Anonymous
Post 10/04/2011 12:27     Subject: Re:Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:AYes, it would be so much more comfy to see it all in place waiting for the likes of us to finally "jump in the boat" - or the bandwagon as the case may be. But there is one significant upside to being among the first to jump. You get to steer!
(So what's the next foreign language gonna be, French or Chinese?)


IThus, the question should be "what's the next foreign language gonna be, Spanish or Chinese?" Good question. Spanish is more practical, Chinese has more cachet. There's a big market for Spanish in DC, and on the Hill, Tyler is filling it, so my vote would be Spanish. Let Yu Ying figure out Chinese middle school.


I think that Eliot Hine already offers Spanish, and the first poster is saying in addition to Spanish, should the school offer Chinese or French. Yu Ying stops accepting students in 2nd grade, so altho they may figure out a middle school, there won't be new entrants. Deal, I think, offers choice of Spanish, French, Chinese.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2011 12:19     Subject: Re:Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:A Maury parent here: I think anyone frequenting this discussion with kids in testing grades at Brent, Maury, and Tyler, throw in Ludlow-Taylor and J.O. Wilson, add Payne and Miner (anyone out there?), and, heck, why not Two Rivers, which I don't think has a viable middle school option either (am I wrong?), should know from experience how, in many ways, surprisingly little it actually takes to turn a school around. And how oblivious we ES parents may indeed all be to what's already happening on the ground. Many of the very people who introduced us to Maury some significant years back just before sending their kids off to Hardy because they didn't trust Eliot-Hine are actually now banking on Eliot-Hine. Their Hardy kids transfer to Eastern HS. Their educational sensors are sharp, not clouded by color. I followed their lead once, I can follow them twice.
Yes, it would be so much more comfy to see it all in place waiting for the likes of us to finally "jump in the boat" - or the bandwagon as the case may be. But there is one significant upside to being among the first to jump. You get to steer!
(So what's the next foreign language gonna be, French or Chinese?)


I wouldn't count on Two Rivers. The problem - such as it is - with their middle school (after all, it still scores better than any of the Hill options) is that they expanded by opening the doors. They should have just grown their own students up from 5th to 6th and kept control of the education of their population. Nobody wants to welcome a class of middle schoolers who are used to a disorganized environment and read at a 3rd grade level. Over time, their MS is going to improve, because it's going to retain students instead of taking in new ones.

French is still the most popular 2nd language in Canada, but in the U.S. it is Spanish. Most Americans who speak French have ties to the Caribbean or Africa, not Quebec or France.

Thus, the question should be "what's the next foreign language gonna be, Spanish or Chinese?" Good question. Spanish is more practical, Chinese has more cachet. There's a big market for Spanish in DC, and on the Hill, Tyler is filling it, so my vote would be Spanish. Let Yu Ying figure out Chinese middle school.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2011 11:10     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric

Brent parent here – I don’t really see a wagon to jump in right now. With my kids in the testing grades I need a solution immediately. I don’t need the promise of a plan that will initiate an action that will create a study that will improve a program that will increase enrollment that will improve a school. I just don’t see Jefferson, Eliot Hine or Stuart Hobson as options in their current incarnations.

I want nothing more than to keep my children in neighborhood schools growing up with their friends. Right now, I am not sure how that happens.


I totally agree with you. We were in a "good" Ward 6 school. I liked that we were keeping our kids in the community and that we could still live in the city. But, something happened around grades 3/4. Our child, who had loved school, became bored and unhappy. My child now takes a bus across town to attend middle school. It is not the best situation -- children need sleep and with homework, activities, and the long commute sometimes sleep is what gives. Of course, if all Ward Six residents sent their children to the local school and worked to improve it, we could have a great middle school option in Ward 6. People like my family while doing what is best for our children are part of the problem.
Anonymous
Post 10/04/2011 10:25     Subject: Re:Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:A Maury parent here: I think anyone frequenting this discussion with kids in testing grades at Brent, Maury, and Tyler, throw in Ludlow-Taylor and J.O. Wilson, add Payne and Miner (anyone out there?), and, heck, why not Two Rivers, which I don't think has a viable middle school option either (am I wrong?), should know from experience how, in many ways, surprisingly little it actually takes to turn a school around. And how oblivious we ES parents may indeed all be to what's already happening on the ground. Many of the very people who introduced us to Maury some significant years back just before sending their kids off to Hardy because they didn't trust Eliot-Hine are actually now banking on Eliot-Hine. Their Hardy kids transfer to Eastern HS. Their educational sensors are sharp, not clouded by color. I followed their lead once, I can follow them twice.

