Underwhelming appearance by Principal Martin at Wilson HS Open House

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Kim Martin had a good, well-written response.
I'm not sure why one poster is obsessed with her response being
10th grade level. 10th grade and college level writing is not all
that different and computer programs that determine
the level and rigor of writing have a high degree of
error.

We were so hesitant about attending Wilson because of all the terrible things we had heard from various parents at our previous school -- a HRCS.

The school environment, classes, as well as teacher quality has exceeded our expectations.
We have seen ample evidence that that all students have to work hard to get . Wilson is not one of these small charters where connections and big donations secure straight "A"s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

Dear Ms. Martin,
Thank you for your post. Just an observation from my husband (who has served in the armed forces) and is also not white, although I get how the stereotype of white pushy parents played into the conversation and do think it is interesting who showed up, I also don't get the rest of the criticism on that here especially because OP said (after being criticized) that her kids are Latino. But since you have worked with predominantly white parents before they should not scare you, although white parents in DC are sometimes a breed apart (pushy, demanding, entitled, and can get ugly).

My husband was trying to find an anonymous way to suggest that you ask people to rise before you sing the National Anthem. The tradition in the absence of a flag (and he actually had to look this up in the US Code because there is a flag on base of course and at every Cub Scout meeting he has ever led and Scout meeting he has ever atttended ) is that you stand, remove hats, place your hand over your heart, and face the person or people who are leading the National Anthem. He felt really awkward sitting through it but I think his race may have played a part in his decision there too. He is much more recognizable than a bunch of white people and did not want to make a scene.

Thanks so much for taking this into consideration. Just coming from the family we do, with military service going back generations, I cannot see my kids sitting through the National Anthem either, because it would feel like a profound lack of respect. My kid half stood up. So before we get there we will bring it up with you privately again, but it is an important part of our national tradition that every kid (and parent! should know)... Imagine being in a situation where they don't say "please rise" and you are still on your duff and you happen to be the last one straggling to your feet and you are one of three Latinos or African Americans in an assembly surrounded by whites! Even non-US citizens stand they just don't put their hands over their hearts or sing (at least I think). You never see anyone remain seated at a baseball game even if they are foreign. So there are many ways this could lead to embarrassment for Wilson kids in the future, and as minorities, we of course are especially concerned about how our kids carry themselves if they ever leave chocolate city which is getting less chocolate day by day (that is a nickname for DC). It made my husband wonder what was wrong with everyone who was there - not just you, he said it was like when someone sees smoke in a theater but because of peer pressure won't move because no one else is moving, and whether this was a Wilson tradition! Obviously since you are a public school it is a tradition that has to be changed to conform to the US Code.

But that was his only criticism except for your mention of possibly divesting OOB kids of automatic feeder rights (which would make sense to us because that was a Michelle Rhee invention in 2009) which we do hope is being considered again. Rhee created the monster six years ago and that made the overcrowding inevitable once the recession hit. The boundaries had been in place for 40 years. Seemed a bit unfair that the boundary revision people lacked the political guts to do what we viewed as the right thing - just undo another awful idea by our former chancellor like they are undoing education campuses and trying to recreate middle schools. Rhee appeared on the front of Time Magazine with a broom and then rode off into the sunset to make tons of money while DC suffered the consequences. Happens a lot here. I think if you had been here during the boundary revision process you would understand how explosive all these issues are and how dangerous it is to speculate on anything of that nature.

And there is no way to be colorblind in Washington DC. You can decide to ignore it under certain circumstances but that does not mean that other people will ever share your common sense. The only people here who can ignore race altogether are the whites who live in the all white neighborhoods and send their kids to private schools and stay off public transportation. You would understand this better if you had grown up here like me. Or had you been here when Melissa Kim (the former beloved Principal at Deal) was appointed and Marion Barry, our former mayor who was caught with a crack pipe and a working woman and did jail time when I went off to college but died a beloved councilman, started a huge protest saying that an Asian could not be principal of Deal because she could not adequately represent or understand the community. And no one stopped him! He basically established his political career on hating white people and made no bones about it. As my husband, moving from NYC said, he has never seen such a racially polarized place in all his life. We really are messed up about race - all of us. And he married and moved into it.

Anyway, thanks for having the guts to come on here and respond and sign your name. That in and of itself is admirable. I assume you don't spend too much time on DCUM and that someone else brought it too your attention. This place is evil. And coming after a very charismatic principal who got fired is extremely difficult. We had a similar situation happen in our church about ten years ago and it was just very tough. I don't mean to say our beloved priest was fired. He died. But it was still tough and awful. So keep your head up and stay strong and just do the best you can and hope that it is good enough and don't expect to finish your dissertation anytime soon because Wilson needs you more and I hope your son and Wilson are your top priorities.

