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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Many families in Shepherd Park, going back at least 15 years, have not sent their children to Shepherd reasons having little to do with their school. You need to acknowledge this to understand the shift and tension there.

A large percentage of SP families are Jewish and choose religious schools. They live there to be walking distance from one of the 2 synagogues. Mant neighbors are upper middle class AA or Black families who choose private schools for their kids at roughly the same rate as their WOTP white peers (1/2 of children WOTP are in private’s). Neither of these kinds of families want Deal but plenty of OOB families have flocked to fill Shepherd’s empty seats to secure those spots.

As aging residents pass away or move, new people are moving in, and the IB percentage is increasing. But that shift is bringing new expectations and demands. It takes time and is actually not unlike the tension in any DCPS when new IB families decide to opt into their IB and bump into a school community with different needs and expectations (is uniforms are fine or good).  [/quote]

Exactly.  Also, IB attendance apparently used to be a lot higher, but fell under Michelle Rhee ten years ago.  She fired Shepherd's principal, after which there was a succession of something like 6 principals in a 2-year period.  Older neighbors told me that there was a lot of turmoil about the direction of the school, and many IB families pulled their kids out during this time.  IB attendance has been slowly rebounding since then, helped by the addition of PK3 in 2013, and now the lower grades are almost 100% IB.

As for the uniforms mentioned by a PP, uniform requirements seem to less enforced over the past few years.  I don't love them either, but many IB parents actually like them for their convenience.  I wouldn't be surprised if uniforms go away after a few more years.[/quote]

We're not talking about the families requiring a religious education or private school. There are many families who tried Shepherd then left for a charter or other DCPS or just went straight to a charter or other DCPS. Some go to 2nd or 3rd tier privates, but a school on par with say Murch would have kept them.

I haven't heard of any steps to eliminate the requirement for uniforms. What's your basis for thinking uniforms might go away after a few more years? That would be great but I'm not aware of this direction.[/quote]

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