Yes, it would be so much more comfy to see it all in place waiting for the likes of us to finally "jump in the boat" - or the bandwagon as the case may be. But there is one significant upside to being among the first to jump. You get to steer! (So what's the next foreign language gonna be, French or Chinese?)


Eliot Hine may improve in a few years – but right now the school is struggling. Last year the sixth grade was 30% proficient in math. In sixth grade there were 6 students considered advanced readers and 17 considered below basic readers (more than two years below grade level). For me, the school lacks a critical mass of strong students and it’s primarily focused on remediation - taking a large majority of its cohort up to grade level.

For elementary school I am willing to enroll my children in a struggling school at the youngest grades and join the improvement effort. And for middle school I’ll put my shoulder into it before my kids enroll, but I won’t consider a program that does not start from a position of strength.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 20:51     Subject: Re:Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
A Maury parent here: I think anyone frequenting this discussion with kids in testing grades at Brent, Maury, and Tyler, throw in Ludlow-Taylor and J.O. Wilson, add Payne and Miner (anyone out there?), and, heck, why not Two Rivers, which I don't think has a viable middle school option either (am I wrong?), should know from experience how, in many ways, surprisingly little it actually takes to turn a school around. And how oblivious we ES parents may indeed all be to what's already happening on the ground. Many of the very people who introduced us to Maury some significant years back just before sending their kids off to Hardy because they didn't trust Eliot-Hine are actually now banking on Eliot-Hine. Their Hardy kids transfer to Eastern HS. Their educational sensors are sharp, not clouded by color. I followed their lead once, I can follow them twice.
Yes, it would be so much more comfy to see it all in place waiting for the likes of us to finally "jump in the boat" - or the bandwagon as the case may be. But there is one significant upside to being among the first to jump. You get to steer!
(So what's the next foreign language gonna be, French or Chinese?)
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 17:57     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote: Down the road the near South East community and Van Ness could help Jefferson - but that is a long way off. Say in 2015 it opens as preS, preK and K. In 2012 Van Ness kids would be at Jefferson. Brent parents need a viable option next year and the year after. I'd rather peg my hopes with Tyler and Maury (and I know these schools well and I'm not riding any unicorns) than Jefferson because I have a 2nd grader. I think Brent needs to jump on the Elite Hine thing and work with the other ward 6 schools that have parent involvement now and move away from Jefferson. I just don't see how Jefferson can work in the near term.

I meant 2020.

Brent parent here – I don’t really see a wagon to jump in right now. With my kids in the testing grades I need a solution immediately. I don’t need the promise of a plan that will initiate an action that will create a study that will improve a program that will increase enrollment that will improve a school. I just don’t see Jefferson, Eliot Hine or Stuart Hobson as options in their current incarnations.

I want nothing more than to keep my children in neighborhood schools growing up with their friends. Right now, I am not sure how that happens.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 13:32     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Down the road the near South East community and Van Ness could help Jefferson - but that is a long way off. Say in 2015 it opens as preS, preK and K. In 2012 Van Ness kids would be at Jefferson. Brent parents need a viable option next year and the year after. I'd rather peg my hopes with Tyler and Maury (and I know these schools well and I'm not riding any unicorns) than Jefferson because I have a 2nd grader. I think Brent needs to jump on the Elite Hine thing and work with the other ward 6 schools that have parent involvement now and move away from Jefferson. I just don't see how Jefferson can work in the near term.


