best in-boundary potential for improvement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wouldn't it be great if DCPS reached out to those parents that left their neighborhood school and asked them why they left for another DC area school? There is a lot of speculation that people leave because of racial concerns, but I've never heard of anyone saying that was the deciding factor for them. Instead, i hear a lot of "our neighborhood middle school is a mess, so I'm getting out of our DCPS neighborhood track while the gettin' is good." Anyway, if DCPS did these "exit interviews" I imagine that would shed a lot of light on what in-boundry schools are posed to be embraced by the neighborhood families.

We are focused on middle schools. Many elementary schools work, and the high schools can work for the right kid. It is the black hold of middle school that has us on edge.

[Anonymous]

Correction - "black hold shoudl read "black hole."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reed, Garrison, Cooke, just like Ross, have oodles of well paid professionals who bought in and now want to stay in their hip, fun neighborhoods and walk to school. There are a lot of people who make decent money but not the crazy $400K HHI you read about on this board, they continue to be priced out of west of the park or even Dupont and Adams Morgan.
May I say it is so boring to keep hearing people talk about west of the park schools. For the 99% of the rest of us who are OOB and can't get in or don't want a crappy commute, that is.

This is why charter schools - which started out as a safe landing-pad for poor families, east of the river - have made such phenomenal inroads into the middle and upper-middle classes. In about 10 years, charters went from non-existent to over 1/3 of the city's public school students. And that's why schools like Reed, Garrison, and Cooke will never take off. It takes overwhelming numbers to change a school, and the numbers simply aren't there. Most of the families that can afford to buy into those neighborhoods will choose better schools like Capital City, EL Haynes, and Washington Yu Ying, all of which offer more than DCPS can possibly provide. Sophisticated parents want exceptional schools. The parents who don't have choices or don't educate themselves about the available choices are the ones who will always be there.

[Anonymous]

. . . Most of the families that can afford to buy into those neighborhoods will choose better schools like Capital City, EL Haynes, and Washington Yu Ying, all of which offer more than DCPS can possibly provide. Sophisticated parents want exceptional schools. The parents who don't have choices or don't educate themselves about the available choices are the ones who will always be there.

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Aren't there waiting lists at those charter schools? Some charter schools are theoretically great choices, but not if you can't get in!

[Anonymous]

With Cap City and Haynes' scores in the 60s, I fail to see why this is considered a superior choice. Yu Ying sounds great, but you are choosing a school that doesn't even have test scores yet to back it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
. . . Most of the families that can afford to buy into those neighborhoods will choose better schools like Capital City, EL Haynes, and Washington Yu Ying, all of which offer more than DCPS can possibly provide. Sophisticated parents want exceptional schools. The parents who don't have choices or don't educate themselves about the available choices are the ones who will always be there.

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Aren't there waiting lists at those charter schools? Some charter schools are theoretically great choices, but not if you can't get in!

Yes, but people get in off the waiting list all summer and especially (believe it or not) during the first week of school. There's certainly no harm in trying and no reason to write it off until September is over. Also, if you're looking for Pre-K, apparently this is THE YEAR to get in at Yu Ying. They're bringing in about 100 kids just to the fall 2011 Pre-K class.

[Anonymous]

Ross and Garrison are compared endlessly in the Logan Circle area since all the in-boundary Garrison parents are salivating over spaces at Ross due to the good test scores AND proximity. What makes Garrison a lost cause in the view of those posters who express certainty that a transformation is not possible there? Ross was in exactly the same place as Garrison 3 or so years ago, wasn't it???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ross and Garrison are compared endlessly in the Logan Circle area since all the in-boundary Garrison parents are salivating over spaces at Ross due to the good test scores AND proximity. What makes Garrison a lost cause in the view of those posters who express certainty that a transformation is not possible there? Ross was in exactly the same place as Garrison 3 or so years ago, wasn't it???

no. there is a loooong history of improvement at ross. ross has been going through a transformation for much longer than 3 years. google the city paper article about ross. i think it is dated in 2004.

[Anonymous]

This is the most amazing thread ever - total school porn fantasy. It's the typical urban experience writ large: Wouldn't I make out like a bandit if other people behaved the way I want them to, so that my own neighborhood had decent public schools and my condo/rowhouse appreciated even more.

Thanks for the laughs.

[Anonymous]

18:47, I dutifully looked up the article (actually from 2006) and point taken: it took Ross longer than 3 years or so years. It seems to have taken a total of 5 or 6. Forget about Ross. I still don't get what it is that people are perceiving about Garrison that make them think a turnaround is hopeless. It would really help to get something explicit to help me understand.

[Anonymous]

I actually want my kid in Brent now. Cuffing a kid at school? I bet that kid and his/her classmates won't forget that soon. I would like to high five that Mother and the officer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ross and Garrison are compared endlessly in the Logan Circle area since all the in-boundary Garrison parents are salivating over spaces at Ross due to the good test scores AND proximity. What makes Garrison a lost cause in the view of those posters who express certainty that a transformation is not possible there? Ross was in exactly the same place as Garrison 3 or so years ago, wasn't it???

no. there is a loooong history of improvement at ross. ross has been going through a transformation for much longer than 3 years. google the city paper article about ross. i think it is dated in 2004.

Cleveland Elementary has higher test scores than either of these schools and it is very close to Garrison and not too far from Ross. It also offers a renovated facility and language immersion. What it lacks is the strong PTA of Ross.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is the most amazing thread ever - total school porn fantasy. It's the typical urban experience writ large: Wouldn't I make out like a bandit if other people behaved the way I want them to, so that my own neighborhood had decent public schools and my condo/rowhouse appreciated even more.

Thanks for the laughs.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

WE HAVE A WINNER!!

[Anonymous]

This forum asks the question, which DCPS school would show the best improvement if kids went to their in-boundary schools?

Folks, we're not going to be able to answer this hypothetical question ourselves. We need to call in the big guns. Can someone get on the horn over to Greater Greater Washington so that they can run this data analysis for us?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually want my kid in Brent now. Cuffing a kid at school? I bet that kid and his/her classmates won't forget that soon. I would like to high five that Mother and the officer.

You must be a troll.