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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why isn't there  a Deal MS for Capitol Hill?[/quote]

Because there aren't a couple hundred stable, highly-educated, wealthy families with kids scoring 4s and 5s on PARCC sending their kids to Eliot-Hine, Stuart-Hobson, or Jefferson each year. [/quote]

Jefferson had a successful, invitation only program long before gentrifiers showed up.  [/quote]

Agreed. Shaw had something similar. But with DCPS no longer offering any sort of middle school magnet programs, the reason that no school in Capitol Hill has the size or test scores of Deal is related to the fact that there are not enough kids scoring 4s and 5s on the 4th and 5th grade PARCC going to Eliot-Hine, Stuart-Hobson, or Jefferson. [b]If more did go, the test scores at those middle schools would increase.[/b][/quote]

Yes, OK, and what's the relevance of this statement when obviously the great majority of UMC CH parents (now the majority by a long shot) would rather move, go private, or go charter to BASIS or Washington Latin than enroll at EH, SH or JA?

The only way to change this would be for DCPS to incentivize CH parents to enroll in neighborhood middle schools by offering test-in honors classes across the board (in every academic subject) at all three schools.  DCPS refuses year after year, so nothing changes.

Most CH parents of upper grades elementary students plan to move from the neighborhood, go private, hope for good lottery numbers at Washington Latin and/or BASIS, and wait for Washington Latin's second campus to open next year as Plan B.  The politicians, including Charles Allen, could care less.  That's it, that's all.

[/quote]

I get why this is sensitive, but it would be better for everyone if at least one public middle school in Capitol Hill were seen as a desirable neighborhood middle school on the level of Deal, with 70%+ in boundary students.  The in boundary at risk population is already large in Cap Hill, as pointed out by PP, and I'd love to see them benefit from a cohort of students with well educated parents.  I think it would quickly be the best MS in the city and also serve EVERYONE.

This is good for everyone because it means more seats.  Those seats at charters not taken by Cap Hill folks would be open. Meh.[/quote]

Nice idea. How do you do it? Some people have suggested clustering two middle schools together (like make one grades 5-6 and one 6-7). Problem though: what do you do with the 3rd middle school? What schools feed it? If you shut it down, there isn't enough room for all the IB+feeder kids let alone "serve EVERYONE." If you make it a magnet you cream off the high performers from the clustered school. You can't just cherry-pick the lowest performing schools and send them there because they're geographically non-contiguous and there would be huge racial and economic disparities that make it a political non-starter. Building a single middle school with the capacity for all 3 schools is also a non-starter; why spend a couple hundred million dollars when there are 3 perfectly good, recently renovated, schools already? So your idea is nice but not going to happen. DCPS is happy with the incremental progress it's getting at Stuart-Hobson and Jefferson. And they are not that eager to create schools that have higher IB percentages. You may see that as a good thing, but families that are hoping to get their kid into your IB school from OOB do not. [/quote]

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