Switching schools at 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asian PP above claimed that her middle school age kids are into music, art and a language. Um, maybe not all.

Right, and said they turned down BASIS and are at a private on music scholarships instead, for this reason.

So if the way to appeal to Asian families is not necessarily "be BASIS" then what it is it?

I suspect it has to do with cohort and that as a result, DCPS schools cannot offer it past the elementary grades except in upper NW. Largely an issue of families SES and parental education level. Asian families on the Hill are not going to participate in creating buy-in at Hill MS and HS, but they might agree to send their kids to these schools IF enough high income, highly educated families create that buy in themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that all 3 DCPS Ward 6 middle schools aren't more than 1% Asian, or at least half-Asian, when there are a bunch of Asian families with pre-teens and teens on the Hill these days doesn't inspire.

We're Asian, our kids went to Brent and we stayed for 5th grade (v. mixed bag).

We looked at Jefferson, SH and EH and didn't enroll or even apply partly because we saw no Asian faces at open houses. If there were indeed Asians in this middle schools, well, we didn't see any, not teachers, students, admins or workers.

Pretty clearly, DCPS isn't interested in attracting Asians past ES. Not that this matters.

What would attracting Asians past ES look like to you?

BASIS is doing it -- 7% Asian and 15% multiracial. my kids are half-asian and would be in the "multiracial" category here, and I have somewhat stereotypical Asian standards for education past elementary -- strong math and science work, no aversion to memorization/learning, enrichments like Math Counts and Science Olympiad available.

That's good. We didn't take our BASIS spot for other reasons. Our children mainly excel at music (play wind instruments), art and Chinese (taking AP in 9th grade) and the facility, curriculum and enrichment was clearly a non-starter in these areas, particularly no Chinese before 8th grade and then only at the beginning level.

We didn't get into DCI. We've gone private on fi aid and music scholarships.

We looked at Basis and did not even consider because of all of the above that PP listed. Our kid will be starting DCI in the fall.

Asian but not Chinese. We wanted spanish and kid is in spanish charter and will continue at DCI. Facilities, sports and extracurriculars are good, and we really like the IB diploma.

As to other question, no not all asians just care about math and science. I am actually in a STEM field and my kid scores really high on math standardized testing. Plenty time for STEM in college. I care more about analytical and writing skills which is better with IB. BTW, plus that DCI offers advance math tracking for AP calculus in 10th is kid can handle it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian PP above claimed that her middle school age kids are into music, art and a language. Um, maybe not all.

Right, and said they turned down BASIS and are at a private on music scholarships instead, for this reason.

So if the way to appeal to Asian families is not necessarily "be BASIS" then what it is it?

I suspect it has to do with cohort and that as a result, DCPS schools cannot offer it past the elementary grades except in upper NW. Largely an issue of families SES and parental education level. Asian families on the Hill are not going to participate in creating buy-in at Hill MS and HS, but they might agree to send their kids to these schools IF enough high income, highly educated families create that buy in themselves.

Not cohort. Curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that all 3 DCPS Ward 6 middle schools aren't more than 1% Asian, or at least half-Asian, when there are a bunch of Asian families with pre-teens and teens on the Hill these days doesn't inspire.

We're Asian, our kids went to Brent and we stayed for 5th grade (v. mixed bag).

We looked at Jefferson, SH and EH and didn't enroll or even apply partly because we saw no Asian faces at open houses. If there were indeed Asians in this middle schools, well, we didn't see any, not teachers, students, admins or workers.

Pretty clearly, DCPS isn't interested in attracting Asians past ES. Not that this matters.

What would attracting Asians past ES look like to you?

BASIS is doing it -- 7% Asian and 15% multiracial. my kids are half-asian and would be in the "multiracial" category here, and I have somewhat stereotypical Asian standards for education past elementary -- strong math and science work, no aversion to memorization/learning, enrichments like Math Counts and Science Olympiad available.

That's good. We didn't take our BASIS spot for other reasons. Our children mainly excel at music (play wind instruments), art and Chinese (taking AP in 9th grade) and the facility, curriculum and enrichment was clearly a non-starter in these areas, particularly no Chinese before 8th grade and then only at the beginning level.

We didn't get into DCI. We've gone private on fi aid and music scholarships.

We looked at Basis and did not even consider because of all of the above that PP listed. Our kid will be starting DCI in the fall.

Asian but not Chinese. We wanted spanish and kid is in spanish charter and will continue at DCI. Facilities, sports and extracurriculars are good, and we really like the IB diploma.

As to other question, no not all asians just care about math and science. I am actually in a STEM field and my kid scores really high on math standardized testing. Plenty time for STEM in college. I care more about analytical and writing skills which is better with IB. BTW, plus that DCI offers advance math tracking for AP calculus in 10th is kid can handle it.

