Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines.

Because it really, really, truly is very hard to improve MS and HS in-boundary options. If you have a child old enough that you understand the problems at LAMB and MV, then it's too late for that child to benefit. Because it takes SO long. Decades.

Sincerely, a Stuart-Hobson mom who is old.

Can I ask what the specific problems are? Or at least generally? It seems like a lack of community buy in leads DCPS to neglect a lot of these pipelines. Obviously no one wants to be a test case but that's what it feels like people are accepting at MV and LAMB just for the feeder. Wells seems to be able to buck the trend a bit because it's brand new and the ward has grown so much some parents don't have a choice to go elsewhere.

Well, in general.... I don't actually feel like DCPS is neglecting middle schools so badly, it's more like DCPS has many many funding priorities and administrative priorities and nobody ever gets the amount of cash or attention they feel is needed.

One factor is the lack of a desirable high school-- that will really hold any middle school back. If Eastern were high-performing and still by-right, Stuart-Hobson would be transformed immediately. I'm cautiously optimistic that the EPIC program at Eastern may get some results, but the bottom line is Eastern's CAPE scores are still pretty bad. It's hard to believe their rhetoric about academic excellence when hardly anyone in any grade is passing any math CAPE at all.

Another factor is the dang students. It's a difficult age. It just is. Elementary parents buckle up, because my kids were WAY more difficult in 6th and 7th than they ever were in 4th and 5th. Behavior like euphemism for misbehavior, but also they're just struggling so hard to cope with life's challenges at this age, and they're so emotional, it's hard. Even kids who aren't behaving "badly" or have an actual behavior problem per se, are just harder to manage.

Another factor is parents have higher expectations for middle school academics than they do for upper elementary. It takes more to satisfy them. People who in elementary supplemented at home and claimed to value diversity... well, that changes and they're going to want their kid on track for the highest level high school classes, plus quality extras.

Another factor is the achievement gap. It's present in PK3, and it grows every year so by middle school it's really big. A middle school has to teach across like 6 grade levels. It's complex, it takes time and costs money. Middle schools are just much more complicated than elementary schools.

Another factor is parent engagement can be fleeting. With a 3-year age range, most parents know they aren't there for a long haul the way they are for a PK3-5 elementary school where they might have one or another of their children there for 10 years or more. It's harder to get people to invest and it's harder to build up parent institutional knowledge.

I wish DCPS middle schools the very best, and I'm heartened by how things are going at Stuart-Hobson, Wells, MacFarland, Eliot-Hine, and others. But when a middle school starts doing well, it's like a magnet attracting more kids-- higher-income kids who need more differentiation and whose parents bring resources but also bring certain expectations and take up time, but also kids who aren't doing well at their current school and so they're below-grade and that's why their parents are switching them to a better school. So it's this constant game of catch-up and incorporating new kids. It's a challenge. A challenge well worth undertaking! But I hope this has helped you understand why it's a long, difficult process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines.

Because it really, really, truly is very hard to improve MS and HS in-boundary options. If you have a child old enough that you understand the problems at LAMB and MV, then it's too late for that child to benefit. Because it takes SO long. Decades.

Sincerely, a Stuart-Hobson mom who is old.

Can I ask what the specific problems are? Or at least generally? It seems like a lack of community buy in leads DCPS to neglect a lot of these pipelines. Obviously no one wants to be a test case but that's what it feels like people are accepting at MV and LAMB just for the feeder. Wells seems to be able to buck the trend a bit because it's brand new and the ward has grown so much some parents don't have a choice to go elsewhere.

Well, in general.... I don't actually feel like DCPS is neglecting middle schools so badly, it's more like DCPS has many many funding priorities and administrative priorities and nobody ever gets the amount of cash or attention they feel is needed.

One factor is the lack of a desirable high school-- that will really hold any middle school back. If Eastern were high-performing and still by-right, Stuart-Hobson would be transformed immediately. I'm cautiously optimistic that the EPIC program at Eastern may get some results, but the bottom line is Eastern's CAPE scores are still pretty bad. It's hard to believe their rhetoric about academic excellence when hardly anyone in any grade is passing any math CAPE at all.

Another factor is the dang students. It's a difficult age. It just is. Elementary parents buckle up, because my kids were WAY more difficult in 6th and 7th than they ever were in 4th and 5th. Behavior like euphemism for misbehavior, but also they're just struggling so hard to cope with life's challenges at this age, and they're so emotional, it's hard. Even kids who aren't behaving "badly" or have an actual behavior problem per se, are just harder to manage.

