Anonymous wrote:Tell us where things stand now on dual-language programming. This is a crucial attractor.

You can find information on dual language programming here: https://reenvisioningroosevelt.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/december-2014_academic-proposal-for-community-input1.pdf. Specifically pages 5-7 go into detail about what the program can look like on a year by year basis.

To make sure students are prepared for dual language when they get to Roosevelt, we’re in dialogue with immersion schools in the neighborhood, as well as all the potential programmatic feeders in the city like Oyster Adams and Tyler Elementary. Currently, there are only a few middle grades feeders into Roosevelt, and while we know there is appetite in the community for reopening MacFarland Middle School, we will be considering that recommendation in the context of the entire district this spring and should have more information on that in April.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for opening this dialogue. I'm Ward 5, just blocks from Brookland Middle, and our kids, as well as literally every other elementary-aged kid on my block, goes to a charter or another DCPS that they got into OOB. It doesn't mater how pretty the building is, or how convenient, if you don't do some things correctly, you'll open up a sinking ship.

My thoughts:

1. There are going to be children attending this school who will need wrap-around services: mental health, social working services, etc. and I will want reassurance that they are receiving the support they need beyond the classroom so that teachers can teach them when they're in a class with my kids. Teachers should be allowed to work around IMPACT for this set of kids, and class-size should be smaller for those in need of extra attention.

2. Per pp: a test-in, or honors track, would provide those students who were fortunate enough to be in demanding early-years programs with the challenge they need.

3. Creative programming. Languages are great, I agree focusing on those will pull some of the neighborhood charter kids in. However, a strong science program is also very desirable for us, particularly one that is hands-on and project-based would be very attractive and pull people in.

Another poster here who agrees with these points.

These are excellent points. It’s clear that a new building alone does not make a school great. Every DCPS school is staffed with highly qualified Social Workers and Special Educators who participate in professional development and go through yearly IMPACT evaluations. They are staffed based on each individual school’s need. We also partner with a number of community-based organizations that support us in these services, and we recognize that middle school can be a challenging time for some of our students. DCPS is committed to giving students the support they need outside the classroom so all students are able to learn.

Thank you for your input on an honors track and a strong science program, certainly a takeaway for us from this thread. We will pass the information along to our Office of Teaching and Learning as well as the future planning principal for their consideration.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another DCI parent who is considering other options. How hard will it be to get into Brookland OOB?

It won't be. The 3 feeder schools barely have 200 kids in those middle school grades. Last I heard they want 500 at BMS.

How many spots will there be in the first few years at BMS? All 500?

We typically hold about 20 seats per grade for out-of-boundary students, but given the OOB interest for Brookland, we have increased the number of seats to 40 for the 6th grade this year.

Anonymous wrote:DCPS, you quoted me at 12:56. Yes I know about the community process but many of us checked out of it because as it stands we would not consider Ward 5 DCPS elementary schools. The strategy was Build It and They Will Come as articulated at one of the meetings at Turkey Thicket.

Create an honors program or app based program within the school. Offer advanced Spanish and Chinese. And then you night stand a chance of winning parents back from local immersion charters, OOBs, and parochial schools. Because that's where we are now.

What will you do to challenge students? What will you do to keep everyone safe and assess bullying. Yes I have looked at your blog.

In fact I posted one of the links here on the previous thread and I'm glad that spurred you to start these three threqds.

Your comments echo two interests we’re seeing as a theme here: honors track and advanced language.

As we mentioned above re:challenging students, arts and language integration is a research-based model that has been shown to improve academic performance. (https://brooklandms.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/arts-integration-boosts-achievement-for-all/). In addition to the specialized programming Brookland will offer, DCPS is committed to supporting high quality, rigorous instruction across the board.

