Anonymous wrote:Again, a lot of defensive posts. But why not close Watkins, reassign the boundary among Brent, Ludlow, Maury, and Payne? Then the in-bounds percentages at all of those schools will go up. Simple matter of optimizing resources.

This is assuming that people actually believe neighborhood schools (ie schools serving students in the neighborhood) are important -- that's another debate.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?

There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Ludlow Taylor is 40% out of bounds, including virtually 100% inbound PK3 and 4 which Watkins doesnt have. Even overcrowded Bent has 30% out of bounds students with the same ECE qualifier.

What is it about Watkins and the persistent trolls here? I have a few theories but DCUM is already such an ugly space.

Huh? Peabody is Watkins' ECE program. A really high percentage of Peabody students are in-boundary.

Point being if you included Watkins ECE it would bump up its inbound % closer other hill schools, whose averages include their 100% inbound ECE.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?

There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Ludlow Taylor is 40% out of bounds, including virtually 100% inbound PK3 and 4 which Watkins doesnt have. Even overcrowded Bent has 30% out of bounds students with the same ECE qualifier.

What is it about Watkins and the persistent trolls here? I have a few theories but DCUM is already such an ugly space.

Huh? Peabody is Watkins' ECE program. A really high percentage of Peabody students are in-boundary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?

There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Ludlow Taylor is 40% out of bounds, including virtually 100% inbound PK3 and 4 which Watkins doesnt have. Even overcrowded Bent has 30% out of bounds students with the same ECE qualifier.

What is it about Watkins and the persistent trolls here? I have a few theories but DCUM is already such an ugly space.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?


There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Ludlow Taylor is 40% out of bounds, including virtually 100% inbound PK3 and 4 which Watkins doesnt have. Even overcrowded Bent has 30% out of bounds students with the same ECE qualifier.

What is it about Watkins and the persistent trolls here? I have a few theories but DCUM is already such an ugly space.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?

There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

I'm the one who posted that and you couldn't be more wrong. But with Watkins (and other DCPS schools with low in-boundary percentages) what I see is DCPS essentially offering their own version of a charter school -- it's not serving neighborhood students. Why? If we really think that even the lowest performing neighborhood schools can do better with more funding, then why not close DCPS charter-like schools that aren't serving the neighborhood, and redirect that money to the neighborhood schools that people think aren't funded well enough?

There's no reason for Watkins to exist when there's plenty of room to serve in-bounds kids in that neighborhood at the other Capitol Hill elementary schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

the usual s@#* stirring from charter stans who want to recruit insecure affluent families away from their neighborhood schools and into charters that benefit from more affluent families.

am I missing anything here?

Anonymous wrote:The Watkins principal must be a strong person. I think I would have PTSD if I faced what she did.

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Watkins and there are still plenty of families from his Peabody days in the fourth grade with him. I volunteer regularly in the classroom, and I’d say it’s like many other schools with a large student body— some kids are doing exceptionally well, others struggle to learn. The good thing is that there still is a large enough group of kids that can push each other academically even in the fourth grade, so it’s not as dire as some of these others posters want to make it seem.

Anonymous wrote:Watkins should close and be reopened as a neighborhood middle school. Only 30% of the students are in-boundary -- they can be redistributed to Payne, Brent, and Tyler. Watkins Middle School should serve Miner, Maury, Payne and Brent; Stuart should serve Ludlow, JO, and Tyler non-Spanish. Or something like that.