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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's a good question.

I think it's worth [b]looking at Ida B Wells and Brookland Middle for lessons.[/b]

Wells has been successful, in large part due to neighborhood buy-in and Brookland has not.

Looking at what led to both outcomes is worth doing.

It's clearly not the building as the contrast there is clear.

It also doesn't seem to be proximity of successful charter middle schools as both are close to those.

Which schools / students are zoned to the school seems to be a major factor as well.[/quote]

There are some key structural differences. Brookland is near more Catholic middle schools than Wells is. Brookland also has a lot of DCI feeders and the red line commute to DCI is doable and ther are lots of Brookland families for carpools. Brookland is also near ITDS, a strong middle. Friendship and DC Prep are also strong there.

Coolidge is a way more appealing high school than Dunbar.

On the DME spreadsheet of school enrollment by boundary, I can see than in SY 23-24, Brookland zoned kids attended 67 different schools. 119 to DCI, 67 to DC Prep, 37 to Perry St Prep, 37 to Truth, 35 to ITDS. 25 and 29 Latin. Etc. Wells has a shorter and different list of other schools attended. I think proximity of other options plus high school quality difference are the big factors here. Maybe also the new-ness of Wells or its leadership but I'm not familiar with that.[/quote]

DCPS actually acknowledged that the Brookland MS launch wasn't ideal and used those lessons learned when opening Wells. Brookland's founding principal came from Janney and wasn't a good fit. Wells's founding principal and assistant principal both came from Ward 4 education campuses (West/Lewis and LaSalle Backus, respectively). Vroman stayed for three years and then the founding AP, Lyles, became principal (by far the top choice of the panel). The curricular model has stayed basically the same in these seven years and much of the staff has also stayed.

I also believe that Brookland opened at full enrollment from the jump, while Wells opened one grade at a time. Unfortunately the first two years were interrupted by covid, but they managed to build a strong culture in spite of that. It also helps that Whittier is right across the street and Wells is in a very walkable area so it feels easy to get to for Whittier and Takoma (and Breakthrough) families. Brookland doesn't have that structural/accessibility benefit.

The Euclid SIT is in touch with members of the Wells(/Coolidge) SIT so I'm hopeful that they'll build on those experiences.[/quote]

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