We absolutely share your desire for a caring, bullying-free school. Fostering that environment, especially in middle school, is essential. As a district, we are moving towards more of a restorative justice model, where empathy is critical. Below are a few links that go into more detail about DCPS bullying policies, DC laws, and recent initiatives to address the problem head-on:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/In+the+Classroom/Health+and+Wellness/Parent+Resources/Bullying+Prevention+in+DCPS
http://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/district-columbia.html
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Public-Schools-143306746.html

We also believe that a school leader sets the tone for a school environment, and we are mid-way through the selection process for a planning principal for Brookland. If you are interested in participating in selection process, please email us at Andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov and we will ensure we provide you information on how to suggest interview questions for our candidates this month and vote on candidates in January!

Thank you for posting the link in the previous thread, we really appreciate getting the conversation going!

Anonymous wrote:I'm IB. DCI is going to loose some families from its imersion feeders because of their tech heavy focus (read the trhead - these are your potential students!). Brookland would be in a great position to recruit these students if it could go low tech and offer advanced language. Could Brookland offer IB for students who want it?

Mostly I want a caring school. Middle school was so cruel - so much teasing. Will you be able to institute an ethos of care into the school - kids caring for kids, adults caring for and respcting kids. I'd be there in a heartbeat if so, even if the academics were so-so. I want my kdis happy and safe emotionally at school. the rest will take care of itself.

Brookland will likely not host an International Baccalaureate (IB) program though our neighbors at Browne Education Campus do. We are however exploring advanced language course offerings – beyond what you see here in our academic vision: https://brooklandms.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/102914-brookland_academic_vision.pdf - but we do not currently have a decision on what that will look like.

Given that the school day is only six to eight hours long, we’ll need to be creative about how we address these interests. We’re looking to develop community partnerships to supplement classroom instruction, you can see some of the ones under consideration on page 6 of the presentation above. Partnering with embassies and other international organizations could be an effective way to offer advanced language enrichment for students who are ready.

We absolutely share your desire for a caring, bullying-free school. Fostering that environment, especially in middle school, is essential. As a district, we are moving towards more of a restorative justice model, where empathy is critical. Below are a few links that go into more detail about DCPS bullying policies, DC laws, and recent initiatives to address the problem head-on:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/In+the+Classroom/Health+and+Wellness/Parent+Resources/Bullying+Prevention+in+DCPS
http://www.stopbullying.gov/laws/district-columbia.html
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Public-Schools-143306746.html

We also believe that a school leader sets the tone for a school environment, and we are mid-way through the selection process for a planning principal for Brookland. If you are interested in participating in selection process, please email us at Andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov and we will ensure we provide you information on how to suggest interview questions for our candidates this month and vote on candidates in January!

Anonymous wrote:I second the request for a test in or honors track.

What will Brookland middle school do to help students coming from elementary schools where the majority is failing to achieve proficiency on tests? How will it raise the bar?

Arts and language integration is a research-based model that has been shown to improve academic performance. (https://brooklandms.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/arts-integration-boosts-achievement-for-all/). In addition to the specialized programming Brookland will offer, DCPS is committed to supporting high quality, rigorous instruction across the board. We recognize that some students will enter Brookland with deficits, and the extended day program will provide space and time to allow them to get up to speed.

The test-in/honors track is clearly a piece of feedback we’re taking from this thread. Thank you for your input!

Anonymous wrote:

DCPSschoolplanning wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will the School Planning Team open a thread for other schools or just for Brookland Middle, Van Ness and Roosevelt? I'm interested in getting answers on some other schools. Thanks!

What schools are you interested in hearing more about? Our office is generally limited to opening new schools and major high school renovations, but we can try to put you in touch with the right people. In the meantime, if you want to email us with your questions, you can reach out to Andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov.

McKinley Middle.

Send us an email at andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov with your questions and we’ll try to get you to the right place.

Anonymous wrote:What languages will you offer?

Will there be advanced level language classes for children who are beyond Level 1 and 2, for instance children leaving immersion elementary schools? Or, is this school really for beginning language learners?

How large are the class sizes?

What is the highest level of Math that will be offered?

