Jefferson-Houston Principal

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re a pretty disgraceful person for calling the school a s*hole. I only pray your children don’t turn out to be as nasty as you are.

Sure maybe it wasn’t for you and you’re relieved you got your transfers. Not everything is for everybody. It doesn’t have to be. But you don’t have to disparage an entire school just to prove your own personal point. There are plenty of happy students and families and real learning at JH. It works for us but not for you. Just leave it alone.

I'm a future J-H parent, and I appreciate your thoughtful post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who on the SB is campaigning to start allowing admin transfers again (for reasons other than personal health or safety)?

No one. And they better not.

lol. You must be a JH parent.

Nope. Not a JH parent. The city has invested lots of money in that school, and ff the UMC residents stay in JH, the school will continue to get better. Or go private. You bought a home in an area zoned for JH. Live with it. You're not going to overcrowd other schools because you're unhappy about where you bought. That's not the way it works.

I bought in '98, long before the boundaries changed and long before the legislature moved the accreditation goal posts. But I do enjoy how angry that makes you!

-signed,

Mom to three kids that got admins out of the sh*thole.

I've seen you post this on other threads. I don't get it. The school you zoned for changed. Happens all the time in school districts everywhere. That does not mean you're entitled to a transfer. It should mean you make a decision based on the new school you are zoned for or you move. I understand the SB started a whole trail of ad-hoc admin transfers that they've since had to unwind and you benefitted from it. But again, you are not entitled to forever more go to the school you were zoned to when you bought your house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re a pretty disgraceful person for calling the school a s*hole. I only pray your children don’t turn out to be as nasty as you are.

Sure maybe it wasn’t for you and you’re relieved you got your transfers. Not everything is for everybody. It doesn’t have to be. But you don’t have to disparage an entire school just to prove your own personal point. There are plenty of happy students and families and real learning at JH. It works for us but not for you. Just leave it alone.

Truth hurts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who on the SB is campaigning to start allowing admin transfers again (for reasons other than personal health or safety)?

No one. And they better not.

lol. You must be a JH parent.

Nope. Not a JH parent. The city has invested lots of money in that school, and ff the UMC residents stay in JH, the school will continue to get better. Or go private. You bought a home in an area zoned for JH. Live with it. You're not going to overcrowd other schools because you're unhappy about where you bought. That's not the way it works.

I bought in '98, long before the boundaries changed and long before the legislature moved the accreditation goal posts. But I do enjoy how angry that makes you!

-signed,

Mom to three kids that got admins out of the sh*thole.

I've seen you post this on other threads. I don't get it. The school you zoned for changed. Happens all the time in school districts everywhere. That does not mean you're entitled to a transfer. It should mean you make a decision based on the new school you are zoned for or you move. I understand the SB started a whole trail of ad-hoc admin transfers that they've since had to unwind and you benefitted from it. But again, you are not entitled to forever more go to the school you were zoned to when you bought your house.

Actually, you are. SB says so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"Jefferson-Houston School, an International Baccalaureate (I.B.) World School, will be accredited with conditions, moving out of the Accreditation Denied status of the last several school years. It has shown exponential growth over the past five years but missed the benchmarks within mathematics for achievement levels of black students and students with disabilities. The school met or surpassed all other state benchmarks including English, English subgroup benchmarks, science, and chronic absenteeism."



http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=10378

This sounds right. Did not hit 80% in any but one subject, and that was barely over 80. Flunked one subject with less than 60. Actually getting worse in Math. Nothing new here.

pretty dramatic gains in English, history and science. And even math is still better than it was only a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.

In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.

In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

Thanks for the insight! I think that is where the school is at now....middle class families deciding if their kids will be part of the experimental years or if private school is best.

[Anonymous]

Can we get back to the topic? What does everyone think of the new principal? I don't have kids at JH, but I used to work with him so I am interested to hear thoughts...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts (not all) smack of privilege and subtle racism - my kid went to JH and did just fine surrounded by the kids and families so many of these posts subtlety and not so subtlety disparage. And he learned that not everyone comes from the same privileged background as his family and neighborhood - he’s still close to these kids. Give JH a shot. It’s not perfect, but what school is? Particularly, what school in ACPS is perfect?

Thanks for this post. Our DD will be attending J-H in a few years due to the crackdown on transfers in our neighborhood, and we love our dynamic and vibrant Del Ray community way too much to move. However, despite all of the hand wringing on DCUM over J-H, I have heard nothing but positive feedback from people who actually send their children there.

Um, I'm betting that all those positive feedback people will be gone within a year or two. What grades are their kids in? The difference between the gentle, "hand holding grades" of K-1 and the rest of elementary is exponential. For all you parents with young children and no other experience, I PROMISE you that by the time your child is in 3-4-5 grade the teaching, curriculum, peer group, etc. is going to be glaringly subpar. The expectations, do and should, become so much higher as your child moves through elementary. If you truly think that because your child had a good Kindergarten year that necessarily translates into an engaging, challenging and appropriate experience that adequately prepares them for middle and high school, you are wrong. Especially in this area.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.



In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

I agree with much of what you said. Things can and do change. However, in my personal and professional experience its never as simple as one group of people (parents in this case) deciding to make it better. It the system is flawed or resistant to change or incompetent or whatever there is only so much that can happen. And its rarely quick enough to benefit the agitators (again, parents in this case) past the point of the damage that has been done. I applaud parents wanting to make this happen, but I guess I'm super selfish because I am not willing to make my kid the test case guinea pig . I am not willing to deal with the fallout of 1-2 lost years of learning and/or having them subjected to the poor and inappropriate behavior that I see on that playgroup, etc.

