Hearst waitlist for K

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So please explain to me how IB families should handle this. There is a reality that more IB families are moving in. Because of this, class sizes are getting bigger. Yes, this means that there will be fewer spots for OOB kids (of any color).

What is your solution? Let in OOB kids in the lottery and have class size of 25+? Is there another way to handle this that I'm not seeing?

Perhaps try not responding with thinly veiled glee at the amazing change" at the school when knowing that oob with sibling families (some of whom are incredibly active in PTA) are on a waiting list. As in this thread:http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/546106.page

Um, where in my post did I talk about an "amazing change"? And I am not gleeful about it, in fact those families with OOB siblings on the wait list are my friends.

I really just wonder what you think the alternative to this situation is? I don't like it either, but it is reality and you act as if there is some other option.

I'm the PP from 13:21 earlier. The OP in the linked post about the PK4 waitlist--which may or may not be you; who knows?--said that there had been an "amazing change at that school." And when you are an OOB family with a younger sibling who's been waitlisted, and there are multiple calls on this site and elsewhere for IB families to demand that the principal not let in any OOB kids for any grade no matter what the class sizes look like, and there are other posters here saying things that sound like very thinly-veiled similar demands for no OOB kids, such as that all kids should walk to school in order to reduce the impact on the environment of not driving cross-town twice daily, then it does far more than sting, as another PP characterized it. It starts to sound ugly and exclusive and racist. It sounds like IB families are saying "Thanks for all your work making Hearst a quality school, folks, but don't let the door hit you on your way out. And we never really wanted you guys to be here in the first place."

And your friends who are waitlisted, of whom I may be one? We feel pretty shitty right now. We can't afford to move in-bounds to Hearst at the moment, nor would we likely have been able to in the past. We thought that getting one kid in was like winning the actual Powerball lottery in terms of not having to spend money we don't have to live in a better school boundary. We don't live in a beautiful huge EOTP house as a different PP said. We live in a crumbling 1908 rowhouse with no backyard that needs a ton of work and which seemed like the best compromise in terms of location and space when we were house-shopping a decade ago. We know it's not a right to have a sibling attend, but we also feel like the rug just got yanked out from under us. We have utterly no idea what we'll do if we don't get off the waitlist And to think that it's actual friends, or people I thought were friends, getting all up at arms about OOB kids and overcrowding that hasn't even happened yet? That also does more than sting.

To answer your question, there is no good option. But Hearst isn't currently overcrowded. The principal doesn't want it to be, IB families don't, current OOB families don't either. Preventing overcrowding doesn't require repeated demands for no OOB kids to be admitted or see-through statements about walkability and the environment or other reasons to restrict Hearst to only IB kids.

As a PP said, it would just be nice if IB families could be gracious and respectful of the fact that current OOB families are reading, and listening, and seeing who talks to whom on the playground, and which kids get invited to which birthday parties, and recognize that it all adds up and sometimes you're saying a lot about who you want at your school without even saying a word.

The waitlist will move. You will get in. I know it is stressful, but it will definitely work out.

I think the frustration you are reading from the IB parents comes from some questionable decision-making and poor communication in recent years. There are several sets of IB families who had more than reasonable expectations that a PS3 program to be in place two years ago. Then the rug was pulled out with no explanation. And, many on this board told us to stop complaining because we are "rich" and can afford private preschool. That stings too, especially considering many of us rent apartments in Van Ness or McLean Gardens in the hopes of providing the best education to our kids, even if that means foregoing ownership. We don't even get to have the old rowhouse in the cool part of town, but at least we are guaranteed great schools, right?

Then, we show up for Kindergarten this year at the "Best Little School in DC" there are 25% more kids than we had been led to believe would be there. And we are like whiskey, tango, foxtrot.

That is why there is a full court press to make sure the school does not become a megaschool like the rest of Ward 3. We want to keep diversity too, but small class sizes is more important.

[Anonymous]

Why, exactly, should schools in other neighborhoods become overcrowded so you can keep your old rowhouse?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If central DCPS tells her to fill slots with OOB she will need to. Just know that.

She didn't need to this year. Both PK classes are <20.

There may be more IB students entering outside of the lottery to push the classes above 20 for K next year.

That is different from Central requiring her to take OOB students

Central?

DCPS Central Office / Kaya Henderson.