So thanks again and good luck,
future Wilson parent

PS there was a long thread here last year about two AA girls fighting in the hallway while teachers from Wilson just watched that may be where the concern about safety comes from but fights happen everywhere. When I was growing up there was a drive by shooting right by Wilson - I am pretty sure - things have gotten a lot better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Kim Martin had a good, well-written response.
I'm not sure why one poster is obsessed with her response being
10th grade level. 10th grade and college level writing is not all
that different and computer programs that determine
the level and rigor of writing have a high degree of
error.

what about the people paid 12 dollars an hour to grade the English essays at Pearson recruited off of Craig's list? No lie. They determined the PARCC scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think Kim Martin had a good, well-written response.
I'm not sure why one poster is obsessed with her response being
10th grade level. 10th grade and college level writing is not all
that different and computer programs that determine
the level and rigor of writing have a high degree of
error.

Well, let's agree to disagree. Same as OP found her open house appearance underwhelming, I find the note supposedly on her behalf (fact is, we don't know) truly underwhelming.

A principal, especially at such a large school, is essentially an administrator, responsible for very complex decisions. One needs to possess great organization skills, communication skills, critical thinking and judgment -- yet, the note in question displays very little of any of this. Which is why I cannot believe it was written by her -- perhaps some too-eager aide?

Time will tell. I hope for the better, because Wilson is one of the few great schools in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Kim Martin had a good, well-written response.
I'm not sure why one poster is obsessed with her response being
10th grade level. 10th grade and college level writing is not all
that different and computer programs that determine
the level and rigor of writing have a high degree of
error.

Well, let's agree to disagree. Same as OP found her open house appearance underwhelming, I find the note supposedly on her behalf (fact is, we don't know) truly underwhelming.

A principal, especially at such a large school, is essentially an administrator, responsible for very complex decisions. One needs to possess great organization skills, communication skills, critical thinking and judgment -- yet, the note in question displays very little of any of this. Which is why I cannot believe it was written by her -- perhaps some too-eager aide?

Time will tell. I hope for the better, because Wilson is one of the few great schools in the city.

and had the note accomplished all of those things, she would have been accused of "wasting time" doing that instead of acting as an administrator. Why? because this forum is FULL of snarky, petty posters who are more interested in scoring petty points in an online environment than discussing problems and accomplishing solutions in any real environment.

Its fun reading, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Kim Martin had a good, well-written response.
I'm not sure why one poster is obsessed with her response being
10th grade level. 10th grade and college level writing is not all
that different and computer programs that determine
the level and rigor of writing have a high degree of
error.

Well, let's agree to disagree. Same as OP found her open house appearance underwhelming, I find the note supposedly on her behalf (fact is, we don't know) truly underwhelming.

A principal, especially at such a large school, is essentially an administrator, responsible for very complex decisions. One needs to possess great organization skills, communication skills, critical thinking and judgment -- yet, the note in question displays very little of any of this. Which is why I cannot believe it was written by her -- perhaps some too-eager aide?

Time will tell. I hope for the better, because Wilson is one of the few great schools in the city.

and had the note accomplished all of those things, she would have been accused of "wasting time" doing that instead of acting as an administrator. Why? because this forum is FULL of snarky, petty posters who are more interested in scoring petty points in an online environment than discussing problems and accomplishing solutions in any real environment.

Its fun reading, though.

Well, I don't know what others would have done or not, but I would have had no trouble acknowledging "wow, what a thoughtful response." Which, btw, would have required LESS time than the one spent writing the (long and messy) message in question.

Again, you're discounting the strong possibility that she wasn't the one who wrote it. Let's do this: if there's proof she wrote it, I commit to not posting anything in DCUM for the next 6 months. OK

[Anonymous]

Jeff, can you explain why you removed the comments from this thread?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, can you explain why you removed the comments from this thread?

Please post questions such as this in Website Feedback so that this thread is not diverted to off topic discussion.

[Anonymous]