Good luck to you, and I mean that sincerely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.



In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

I agree with much of what you said. Things can and do change. However, in my personal and professional experience its never as simple as one group of people (parents in this case) deciding to make it better. It the system is flawed or resistant to change or incompetent or whatever there is only so much that can happen. And its rarely quick enough to benefit the agitators (again, parents in this case) past the point of the damage that has been done. I applaud parents wanting to make this happen, but I guess I'm super selfish because I am not willing to make my kid the test case guinea pig . I am not willing to deal with the fallout of 1-2 lost years of learning and/or having them subjected to the poor and inappropriate behavior that I see on that playgroup, etc.

Good luck to you, and I mean that sincerely.

This times a million. My kid isn't going to be the proverbial point man in battle who sacrifices his life so the guy 4 people behind him survives.

My kid's education means more to me than some other kid's education. That what the SB and idealists forget.

Under no circumstances will my kid attend JH.

Oh, and breaking news- they didn't meet full accreditation.

https://alextimes.com/2018/09/acpsaccreditation/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.

In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

I would love to see this happen but am pretty skeptical. For your first point, I don’t see the decision to stop granting transfers having the major impact you describe. Most of the people applying for transfers are in a position to pursue other options to include moving or going the private route and the vast majority I’ve talked to plan to pursue one of those routes. For your second point what data/criteria are you using to suggest that the bottom tier of housing stock in the JH district is completely changing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This times a million. My kid isn't going to be the proverbial point man in battle who sacrifices his life so the guy 4 people behind him survives.

My kid's education means more to me than some other kid's education. That what the SB and idealists forget.

Under no circumstances will my kid attend JH.

Oh, and breaking news- they didn't meet full accreditation.

https://alextimes.com/2018/09/acpsaccreditation/

Breaking news? More like old news, check out all the posts from 9/24 onward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So many of these posts (not all) smack of privilege and subtle racism - my kid went to JH and did just fine surrounded by the kids and families so many of these posts subtlety and not so subtlety disparage. And he learned that not everyone comes from the same privileged background as his family and neighborhood - he’s still close to these kids. Give JH a shot. It’s not perfect, but what school is? Particularly, what school in ACPS is perfect?

Thanks for this post. Our DD will be attending J-H in a few years due to the crackdown on transfers in our neighborhood, and we love our dynamic and vibrant Del Ray community way too much to move. However, despite all of the hand wringing on DCUM over J-H, I have heard nothing but positive feedback from people who actually send their children there.

Um, I'm betting that all those positive feedback people will be gone within a year or two. What grades are their kids in? The difference between the gentle, "hand holding grades" of K-1 and the rest of elementary is exponential. For all you parents with young children and no other experience, I PROMISE you that by the time your child is in 3-4-5 grade the teaching, curriculum, peer group, etc. is going to be glaringly subpar. The expectations, do and should, become so much higher as your child moves through elementary. If you truly think that because your child had a good Kindergarten year that necessarily translates into an engaging, challenging and appropriate experience that adequately prepares them for middle and high school, you are wrong. Especially in this area.

Is there evidence that kids who attend J-H do poorly at GWMS as a result?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am a teacher in DC and a renter in Alexandria (no kids yet, but I'm obviously interested in APS given my profession and it's where I live).

I think the point folks saying "JH was going to change x years ago and it didn't" are missing is that there are two factors that now will cause JH to change no matter what: 1) The SB got rid of administrative transfers and 2) The bottom tier of the housing stock in that part of Old Town is completely changing.

I know from personal experience that schools can change fast (for the better and for the worst). If you look at Maury Elementary School on Capitol Hill in DC, in a matter of 5 years the school demographics, test scores, everything completely changed (and I'm talking the whole school, up through 5th grade) to the point where once it had literally 0 white kids and now it's extremely coveted by everyone in Capitol Hill. Interestingly enough, they didn't even have the two external factors that JH has - they just had all of the middle class and up folks in the neighborhood say, "you know what? we want our neighborhood school to be a great school. We're going to send our kids, we're going to get involved, we're going to hold the entire staff to a high bar" - and they did it.

It happens all the time with charter and independent schools, and there, parents are founding a school from scratch. At JH, there's a beautiful school building with an attendance zone pulling from two awesome neighborhoods. I went to a few workshops with teachers and the assistant principals last year and they seem incredibly dedicated and doing smart instruction (things like Number Talks). Research has shown that test scores are simply a reflection of parent socio-economic status - often, the best teaching is happening at schools with diverse student bodies. At those schools where parents simply send their kids to private tutoring outside of school, the teaching is often much lazier, because it can be.



In my opinion, JH just needs a critical mass of neighborhood families attending.

I agree with much of what you said. Things can and do change. However, in my personal and professional experience its never as simple as one group of people (parents in this case) deciding to make it better. It the system is flawed or resistant to change or incompetent or whatever there is only so much that can happen. And its rarely quick enough to benefit the agitators (again, parents in this case) past the point of the damage that has been done. I applaud parents wanting to make this happen, but I guess I'm super selfish because I am not willing to make my kid the test case guinea pig . I am not willing to deal with the fallout of 1-2 lost years of learning and/or having them subjected to the poor and inappropriate behavior that I see on that playgroup, etc.

Good luck to you, and I mean that sincerely.

You mean the entire school system? But several ACPS schools do fine - the ones with high SES student bodies. Or do you mean the admins at that particular school?