Why would Central require an overcrowded school to take OOB students? That may not be Hearst yet, but once a school is over capacity, it should no longer be a lottery option.

[Anonymous]

Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

And that, folks, is not good decision making. That will keep Deal and Wilson overcrowded for the next decade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

Do you have access to research that the experts have not read? Or, are you just spitballing it?

"The research has shown definitively that classes of under 20 students, in kindergarten through third grade, have all kinds of advantages. They increase the - both the academic and social engagement of students, and they increase learning. That's especially true for students at risk - that is, minority students from low-income homes, and students for whom English is a second language. In small classes, students' behavior changes even more than does teacher behavior."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113176988

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

Do you have access to research that the experts have not read? Or, are you just spitballing it?

"The research has shown definitively that classes of under 20 students, in kindergarten through third grade, have all kinds of advantages. They increase the - both the academic and social engagement of students, and they increase learning. That's especially true for students at risk - that is, minority students from low-income homes, and students for whom English is a second language. In small classes, students' behavior changes even more than does teacher behavior."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113176988

I'm not saying that it's the GOOD or RIGHT thing to do, just that it's how DCPS thinks and what they do year after year. They fill classes to 22/23 students. Good luck changing it. Why should Hearst students have a ratio that DCPS doesn't enforce at Janney, Lafayette, Murch, etc? DCPS always fills early elementary classes up to 22/23 with OOB kids.

[Anonymous]

Let's face it, there's also a political imperative to maximize the number of OOB slots in WOTP schools. DC mayoral elections are seldom won or lost in Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

Do you have access to research that the experts have not read? Or, are you just spitballing it?

"The research has shown definitively that classes of under 20 students, in kindergarten through third grade, have all kinds of advantages. They increase the - both the academic and social engagement of students, and they increase learning. That's especially true for students at risk - that is, minority students from low-income homes, and students for whom English is a second language. In small classes, students' behavior changes even more than does teacher behavior."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113176988

I'm not saying that it's the GOOD or RIGHT thing to do, just that it's how DCPS thinks and what they do year after year. They fill classes to 22/23 students. Good luck changing it. Why should Hearst students have a ratio that DCPS doesn't enforce at Janney, Lafayette, Murch, etc? DCPS always fills early elementary classes up to 22/23 with OOB kids.

I will tell you why. Because Hearst has historically been accredited by the NAEYC which required a 20 student K cap. The school and DCPS promoted this as one thing that makes Hearst unique. Why change now?

[Anonymous]

^^We are at Hearst too but hat is BS - Hearst is no longer an NAEYC accredited school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst did not offer any lottery spots, so I'm not sure why there is even a question that they would offer any spots off the waitlist unless there are fewer than 20 students in a class in September, correct?

I don't think the magic number is 20 but rather 22 or 23 in early elementary. Janney in recent years has filled to 22/23 with OOB (current second grade would have been 20/class in K but they added OOB to make K classes of 22-24).

Do you have access to research that the experts have not read? Or, are you just spitballing it?

"The research has shown definitively that classes of under 20 students, in kindergarten through third grade, have all kinds of advantages. They increase the - both the academic and social engagement of students, and they increase learning. That's especially true for students at risk - that is, minority students from low-income homes, and students for whom English is a second language. In small classes, students' behavior changes even more than does teacher behavior."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113176988

I'm not saying that it's the GOOD or RIGHT thing to do, just that it's how DCPS thinks and what they do year after year. They fill classes to 22/23 students. Good luck changing it. Why should Hearst students have a ratio that DCPS doesn't enforce at Janney, Lafayette, Murch, etc? DCPS always fills early elementary classes up to 22/23 with OOB kids.

It's way worse in the burbs.

[Anonymous]

NAEYC was never a DCPS thing at Hearst. It was the initiative of our awesome ECE team. But things, include the renovation, threw of the renewal. Not sure that with these K class sizes, we can get it back now. But that is just my speculation.

[Anonymous]

NAEYC made a lot more sense when Hearst was just an ECE campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^We are at Hearst too but hat is BS - Hearst is no longer an NAEYC accredited school.

Yes, but why the change? To accommodate OOB kids? This designation sure seemed important for many years. You could not go to an open house without hearing about it ad nauseam. Then it disappeared with zero communication to the community. More than curious.