I meant 2020
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 12:39     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:Down the road the near South East community and Van Ness could help Jefferson - but that is a long way off. Say in 2015 it opens as preS, preK and K. In 2012 Van Ness kids would be at Jefferson. Brent parents need a viable option next year and the year after. I'd rather peg my hopes with Tyler and Maury (and I know these schools well and I'm not riding any unicorns) than Jefferson because I have a 2nd grader. I think Brent needs to jump on the Elite Hine thing and work with the other ward 6 schools that have parent involvement now and move away from Jefferson. I just don't see how Jefferson can work in the near term.


Speaking strictly as an outsider, Brent seems to have more strength and momentum behind it than any other elementary on the Hill. Where they lead, others may follow.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 10:59     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:"The Van Ness building is currently occupied and if it's good enough for adults it's be good enough for kids."

Maybe for your kid. Not for mine. Thanks!

You must love your kids more than the folks in Capitol Quarter and the parents at SWS.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 10:56     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Down the road the near South East community and Van Ness could help Jefferson - but that is a long way off. Say in 2015 it opens as preS, preK and K. In 2012 Van Ness kids would be at Jefferson. Brent parents need a viable option next year and the year after. I'd rather peg my hopes with Tyler and Maury (and I know these schools well and I'm not riding any unicorns) than Jefferson because I have a 2nd grader. I think Brent needs to jump on the Elite Hine thing and work with the other ward 6 schools that have parent involvement now and move away from Jefferson. I just don't see how Jefferson can work in the near term.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 10:45     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
"The Van Ness building is currently occupied and if it's good enough for adults it's be good enough for kids."

Maybe for your kid. Not for mine. Thanks!
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 09:50     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Chancellor Henderson and Tommy Wells estimated that it would take two million to re-open Van Ness as an Elementary school.

DCPS pledged to re-open the school by 2015. The Chancellor met with a hundred Near Southeast residents and said with current population trends the neighborhood can support an elementary in 2015, and perhaps earlier. This was a disappointment to the stroller filled community who wanted it opened in 2011.

Th area had been zoned for Amidon, and the Chancellor gave them the additional right to feed into Tyler if they want. There has been little interest from Near Southeast in Tyler to date.

The Van Ness building is currently occupied and if it's good enough for adults it's be good enough for kids.

Capitol Quarter in Near Southeast is a Hope Six project where all of the 700 public housing domiciles that were removed are being reintegrated into a new mixed income community. The neighborhood full of urban homesteaders who represent an ideal launching pad for another Hill success story.
Anonymous
Post 10/03/2011 05:25     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
The Van Ness building is in good shape? Wow.

Are you the same poster who keeps insisting that the standardized testing fetish isn't a problem in DCPS elementary schools?

Seriously, if the Van Ness building is in good shape then unicorns must be grazing on the fields at Jefferson. It's going to cost a ton to relocate them to "Eastern Middle School."

Anonymous
Post 10/02/2011 23:55     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:Van Ness at 5th & M St, SE. Across from the Navy Yard. One mile south of its current location.

Van Ness ES closed five years ago. The building is in good shape with capacity for over 400. Almost a thousand new row homes (family sized) and thousands of new domiciles - some of them in old munitions buildings. The area is teaming with strollers and a diverse Hope Six community.

Ward Six should offer to reduce its inventory by two expensive schools (Jefferson & Stuart Hobson) and we ask for one inexpensive school (based on per pupil funding). We right size our inventory, save modernization & operating funds, and its a winnable political argument.


Thanks for the clarification. Something tells me there's going to have to be a lot of explanation and differentiation to get anyone not from Ward 6 to know that Van Ness is in SE, especially if they ride the red line.
Anonymous
Post 10/02/2011 22:18     Subject: Middle Schools - Ward 6 Centric
Anonymous wrote:but it's in Ward 3!


Van Ness ES is NOT in the Van Ness Neighborhood.

Van Ness ES is in the Navy Yard area.