DCI parent here. It is pretty hard to get into the super advanced math level, but as long as your kid gets very high scores on the NWEA (not sure, i think over 90%), plus straight 6+ in advanced math, and has a teacher recommendation you will get a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that all 3 DCPS Ward 6 middle schools aren't more than 1% Asian, or at least half-Asian, when there are a bunch of Asian families with pre-teens and teens on the Hill these days doesn't inspire.

We're Asian, our kids went to Brent and we stayed for 5th grade (v. mixed bag).

We looked at Jefferson, SH and EH and didn't enroll or even apply partly because we saw no Asian faces at open houses. If there were indeed Asians in this middle schools, well, we didn't see any, not teachers, students, admins or workers.

Pretty clearly, DCPS isn't interested in attracting Asians past ES. Not that this matters.

What would attracting Asians past ES look like to you?

BASIS is doing it -- 7% Asian and 15% multiracial. my kids are half-asian and would be in the "multiracial" category here, and I have somewhat stereotypical Asian standards for education past elementary -- strong math and science work, no aversion to memorization/learning, enrichments like Math Counts and Science Olympiad available.

That's good. We didn't take our BASIS spot for other reasons. Our children mainly excel at music (play wind instruments), art and Chinese (taking AP in 9th grade) and the facility, curriculum and enrichment was clearly a non-starter in these areas, particularly no Chinese before 8th grade and then only at the beginning level.

We didn't get into DCI. We've gone private on fi aid and music scholarships.

We looked at Basis and did not even consider because of all of the above that PP listed. Our kid will be starting DCI in the fall.

Asian but not Chinese. We wanted spanish and kid is in spanish charter and will continue at DCI. Facilities, sports and extracurriculars are good, and we really like the IB diploma.

As to other question, no not all asians just care about math and science. I am actually in a STEM field and my kid scores really high on math standardized testing. Plenty time for STEM in college. I care more about analytical and writing skills which is better with IB. BTW, plus that DCI offers advance math tracking for AP calculus in 10th is kid can handle it.

DCI parent here. It is pretty hard to get into the super advanced math level, but as long as your kid gets very high scores on the NWEA (not sure, i think over 90%), plus straight 6+ in advanced math, and has a teacher recommendation you will get a spot.

PP here, thanks much for the info. Good to hear that the school gate keeps and has objective standardized test scores and grades in addition to teacher recommendations. I fully support that so only the kids who can handle it get in.

I”m OK if kid doesn’t make it to the super advanced math class and just take the advance math class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Asian PP above claimed that her middle school age kids are into music, art and a language. Um, maybe not all.

Right, and said they turned down BASIS and are at a private on music scholarships instead, for this reason.

So if the way to appeal to Asian families is not necessarily "be BASIS" then what it is it?

I suspect it has to do with cohort and that as a result, DCPS schools cannot offer it past the elementary grades except in upper NW. Largely an issue of families SES and parental education level. Asian families on the Hill are not going to participate in creating buy-in at Hill MS and HS, but they might agree to send their kids to these schools IF enough high income, highly educated families create that buy in themselves.

Not cohort. Curriculum.

There's nothing wrong with DCPS curriculum (or nothing wrong that isn't also wrong with BASIS curriculum, or any other district) The issue is how to teach it in a district with such a large number of at risk students, where there's a political imperative for social promotion and where higher expectations and consequences for failing to meet them will always be viewed as "inequitable" because demographics will result in disproportionate negative consequences for poor and black or brown students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that all 3 DCPS Ward 6 middle schools aren't more than 1% Asian, or at least half-Asian, when there are a bunch of Asian families with pre-teens and teens on the Hill these days doesn't inspire.

We're Asian, our kids went to Brent and we stayed for 5th grade (v. mixed bag).

We looked at Jefferson, SH and EH and didn't enroll or even apply partly because we saw no Asian faces at open houses. If there were indeed Asians in this middle schools, well, we didn't see any, not teachers, students, admins or workers.

Pretty clearly, DCPS isn't interested in attracting Asians past ES. Not that this matters.

What would attracting Asians past ES look like to you?

BASIS is doing it -- 7% Asian and 15% multiracial. my kids are half-asian and would be in the "multiracial" category here, and I have somewhat stereotypical Asian standards for education past elementary -- strong math and science work, no aversion to memorization/learning, enrichments like Math Counts and Science Olympiad available.

That's good. We didn't take our BASIS spot for other reasons. Our children mainly excel at music (play wind instruments), art and Chinese (taking AP in 9th grade) and the facility, curriculum and enrichment was clearly a non-starter in these areas, particularly no Chinese before 8th grade and then only at the beginning level.

We didn't get into DCI. We've gone private on fi aid and music scholarships.

We looked at Basis and did not even consider because of all of the above that PP listed. Our kid will be starting DCI in the fall.

Asian but not Chinese. We wanted spanish and kid is in spanish charter and will continue at DCI. Facilities, sports and extracurriculars are good, and we really like the IB diploma.

