Banneker and Shaw to co-locate at Shaw?
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Anonymous
I've met Paul Kihn face to face a couple of times and he doesn't strike me as a stupid guy. But I guess he is a good soldier who doesn't speak up when his boss proposes to do something stupid. His own office just released the latest Master Facilities Plan in February, with population projections from the Office of Planning and enrollment projections for every school. This article -- https://ggwash.org/view/71802/can-dcps-survive-the-coming-enrollment-surge -- looked at the numbers in the report. Some excerpts:
To the extent there's a capacity problem, it's too many seats in high school, particularly in the eastern part of the city. Building a new 800-seat high school at 7th and Rhode Island doesn't seem like a very thoughtful thing to do. To the extent there is excess capacity in middle school, it's in Wards 7 and 8. The rest of the city is going to be quite short of middle school seats in a few years. One explanation for his position is that he doesn't believe in the work of his own office, or has no faith in the school system he oversees to attract students. An alternative explanation is that he's willing to put politics ahead of the well-being of the students he is supposed to represent. Neither explanation is very flattering to him. |
Anonymous
It may help a bit, and that is partly why they were considering it, they think parents like the charter model and thought to replicate it somehow. But from a systems perspective, they know they have more than enough middle school and seats, they need to not undermine MS that are slowing building up, like Brookland, and middle schools do tracking already. |
Anonymous
| I would argue that DCPS' problem with middle school isn't the number of seats, it's that with a few exceptions their schools just aren't very attractive. If they figured out a way to make them attractive those seats would fill. |
Anonymous
They know. But it is hard. The answer is to grow middle and upper class buy in. Most of the time DCPS is just pissing those people off. |
Anonymous
It's getting better people on Capitol Hill have finally realized Stuart Hobson and Jefferson actually work with honors/tracking although many folks still prefer Latin and Basis The biggest problem now is EOTP. There are still no good option for folks. The city needs to replicate the honors/tracking models in at least two of the middle schools in the area to keep higher income folks of all races in DCPS. |
Anonymous
Encouraging families with young kids to stay away from Shaw won't help. All of the stakeholders' interests could have been met in this situation, with proper care and attention, but the lack of political skill to walk and chew gum at the same time is crystal. Whatevs, Shaw people. |
Anonymous
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The core problem of DCPS is that staffing is so strictly tied to enrollment. They don't lead with staffing for classes when students haven't already shown up. This doesn't adequately take school choice into account.
So while there's a chicken and egg question here, we've got DCPS saying on record through its budgets, "no way we're supplying the chickens before the eggs get here." And then some charters and selective schools have these offerings baked in. And DCPS wonders why they struggle to draw people to neighborhood MS. Deliver staffing on your promised expanded options (don't give these principals enrollment based budgets that keep requiring chopping Algebra teachers, minor world languages, humanities classes, etc. that only help a minority of students) that help you compete with charters and selective schools and you'll get better capture at schools like Brookland, MacFarland, Eliot-Hine, etc. |
Anonymous
Tracking at Francis Stevens middle school is just letting your kid skip a math grade. It is fine if you don't mind your kid going to class with older kids. Really needs good class room control so the younger kids don't freak out. |
Anonymous
So tired of reading the casual racism of pro-tracking comments. Tracking is ineffective at making higher students do better and explicitly hurts lower students. It’s junk science perspectives like this so commonly held by the general public that drive educators nuts. |
Anonymous
No, what drives educators nuts is the central office that micromanages their work and all the kids who don't even show up for class. Check your privilege. |
Anonymous
| It is interesting the article above mentions WashMet. That is a specialized school for youth providing an alternate educational path. I thought maybe a charter was running it. Anyways, it's not a good measure of empty seats |
Anonymous
There are many alternative/specialized programs that draw citywide and aren’t really part of the “neighborhood” system at the high school level. Washington Metropolitan Luke C Moore Cardozo’s international academy The STAY programs at Roosevelt & Ballou (others?) Banneker McKinley Ellington SWW Probably others I’m forgetting And that’s just within DCPS. |
Anonymous
Phelps, which I think is great and totally believe in. Ron Brown All the Spanish schools. Tyler Creative Arts. SEL focus schools like Langley and Van Ness. |
Anonymous
Bard. |
Anonymous
Coolidge too, the Early College and the health and journalism programs Also some IB programming at Eastern. |