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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]A few thoughts from an ITDS parent:

1) It's no longer easy to get into Cooper and the new Cooper location is much farther from Two Rivers. So the impact of that will be mitigated. But I do think it's the case that the opening of Cooper affected Two Rivers at a time when it was already really struggling. Without the impact of Cooper it might have pulled out of a bad spiral. Who knows.

2) Seems like there's just massive attrition from elementary to middle school at Two Rivers. At ITDS there's a lot-- each year about 25-30% of the 5th grade class is new, and maybe 10-15% of the 6tth grade class. Middle school academics are just okay at ITDS, and behavior is also just okay. It's not like there aren't problems, it's just that ITDS families tend to stay if they don't get into Latin because they can't figure out anything that's better.

3) Looking at the Empower K12 dashboard, seems like TR test scores dropped significantly, especially at Young. Whether that's the result of attrition among higher-scoring kids or the result of worsening teaching, I do not know.

4) It's important to acknowledge highlights as well as lows, so I will say last year Two Rivers sent 15 kids to McKinley Tech and 10 to Banneker, as well as at least 1 each to Walls and Ellington. Well done![/quote]

I'm a fellow ITDS parent, and while I appreciate and agree with most of your post, I do want to correct one aspect:

My family and others I know didn't lottery out of ITDS at middle school because we actively chose the middle school.  Some families think it's a good school and a good fit for their child.  It's not just a last resort school at middle school, it's an actively chosen school for many families, for one reason or another.

We found the academics to be good.  Our child's grade did not have behavior problems.  I hear that this year's 8th grade has some very poorly behaved students, but it's one bad year and doesn't mean that the middle school overall has behavior problems.  Our kid's year had fewer behavior problems in middle school than in later elementary because one very poorly behaved student finally left.  This really points out the plus and the minus of ITDS: it's a very small school.  One or two challenging students can make the entire grade's experience less positive.

To be clear, even though we did not apply for other middle schools for our older child, we may do so for our younger child simply because it would give her more avenues to get into a good high school.  Now there are more decent middle school paths than in past years, and a good high school slot is harder to find as more kids are staying that long.[/quote]

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