Another factor is parents have higher expectations for middle school academics than they do for upper elementary. It takes more to satisfy them. People who in elementary supplemented at home and claimed to value diversity... well, that changes and they're going to want their kid on track for the highest level high school classes, plus quality extras.

Another factor is the achievement gap. It's present in PK3, and it grows every year so by middle school it's really big. A middle school has to teach across like 6 grade levels. It's complex, it takes time and costs money. Middle schools are just much more complicated than elementary schools.

Another factor is parent engagement can be fleeting. With a 3-year age range, most parents know they aren't there for a long haul the way they are for a PK3-5 elementary school where they might have one or another of their children there for 10 years or more. It's harder to get people to invest and it's harder to build up parent institutional knowledge.

I wish DCPS middle schools the very best, and I'm heartened by how things are going at Stuart-Hobson, Wells, MacFarland, Eliot-Hine, and others. But when a middle school starts doing well, it's like a magnet attracting more kids-- higher-income kids who need more differentiation and whose parents bring resources but also bring certain expectations and take up time, but also kids who aren't doing well at their current school and so they're below-grade and that's why their parents are switching them to a better school. So it's this constant game of catch-up and incorporating new kids. It's a challenge. A challenge well worth undertaking! But I hope this has helped you understand why it's a long, difficult process.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines.

Because it really, really, truly is very hard to improve MS and HS in-boundary options. If you have a child old enough that you understand the problems at LAMB and MV, then it's too late for that child to benefit. Because it takes SO long. Decades.

Sincerely, a Stuart-Hobson mom who is old.

Can I ask what the specific problems are? Or at least generally? It seems like a lack of community buy in leads DCPS to neglect a lot of these pipelines. Obviously no one wants to be a test case but that's what it feels like people are accepting at MV and LAMB just for the feeder. Wells seems to be able to buck the trend a bit because it's brand new and the ward has grown so much some parents don't have a choice to go elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines.

Because it really, really, truly is very hard to improve MS and HS in-boundary options. If you have a child old enough that you understand the problems at LAMB and MV, then it's too late for that child to benefit. Because it takes SO long. Decades.

Sincerely, a Stuart-Hobson mom who is old.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

This isn't a knock on your assessment but this feels like the situation at LAMB and I have to wonder why people are willing to accept bad elementary schooling for decent MS and HS versus trying to improve DCPS middle and HS through those feeder pipelines.

Anonymous wrote:Here's what you gotta know about Mundo, OP. There are more kids than can fit in DCI, so not everyone who graduates from Mundo (either campus) is going to get a spot at DCI. And siblings of DCI students get preference, so non-sibling chances are way worse. Now, in the past few years everyone's been able to get into DCI-- but that's because Mundo's attrition is so high that their graduating classes are pretty small. If Mundo becomes a better elementary school, then attrition won't be so high, and DCI chances will go down. If Mundo stays a bad, high-attrition elementary school, then DCI chances are better. But Mundo can't fix its problems and maintain a good rate of DCI access.

People will tell you DCI might expand but I don't believe it because I see no progress.

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two mundo verde kids. One already graduated and one in 5th grade. Both started in prek 3.
The positives: teachers are AMAZING, same with staff, language immersion WORKS (most kids are really fluent in spanish by 5th grade), the connection with DCI for middle school is a plus, the buildings are great.
The unknowns: there's a new executive director and it's unknown how it will be different from the old one
The negative: location is not the best (depends on where you live), there's a lot of VERY woke language going on that borderlines to the uncomfortable when it touches on political issues (union talk to kids? labor disputes?), the lunches are expensive and you have to enroll in the month... also, my kids found it "too healthy" hahaha (for a lot of families this is a pain), there's a trip on 5th grade to puerto rico (yay) that is SUPER expensive (WHAT), there used to be a lot of teacher retention issues (not sure if it's still a problem), the grades don't exceed the standard for local schools...

Anonymous wrote:I have a child in 2nd and in pre-K 4 at Calle Ocho, the oldest started there in Prek-3 so it is our 5th year at the school.
Overall our experience has been extremely positive. Yes, the first year or so back after covid was bumpy but that was pretty universally true. This year has been incredibly smooth including the transition from the old ED to the interim ED to the new ED. FWIW- the new ED has two kids at C8 so she has a lot of skin in the game.
My kids have thrived in the immersion experience and have had skilled and dedicated teachers. They love going to school each day. Is that everyone's experience? Of course not. Every family is bringing their own needs and expectations to the table and no school is perfect for every family. We do not have experience with IEP's etc. so I cannot speak to that.