Anonymous wrote:I don't get this question when nobody on this thread has claimed that any DC public middle school provides rigor across the board. One of my children was fairly bored at BASIS in English classes and seriously bored in required language classes that were ridiculously easy. BASIS doesn't even permit language study before 8th grade, and then only at the beginning level. My other child was bored in most classes at DCI. We moved on to a parochial school where the kids are bored in math. Pick your poison I guess.

Anonymous wrote:You make good points but are painting the picture with too broad a brush. DC public schools do provide rigor, but not consistently, particularly in the system's comprehensive by-right middle schools, including Deal and Hardy.

As things stand, at DCI, IBD for all waters down academics to the point that the most highly competitive colleges are essentially out of reach for DCI students who aren't both excellent students with impressive EC accomplishments and URMs. But there's a caveat. If high SES White and Asian families pay tens of thousands of dollars for enrichment, ECs and test prep over the years, they may be able to stay in the elite colleges game.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

If you step back far enough DCUM threads provide a pretty clear illustration of why public education is so hard and why DC does it so poorly. Here we have a number of families clamoring for more rigor and more true immersion. They want their kids challenged and in classes with other kids at or above grade level. On any BASIS thread (or any thread where it ultimately becomes about BASIS) people lob unfounded complaints about the school forcing kids out or failing to provide IEP supports. There's also the usual suspects chiming in to argue that BASIS and DCI and Latin should have to have demographics that match DC - a recipe for failing schools across the board. SH threads usually boil down to complaints about refusal to track, or some super secret tracking that exists but that SH doesn't openly talk about. Deal and JR threads seem at bottom to be wealthy folks who use public school as a social core and have means and desire to supplement and rise to their "real" station in life when college comes. The common thread throughout is the usual suspects who seem more interested in virtue signaling than educating children, or people who have come to grips with the fact that DC schools are not there to fully educate their kids.

I remain convinced that the majority of DC residents (black, white, brown, etc.) at all socioeconomic levels want their kids to receive a quality education. The challenge in DC is that the virtue signaling, SJW, apologists for bad parenting and bad behaviors consume a disproportionate amount of oxygen and use social media and access to uneducated Councilmembers (Trayon) to perpetuate the current system and win the day with dumb arguments about how social promotion and "graduating" kids with 6th grade educations is less harmful than alternatives.

If you look, around, "wealthy folks" in DC public schools with the "means and desire to supplement" to help their children achieve aren't confined to Upper NW these days. These folks amalgamate not only at Deal and JR but at Walls, BASIS, Latin I and to a lesser extent at Banneker and DCI. We know EotP families at Walls and BASIS who quietly team up to hire tutors to provide small group AP prep/review. Some of these parents send their children to pre-college AP summer programs on college campuses. The fact that this type of pricey supplementing is kicking in at DCI for IBD exam prep and language immersion, if just in a small way, shouldn't come as a surprise. Many UMC DC families with children in public middle and high schools can afford 5K, 10K, even 15K in academic enrichment per student annually, just not the 30-50K+ to cover tuition and fees at non-sectarian private schools in the area.

If DCI admins were more on the ball, they'd team up with OSSE to help low and moderate-income students access summer IBD programs abroad. OSSE has been providing grants to fund AP prep on college campuses for a small number of high-achieving low SES DCPS students for years. I tutor an excellent at-risk DCPS student who won a grant from OSSE to spend the month of July at an AP prep residential program on an Ivy League campus. She tells me that her family paid nothing for her to attend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

If you step back far enough DCUM threads provide a pretty clear illustration of why public education is so hard and why DC does it so poorly. Here we have a number of families clamoring for more rigor and more true immersion. They want their kids challenged and in classes with other kids at or above grade level. On any BASIS thread (or any thread where it ultimately becomes about BASIS) people lob unfounded complaints about the school forcing kids out or failing to provide IEP supports. There's also the usual suspects chiming in to argue that BASIS and DCI and Latin should have to have demographics that match DC - a recipe for failing schools across the board. SH threads usually boil down to complaints about refusal to track, or some super secret tracking that exists but that SH doesn't openly talk about. Deal and JR threads seem at bottom to be wealthy folks who use public school as a social core and have means and desire to supplement and rise to their "real" station in life when college comes. The common thread throughout is the usual suspects who seem more interested in virtue signaling than educating children, or people who have come to grips with the fact that DC schools are not there to fully educate their kids.

I remain convinced that the majority of DC residents (black, white, brown, etc.) at all socioeconomic levels want their kids to receive a quality education. The challenge in DC is that the virtue signaling, SJW, apologists for bad parenting and bad behaviors consume a disproportionate amount of oxygen and use social media and access to uneducated Councilmembers (Trayon) to perpetuate the current system and win the day with dumb arguments about how social promotion and "graduating" kids with 6th grade educations is less harmful than alternatives.

