Message
Anonymous wrote:calexander wrote:Anonymous wrote:calexander wrote:Anonymous wrote:Isn't caleXander zoned for deal? Why does he care?
Thank you for your concern.
The answer is simple, really. I believe that all of the children in our community deserve a fair shot at a good education.
People that came before me fought battles and shed blood to provide my generation with opportunities; the least I can do is to use the resources and skills that are available to me to help today's children have a similar chance.
That being said, if I put on my darkest, most cynical, political, game theory hat, the parents of Deal/Wilson should make standing up MacFarland/Roosevelt a high priority. Enrollment trends at Deal/Wilson are not sustainable. If we want to maintain that educational quality, we all must work together to relieve the pressure.
This is a solvable problem. DC is the rare jurisdiction that actually has the financial resources to do this, IF we can find a way to meet the needs of the extremely diverse groups that are at play here.
Christopher
Thank you Christopher! What is your Saturday academy?
www.nwsadc.com
In short, it is an out-of-school-time academic enrichment program for students in the community. This semester, we have kids from twelve (!) different schools doing First Lego League robotics. In the spring, we'll do advance math and Scratch computer programming.
Are students required to live in Ward 4?
We had that notion at the beginning, but found it less than practical to enforce. Instead we targeted our promotional effort at the local schools and listservs and it has worked out. We just ask that the students be DC residents.
Anonymous wrote:calexander wrote:Anonymous wrote:Isn't caleXander zoned for deal? Why does he care?
Thank you for your concern.
The answer is simple, really. I believe that all of the children in our community deserve a fair shot at a good education.
People that came before me fought battles and shed blood to provide my generation with opportunities; the least I can do is to use the resources and skills that are available to me to help today's children have a similar chance.
That being said, if I put on my darkest, most cynical, political, game theory hat, the parents of Deal/Wilson should make standing up MacFarland/Roosevelt a high priority. Enrollment trends at Deal/Wilson are not sustainable. If we want to maintain that educational quality, we all must work together to relieve the pressure.
This is a solvable problem. DC is the rare jurisdiction that actually has the financial resources to do this, IF we can find a way to meet the needs of the extremely diverse groups that are at play here.
Christopher
Thank you Christopher! What is your Saturday academy?
www.nwsadc.com
In short, it is an out-of-school-time academic enrichment program for students in the community. This semester, we have kids from twelve (!) different schools doing First Lego League robotics. In the spring, we'll do advance math and Scratch computer programming.
Anonymous wrote:Isn't caleXander zoned for deal? Why does he care?
Thank you for your concern.
The answer is simple, really. I believe that all of the children in our community deserve a fair shot at a good education.
People that came before me fought battles and shed blood to provide my generation with opportunities; the least I can do is to use the resources and skills that are available to me to help today's children have a similar chance.
That being said, if I put on my darkest, most cynical, political, game theory hat, the parents of Deal/Wilson should make standing up MacFarland/Roosevelt a high priority. Enrollment trends at Deal/Wilson are not sustainable. If we want to maintain that educational quality, we all must work together to relieve the pressure.
This is a solvable problem. DC is the rare jurisdiction that actually has the financial resources to do this, IF we can find a way to meet the needs of the extremely diverse groups that are at play here.
Christopher
jsteele wrote:calexander wrote:New meeting scheduled for next week. Our homework is to get community feedback on the following questions:
What is essential for DCPS to know about the community surrounding MacFarland Middle School?
Christopher,
I'm sure that you don't need to be told most of what I have to say, but for the record, here it is. The community surrounding MacFarland is diverse and not easily categorized. Simple descriptions such as black/white, rich/poor, native/gentrifier, etc., fall well short of the reality. DCPS will not be trying to manage one group that wants one thing and another group that wants another thing. Rather, DCPS will face many groups with many different goals, some of which will overlap and some of which will conflict.
