navigate a system - all really important too.

It’s not one or the other. You can say the same at Hardy, Deal, Latin, DCI if you ask kids and they are being challenged.

the point is it’s not a dystopian hellscape. at the risk of sounding arrogant I’m actually more concerned with my kid being happy and engaged than “challenged” at 12. He has time.

Your standard is that SH is not a dystopian hellscape?

Nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no really great middle school option in this area. Read some of the posts about Basis. It has a for-profit parent company, high teacher turnover rate, and a not so great facility. It also self-selects for a smart and motivated peer group which makes it the overall best option for some students but being self-motivated and willing to do a large volume of homework is important and a lot of kids are not developmentally going to be ready for or happy at that type of middle school program.

Never fails that a BASIS hater comes out of the blue. You probably don't even have a kid at BASIS/

OP- BASIS is fine, great even. Convenient location, likeminded peers, sports, a Spring musical. Yes, the building sucks, but it goes through 12th grade, so you don't need to deal with the HS application process. If your child is smart and likes to learn, I don't see why you wouldn't at least apply.

Why not apply? No outdoor space, uninspired leadership, high teacher turnover, essentially no performing arts, weak sports/no playing fields, essentially no recognition of kids' talents outside a narrowly academic sphere, no languages taught before 8th grade (then just for beginners). Need I go on? The truth is that SH offers most of what BASIS is lacking outside serious academics. If only there was a way to meld BASIS academics and SH enrichment with a stable faculty and a good Head in this obnoxious DC political climate. I'd sign up for that in-boundary middle school fast.

Ridiculous.

You are comparing a school where most of the students are below grade level to Basis, the top public school in the city?

No, BASIS isn't the top public school in the city. Walls, JR top tier and possible Banneker are. Look at their college admissions successes for their upper echelon. They beat BASIS. Weak high school ECs, cramming four years of HS academics into three and too much math acceleration for average students hurt most BASIS students.

A good many SH students end up at Walls and Banneker. I know of 10 kids from my boy's cohort at a DCPS ES who applied to Walls, 3 from SH, 3 from BASIS, 4 from Latin. All 3 from SH were admitted along with 1 from Latin. That's it. Sure, this evidence of preferential treatment in Walls admissions from SH is anecdotal but it's still interesting.

Where does one find this data?
and I meant top middle school in the city, as this thread is about SH.

I can't find the data on admissions to selective DCPS high schools by middle school and I've looked hard and called DCPS and OSSE (leaving messages).

If anybody knows where to find it, please let us know.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

Lots of n<10, which makes it harder to get a good sense, but you can get a rough sense based on the variety of selective high schools students are admitted to and the consistency of admission over multiple school years.

Deal, Hardy, Oyster and DCI are the only ones with exact numbers (10 or over), everyone else is less than 10. includes SH, EH, Basis, Latin, Francis, ITS, etc. Many middle schools on the list.

Keep in mind the overall class size at each of these schools. It would be unrealistic for Deal (400+ 8th graders) and ITDS (40+ 8th graders) to send an equivalent number of students. It helps here to look over multiple years. Which schools are consistently sending students to Walls?

There are TON of schools that send between 1 and 9 kids to Walls every year. Like, 20 different schools.

So look at it the other way. Since this thread is about Stuart-Hobson, Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Walls in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: n<10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Banneker in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: n<10
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to McKinley in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 14
SY21-22: 12
SY22-23: 23

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Duke Ellington in
SY19-20: 14
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: 14

This is useful information, and it's pretty impressive. No stake in SH (not in bounds and have a kid already in a different middle school.) If I was at a feeder and my kid really wanted to go, I would have a hard time saying no.

No not really. SH is similar size to Deal and Deal sends significantly more kids to Walls.

The other elephant in the room is just because you got into Walls doesn’t mean you will be prepared and competitive with many of the other kids from much higher performing schools who took more rigorous and more advance class offerings

The elephant in the room is that Deal sends a lot more kids to Walls because there are a lot more kids at Deal who are prepared to keep up at Walls, because there are more kids at Deal from well-resourced families who can provide the support and home environment needed to allow kids to excel academically.

The kids from SH getting into Deal are prepared to attend Deal. They aren't charity cases. But the proportion of SH's population who both wants to attend Walls AND has the academic ability to do well there is smaller than it is at Deal. However it is growing and is already twice what it was 5 or 6 years ago. The number of UMC families deciding to stick with SH goes up every year. If you live in the neighborhood you can see how it's nearing the critical mass needed to start to make SH a first choice (right now it still tends to be a 2nd or 3rd choice for many parents -- though even that is a huge improvement over a decade ago when it was the 4th or 5th choice or simply not on the table for a lot of Hill families).

