Reply to OK. I'm game, what's so bad about Peabody/Watkins?

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Reply to "OK. I'm game, what's so bad about Peabody/Watkins?"

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[quote=Anonymous]The OP asked what's so bad about Peabody and Watkins.  Nothing is so bad.  Yet, although its facilities are probably the best on the Hill, Watkins doesn't feel nearly as much like increasingly upscale neighborhood around it as either Brent or Maury.

Why not?  The Brent and Maury PTAs have knocked themsleves out to reinvent their schools as institutions where upper-middle-class families are comfortable first and foremost, while Watkins hasn't kept up with the times.  Brent now has a mostly white teaching staff and student body in a mostly white neighborhood.  Watkins has a largely AA teaching staff in a  mostly white neighborhood.  Brent and Maury spend PTA money to hire aides to provide pullout differentiation.  To my knowledge, Watkins doesn't.  In-class differentiation is half-assed by comparision.

Brent no longer forces students to do structured DC-CAS test prep because the princpal won't play ball with DCPS on that score.  What's the point when the school is mostly white, and white kids mostly score advanced?  Watkins still does it.   And Brent and Maury look a lot better outside than they did around 2005, while Watkins looks worse to me.

Watkins needs to adapt to thrive; it will survive by virtue of its location.  It's losing more white kids in upper grades than it was a few years ago.  Most of my Peabody/Watkins District friends are hoping to head to Inspired Teaching or language immersion schools, with the IB options as Plan B.  Do some soul searching Watkins parents, what do you want to be five years from now?  Plan C?

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