Obviously, the community has been in a state of transition for a number of years and will continue to be in such a state. However, I think it is an open question as to how long such change will continue. While it would be a mistake to ignore the changes that have occurred in recent years, it might be an equally big mistake to expect that rate of change to continue. On the other hand, the school itself could be a catalyst to various types of change and that is something else to consider.
calexander wrote:
What do you hope to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
I personally hope to see a high-performing school with a diverse student body. A school that will rival the best middle schools in DC. I share the concern that has been mentioned in other threads that the school might focus on the bilingual program with the regular program being an afterthought. The programming should be designed in such a way that even if the bilingual component were removed, it would still be a great program. I hope that school will be a high-performing school that includes a bilingual program, not a bilingual middle school that includes an English-only track.
calexander wrote:
What do you hope NOT to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
I don't want to see the school become a collection of separate programs simply existing under one roof. For instance, one group shunted off into remedial classes, another exclusively attending bilingual classes, and another isolated into some sort of magnet or gifted program. Some here would probably think that sounds great, but without something to bind these groups together, there will be endless conflict. Some very creative thinking will need to be done to develop ways to address a variety of needs and desires while at the same time maintaining a unifying foundation.
I appreciate the time you took to write this; it is well stated.
The challenge is huge, but the opportunity make something really interesting is there.
Anonymous wrote:calexander wrote:New meeting scheduled for next week. Our homework is to get community feedback on the following questions:
What is essential for DCPS to know about the community surrounding MacFarland Middle School?
What do you hope to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
What do you hope NOT to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
Fair Warning: If your bright idea is create a scheme to exclude students from the neighborhood, save your keystrokes, as I will not relay that.
It's been quite grumpy around here lately; let's make this the thread where we try to brainstorm some actual solutions.
Christopher
Whoa, who brought that up / where? On DCUM?
Sorry, that is my own commentary on some of the threads that have been popping up lately (i.e.'Ward 3 and Charters Unite!', 'EOTP Real Estate/School Boundary Evasion, Part 75', etc.)
New meeting scheduled for next week. Our homework is to get community feedback on the following questions:
What is essential for DCPS to know about the community surrounding MacFarland Middle School?
What do you hope to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
What do you hope NOT to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
Fair Warning: If your bright idea is create a scheme to exclude students from the neighborhood, save your keystrokes, as I will not relay that.
It's been quite grumpy around here lately; let's make this the thread where we try to brainstorm some actual solutions.
Christopher
What is essential for DCPS to know about the community surrounding MacFarland Middle School?
What do you hope to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
What do you hope NOT to see in MacFarland as a neighborhood middle school?
Fair Warning: If your bright idea is create a scheme to exclude students from the neighborhood, save your keystrokes, as I will not relay that.
It's been quite grumpy around here lately; let's make this the thread where we try to brainstorm some actual solutions.
Christopher
Great school ratings are nearly useless. People insert numbers that don't match the review, or worse, don't insert a number at all and GS does not clean it up.
So, the planning team did report back on the question that was posted last week. There will be an English language meeting scheduled for the week of October 15th, location TBD. In addition, there will be meetings at every one of the feeders.
The Spanish language meeting was apparently scheduled long ago and is a collaboration with the Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs as an effort to increase participation from parents in that group. Seems like they are piggybacking on an existing meeting.
The Spanish language meeting was apparently scheduled long ago and is a collaboration with the Mayor's Office of Latino Affairs as an effort to increase participation from parents in that group. Seems like they are piggybacking on an existing meeting.
FWIW, one of the cmte members put in a question about this meeting and any plans for a follow-up. We'll see how they respond.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Attend the bruce monroe info meeting Oct 6 to voice your opinion about a test in middle school
I was just informed that this meeting is ONLY in spanish. So that tells me already what DCPS thinks about trying to attract diversity/high SES families to the school. The PTA person is asking the CIty to send a translator for English. Does not seem like a good start.
