Reply to Funding for Coolidge

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Funding for Coolidge"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]Earlier this year, I went on a field trip with Whittier 8th grade students. They were mostly IB and a great group of very smart kids. When I asked them where they planned to attend high school next year they said McKinley, School Without Wall, and Banneker. "What about Coolidge?" All of them said they'd go there if they had to, but it was basically last on their list. They didn't want to go to school in a falling down old building and their perception is that it wasn't a good place for academically-minded students because anyone smart would have figured out a way to avoid going there.

I think both those critiques are related. Having the last comprehensive high school that's not modernized really handicaps Coolidge from being able to draw students from the neighborhood when there are other, more compelling options. The talk of delaying modernization even further make me sad for the students who won't have other options and neglects the potential benefit to the neighborhood of having a world class building like the other modernized high schools. Of course, it's not enough to just building, you also have to ensure the school has great leadership, an amazing staff, rigorous curriculum, and exciting programs for students to want to go there. But leaving a school to decay and then pointing to low enrollment as a reason to continue ignoring it just seems really unjust to me. [/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