Anonymous wrote:Hi this is the OP. Thank you to everyone who wrote helpful comments. My child just started at a school in NE that is not a Stuart-Hobson feeder, and I am hoping to switch into JO Wilson so that we can have a better school and access to Stuart-Hobson. However, I understand that that will require a good lottery number and may not happen. I am also aware that the preschool-8th Education Campuses may not always be Education Campuses, and I'm not sure what our options for middle school would be in that case. I wanted to know more about Stuart-Hobson in case my child ends up in a feeder to it, but also because it's hard to know what to expect if that doesn't happen. So I wanted to understand the whole story just as background knowledge. I would love for someone to tell the tale of Eliot-Hine, McKinley Middle, Brookland Middle, etc. I am trying to piece it together but there seem to be so many different opinions and viewpoints out there, that I'm not sure what to believe.

Middle school is a very hard thing to do well, and I understand that. It takes a long time and a lot of parent involvement. I know that my child's needs may be hard to predict, but if I wait until my child is in 6th grade to take an interest in the middle schools, it will be too late.

On this part, DCPS has swung from one end to the other.

The district was moving toward all middle schools, but under Michelle Rhee there was a push to use the PK-8 model. Once she left, there was again a push to all middle schools -- in large part to create 'equity' between Ward 3 (Deal) and the rest of the city.

I think almost every PK-8 is now destined to feed to a middle school -- and the 6th to 8th grade will be phased out.

The feeder pattern grid from DCPS may help you. https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/SY17-18%20School%20Feeder%20Patterns.pdf

Hi this is the OP. Thank you to everyone who wrote helpful comments. My child just started at a school in NE that is not a Stuart-Hobson feeder, and I am hoping to switch into JO Wilson so that we can have a better school and access to Stuart-Hobson. However, I understand that that will require a good lottery number and may not happen. I am also aware that the preschool-8th Education Campuses may not always be Education Campuses, and I'm not sure what our options for middle school would be in that case. I wanted to know more about Stuart-Hobson in case my child ends up in a feeder to it, but also because it's hard to know what to expect if that doesn't happen. So I wanted to understand the whole story just as background knowledge. I would love for someone to tell the tale of Eliot-Hine, McKinley Middle, Brookland Middle, etc. I am trying to piece it together but there seem to be so many different opinions and viewpoints out there, that I'm not sure what to believe.

Middle school is a very hard thing to do well, and I understand that. It takes a long time and a lot of parent involvement. I know that my child's needs may be hard to predict, but if I wait until my child is in 6th grade to take an interest in the middle schools, it will be too late.

This one?
https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/article/13041307/dc-neighborhood-schooled

Yes, what is it that you're trying to understand? Capitol Hill Montessori wasn't a middle school when it was moved out. It was a preschool program, housed in the Watkins building. Same goes for SWS, which was housed at Peabody. There was a WaPo article a few years back that tells the story of the "Cluster School" founded in the 1980s. That sounds like what you are are looking for, not Stuart-Hobson specifically it seems to me, to tell from those added details. It is to this day the basis for the feeder pattern within that "cluster", from Peabody, to Watkins, to Stuart-Hobson.
What you are totally missing is the fact that that history, which interesting, is pretty much irrelevant because the institutional landscape of schools is completely different nowadays. There weren't out-of-boundary application options and there certainly weren't any charter schools. Can't tell you the story of SH as a "museum magnet school" exactly but at one point way back DC has something like "magnet schools". (Maury ES was a science magnet for example.)
At any rate, that history doesn't have much to do with today's middle schools. If you ask me, middle schools have a difficult role simply by the fact that they are middle schools, in the "middle" from here to there. Just how it is. That charter schools started draining away some of the kids in 5th grade, unsettling the feeder patterns really didn't help. But I am also loathe to blame them because they aren't exactly having a smooth ride in their middle schools either, just an easier selection. Sure, you can blame "choice" more broadly, but having exercised my right to choose twice with middle schools, in different directions, I must say that's here to stay. We better live with it. Whether they start at 5th or at 6th, the first year of middle school is rough (look for a recent WaPo article on the subject of the "freshmen year" effect). And then there are only two more. Meanwhile, K-8 schools have their downsides and so do 6-12. Caught in the middle they are, those middle schools.

OP, I think it's a nice thing that you are interested in that history but it appears to me that you have made up your mind about things you really are just discovering. At the risk of sounding a little know-it-all, you really have to have kids that age (or at least have had them fairly recently) to know what it's like. While there are undeniable parallels between 2 and 12 year-old, it really isn't the same. What you think you may know your child needs during those years, may turn out to be very different. Keep an open mind and enjoy those elementary school years without constantly worrying about a landscape that's like quick sand, changing under your eyes.

Anonymous wrote:Didn't I just read on another thread about how it's now very difficult to get in OOB???

In initial round, yes (they only made 1 seat available for 6th).

But they still tend to make lots of calls after school has started (Sept/Oct).

Didn't I just read on another thread about how it's now very difficult to get in OOB???

Why did Sws and CHML move out of the Cluster? And why did parents oppose adding more feeders to SH?

I just find it sobering. Good to know the story, but not sure where that gets us. We could vote out Charles Allen, and vote somebody else in, without that changing a thing where SH goes. The Ward 6 city council member can't move mountains without buy-in from Antwan Wilson and co. There isn't any - the gentrifiers aren't a big enough slice of the electoral pie in DC.

I don't get why OP wants to look back 10 or 15 years for answers. The story isn't complicated. The Cluster was created in the 80s, with a seriously gerrymandered looking boundary, to keep more upper middle class on the Hill (the thinking was, without disastrous DCPS Central Office running things, the quality of the education would stand out in a deeply troubled system). It worked to some extent, then SWS and Cap Hill Montessori moved out of the Cluster 7-10 years ago, and strong competition from charters on both sides of the river gradually stole their thunder. The recent renovations at Watkins and SH have breathed new life into a hackneyed set-up, but most Hill parents still seem to want to jettison the Cluster. Their views are irrelevant, so the Cluster stays.

Not op, but I found that interesting and helpful!

You seriously don't know the basics after perusing SH threads?

During the 2013-2014 school boundaries and feeders review, school system leaders refused to allow most of the nine DCPS elementary schools on Cap Hill to feed into an enlarged SH, creating a pan-Ward 6 DCPS middle school. DCPS intransigence on the issue was supported by the politically powerful leadership of the Capitol Cluster, both admins and parents (mostly residents Wards 5, 7 and 8), and their allies at the the pro-Cluster Capitol Hill Public School Parents Organization (CHPSPO). Sadly, most Cap Hill parents of little kids would have cheered the change.

Without the strongest Hill DCPS elementary schools--Maury, SWS and Brent--feeding into SH, the school can't improve quickly, catching up to Hardy and possibly Deal in this generation. Ensuring that SH become a predominantly in-boundary and high SES school is now a 10-20 year project, when it could have been a 3-5 year project. Not much more to say.

I am really not a troll. I just want to know what people mean when they say DCPS refused to work with parents. Was there a working group or something? I want middle school in DCPS to work out for my kids, but I am feeling discouraged about it.

I call troll. Intentional or not, still a troll. Please go away.

I have, but I am looking for older backstory, and more specifics.

There must have been a dozen SH threads on DCUM in the last four or five years alone. They're easy to find. Why not skim them.

I am curious to hear the history of Stuart-Hobson and how it has changed over the past 10-15 years. I am a preschool mom just getting started with DCPS and it would be so helpful for someone to lay out what has happened, lessons learned, and why do people say downtown has not worked with parents? I read various references to this but it would be good to learn the back story and specifically what went down. TIA.