As SH gentrifies you will likely see it sending more and more kids to Walls, Banneker, McKinley, especially since it appears that the gentrification of Eastern will lag behind the gentrification of its feeders.

The truth is that there is nothing inherently special about Deal or inherently inferior about SH. Academic outcomes for the average student are different because academic outcomes are strongly correlated to socioeconomic status. If you are a UMC family with two college-educated parents there is not reason to think Deal would prepare your child for a school like Walls any better than SH would.

There is absolutely something superior about Deal and inferior about SH: the high school feeder. We are a family that looked over SH because we didn’t want to have the high school problem in three years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no really great middle school option in this area. Read some of the posts about Basis. It has a for-profit parent company, high teacher turnover rate, and a not so great facility. It also self-selects for a smart and motivated peer group which makes it the overall best option for some students but being self-motivated and willing to do a large volume of homework is important and a lot of kids are not developmentally going to be ready for or happy at that type of middle school program.

Never fails that a BASIS hater comes out of the blue. You probably don't even have a kid at BASIS/

OP- BASIS is fine, great even. Convenient location, likeminded peers, sports, a Spring musical. Yes, the building sucks, but it goes through 12th grade, so you don't need to deal with the HS application process. If your child is smart and likes to learn, I don't see why you wouldn't at least apply.

Why not apply? No outdoor space, uninspired leadership, high teacher turnover, essentially no performing arts, weak sports/no playing fields, essentially no recognition of kids' talents outside a narrowly academic sphere, no languages taught before 8th grade (then just for beginners). Need I go on? The truth is that SH offers most of what BASIS is lacking outside serious academics. If only there was a way to meld BASIS academics and SH enrichment with a stable faculty and a good Head in this obnoxious DC political climate. I'd sign up for that in-boundary middle school fast.

Ridiculous.

You are comparing a school where most of the students are below grade level to Basis, the top public school in the city?

No, BASIS isn't the top public school in the city. Walls, JR top tier and possible Banneker are. Look at their college admissions successes for their upper echelon. They beat BASIS. Weak high school ECs, cramming four years of HS academics into three and too much math acceleration for average students hurt most BASIS students.

A good many SH students end up at Walls and Banneker. I know of 10 kids from my boy's cohort at a DCPS ES who applied to Walls, 3 from SH, 3 from BASIS, 4 from Latin. All 3 from SH were admitted along with 1 from Latin. That's it. Sure, this evidence of preferential treatment in Walls admissions from SH is anecdotal but it's still interesting.

Where does one find this data?
and I meant top middle school in the city, as this thread is about SH.

I can't find the data on admissions to selective DCPS high schools by middle school and I've looked hard and called DCPS and OSSE (leaving messages).

If anybody knows where to find it, please let us know.

https://edscape.dc.gov/page/student-enrollment-pathways

Lots of n<10, which makes it harder to get a good sense, but you can get a rough sense based on the variety of selective high schools students are admitted to and the consistency of admission over multiple school years.

Deal, Hardy, Oyster and DCI are the only ones with exact numbers (10 or over), everyone else is less than 10. includes SH, EH, Basis, Latin, Francis, ITS, etc. Many middle schools on the list.

Keep in mind the overall class size at each of these schools. It would be unrealistic for Deal (400+ 8th graders) and ITDS (40+ 8th graders) to send an equivalent number of students. It helps here to look over multiple years. Which schools are consistently sending students to Walls?

There are TON of schools that send between 1 and 9 kids to Walls every year. Like, 20 different schools.

So look at it the other way. Since this thread is about Stuart-Hobson, Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Walls in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: n<10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Banneker in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: n<10
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: n<10

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to McKinley in
SY19-20: n<10
SY20-21: 14
SY21-22: 12
SY22-23: 23

Stuart-Hobson 8th graders to Duke Ellington in
SY19-20: 14
SY20-21: 11
SY21-22: 10
SY22-23: 14

This is useful information, and it's pretty impressive. No stake in SH (not in bounds and have a kid already in a different middle school.) If I was at a feeder and my kid really wanted to go, I would have a hard time saying no.

No not really. SH is similar size to Deal and Deal sends significantly more kids to Walls.

The other elephant in the room is just because you got into Walls doesn’t mean you will be prepared and competitive with many of the other kids from much higher performing schools who took more rigorous and more advance class offerings

The elephant in the room is that Deal sends a lot more kids to Walls because there are a lot more kids at Deal who are prepared to keep up at Walls, because there are more kids at Deal from well-resourced families who can provide the support and home environment needed to allow kids to excel academically.

The kids from SH getting into Deal are prepared to attend Deal. They aren't charity cases. But the proportion of SH's population who both wants to attend Walls AND has the academic ability to do well there is smaller than it is at Deal. However it is growing and is already twice what it was 5 or 6 years ago. The number of UMC families deciding to stick with SH goes up every year. If you live in the neighborhood you can see how it's nearing the critical mass needed to start to make SH a first choice (right now it still tends to be a 2nd or 3rd choice for many parents -- though even that is a huge improvement over a decade ago when it was the 4th or 5th choice or simply not on the table for a lot of Hill families).

As SH gentrifies you will likely see it sending more and more kids to Walls, Banneker, McKinley, especially since it appears that the gentrification of Eastern will lag behind the gentrification of its feeders.

The truth is that there is nothing inherently special about Deal or inherently inferior about SH. Academic outcomes for the average student are different because academic outcomes are strongly correlated to socioeconomic status. If you are a UMC family with two college-educated parents there is not reason to think Deal would prepare your child for a school like Walls any better than SH would.

There is absolutely something superior about Deal and inferior about SH: the high school feeder. We are a family that looked over SH because we didn’t want to have the high school problem in three years.

This is true. I’m not happy about not having a HS locked in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:my kid comes home every day from his Hill MS saying “I had a good day mom.” That’s worth it to me! Is it the most “rigorous” school possible - obviously not. But kids being happy, making friends, learning to navigate a system - all really important too.

It’s not one or the other. You can say the same at Hardy, Deal, Latin, DCI if you ask kids and they are being challenged.

the point is it’s not a dystopian hellscape. at the risk of sounding arrogant I’m actually more concerned with my kid being happy and engaged than “challenged” at 12. He has time.

Your standard is that SH is not a dystopian hellscape?

Nice.

Yes that’s exactly my standard, lol

[Anonymous]

People are always posting about DC public middle schools as though we have a world of choice, as in why go with SH when BASIS, Latin, Hardy and Deal and the burbs are better?! OK, so they're better, but many of us just aren't in a great position to do better than SH. It's much easier, and cheaper, for some of us to bump up the social studies and science at SH ourselves than move to Upper NW, VA or MoCo after we struck out in the charter lotteries. Or maybe we didn't strike out but were turned off by the difficult commute to DCI from CH SE, or we got into BASIS and realized that our kid would be miserable there. My kid's round-trip commute to SH is less than five minutes on foot, vs. two hours by public transportation with DCI (my other option). This is a no-brainer, folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are always posting about DC public middle schools as though we have a world of choice, as in why go with SH when BASIS, Latin, Hardy and Deal and the burbs are better?! OK, so they're better, but many of us just aren't in a great position to do better than SH. It's much easier, and cheaper, for some of us to bump up the social studies and science at SH ourselves than move to Upper NW, VA or MoCo after we struck out in the charter lotteries. Or maybe we didn't strike out but were turned off by the difficult commute to DCI from CH SE, or we got into BASIS and realized that our kid would be miserable there. My kid's round-trip commute to SH is less than five minutes on foot, vs. two hours by public transportation with DCI (my other option). This is a no-brainer, folks.

Yea, SH is a no brainer. Literally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People are always posting about DC public middle schools as though we have a world of choice, as in why go with SH when BASIS, Latin, Hardy and Deal and the burbs are better?! OK, so they're better, but many of us just aren't in a great position to do better than SH. It's much easier, and cheaper, for some of us to bump up the social studies and science at SH ourselves than move to Upper NW, VA or MoCo after we struck out in the charter lotteries. Or maybe we didn't strike out but were turned off by the difficult commute to DCI from CH SE, or we got into BASIS and realized that our kid would be miserable there. My kid's round-trip commute to SH is less than five minutes on foot, vs. two hours by public transportation with DCI (my other option). This is a no-brainer, folks.

That’s fine if you want to prioritize convenience and saving money over your kids education.

Not it’s not a no brainer to choose SH. You absolutely have choices and have decided to put lower on the list your child’s education.

For us, it a no brainer to go private or move to a much better school if the lottery doesn’t work out.