Reply to DCI or Stuart Hobson for anxious child

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Our DC is headed to SH next year. They are a high performing kid and are excited about all of the ECs at the school. We will be keeping an eye on the level of the work and will likely keep supplementing if it’s not rigorous enough but our family is very excited about the school. [/quote]

I've been browsing this site for more than a decade now, and the conversations around SH really remind me of the conversations around Hardy 10 years ago. Snowballing effect of more families opting in and the school stepping up to meet the needs to high achieving students.

I dont live in that area and my kids are on a different middle/high track, but we have friends at SH and the kids seem completely happy, challenged by the variety of ECs and projects (like the "climate symposium?") and will be fine ramping up when they get to high school.

SH getting stronger is a great thing for the city. [/quote]

I could not agree more. Stuart Hobson getting stronger is a wonderful thing!

But it’s still a weak, weak school that is failing the smart kids of DC. And lying about statistics (see above for example) and pretending like kids don’t need serious supplementation and outside extra curricular activities isn’t making it stronger. This only serves OSSE and the crazy boosters who care more about their property values going up than children. Stuart Hobson is not a good school, neither is Eliot Hine, neither is Jefferson and that extends to every other dcps middle. Dc needs to do more for their children. [/quote]

But do you not get that the ONLY way for a public school to keep improving and getting strong, especially in terms of how well it serves high achieving kids, is for more families who have high academic standards and/or high achieving kids to send their kids there? It's literally the only way. You can fantasize all you want about change coming from a top-down DCPS initiative, but it never will. It will come as it has at other schools, with more families investing in the school and saying "we need XYZ program to better serve the school population." And yes, as these changes happen, a lot of families will hedge their bets by supplementing, because at the same time they want the school to improve (and also want their kids to have the experience of attending a decent in boundary school) they are not going to take the risk of hindering their child's project as the school is still improving.

This is all normal. That's why people focus on the progress and on the increasing numbers of high achieving kids attending, instead of fixating on the ways in which the school is still not comparable to a school like Deal or Hardy yet. Because it's the only way to get it there.

If we all just sit around saying S-H (and Eliot-Hine and Jefferson) are terrible and failing kids, instead of looking for the progress and for the ways the school is building off that progress, then these schools will remain terrible because families who value a strong education will avoid them.

Like, what do you want? What's your goal, other than to tell people their school sucks? Mission accomplished.[/quote]

But what is your goal? To pretend it’s going well?  It’s not. And lying to parents and pressuring them to send their kids to a dcps is really not the way forward either. Have people know the true warts and all of the school: disruptive students, poor curriculum, low test scores, few extracurriculars compared to other schools. Let them make an unbiased choice. Don’t boost it. [/quote]

PP here. Who is lying? Who do you think is being tricked here? We are at an S-H feeder and I don't know a single family who is unaware of the test scores, the curriculum limitations, or the biggest glaring gap of all -- the lack of an adequate high school feed at S-H. Different people are handling it different ways. Everyone's kid is different (with not only different academic needs but also different social needs that may or may not be served by the IB school regardless of academic options). People also have different options -- some people can more easily relocate, some can afford private and others can't, some will get lucky in the lottery for alternative schools and others won't.

But I don't know a single person who thinks S-H has exceptional test scores or is the very best academic option for an academically advanced kid. It's obviously not. But it might be the least bad of limited options, or it might be a compromise made for social or emotional reasons, or a family might decide to play it by ear, see how 6th goes, and make adjustments down the road if necessary.

I don't see how you posting over and over again that S-H is simply unacceptable, that it only teaches remedial math (absolutely false), or that parents who send their kids there are irresponsible or stupid is helping anyone make school choices here. It really seems like you have some kind of deep seated anger about this issue that you are working out on other parents and it's getting old. [/quote]

Also a SH feeder parent here, and thank you. I could have written this myself. We still have a couple years until middle school, but we plan to stay on the Hill. My kid tests 1-2 grade levels ahead, and I truly see SH as a viable option for us. We have friends (yes, plural) with high performing 5th graders who have enrolled for next year and are going in eyes wide open but also with excitement. I understand that there's frustration living on the Hill and feeling deprived of some of the more sought after DCPS/charter post-elementary options. But the negative PP is simply off base here. This year's WL data speaks volumes about local buy-in, and you've expressed all of it - including re: supplementation - better than I could have.[/quote]

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