As to other question, no not all asians just care about math and science. I am actually in a STEM field and my kid scores really high on math standardized testing. Plenty time for STEM in college. I care more about analytical and writing skills which is better with IB. BTW, plus that DCI offers advance math tracking for AP calculus in 10th is kid can handle it.

DCI parent here. It is pretty hard to get into the super advanced math level, but as long as your kid gets very high scores on the NWEA (not sure, i think over 90%), plus straight 6+ in advanced math, and has a teacher recommendation you will get a spot.

PP here, thanks much for the info. Good to hear that the school gate keeps and has objective standardized test scores and grades in addition to teacher recommendations. I fully support that so only the kids who can handle it get in.

I”m OK if kid doesn’t make it to the super advanced math class and just take the advance math class.

My kid loves loves loves the super advanced math level and my other child is very happy in the advanced math track. Technically those are called “advanced” and “double advanced” or 7th grade math for 6th grade and Integrated Math respectively.

There are a ton of great stem extracurricular and electives like engineering, mathletes, computer programming, robotics, chess, and more. The science program at dci is very robust and the teachers have been great throughout middle school.

We have also been thrilled with the advanced language classes, especially the fact that you can take individuals and societies and other electives in a foreign language as well if you are in the advanced language classes. There are great study abroad opportunities too. So far so good at dci but I can confidently say we had a very positive experience with our kid at dci middle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The fact that all 3 DCPS Ward 6 middle schools aren't more than 1% Asian, or at least half-Asian, when there are a bunch of Asian families with pre-teens and teens on the Hill these days doesn't inspire.

We're Asian, our kids went to Brent and we stayed for 5th grade (v. mixed bag).

We looked at Jefferson, SH and EH and didn't enroll or even apply partly because we saw no Asian faces at open houses. If there were indeed Asians in this middle schools, well, we didn't see any, not teachers, students, admins or workers.

Pretty clearly, DCPS isn't interested in attracting Asians past ES. Not that this matters.

What would attracting Asians past ES look like to you?

BASIS is doing it -- 7% Asian and 15% multiracial. my kids are half-asian and would be in the "multiracial" category here, and I have somewhat stereotypical Asian standards for education past elementary -- strong math and science work, no aversion to memorization/learning, enrichments like Math Counts and Science Olympiad available.

That's good. We didn't take our BASIS spot for other reasons. Our children mainly excel at music (play wind instruments), art and Chinese (taking AP in 9th grade) and the facility, curriculum and enrichment was clearly a non-starter in these areas, particularly no Chinese before 8th grade and then only at the beginning level.

We didn't get into DCI. We've gone private on fi aid and music scholarships.

We looked at Basis and did not even consider because of all of the above that PP listed. Our kid will be starting DCI in the fall.

Asian but not Chinese. We wanted spanish and kid is in spanish charter and will continue at DCI. Facilities, sports and extracurriculars are good, and we really like the IB diploma.

As to other question, no not all asians just care about math and science. I am actually in a STEM field and my kid scores really high on math standardized testing. Plenty time for STEM in college. I care more about analytical and writing skills which is better with IB. BTW, plus that DCI offers advance math tracking for AP calculus in 10th is kid can handle it.

DCI parent here. It is pretty hard to get into the super advanced math level, but as long as your kid gets very high scores on the NWEA (not sure, i think over 90%), plus straight 6+ in advanced math, and has a teacher recommendation you will get a spot.

PP here, thanks much for the info. Good to hear that the school gate keeps and has objective standardized test scores and grades in addition to teacher recommendations. I fully support that so only the kids who can handle it get in.

I”m OK if kid doesn’t make it to the super advanced math class and just take the advance math class.

My kid loves loves loves the super advanced math level and my other child is very happy in the advanced math track. Technically those are called “advanced” and “double advanced” or 7th grade math for 6th grade and Integrated Math respectively.

There are a ton of great stem extracurricular and electives like engineering, mathletes, computer programming, robotics, chess, and more. The science program at dci is very robust and the teachers have been great throughout middle school.

We have also been thrilled with the advanced language classes, especially the fact that you can take individuals and societies and other electives in a foreign language as well if you are in the advanced language classes. There are great study abroad opportunities too. So far so good at dci but I can confidently say we had a very positive experience with our kid at dci middle.

Kid scores 98% on math map, likes math, and gets all 4’s so he should make the advance math class in the fall. Will see how he does from there for super advanced. Unlike lots of parents who want the highest math class, I don’t need super acceleration if there is not an adequate and strong foundation to build upon.

Good to hear about STEM offerings. My kid does robotics outside of school and loves it. I’ve seen the DCI robotics team and have attended a few of the citywide tournaments there. They have a great program and the teacher who runs that seems great.

We also love that DCI has actual science labs and a hood! So kids get hands on labs.

Kid is doing well in spanish and we definitely have study abroad on the radar in high school.

Sounds like we have like minded kids and glad to hear your kids are having a good experience in middle.