TIA

We’re still in the process of gathering community input and planning for the language courses. We plan to offer one semester of Latin to provide students with a strong foundation for language study as well as a semester-long survey course in modern languages. The planning principal, once hired, will make final decisions about language offerings with community input and support from our Office of Teaching and Learning. You can see more about the proposed structure on pages 2 and 3 of the following presentation: https://brooklandms.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/102914-brookland_academic_vision.pdf.

Every student will leave Brookland with one high school language credit. Recently, we have seen interest from families with students enrolled in immersion programs, and we’re currently exploring the possibility of allowing them to continue that level of language instruction at Brookland.

Unfortunately we can’t give a hard number on class size data until we have the school fully staffed and enrolled, but the average will likely be close to where other DCPS Middle Schools.

As for math, students will be able to earn high school credit for Algebra I, and advanced math students will have the opportunity to take Geometry.

Thank you all so much for your thoughtful questions! We have read through them all and are working to reply to each one. For now, we're heading off to tonight's community meeting.

We welcome additional questions, and will be back tomorrow with more responses. Thank you!

Thanks so much for all your thoughtful questions! We've read through them all, and are working to reply to everyone. We're heading off to a community meeting now, but will be back tomorrow with more responses, so keep the questions coming!

Anonymous wrote:OP where are you? you started this thread and fail to answer the questions. If you don't know the answer, please state that you don't have the answer right now, but will get back as soon as you can with the answer. Is this non responsiveness indicative of how you will operate the school?

Sorry for the delay. We've read every response and are working to reply to all of the questions. We've also been preparing for tonight's community meeting, which we're heading off to now!

We'll be back tomorrow with more responses, so keep the questions coming!

Anonymous wrote:I'm not seeing a lot of focus on the math program on the PDF attached. Will calc be offered at all? Isn't that a fairly common offering at a public high school?

We mistakenly uploaded an outdated presentation. Sorry about that. This one has more information about math, and yes, Calculus will be offered: https://reenvisioningroosevelt.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/december-2014_academic-proposal-for-community-input1.pdf

Anonymous wrote:Will the School Planning Team open a thread for other schools or just for Brookland Middle, Van Ness and Roosevelt? I'm interested in getting answers on some other schools. Thanks!

What schools are you interested in hearing more about? Our office is generally limited to opening new schools and major high school renovations, but we can try to put you in touch with the right people. In the meantime, if you want to email us with your questions, you can reach out to Andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov.

Anonymous wrote:Will Langley students get any sort of preference? McKinley Middle will likely be a very STEM-oriented school, so it would be nice to have a language and arts option available.

There will be out of boundary seats available at Brookland MS, and we expect the arts and language focus to be a draw for those seats. Unfortunately, any families who live outside the boundary for Brookland will have to go through the MySchoolDC lottery, including students from Langley.

Anonymous wrote:What are you doing to convince Ward 5 parents who are not sending their elementary kids to Ward 5 DCPSs to send their kids there? Middle school is critical and many of us did not find the elementary schools sufficient, let alone the middle.

Are you heavily recruiting from Ward 4 since they are close and don't have a stand alone middle school?

Are you open to ideas to what you should do to recruit in Ward 5? Would you consider a test-in program?

We have been in dialogue with as many Ward 5 parents as possible to get their input on a neighborhood middle school from the start of the planning process. That input helped shape the academic vision for Brookland, which you can find here: https://brooklandms.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/102914-brookland_academic_vision.pdf

While Ward 4 does not have a stand-alone middle school, there are several DCPS middle grade options at the educational campuses which run K – 8. We realize that the arts and language focus at the school will likely appeal to students across the city, and as such, we have opened additional lottery seats for the 6th grade at Brookland. We are not recruiting directly at Ward 4 schools, though Ward 4 families are welcome to apply through MySchoolDC.

We are open to any input and/or feedback about our outreach and recruitment efforts. Feel free to post it here, or email andrew.katz-moses@dc.gov with your thoughts.

Can you clarify what you mean by a “test-in” program? At this time, we do not have plans for an application program at Brookland, but we will certainly pass along the suggestion.