Do you think that the Mundo Verde's demographics will change because of the move?

[Anonymous]

I live in-bounds for Bancroft and have one child at MV and another starting next year. We love our neighborhood, we visit the Bancroft playground often and have play dates in the neighborhood regularly.

For us, the progressive and innovative nature of MV (the expeditionary learning, the solutions-oriented and enthusiastic culture, the inclusive sense of community) have sold us. I'm excited that more of my neighbors are happy with Bancroft. More good options helps everyone. But I don't know any families from Mount Pleasant that are leaving MV.

[Anonymous]

We have friends who are bailing on their Petworth OOB DCPS and will commute to MV from Park View. It's a little bit farther but they were REALLY sold on the school when they went on the tour. It was more the whole package, the language was a bonus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have friends who are bailing on their Petworth OOB DCPS and will commute to MV from Park View. It's a little bit farther but they were REALLY sold on the school when they went on the tour. It was more the whole package, the language was a bonus.

This would be us if I worked downtown.....

[Anonymous]

Mental note: Mount Pleasant Parents are jerks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mental note: Mount Pleasant Parents are jerks.

What? What lead you to this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mental note: Mount Pleasant Parents are jerks.

What? What lead you to this?

I'm sure she's just another troll trying to stir the pot....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I live in-bounds for Bancroft and have one child at MV and another starting next year. We love our neighborhood, we visit the Bancroft playground often and have play dates in the neighborhood regularly.

For us, the progressive and innovative nature of MV (the expeditionary learning, the solutions-oriented and enthusiastic culture, the inclusive sense of community) have sold us. I'm excited that more of my neighbors are happy with Bancroft. More good options helps everyone. But I don't know any families from Mount Pleasant that are leaving MV.

It sounds like some Mount Pleasant families may be leaving MV; see up-thread. But the more important question is what new parents are likely to do each year from now on, especially at PK3. It's likely that parents will follow a school from a convenient location to an inconvenient one if they like the school enough and have invested in it. It's somewhat less likely that parents will choose an inconvenient school from the beginning when their IB option is a good one.

For the poster who says Mount Pleasant parents are jerks, please don't take any of this thread as bragging about Bancroft or criticizing Mundo Verde. Bancroft has come a long way but still has its challenges. That's why it's so exciting to see the increased IB interest in the school. It's great to see that Bancroft is on an upward trajectory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bancroft parent here. This is why we didn't apply to Mundo Verde to begin with. As friends of ours have moved to otehr parts of the city, we have lost touch with them, even in cases where we've really tried to get our kids together. Proximity = playdates, because we can arrange them on the fly at pickup rather than planning weeks in advance. I'm sure people living EoGA are lovely, but I do not have the bandwidth to drive my kids all over town for playdates, so therefore we didn't even apply to charters that didn't have at least a semi-permanent location.

Interestingly enough, my child reports that 2nd grade has picked up three MV kids in the past month, all Spanish speakers. Of course, this is an 8 year old talking, so take it with a grain of salt.

Plus, the performance scores are so low. Bancroft probably got the lowest SES students who couldn't figure a way to make the transition.

[Anonymous]

It really baffles me why DCUm posters can simultaneously want their child to get a bilingual education without them interacting with peers who speak Spanish at home. What is the long game for raising a bilingual kid?

[Anonymous]

As a former Adams Morgan resident, the problem with Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant schools is that they will always be dominated by the culture of the low-income housing that is IB for the schools. The distinction that charters offer, is that parents have chosen to enroll. The default in high-poverty, low education neighborhoods is whatever is easy. This will always plague Bancroft (and HD Cooke, and Marie Reed, etc. etc. etc.). You can lament the lack of "authentic Spanish speakers" all you like. In truth however, the presence of "authentic Spanish speakers" at DCPS "bilingual" schools is by default, not by design. It's a bait and switch, designed to lure higher SES families in, to improve the scores and standing of a low-performing school. There's no genuine bilingual programming - it's basically ESL for all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former Adams Morgan resident, the problem with Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant schools is that they will always be dominated by the culture of the low-income housing that is IB for the schools. The distinction that charters offer, is that parents have chosen to enroll. The default in high-poverty, low education neighborhoods is whatever is easy. This will always plague Bancroft (and HD Cooke, and Marie Reed, etc. etc. etc.). You can lament the lack of "authentic Spanish speakers" all you like. In truth however, the presence of "authentic Spanish speakers" at DCPS "bilingual" schools is by default, not by design. It's a bait and switch, designed to lure higher SES families in, to improve the scores and standing of a low-performing school. There's no genuine bilingual programming - it's basically ESL for all.

