Feedback on Hearst ES

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hearst is changing a lot. They can't even accommodate all the OOB kids with siblings anymore in PK. It's becoming much, much more IB and much less diverse. From my perspective, that's a loss to the school (though obviously not anyone's fault).

Diversity is nice but if I had to choose, I’ll take rising academic quality.

Changing demographic does not mean academic quality goes up.

I know a number of OOB families at Hearst. The mothers have graduate degrees, and are often better educated than the law firm partner's wives who live IB.

So this creates diversity exactly how?

Short answer: It doesn't. But "diversity" sounds great as a buzz word for continued access to WOTP schools.

Astonishingly, black people with advanced degrees do exist. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but it turns out to be true. You can look it up online! You may not have encountered them as they tend to send their children to Hearst.

Why don’t they use their considerable talents and advanced degrees and invest some sweat equity in improving the quality of their neighborhood schools?

Why are “we” discouraging our neighborhood schools from bringing in children who don’t look like our children if we live in segregated neighborhoods? Why is it so important to some people to stop that from happening? Why are there people who put so much time and energy into arguing against this? Why not have some people improving the quality of “their” neighborhood schools, AND some people improving the quality of “our” neighborhood schools by allowing them to become, or stay, integrated? Why can’t we do both?

Because the Ward 3 elementary schools are overcrowded. Because our elementary school teacher told us we need to supplement at home because the class is too big and we need to be prepared for lower test scores next year (she made us promise not to tell principal). Because DCPS has 22,000 empty seats on the other side of the park. Because the OOB lottery is just as likely to be won by a white family these days.

Wow. So has the student-teacher ratio changed? I thought that was set by dcps, but maybe I’m wrong.

What do you think happens the school is using all classrooms at capacity?

I’m not sure I understand. What is the student:teacher ratio in your child’s classroom? And what is the change from his/her student:teacher ratio last year?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Hearst is changing a lot. They can't even accommodate all the OOB kids with siblings anymore in PK. It's becoming much, much more IB and much less diverse. From my perspective, that's a loss to the school (though obviously not anyone's fault).

Diversity is nice but if I had to choose, I’ll take rising academic quality.

Changing demographic does not mean academic quality goes up.

I know a number of OOB families at Hearst. The mothers have graduate degrees, and are often better educated than the law firm partner's wives who live IB.

So this creates diversity exactly how?

Short answer: It doesn't. But "diversity" sounds great as a buzz word for continued access to WOTP schools.

Astonishingly, black people with advanced degrees do exist. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but it turns out to be true. You can look it up online! You may not have encountered them as they tend to send their children to Hearst.

Why don’t they use their considerable talents and advanced degrees and invest some sweat equity in improving the quality of their neighborhood schools?

Why are “we” discouraging our neighborhood schools from bringing in children who don’t look like our children if we live in segregated neighborhoods? Why is it so important to some people to stop that from happening? Why are there people who put so much time and energy into arguing against this? Why not have some people improving the quality of “their” neighborhood schools, AND some people improving the quality of “our” neighborhood schools by allowing them to become, or stay, integrated? Why can’t we do both?

Because the Ward 3 elementary schools are overcrowded. Because our elementary school teacher told us we need to supplement at home because the class is too big and we need to be prepared for lower test scores next year (she made us promise not to tell principal). Because DCPS has 22,000 empty seats on the other side of the park. Because the OOB lottery is just as likely to be won by a white family these days.

Wow. So has the student-teacher ratio changed? I thought that was set by dcps, but maybe I’m wrong.

What do you think happens the school is using all classrooms at capacity?

I’m not sure I understand. What is the student:teacher ratio in your child’s classroom? And what is the change from his/her student:teacher ratio last year?

26:1. With a few kids who don’t speak English and require significant support and a few kids who are several grades behind. The teacher is overwhelmed and its a real problem. Please don’t talk to me about the wonders of diversity right now.

[Anonymous]

This thread is making me very sad. We've been a Hearst family for five years, and I have felt that the school has a real commitment to educational equity -- to making sure that the diverse population of kids are all made to feel welcome, and that their needs are met at Hearst. And I had thought that the families at the school were committed to that goal as well.

I'm really sorry to see some of the fairly ugly comments on this thread and I hope they aren't representative of our community. I for one remain committed to ensuring that all kids and families in our Hearst community are welcome. I don't care where in the city you live, if you are part of our school, you have as much right to be there as anyone else, you belong, and we are all in this together.

[Anonymous]

I’d say that people are committed to welcome students from outside the In-Boundaries area as long as there are extra spots. But they are not committed to overcrowd or to expand the school just for the sake of maintaining OOB enrollment. DC has a system of neighborhood based elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is making me very sad. We've been a Hearst family for five years, and I have felt that the school has a real commitment to educational equity -- to making sure that the diverse population of kids are all made to feel welcome, and that their needs are met at Hearst. And I had thought that the families at the school were committed to that goal as well.

