Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unsustainable to...whom? What's to stop Deal from serving, say, 2,000 students? And to stop Wilson from absorbing more than 2,000? Fire code violations? Health and safety violations? Lack of space for classroom trailers and an addition? Furious in-boundary parents voting their CM out? What? I'd like to know.

If you look at the "Fact Sheet" here: https://dme.dc.gov/node/1198445 (appendix 4) Deal is currently listed as being at 85% of capacity.

Which basically shows that in DCPS, capacity decisions are complete politics, and have nothing to do with either facility limitations or educational best practices. DC has a conflicted relationship with the Ward 3 schools. People in the rest of the city hate that good schools are concentrated in Ward 3 --but most of the kids who attend public school in Ward 3 live in the rest of the city. DCPS hates that the OOB process sucks kids out of their neighborhood schools -- but they can't say no to people who want to go OOB.

The situation at Deal is whatever is least politically painful, right now. In 2010 Michelle Rhee could have made OOB-feeder a preference instead of a right, and it would have been politically palatable at that time because it would have been functionally equivalent. And it would still be politically palatable today because nothing would have changed. But changing today is a non-starter because of all the people who have gotten used to having that right.

In short, the capacity of Deal is however many people feel that they have a right to go there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unsustainable to...whom? What's to stop Deal from serving, say, 2,000 students? And to stop Wilson from absorbing more than 2,000? Fire code violations? Health and safety violations? Lack of space for classroom trailers and an addition? Furious in-boundary parents voting their CM out? What? I'd like to know.

If you look at the "Fact Sheet" here: https://dme.dc.gov/node/1198445 (appendix 4) Deal is currently listed as being at 85% of capacity.

Which basically shows that in DCPS, capacity decisions are complete politics, and have nothing to do with either facility limitations or educational best practices. DC has a conflicted relationship with the Ward 3 schools. People in the rest of the city hate that good schools are concentrated in Ward 3 --but most of the kids who attend public school in Ward 3 live in the rest of the city. DCPS hates that the OOB process sucks kids out of their neighborhood schools -- but they can't say no to people who want to go OOB.

The situation at Deal is whatever is least politically painful, right now. In 2010 Michelle Rhee could have made OOB-feeder a preference instead of a right, and it would have been politically palatable at that time because it would have been functionally equivalent. And it would still be politically palatable today because nothing would have changed. But changing today is a non-starter because of all the people who have gotten used to having that right.

In short, the capacity of Deal is however many people feel that they have a right to go there.

Most of the people that attend school in W3 do not live outside of ward 3.

These are the numbers I got from Mary Cheh's office:

Percent in Ward 3
Deal MS 37%
Eaton ES 32%
Hearst ES 21%
Janney ES 89%
Key ES 93%
Mann ES 94%
Murch ES 77%
Oyster-Adams BS 26%
Stoddert ES 66%
Wilson HS 21%

Overall 48% live in Ward 3. They're not necessarily OOB, many school boundaries cross ward boundaries. A lot of Ward 3 kids go to SWW in Ward 2 or Lafayette in Ward 4.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unsustainable to...whom? What's to stop Deal from serving, say, 2,000 students? And to stop Wilson from absorbing more than 2,000? Fire code violations? Health and safety violations? Lack of space for classroom trailers and an addition? Furious in-boundary parents voting their CM out? What? I'd like to know.

If you look at the "Fact Sheet" here: https://dme.dc.gov/node/1198445 (appendix 4) Deal is currently listed as being at 85% of capacity.

Which basically shows that in DCPS, capacity decisions are complete politics, and have nothing to do with either facility limitations or educational best practices. DC has a conflicted relationship with the Ward 3 schools. People in the rest of the city hate that good schools are concentrated in Ward 3 --but most of the kids who attend public school in Ward 3 live in the rest of the city. DCPS hates that the OOB process sucks kids out of their neighborhood schools -- but they can't say no to people who want to go OOB.

The situation at Deal is whatever is least politically painful, right now. In 2010 Michelle Rhee could have made OOB-feeder a preference instead of a right, and it would have been politically palatable at that time because it would have been functionally equivalent. And it would still be politically palatable today because nothing would have changed. But changing today is a non-starter because of all the people who have gotten used to having that right.

In short, the capacity of Deal is however many people feel that they have a right to go there.

Most of the people that attend school in W3 do not live outside of ward 3.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unsustainable to...whom? What's to stop Deal from serving, say, 2,000 students? And to stop Wilson from absorbing more than 2,000? Fire code violations? Health and safety violations? Lack of space for classroom trailers and an addition? Furious in-boundary parents voting their CM out? What? I'd like to know.

If you look at the "Fact Sheet" here: https://dme.dc.gov/node/1198445 (appendix 4) Deal is currently listed as being at 85% of capacity.

