Reply to Coffee in Lincoln Park with David Catania

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thank God that was your take away. I don't think the Hill schools need a "bold reinvention". What I want in a mayor is much broader than that. [/quote]

+1    
I have kids in elementary and middle school in Capitol Hill and am starting to resent people with kids barely out of diapers - who I bet you have never set foot in any of the Hill's middle or high schools - telling me that my children need to be subjected to "bold action" so you can feel better about living around here for a few years (and then pack up and leave anyway). 
Besides, declarations about "bold reinvention" and "scrap it all" are so devoid of any historic insight. Eastern was closed - I mean closed, closed - and reopened in a completely new facility, under completely new leadership, teachers, (test-in) IB diploma track and all - doesn't get much bolder than that. Certainly as bold as George Bush had in mind when adopting NCLB. It's doing very well btw, diploma track included. Could use your support for sure, but certainly doesn't need any more "bold actions". And maybe, just maybe, take a few hours off and tour our middle schools. I mean tour, actually go speak to students, teachers, and parents. Go there asking questions rather than bringing all the answers with no insight. Let them explain to you how they handle advanced students (honors tracks, academies and all included, whether they call it that or not), if that's what you're hoping your child may be. And, darn it, that's not asking "how white are you?" or "how rich are you?".

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How can you be certain that a young family has in fact never set foot in any of the Hill's public middle or high schools?  What if we told you that we've volunteered in these very schools, and that what we've observed has convinced us not to send our little children unless test-in programs are instituted?

Bold action where Hill schoolare are concerned is code for AAP/GT and test-in.  I've taught IB curriculum classes in schools in New York.  If a single Eastern student earns the 28 IB points needed to clear the full diploma hurdle (the whole point of having an IB program) in the next decade, I'll be surprised.  Meanwhile, up in MoCo in the test-in IB program at Richard Montgomery HS, more than 90% of enrolled IB students earn the full diploma, with the average pass rate in the high 30s (45 points maximum).   A good many of the RM IB students are neither white nor rich.

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