I was at SH for last night’s performance of Matilda: The Musical. The performances and set design were incredible. OP, you should seriously look into the school if your child is at all interested in the arts.

The middle school years can be challenging socially. There are a lot of reasons why a kid that age might decide to transfer from one school to another that do not necessarily mean they were failing.

I don't know about kids from BASIS but I do know a number of academic, smart kids at SH. I know they do very well academically and often participate in the academic enrichment activities like History Day (SH offers a lot of after school programming which is a big draw both for parents and students).

My impression from talking to these kids is that it's actually a pretty typical public school experience -- they like school and are learning a lot, and also there are some behavioral issues and annoyances that they complain about. There are clearly some very committed teachers and kids are learning and the kids I'm talking to are at or above grade level. Two of them I know to be terrific writers because I have had the pleasure of reading their writing. All are big readers and as far as I can tell are on track with math.

I don't think this is the "average" experience at SH. However as someone who was a super academic kid at a mediocre small town school district, this is pretty much what my experience was in middle school. I liked school and I paid attention in class and spent spare time reading and did mathletes and academic quiz bowl. Kids like me were in the minority but we also weren't held back by the fact that most of our classmates didn't care as much about school. This is incredibly common in public school.

I think a lot of people in this area are warped by perceptions of some of the super wealthy publics and then all the elite privates to thinking that it's normal for there to be schools where ALL the kids are above grade level, or even on grade level. That would be great but realistically most populations have a bell curve academically. At a school with a large at risk population you can expect the curve to skew towards below grade level because academic performance tends to correlate with family income and stability. But that doesn't mean you lose the high achieving end of the curve, you just get a long tail.

Yes this probably can be academically limiting. If I'd gone to some elite private school where I was really pushed and all my classmates were as academic as I was, I probably would have learned more in K-12. I work with people from this background and I can see ways in which they received a better primary education than I did. On the other hand, I think I often have superior people skills and am less fazed by certain challenges and difficult people (including difficult clients). Also my family could not have afforded an elite private so public was it for me. It is what it is. If you work hard and stay focused, you will still get a good education and can do well in life.

Same. We know kids who left BASIS, St. Anselm's and DCI for SH after 6th or 7th grades, for various reasons (weren't happy at BASIS, didn't like the long commute from CH to DCI, parent lost a job and could no longer pay St. Anselm's tuition).

They were A students at those schools and A students at SH. Two of these kids are at Walls now.

Maryland to start holding kids back:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2024/12/06/maryland-literacy-plan-third-graders-retention/

"If a district determines a student still can’t read on level in the third grade, then — starting during the 2027-28 school year — district officials are charged with recommending the child redo the grade. Parents can opt their child out of being held back; if they do, the child is assigned an intervention plan that includes supports like a summer school program or tutoring."

(and, the grade level kids will actually be able to learn during their classes. Saw with my own eyes when my kids were at a Title 1 DCPS just how disruptive kids below grade level can be in the upper grades -- the classroom literally became chaos, with fist fights and threats. The grade level kids learned to bring their own books and just read through the chaos.)

Michelle Rhee wanted to get rid of social promotion (I learned from the linked article.)

If I could do one thing to change DCPS, it would be that. Once teachers and administrators realize it isn't an option, they will be forced to be creative and come up with ways to actually teach these kids (tutoring, pull outs, etc.)

Anonymous wrote:Our family recently lived in London for a couple years, when my two kids were ages 10-13. At their good local "state" (public) schools, students who couldn't work at grade level for whatever reasons were pulled out of core classes for special intensified instruction in small groups during the school day and on Sat mornings. These kids were only permitted to attend grade-level core classes after they'd caught up. We loved this intelligent remediation system, which doesn't seem to exist in US public schools.

Exactly, I don't think anybody was defending social promotion, I think you can see the weakness of that but also agree that holding back kids and having people 2 years older than everyone else in a classroom also is not the solution. I think the example listed above is a perfect solution, if only the US could figure it out!