Which basically shows that in DCPS, capacity decisions are complete politics, and have nothing to do with either facility limitations or educational best practices. DC has a conflicted relationship with the Ward 3 schools. People in the rest of the city hate that good schools are concentrated in Ward 3 --but most of the kids who attend public school in Ward 3 live in the rest of the city. DCPS hates that the OOB process sucks kids out of their neighborhood schools -- but they can't say no to people who want to go OOB.

The situation at Deal is whatever is least politically painful, right now. In 2010 Michelle Rhee could have made OOB-feeder a preference instead of a right, and it would have been politically palatable at that time because it would have been functionally equivalent. And it would still be politically palatable today because nothing would have changed. But changing today is a non-starter because of all the people who have gotten used to having that right.

In short, the capacity of Deal is however many people feel that they have a right to go there.

Anonymous wrote:Unsustainable to...whom? What's to stop Deal from serving, say, 2,000 students? And to stop Wilson from absorbing more than 2,000? Fire code violations? Health and safety violations? Lack of space for classroom trailers and an addition? Furious in-boundary parents voting their CM out? What? I'd like to know.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Mayor Bowser promise "Alice Deal for all"?

Yes, and if all middle schoolers in DC were to attend Deal, its scores would be abysmal. When will people understand that it's not the school itself that makes it successful, but the student body?

+1000

If that's the case, then you won't mind if DCPS moves the worst principal in the system to Deal, and replaces all of the current teachers with teachers who have the lowest possible ratings and are currently shuffled around from school to school because no one can find a way to legally fire them. Doesn't matter, right? It's just about assembling a bunch of rich kids?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't Mayor Bowser promise "Alice Deal for all"?

Yes, and if all middle schoolers in DC were to attend Deal, its scores would be abysmal. When will people understand that it's not the school itself that makes it successful, but the student body?

+1000

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea, but private schools aren't buying it; their middle schools are almost always much smaller than 900. DC isn't buying it either. If best practices were the focus here, we'd have the sort of test-in public middle school programs you find in cities all around the country (says this Boston Latin graduate; I had to take a killer four-hour test in 6th grade to gain entry). We also wouldn't have elementary schools with nearly 800 kids. New schools would be built or or buildings found in Upper NW to keep grade schools from getting so big.

Exactly. Those people pushing for a 1200+ Deal are nuts.

Deal is already 1341 and every year the 6th grade is bigger than the one before it. The next two classes to come are bigger yet.

At the open house on Saturday the principal told me that he's adding a 5th team to the 6th grade next year.

Next year 6th and 7th will have 5 teams. Each team needs a minimum of 4 classrooms. So that means the school now needs 8 more classrooms. This is why you can't just send everyone to one school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea, but private schools aren't buying it; their middle schools are almost always much smaller than 900. DC isn't buying it either. If best practices were the focus here, we'd have the sort of test-in public middle school programs you find in cities all around the country (says this Boston Latin graduate; I had to take a killer four-hour test in 6th grade to gain entry). We also wouldn't have elementary schools with nearly 800 kids. New schools would be built or or buildings found in Upper NW to keep grade schools from getting so big.

Exactly. Those people pushing for a 1200+ Deal are nuts.

Deal is already 1341 and every year the 6th grade is bigger than the one before it. The next two classes to come are bigger yet.

At the open house on Saturday the principal told me that he's adding a 5th team to the 6th grade next year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea, but private schools aren't buying it; their middle schools are almost always much smaller than 900. DC isn't buying it either. If best practices were the focus here, we'd have the sort of test-in public middle school programs you find in cities all around the country (says this Boston Latin graduate; I had to take a killer four-hour test in 6th grade to gain entry). We also wouldn't have elementary schools with nearly 800 kids. New schools would be built or or buildings found in Upper NW to keep grade schools from getting so big.

Exactly. Those people pushing for a 1200+ Deal are nuts.

Deal is already 1341 and every year the 6th grade is bigger than the one before it. The next two classes to come are bigger yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yea, but private schools aren't buying it; their middle schools are almost always much smaller than 900. DC isn't buying it either. If best practices were the focus here, we'd have the sort of test-in public middle school programs you find in cities all around the country (says this Boston Latin graduate; I had to take a killer four-hour test in 6th grade to gain entry). We also wouldn't have elementary schools with nearly 800 kids. New schools would be built or or buildings found in Upper NW to keep grade schools from getting so big.

Exactly. Those people pushing for a 1200+ Deal are nuts.

Anonymous wrote:Yea, but private schools aren't buying it; their middle schools are almost always much smaller than 900. DC isn't buying it either. If best practices were the focus here, we'd have the sort of test-in public middle school programs you find in cities all around the country (says this Boston Latin graduate; I had to take a killer four-hour test in 6th grade to gain entry). We also wouldn't have elementary schools with nearly 800 kids. New schools would be built or or buildings found in Upper NW to keep grade schools from getting so big.