+1000 and when the IB families stay past K at Bancroft, Cooke, Reed, etc instead of abandoning them for a better alternative - private, charter or moving - - then this conversation will have some traction. These schools aren't even at the point of Ross where families stay until 3, 4th...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former Adams Morgan resident, the problem with Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant schools is that they will always be dominated by the culture of the low-income housing that is IB for the schools. The distinction that charters offer, is that parents have chosen to enroll. The default in high-poverty, low education neighborhoods is whatever is easy. This will always plague Bancroft (and HD Cooke, and Marie Reed, etc. etc. etc.). You can lament the lack of "authentic Spanish speakers" all you like. In truth however, the presence of "authentic Spanish speakers" at DCPS "bilingual" schools is by default, not by design. It's a bait and switch, designed to lure higher SES families in, to improve the scores and standing of a low-performing school. There's no genuine bilingual programming - it's basically ESL for all.

+1000 and when the IB families stay past K at Bancroft, Cooke, Reed, etc instead of abandoning them for a better alternative - private, charter or moving - - then this conversation will have some traction. These schools aren't even at the point of Ross where families stay until 3, 4th...

Then it hits the same wall that Brent does = no decent MS. Hence leaving at 5th for either Latin or Basis. But that's a subject for another thread. In any event, Bancroft's (and every Adams Morgan/Mt. Pleasant/Columbia Heights) albatross is the plethora of low-income housing. No amount of gentrification will change that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former Adams Morgan resident, the problem with Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant schools is that they will always be dominated by the culture of the low-income housing that is IB for the schools. The distinction that charters offer, is that parents have chosen to enroll. The default in high-poverty, low education neighborhoods is whatever is easy. This will always plague Bancroft (and HD Cooke, and Marie Reed, etc. etc. etc.). You can lament the lack of "authentic Spanish speakers" all you like. In truth however, the presence of "authentic Spanish speakers" at DCPS "bilingual" schools is by default, not by design. It's a bait and switch, designed to lure higher SES families in, to improve the scores and standing of a low-performing school. There's no genuine bilingual programming - it's basically ESL for all.

I don't understand this concept of default vs. design.

That charter mapping tool up thread shows that the majority of current MV students live within walking distance of the current location. These are the same apartment buildings that supply the DCPS schools. So the latinos who attend MV likely have the same education and income demographics as those who attend the dual language DCPS schools. Unless you think that the hispanics who attend MV are all children of Spanish embassy workers? Listen out for the vosotros tense on the playground and report back.

BTW, you need to enter a lottery to enter the dual language DCPS schools at PK3/4, so it's equally as intentional an act as attending a charter. Again, I don't get the "chosen to enroll" piece.

From the research I've done, I believe that those dual language DCPS schools do the same kind of intentional, planned bilingual education as the dual language charters, staffed appropriately with Spanish-native teachers. They just do it with a higher FARM percentage. Which I suspect is your real issue. If you don't want to send your kids to a school with a FARM percentage above a certain level, that's your choice, but it's wrong to suggest that just because some of these schools have a lot of latinos IB, that the dual language programming is somehow not intentional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a former Adams Morgan resident, the problem with Adams Morgan and Mt. Pleasant schools is that they will always be dominated by the culture of the low-income housing that is IB for the schools. The distinction that charters offer, is that parents have chosen to enroll. The default in high-poverty, low education neighborhoods is whatever is easy. This will always plague Bancroft (and HD Cooke, and Marie Reed, etc. etc. etc.). You can lament the lack of "authentic Spanish speakers" all you like. In truth however, the presence of "authentic Spanish speakers" at DCPS "bilingual" schools is by default, not by design. It's a bait and switch, designed to lure higher SES families in, to improve the scores and standing of a low-performing school. There's no genuine bilingual programming - it's basically ESL for all.

I don't understand this concept of default vs. design.

That charter mapping tool up thread shows that the majority of current MV students live within walking distance of the current location. These are the same apartment buildings that supply the DCPS schools. So the latinos who attend MV likely have the same education and income demographics as those who attend the dual language DCPS schools. Unless you think that the hispanics who attend MV are all children of Spanish embassy workers? Listen out for the vosotros tense on the playground and report back.

BTW, you need to enter a lottery to enter the dual language DCPS schools at PK3/4, so it's equally as intentional an act as attending a charter. Again, I don't get the "chosen to enroll" piece.

From the research I've done, I believe that those dual language DCPS schools do the same kind of intentional, planned bilingual education as the dual language charters, staffed appropriately with Spanish-native teachers. They just do it with a higher FARM percentage. Which I suspect is your real issue. If you don't want to send your kids to a school with a FARM percentage above a certain level, that's your choice, but it's wrong to suggest that just because some of these schools have a lot of latinos IB, that the dual language programming is somehow not intentional.

sorry, current location => I mean old location

[Anonymous]

There were a TON of kids in Mundo Verde shirts at the Florida Avenue playground showing of Frozen tonight. The playground at Florida and R is about 2 blocks from the new location. Not sure if this was an organized outing for MV kids who don't necessarily live in the neighborhood, but it was pretty diverse.