I'm really sorry to see some of the fairly ugly comments on this thread and I hope they aren't representative of our community. I for one remain committed to ensuring that all kids and families in our Hearst community are welcome. I don't care where in the city you live, if you are part of our school, you have as much right to be there as anyone else, you belong, and we are all in this together.

Thank you! We’re a Hearst family too and I’m relieved to hear from someone who is open to all our kids. I don’t know if the anti-diversity posters are really from Hearst or not. It feels a bit like having the ubiquitous Thanksgiving dinner discussion with one’s right-wing grandpa! (Except my grandpa wasn’t right-wing.) Well, we all go to the school together, anyway. I’m wasn’t aware of such high teacher-student ratios at Hearst. As long as all the children are treated equally well in practice I think we’ll be OK.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think those posters were from Hearst.

[Anonymous]

I’m a Hearst parent and, unfortunately, I think the posters really are from Hearst. There is an undercurrent of this type of attitude. You can see it at drop-off and pick-up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a Hearst parent and, unfortunately, I think the posters really are from Hearst. There is an undercurrent of this type of attitude. You can see it at drop-off and pick-up.

I'm OOB at Hearst. What is it that you see at drop off and pick up?

[Anonymous]

Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

The vast majority of parents do not share this irrational outrage.

[Anonymous]

There seems to be this notion that OOB students meaningfully add to Heast’s diversity. That is an exaggeration today. Fortunately OOB students utilize extra slots so long as they are available (which is becoming less and less). But in terms of international or socio-economic diversity, students from EOTP are pretty similar to children from WOTP. (I’m also thinking of those OOB moms with their high-powered graduate degrees. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

So basically Hearst will be at capacity in the next year. The community needs to decide whether Hearst should be enlarged further to maintain significant OOB enrollment. Would Hearst be okay if DCPS basically imposes a minimum OOB enrollment as they appently are doing as John Eaton is modernized?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

So basically Hearst will be at capacity in the next year. The community needs to decide whether Hearst should be enlarged further to maintain significant OOB enrollment. Would Hearst be okay if DCPS basically imposes a minimum OOB enrollment as they appently are doing as John Eaton is modernized?

This is my perhaps naive understanding of how things work. Schools have a building capacity. If that is not filled in a given year, OOB lottery slots are offered. If it is, they’re not. My concern as a dcps parent is how many students there are for each classroom teacher in an elementary school like Hearst. As far as I know, that’s not affected by how many students there are total. If a school goes over capacity, that’s not because of OOB students, it’s because of an increase in IB students. So I’m not sure how OOB students are a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

So basically Hearst will be at capacity in the next year. The community needs to decide whether Hearst should be enlarged further to maintain significant OOB enrollment. Would Hearst be okay if DCPS basically imposes a minimum OOB enrollment as they appently are doing as John Eaton is modernized?

I think Eaton is being enlarged as it’s being renovated to prepare for a projected increase in IB kids. Hearst has just been renovated, so I don’t know that that’s in the cards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hearst’s capacity is 325, and its enrollment for this year is 312. So hardly over capacity. The outrage towards OOB children seems a bit irrational.

So basically Hearst will be at capacity in the next year. The community needs to decide whether Hearst should be enlarged further to maintain significant OOB enrollment. Would Hearst be okay if DCPS basically imposes a minimum OOB enrollment as they appently are doing as John Eaton is modernized?

This is my perhaps naive understanding of how things work. Schools have a building capacity. If that is not filled in a given year, OOB lottery slots are offered. If it is, they’re not. My concern as a dcps parent is how many students there are for each classroom teacher in an elementary school like Hearst. As far as I know, that’s not affected by how many students there are total. If a school goes over capacity, that’s not because of OOB students, it’s because of an increase in IB students. So I’m not sure how OOB students are a problem.

Ensuring that a school doesn’t go over coacity is the principal’s job. As IB enrollment climbs, OOB needs to be managed down. The problem is that an OOB student has the right to remain at the school through the end of 5th grade (and then to go to overcrowded Deal and Wilson, but that’s a different issue). Add sibling enrollment rights to that, and it can be a long time before an OOB family cycles through the school. It’s a bit like turning a large ship. What the principal needs to do, once the school reaches near-capacity and with IB enrollment continuing to climb is to resist political pressure from the central office or the temptation to some marginal per pupil dollars, and to avoid filling spots that may open in certain grades even as the school is quite full. Otherwise, it becomes very difficult to throttle OOB enrollment back even with the school at capacity.