Reply to Shaw Middle School -- what's the plan?

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Reply to "Shaw Middle School -- what's the plan?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]PP nailed it. What would a Shaw middle school offer to make it different from Cardozo? You need a critical mass of high achieving students to turn a middle school around.[/quote]

Shaw MS would have a different group of feeder schools than Cardozo that potentially do in fact have a critical mass of high achieving students.  Right now this cluster of schools is divided for the temporary feeder system with two of the schools going to SWW.[/quote]

Solving this does not require opening Shaw MS. Just send the SWW middle schoolers (SWW, Ross, and Thomson) to Cardozo along with Cleveland, Seaton, and Garrison. There's room, and it would allow more room at SWW for elementary students (including special ed classrooms and more PK, both of which are in huge demand). 
[/quote]

The problem is that they won't send their kids there. The issue with Cadozo MS is that it's connected to a very low performing high school with a history of behavioral problems. It's scary for parents to think about sending their 10 year olds to that kind of environment, regardless of how separate the MS is from the HS. The appeal of a Shaw MS would that it would be a stand-alone, brand new MS. Parents would be more likely to take a chance on a new school than one with a history of low performance. I say this as someone without any kids, without a real stake in the issue, but as someone who had spent time in Cardozo HS. [/quote]

People send their 3 year olds to schools with 8th graders (some of whom have behavioral problems). Ballou and Roosevelt parents send their kids to school in the same building as adults in the STAY program.  Even a stand-alone middle school will have older siblings, parents, and others--some with behavior problems--coming into or waiting outside the building. With so many open DCPS middle school seats, I don't think there's any need to open another school for the few parents who'd be ok with Shaw but have ruled out Cardozo.

But here's another option, probably politically unpalatable to Banneker families and offered too late in the planning process but that would work just as well: open Shaw as a middle school. Send all the kids currently routed to SWW and Cardozo there. And put Banneker in the middle school space at Cardozo.[/quote]

"Politically unpalatable to Banneker families." What about the hundreds of families who were promised a MS in Shaw? Those people and families who weren't involved and whose input hasn't been taken seriously until recently? I think what's being proposed re: Banneker is short-sighted, not to mention being done completely behind closed doors (unless you're a Banneker family or involved w/ the SIT).

But, fwiw, the idea presented isn't a bad one. Why not do a feasibility study re: the Cardozo site. Co-locate two HSs. I'm on board.[/quote]

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