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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My IB schools will be MacFarland and Roosevelt...I could be crazy and could ultimately be worn down by the bueacracy, but I'm actually kind of excited at the prospect of those as new schools. I really, really, really hope that DCPS builds programs there that would attract the high-SES families who are moving into Petworth and 16 Street Heights. My kids are still young enough that MacFarland and Roosevelt could be renovated and reopened as attractive programs. Unfortunately, I'm not thrilled with the plan that Roosevelt will have a world language focus, since our IB elementary school doesn't offer much of anything beyond having a teaching assistant who is Spanish speaking and the limited "world language" requirement set in place by DCPS last year. Wish/hope there will be a shift to STEM or simply a strong commitment to creating lots of advanced classes. [/quote]

It's just an international focus, not international language.  It's still meant to be a comprehensive, neighborhood high school with opt-in specialized programming, including language instruction.

I'm excited about it, too.   But it needs a strong middle school to feed it.

You should join the Ward 4 Education Alliance where parents are working to put together a proposal for programmatic offering at the new MacFarland.  I know many, if not most of the parents still have kids in the very early grades, with hopes that it will be up and running within the next five years.[/quote]

Thanks, PP! I will definitely get involved. What does "international focus" mean?[/quote]

It means they put the word "International" in front of everything to make it sound like a much better program, when in fact it's the same old, same old. [/quote]

Again, plans for MacFarland and Roosevelt are in very early stages. These schools can potentially be anything the community wants them to be. If the community wants them to be nothing more than subjects of complaints, they can easily be that. But, we have the opportunity to help create exciting programs. In my opinion, the "international" focus was a case of making lemonade from lemons. Roosevelt already has a student body made up of many nationalities. So, why not capitalize on that? What "international" ends up meaning down the road is really what we want it to mean.
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The plans for Roosevelt are in motion and that school will be open in 2015. They have a dynamic leader who is a great evangelist for DCPS but he doesn't have a record of leading a school with a high quality academic program. The community for Roosevelt includes a lot of people who believe that the school is just fine and needs a new coat of paint. Until DCPS shows us otherwise, that is the "official" plan as it stands. They are basically hoodwinking us to say, "oh, it will be a great school" without any information.

As for MacFarland, the plans do not exist. DCPS is investing in only ONE of the elementary schools that the would feed MacFarland. And that school, Powell, is still a low performing school but has a group of active parents in KINDERGARTEN. Yes, those parents have an agenda for their school and kids, otherwise there are no other parents participating, even at the very basic level. DCPS will need to equally invest in all the other schools feeding to MacFarland to make it have high quality seats. It will take many, many years before that school will be a viable option for many families.

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West is also improving and will feed to MacFarland.  And neither is "low performing".  Sure, profieciency at about 60% in math and reading isn't great, but there are plenty of kids that are learning fine.[/quote]

Ok. I'm not going to get into a tit for tat over scores, but that is not the proficiency rate at West. It's lower overall and much lower in some grades. Point is that Powell is getting $30M and how much is West getting? Put just as much money into all the schools and work to build the kids and schools.[/quote]

Why renovate West when it's going to be cut back to an elementary school only in a few years (yay!).  Renovate it then.

And isn't it a bit tit for tat?  Math is actually at 60% / reading is only 54%... ok.
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