I'm a parent of a 10th grader and a 12th grader. It's my second year as a Wilson parent and I was dismayed when Cahall was suddenly out of the picture. However, since the start of the school year I've attended coffees, reached the principal when there were concerns and have been impressed. Martin has proven thoughtful and thorough in every regard. Many aspects of day to day school functioning seem to have improved since last June. The online grading system is extremely fluid and helpful, even though it has just rolled out --I have a snapshot of every class and teacher messaging with them is easy. Parent teacher conferences were easily as smooth and informative as they were at my former private school. In fact I feel we get way more "for our money". My older son, thanks to resourceful counselors attends university 3x a week through HiSCIP and ran with the most outstanding coaches I've ever encountered with Wilson x-country&track. My younger son is busy every day after school in the outstanding theatre program. At no time have either child felt unsafe. If there are any issues at Wilson it is the population size management coming at us. There are also the very real differences in the experiences among kids who thrive in Honors and AP courses and kids who aren't there yet, and this is a priority issue with Martin and many parents, we all want to find ways to bring a great experience to every child regardless of their economic resources and see more kids confident and successful taking AP courses. This is not a school system one bulldozes into, and the questions at the open house probably were a bit startling, we've had many parent meetings with the principal and no one has expressed alarm or concern for safety, nor has anyone touched on the complex boundary issue. The Wilson principal seems to be taking a balanced, immersive approach into the community working with her staff and interested families. For example, parents had questions about the new hospitality academy -- the next coffee is tomorrow morning and entirely about that academy, hosted by prominent professional hoteliers in the city, with limited capacity. It's not even Thanksgiving but things are going really well. And I can see that it is tempting to skip paragraphs in DCUM, it's a little box, after all. Thanks, Maureen Diner, Wilson Parent

[Anonymous]

Very nicely said.

[Anonymous]

Black women rule...Chancellor, Mayor and the principal of Wilson High School. I am proud and I am staying put.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Black women rule...Chancellor, Mayor and the principal of Wilson High School. I am proud and I am staying put.

I would be careful about putting this principal, who seems to be doing a good job, in the company of the mayor and chancellor. The latter are not held in very high regard in most of the Wilson district.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Black women rule...Chancellor, Mayor and the principal of Wilson High School. I am proud and I am staying put.

I would be careful about putting this principal, who seems to be doing a good job, in the company of the mayor and chancellor. The latter are not held in very high regard in most of the Wilson district.

I disagree. Most people I know in Ward 3 respect Kaya quite a bit (and, yes, are pretty puzzled at what Muriel is doing exactly.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for the feedback about the Open House. I regret that my performance was less than you anticipated. The questions and answers I provided during the unscripted Q and A were somewhat vague, I agree, and in my perspective they were questions that I would typically answer in an email or individual conversation, but not in front of a large group, due to their complexity. For instance, "what do you anticipate being the biggest issue in the next five years" and "is your school safe?" (there was no question about discipline). In my view, those questions require a bit of background knowledge and, as I mentioned in my response to the group, have many variables to consider, which I'm not sure a group of parents who are largely unconnected to our school would understand. In fact, I hold monthly Parent Coffees, which are well attended by Wilson parents, and I often hear that these meetings are informative, thoughtful and productive. The parents who are present set the monthly agenda, however, we do not speak about issues like school safety, presumably because it is not an issue for parents who are insiders. In thinking about school safety: does the speaker want to know about our suspension rates? The number of fights in the school? The number of safety drills we have each month? The results of the student satisfaction survey? The results of the teacher survey? Or are there other factors that are important? Perhaps there is something more to the question, of which I am unaware? When I prompted the speaker for clarification, he stated, "does your school feel safe?" How am I to answer a questions about "feeling" without discussing how someone "feels," which is why I stated, "my son feels safe and students tell me they feel safe." I could have stated that our suspension rate has declined over the last several years, but does that mean a school is more or less safe in an outsiders' perspective? In relation to the questions about my biggest concern for the next five years, I am quite concerned about the boundary issues that have been discussed and analyzed over the last few months since I've arrived. Our school is the largest school in DCPS and as I mentioned in the Open House, we are 150 students over capacity THIS YEAR, but as our enrollment continues to increase....? When asked, "what will you do about it?" I explained that there are several possible solutions, none that has been determined to be THE solution as yet. Then I was asked, "what are the possible options for solving this problem?" I stated that there are several possible solutions that have been discussed, which include looking at our boundaries and making changes to our boundaries, as has been done within the last 12 months, and changes were already implemented last year. Then, "why is this a concern?" and yes, I stumbled, because I hesitate to say that our school may unwittingly exclude a specific demographic of students and yes, then the question of race came up. If there was concern from me about the presentation it was that I was being asked to answer to situations that are already and still occurring and in forums like this, I cannot share "what ifs" since my words are often distorted and those distortions are made as fact.
How my race plays into this conversation is another matter entirely and I will not comment on that in this forum or at any other time.
All the best,
Kim Martin

Just ran this through writing quality software. It's 10th grade level.

Time magazine is written at the 8th grade level.

[Anonymous]

I have a 9th grader at Wilson. I have had new principals at 4 of the schools we attended from elementary through middle and high school. There are always issues, not complete answers, stress because a certain group of teachers leave. That has been the case a Wilson, some late hires, some issues on crowding, some issues with a huge budget cut. What I have not seen is discipline falling apart, terrible teachers or low quality teaching. I am personally willing to give this some time, because I am human and think I would want this slack.