Our family recently lived in London for a couple years, when my two kids were ages 10-13. At their good local "state" (public) schools, students who couldn't work at grade level for whatever reasons were pulled out of core classes for special intensified instruction in small groups during the school day and on Sat mornings. These kids were only permitted to attend grade-level core classes after they'd caught up. We loved this intelligent remediation system, which doesn't seem to exist in US public schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you have to get more than 3 Fs to fail a grade in DCPS. You can also make those up in summer school, and as long as you get a D there, you pass.

I know this is going too much into the weeds for this thread, and most people on here are focused on their child and their child's cohort, but making kids repeat grades (especially more than once, or if they are already old for their grade) has been proven to hurt the situation further. Having older kids in younger grades is not the solution.
Mandatory summer classes, or other types of classes in the next grade for remediation may work, because a kid who failed a class the previous year will be lost, confused, and not learn much in the next course in the sequence, furthering the likely hood of failure/not showing up in that next class as well. IMO the emphasis/focus needs to be on how to help those kids get what they need to graduate.

Nope.

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/is-social-promotion-crippling-our-childrens-future-the-debate

This is a must-read for anyone defending social promotion. Thank you for sharing.

Anonymous wrote:

You should let her go. My kid is at EH and the benefits of walking to school and continuity with ES friends is enormous. They get to grow in independence and they will not be harmed by being in school with less homogeneity.

EH is much more homogeneous than BASIS or the Latins

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you have to get more than 3 Fs to fail a grade in DCPS. You can also make those up in summer school, and as long as you get a D there, you pass.

I know this is going too much into the weeds for this thread, and most people on here are focused on their child and their child's cohort, but making kids repeat grades (especially more than once, or if they are already old for their grade) has been proven to hurt the situation further. Having older kids in younger grades is not the solution.
Mandatory summer classes, or other types of classes in the next grade for remediation may work, because a kid who failed a class the previous year will be lost, confused, and not learn much in the next course in the sequence, furthering the likely hood of failure/not showing up in that next class as well. IMO the emphasis/focus needs to be on how to help those kids get what they need to graduate.

Nope.

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/is-social-promotion-crippling-our-childrens-future-the-debate

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you have to get more than 3 Fs to fail a grade in DCPS. You can also make those up in summer school, and as long as you get a D there, you pass.

I know this is going too much into the weeds for this thread, and most people on here are focused on their child and their child's cohort, but making kids repeat grades (especially more than once, or if they are already old for their grade) has been proven to hurt the situation further. Having older kids in younger grades is not the solution.
Mandatory summer classes, or other types of classes in the next grade for remediation may work, because a kid who failed a class the previous year will be lost, confused, and not learn much in the next course in the sequence, furthering the likely hood of failure/not showing up in that next class as well. IMO the emphasis/focus needs to be on how to help those kids get what they need to graduate.

Sure but do you see DCPS trying to do anything at all? Mandatory summer classes - no. Extend school year for bottom - no. Mandatory after school tutoring - no. Remediation classes - no, can’t do that because it’s tracking.

What does DCPS do? Socially promote all the kids. Lower the top to try to narrow the achievement gap instead of trying to bring up the bottom. Case in point is the home stay program. This program would absolutely help the kids spanish because it is real, full immersion. Take it away and the opportunity for the potential for stronger spanish learning is gone. Big missed opportunity.

Anonymous wrote:Yes, you have to get more than 3 Fs to fail a grade in DCPS. You can also make those up in summer school, and as long as you get a D there, you pass.

I know this is going too much into the weeds for this thread, and most people on here are focused on their child and their child's cohort, but making kids repeat grades (especially more than once, or if they are already old for their grade) has been proven to hurt the situation further. Having older kids in younger grades is not the solution.
Mandatory summer classes, or other types of classes in the next grade for remediation may work, because a kid who failed a class the previous year will be lost, confused, and not learn much in the next course in the sequence, furthering the likely hood of failure/not showing up in that next class as well. IMO the emphasis/focus needs to be on how to help those kids get what they need to graduate.

Yes, you have to get more than 3 Fs to fail a grade in DCPS. You can also make those up in summer school, and as long as you get a D there, you pass.