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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.[/quote]

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines. [/quote]

Because it really, really, truly is very hard to improve MS and HS in-boundary options. If you have a child old enough that you understand the problems at LAMB and MV, then it's too late for that child to benefit. Because it takes SO long. Decades.

Sincerely, a Stuart-Hobson mom who is old.[/quote]

Can I ask what the specific problems are? Or at least generally? It seems like a lack of community buy in leads DCPS to neglect a lot of these pipelines. Obviously no one wants to be a test case but that's what it feels like people are accepting at MV and LAMB just for the feeder. Wells seems to be able to buck the trend a bit because it's brand new and the ward has grown so much some parents don't have a choice to go elsewhere.[/quote]

Well, in general.... I don't actually feel like DCPS is neglecting middle schools so badly, it's more like DCPS has many many funding priorities and administrative priorities and nobody ever gets the amount of cash or attention they feel is needed.

One factor is the lack of a desirable high school-- that will really hold any middle school back. If Eastern were high-performing and still by-right, Stuart-Hobson would be transformed immediately. I'm cautiously optimistic that the EPIC program at Eastern may get some results, but the bottom line is Eastern's CAPE scores are still pretty bad. It's hard to believe their rhetoric about academic excellence when hardly anyone in any grade is passing any math CAPE at all.

Another factor is the dang students. It's a difficult age. It just is. Elementary parents buckle up, because my kids were WAY more difficult in 6th and 7th than they ever were in 4th and 5th. Behavior like euphemism for misbehavior, but also they're just struggling so hard to cope with life's challenges at this age, and they're so emotional, it's hard. Even kids who aren't behaving "badly" or have an actual behavior problem per se, are just harder to manage.

Another factor is parents have higher expectations for middle school academics than they do for upper elementary. It takes more to satisfy them. People who in elementary supplemented at home and claimed to value diversity... well, that changes and they're going to want their kid on track for the highest level high school classes, plus quality extras.

Another factor is the achievement gap. It's present in PK3, and it grows every year so by middle school it's really big. A middle school has to teach across like 6 grade levels. It's complex, it takes time and costs money. Middle schools are just much more complicated than elementary schools.

Another factor is parent engagement can be fleeting. With a 3-year age range, most parents know they aren't there for a long haul the way they are for a PK3-5 elementary school where they might have one or another of their children there for 10 years or more. It's harder to get people to invest and it's harder to build up parent institutional knowledge.

I wish DCPS middle schools the very best, and I'm heartened by how things are going at Stuart-Hobson, Wells, MacFarland, Eliot-Hine, and others. But when a middle school starts doing well, it's like a magnet attracting more kids-- higher-income kids who need more differentiation and whose parents bring resources but also bring certain expectations and take up time, but also kids who aren't doing well at their current school and so they're below-grade and that's why their parents are switching them to a better school. So it's this constant game of catch-up and incorporating new kids. It's a challenge. A challenge well worth undertaking! But I hope this has helped you understand why it's a long, difficult process.

[/quote]

This is a very thorough response. Thank you. I do wonder how other areas are able to address some of these issues in ways DCPS is not. It does seem like, from experience, some of the issues begin with families who say they like diversity and local schools in elementary and always have one foot out the door.[/quote]

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