Reply to Janney third grade parents--what do you think of the giant class sizes?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Janney third grade parents--what do you think of the giant class sizes?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am on the boundary line between Murch and Janney (currently zoned for Janney).  The only reason I don't want to be rezoned to Murch is because the building sucks.  once it is renovated, what's the difference? All the Murch families I know are happy there except for size, which is an issue with J, L, and M schools.  Likewise, there were families rezoned from Murch to Lafayette.  Other than the fact that Lafayette was farther, not much noise about being moved from M to L.

I do think it's a valid concern to be rezoned to a school that has worse test-scores.  I may not care about test scores personally, but it's not crazy.

[b]There was just an article in the NYT about a similar fight happening in Brooklyn.[/b]  One neighborhood has one overcrowded elementary school (so crowded that IB kids can't even get in, under the rules in NYC).  So they want to redraw the lines to zone part of the neighborhood to another school (also in the same neighborhood) but also includes a housing project and (unsurprisingly) the test scores are much worse.  Parents would rather their kids attend the overcrowded school than be zoned for a failing school.[/quote]

I did not read the NYT article but if the schools being referenced is in Park Slope (PS 351), I will tell you that the fight is really about SES and to a lesser extent race.  Frankly the same dynamics are present in DC only worse.[/quote]

except none of the schools being discussed here are "failing" by any measure.  You can talk pecking order, but even Hearst can objectively be labeled a "successful" school[/quote]

In fact, as has been noted on prior threads, if you look at the Hearst test score data by ethnic/racial subgroup - you see the White kids - which often but not always correlates with high SES in DC - score in the same bracket - e.g., 90s - as the "JKLM" scores.  Ergo - if the whole school at Hearst were IB (i.e., if parts of Murch and Janney were rzoned to Hearst) and Hearsts' demographics suddenly looked like Janneys and Murchs' - poof -  test scores would in all likelihood look similar too.    interesting to think about just how quickly that could happen from a numbers perspective - i.e.,  Hearst was +/- 30% IB.  with capacity 300 kids,  i.e., 210 kids at Hearst were OOB.  IB numbers are expected to be higher this year - say it's up to 35% IB - then 225 OOB.  Rezoning roughly 110 kids from both Murch and Janney would be about 15% of current Janney population (700) and 18% of current Murch population (620) - would alleviate their crowding issues some and would turn Hearst into nearly 100% IB school with - most likely - test scores that look like every other Ward 3 nearly 100% IB school...   I'm not necessarily advocating for that - I'm just surprised that some folks seem to be unable to anticipate that as the likely result of resetting the boundaries....   [/quote]

I would advocate for that, because it would strengthen a system of neighborhood schools while alleviating overcrowding in some schools while other, modernized schools have small, antiquated boundary areas and still have so much excess capacity that they have to fill that capacity by transporting kids from across the city.[/quote]

but Hearst does reasonably well with it's less affluent population as well.  Its success is not predicated on its whiteness or affluence.[/quote]

Note the qualifier:  "reasonably' well.    Hearst is just not top tier, sorry.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics