Anonymous wrote:Did you all know that Eastern High School is going to have the IB Diploma Program (11th and 12th grades). It obviously won't be for everyone and will be a small cohort within the school. Two of the middle schools that feed into Eastern, Eliot Hine and Jefferson, are currently working on IB Middle Years Program certfication. In Middle Years ( 6 to 10th grade ), the entire school participates and is organzied around the IB philosophy. By 11th grade it is only the most advanced and motivated students who can handle the program.

I don't know if the plan is to just ignore the 9th and 10th grades of the middle years program, or to carry it through.

Just wondering if people would consider Eastern with its IB Diploma program for high school.

Anonymous wrote:OP again. Thank you, pps, for filling me in. I certainly didn't mean to spark a round of anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better with Basis and Deal parents as the chorus. I'm impressed by the collective boosting though - parental loyalty to both schools sounds like testament to a pioneering spirit in NW.

My dearest wish right now is for a Fairfax or MoCo caliber public MS to suddenly emerge on the Hill. Failing that, the dough for a private. Looking at the pack of middle-class elementary school kids coming up, I feel like "everyman" parent here, with scores soon to confront the same dilemna. We essentially have six months to stay put and go with Basis, or 18 months to move and go with Deal/Wilson, or with MoCo. We could, of course, go with Stuart Hobson, or maybe Two Rivers, but they don't seem worth it. Hardly the end of the world whatever course we choose.

I'm disappointed, but not surprised, to learn that Deal only tracks for math, and will indefinitely from the sounds of it. I say this because the "differentiated learning within the classroom approach" has worked less well for us with each passing year of elementary school as the gap between the kids who struggle (yes, mostly low-SES and AA, but certainly not all) and the advanced kids (yes, mostly white or Asian and high-SES, but certainly not all) grows. My older child read all the Harry Potter books in the 3rd grade, where she sat alongide a few kids who struggled to read chapter books. Since tracking for subjects other than math is almost certainly what it's going to take this particular child to be consistently challenged, it doen't sound like Deal would be good fit. And I can't feel enthusiastic about the sounds of the non-academic facilities at Basis. I'd really like a school with at least a gym and a stage/auditorium.

Signing off her by saying thanks again, we'll weigh it all in the balance between now and decision-making time.

Dude...my kid read all of the Harry Potter series in the fall of 2nd grade, with about half of the class (I know this because the kids discussed it ad nauseum all year and tried to beat each other on the accelerated reading program). He attends Lafayette, and something like 96% of last year's 5th grade class moved on to Deal, so that's who your kids would be in class with. Geez.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: The lack of tracking at Deal, combined with social promotion, concerns me greatly, as do relatively thin sounding extra-curriculars and cramped facilities at a cash-strapped charter.

New poster. We're in exactly the same boat, PP, taking a hard look at Deal (in-bounds), BASIS and MoCo schools for AY 2013-2014 or 2014-2015.

We share your concern about the lack of tracking, other than for math, not just at Deal but at Basis! Our kid has done Johns Hopkins CTY camps for humanities after 2nd and 3rd grades, and will go after 4th, yet both schools would toss her into science, English and social studies classes with kids who can't test proficient in reading on the DC-CAS, let alone advanced. Galling. We've learned that MoCo middle schools almost always track for math and English, and usually do for other academic subjects. We're leaning toward MoCo and it sounds like you will be as well. Best of luck.

Anonymous wrote:Did you all know that Eastern High School is going to have the IB Diploma Program (11th and 12th grades). It obviously won't be for everyone and will be a small cohort within the school. Two of the middle schools that feed into Eastern, Eliot Hine and Jefferson, are currently working on IB Middle Years Program certfication. In Middle Years ( 6 to 10th grade ), the entire school participates and is organzied around the IB philosophy. By 11th grade it is only the most advanced and motivated students who can handle the program.

I don't know if the plan is to just ignore the 9th and 10th grades of the middle years program, or to carry it through.

Just wondering if people would consider Eastern with its IB Diploma program for high school.

Anonymous wrote:Give PPs a break, 12:42, gifted is shorthand for "advanced" or "very advanced" in public school parlance. Truly gifted kids rarely stick around public schools of course. They're off to Juliard, the Olympic games or maybe a grand masters chess championship.

This thread has come full circle in a sense, since it started with a Chinese immigrant dad valuing diversity in a school population less than consistent challenge for a talented child, as described in the link above via the anecdote about a Japanese math teaching method encouraging kids to stretch themselves intellectually at every turn.

I don't see real challenge in MS or HS in the District, along with decent facilities (a stage, auditorium, playing fields) without test-in admissions, and I don't see test-in MS admissions, or serious test-in HS admissions, for a decade or more, given the make-up of a not-so-enlightened DC City Council.

The best parents of truly advanced learners and Asian style hard workers can probably do is find ways to make DCPS and DC Charters work for elementary school, then beat it for MS and HS, with nobody much sad to see them go.
Sts
For my part, I'm sick to death of the "Basis and Deal, good-enough-for-me" crowd advising parents who understand that selective admissions promotes excellence to hit the road for the burbs!