If you look, around, "wealthy folks" in DC public schools with the "means and desire to supplement" to help their children achieve aren't confined to Upper NW these days. These folks amalgamate not only at Deal and JR but at Walls, BASIS, Latin I and to a lesser extent at Banneker and DCI. We know EotP families at Walls and BASIS who quietly team up to hire tutors to provide small group AP prep/review. Some of these parents send their children to pre-college AP summer programs on college campuses. The fact that this type of pricey supplementing is kicking in at DCI for IBD exam prep and language immersion, if just in a small way, shouldn't come as a surprise. Many UMC DC families with children in public middle and high schools can afford 5K, 10K, even 15K in academic enrichment per student annually, just not the 30-50K+ to cover tuition and fees at non-sectarian private schools in the area.

If DCI admins were more on the ball, they'd team up with OSSE to help low and moderate-income students access summer IBD programs abroad. OSSE has been providing grants to fund AP prep on college campuses for a small number of high-achieving low SES DCPS students for years. I tutor an excellent at-risk DCPS student who won a grant from OSSE to spend the month of July at an AP prep residential program on an Ivy League campus. She tells me that her family paid nothing for her to attend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

If you step back far enough DCUM threads provide a pretty clear illustration of why public education is so hard and why DC does it so poorly. Here we have a number of families clamoring for more rigor and more true immersion. They want their kids challenged and in classes with other kids at or above grade level. On any BASIS thread (or any thread where it ultimately becomes about BASIS) people lob unfounded complaints about the school forcing kids out or failing to provide IEP supports. There's also the usual suspects chiming in to argue that BASIS and DCI and Latin should have to have demographics that match DC - a recipe for failing schools across the board. SH threads usually boil down to complaints about refusal to track, or some super secret tracking that exists but that SH doesn't openly talk about. Deal and JR threads seem at bottom to be wealthy folks who use public school as a social core and have means and desire to supplement and rise to their "real" station in life when college comes. The common thread throughout is the usual suspects who seem more interested in virtue signaling than educating children, or people who have come to grips with the fact that DC schools are not there to fully educate their kids.

I remain convinced that the majority of DC residents (black, white, brown, etc.) at all socioeconomic levels want their kids to receive a quality education. The challenge in DC is that the virtue signaling, SJW, apologists for bad parenting and bad behaviors consume a disproportionate amount of oxygen and use social media and access to uneducated Councilmembers (Trayon) to perpetuate the current system and win the day with dumb arguments about how social promotion and "graduating" kids with 6th grade educations is less harmful than alternatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

If you step back far enough DCUM threads provide a pretty clear illustration of why public education is so hard and why DC does it so poorly. Here we have a number of families clamoring for more rigor and more true immersion. They want their kids challenged and in classes with other kids at or above grade level. On any BASIS thread (or any thread where it ultimately becomes about BASIS) people lob unfounded complaints about the school forcing kids out or failing to provide IEP supports. There's also the usual suspects chiming in to argue that BASIS and DCI and Latin should have to have demographics that match DC - a recipe for failing schools across the board. SH threads usually boil down to complaints about refusal to track, or some super secret tracking that exists but that SH doesn't openly talk about. Deal and JR threads seem at bottom to be wealthy folks who use public school as a social core and have means and desire to supplement and rise to their "real" station in life when college comes. The common thread throughout is the usual suspects who seem more interested in virtue signaling than educating children, or people who have come to grips with the fact that DC schools are not there to fully educate their kids.

I remain convinced that the majority of DC residents (black, white, brown, etc.) at all socioeconomic levels want their kids to receive a quality education. The challenge in DC is that the virtue signaling, SJW, apologists for bad parenting and bad behaviors consume a disproportionate amount of oxygen and use social media and access to uneducated Councilmembers (Trayon) to perpetuate the current system and win the day with dumb arguments about how social promotion and "graduating" kids with 6th grade educations is less harmful than alternatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP who disagrees. Stay positive. Lobby the school to work with parents advocates to set up the prep courses or subsidize the live stream option from the UK for low-income participants. These are good ideas. Name calling isn’t.

You must have studied at the "Mean Girl School of Communication" if you think telling someone, "you're jealous of me!" is an appropriate or nice thing to say.

Anonymous wrote:NP who disagrees. Stay positive. Lobby the school to work with parents advocates to set up the prep courses or subsidize the live stream option from the UK for low-income participants. These are good ideas. Name calling isn’t.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Must be nice to be able to afford to send your child to Europe for a IB educational program.

Where does envy get you? Why not explore the Oxford Study Course live streaming IB subject review courses? How about teaming up with other DCI parents to push the school to offer their own high quality intensive review courses during breaks supported by means tested tuition?