| Just got called off of the waitlist. How was distance learning before? What electives do 6th graders take? Are the academics challenging? |
| All student schedules should include the four core classes (English Language Arts, Math, Science, and Social Studies), two electives or interventions, an advisory, and a study hall. All students have one required elective (World Languages - Spanish for 7th and 8th grade students, and Physical Education / Health for 6th grade students). This leaves all students with one section available for an additional elective or intervention course. Please note that some electives are available as term, semester, or year-long courses. |
| Does anyone have personal experience with the school? |
| We left after 6th. Curriculum and teachers were not the problem, non-tracked science and social studies were, in a big way. Most kids working below grade level in those classes, including a number of students working several years behind grade level. Much better situation for math, ELA and Spanish. Discipline and classroom management so-so. No regrets about leaving. Search for other recent SH threads - quite a few in the last two years. |
I'm curious how you knew, as a parent, that other students in class were working several years below grade level. Did you go observe? Take other parents' word for it? Did the teacher tell you? |
What does below grade level even mean for middle school science? From what I recall, it was just fun experiments. |
Sounds like you were below grade level. |
Here's one way of knowing: https://osse.dc.gov/page/2018-19-dc-science-assessment-and-dlm-results-and-resources |
You can tell by the student work that's posted in the classrooms. |
| Thank you. Are 6th graders allowed to take Spanish? How do they get in the advanced math and English class? Also, is it truly advanced or on grade level? |
It seems that every school did bad in the science PARCC. |
All of the above, and our kid observed and reported. Sometimes our son would do group work with kids whose written input he would edit and rewrite before turning in a final project for grading. Some of these kids were clearly only able to write at a 2nd or 3rd grade level. Really sad. |
Yes, 6th graders can take Spanish. Very little grade level work taught by teachers, but a highly advanced math student can do math on computers. Hobson started teaching algebra in 7th grade to a few kids for the first time this past school year. |
| Computers, oh great. No wonder so many families IB for SH run off to BASIS. |
Either that or these parents are trying to create artificial divisions so that Larla doesn't have to be in a class with kids that don't look like her. My PhD in STEM makes me believe it's the latter. |