Is this true? If so, that says to me that this lip service about "dual language" is really about providing a separate track for native Spanish speakers which basically has the benefit of letting Dcps off the hook in teaching those children English. Someone please tell me my thinking process on this is wrong.
It is interesting that you mentioned this. In the meeting they mentioned that just because a child is ELL or grows up in a Spanish-speaking home doesn't mean they automatically qualify to be in a dual-language program. The students need to be on grade-level in writing, reading and speaking Spanish. Participants cited examples of ELL students at their schools who are not in the dual-language program.
The DCPS Office of Planning posted the notes from the first Community Cabinet meeting: https://dcpsplanning.wordpress.com/
Christopher
Christopher
Anonymous wrote:Yes, thanks for the recap.
What are reasons for changing the name?
There is no active plan to change the name. The question was raised and it was discussed.
IN MY OWN PERSONAL OPINION it should be explored. The school had a pretty poor reputation even before it was closed due to under-enrollment. Why carry that baggage to a completely new entity? Especially when parents have so many more choices now?
A name change is not a hill worth dying on, but it should probably be considered.
The first community cabinet meeting was last night. This was the first in a yearlong series of meetings, so by necessity, there was a lot of table-setting and housekeeping yesterday, and not so much delving into the content. Overall, I'd say it was productive and it seems like it will be a good working group, which is comprised mostly of parents (of young children) from the programmatic feeders, but also includes other community members such as myself.
Q&A – I’ll try to capture the responses to the most interesting questions.
Question: If I live inbounds for a (future) MacFarland feeder (i.e. West), does my child have to lottery into the dual language program if they are at grade level academically in Spanish?
Response: Yes. The planning office is aware of this issue and is considering options such as giving children who fit into this category greater weight in the lottery. But as of now, yes, they will need to lottery-in.
Question: The dual language program is exciting. What is DCPS doing to make the non-dual language program attractive to families?
Response: I’ll be generous and say that they are still working on this. The question was asked, but nothing in the response indicated that they are ready to highlight what the top marketing points for the non-language program will be.
Question: The name. Is DCPS open to changing the school’s name from “MacFarland” to something else?
Response: “Eh….” The planning staff seemed reluctant to open that can of worms. The opening line was basically, “Ya know, when you want to change a school name there are a thousand hoops you have to jump through...”
I’ll state my bias upfront by saying that I am strongly in favor of changing the name and I know of others on the cabinet that do as well. However, a person who grew up in that feeder is strongly in favor of keeping the name. So, a name change is not off the table, but it is not a battle that the planning staff seems eager to fight. Let us know (by talking to your school or community’s rep).
As soon as the notes from the meeting are published, I will post a link.
Christopher
Q&A – I’ll try to capture the responses to the most interesting questions.
Question: If I live inbounds for a (future) MacFarland feeder (i.e. West), does my child have to lottery into the dual language program if they are at grade level academically in Spanish?
Response: Yes. The planning office is aware of this issue and is considering options such as giving children who fit into this category greater weight in the lottery. But as of now, yes, they will need to lottery-in.
Question: The dual language program is exciting. What is DCPS doing to make the non-dual language program attractive to families?
Response: I’ll be generous and say that they are still working on this. The question was asked, but nothing in the response indicated that they are ready to highlight what the top marketing points for the non-language program will be.
Question: The name. Is DCPS open to changing the school’s name from “MacFarland” to something else?
Response: “Eh….” The planning staff seemed reluctant to open that can of worms. The opening line was basically, “Ya know, when you want to change a school name there are a thousand hoops you have to jump through...”
I’ll state my bias upfront by saying that I am strongly in favor of changing the name and I know of others on the cabinet that do as well. However, a person who grew up in that feeder is strongly in favor of keeping the name. So, a name change is not off the table, but it is not a battle that the planning staff seems eager to fight. Let us know (by talking to your school or community’s rep).
As soon as the notes from the meeting are published, I will post a link.
Christopher
Don't forget to post your questions regarding MacFarland. The first community cabinet meeting is tomorrow.