Anonymous wrote:The charters aren't test-in or selective. Why does public need to be?

I think the poster who mentioned the power of "word of mouth" marketing hit the nail on the head. Some of these schools which have excellent potential and already impressive programs (such as Eastern) have a real marketing problem when it comes to a lot of Hill families.

We need a public test-in middle school in order to stop the flight to the charters. DCPS is heading in a direction where it will only be able to fill 2-3 high schools, even though we have overflowing elementaries. College-educated families worry that their children will arrive at college unprepared for the work, due to the need for the schools to teach to the middle of extreme high and lows in DCPS. They bail out around middle school when they realize that their child will never really be taught grammar, spelling, a foreign language or higher math at the rate they are going. Charters currently stand in for magnet-type schools. Fight fire with fire and there will be space for lots of bright students in DCPS and DCPCS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for Brent it was that Jefferson does a great job remediating the outrageously dismal test scores of Amidon. If Amidon students went to JEfferson with the a higher level of proficiency, Brent parents would be more likely to give Jefferson a shot. But is is galling that Stuart-Hobson is actually closer to Brent and more part of Captiol hill neighborhood, yet S-H is not an option.

So, a simplier option is to make S-H a middle school option for those that live in the S-H area. They could do this by stopping the automatic feed to S-H for those that attend certain elementary schools that feed into S-H out of boundary.

Stopping the automatic feed into a middle school based upon what elementary school you attended for 5th grade would actually reduce many DCPS problems.

The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

I get it now. More than half of DCPS students are not able to obtain proficiency by fifth grade so the answer is to simply push them along to middle school with fingers crossed they will magically be able to catch up, but not hold back those who are already proficient and above. That still sounds like social promotion not an "escape route.". The glaring, demanding, urgent issue that DCPS needs to fix is elementary schools at which the majority of children are not learning. The Rhee/Henderson regime, with support from tbe anti-union foundations runs by the like of the Koch and Walton families, and enabled by Fenty and Gray, have perpetrated a fraud on DC residents. Unfortunately it is too late for anyone to do anything for most lower-SES families in terms of education reform. Despite all the ballyhoo about change test scores across LEAs are overwhelming stagnant, even in spite of a ham-fisted effort to fudge the numbers. Let's just watch what happens when a new breed stops blaming teachers and unions. Schools alone cannot ameliorate entrenched societal inequities.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for Brent it was that Jefferson does a great job remediating the outrageously dismal test scores of Amidon. If Amidon students went to JEfferson with the a higher level of proficiency, Brent parents would be more likely to give Jefferson a shot. But is is galling that Stuart-Hobson is actually closer to Brent and more part of Captiol hill neighborhood, yet S-H is not an option.

So, a simplier option is to make S-H a middle school option for those that live in the S-H area. They could do this by stopping the automatic feed to S-H for those that attend certain elementary schools that feed into S-H out of boundary.

Stopping the automatic feed into a middle school based upon what elementary school you attended for 5th grade would actually reduce many DCPS problems.

The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

That is not a given. It has not been tested or even asked.

It is not about satisfying Brent parents, it is about the health of the public education system overall

Keeping OOB slots at SH, Hardy and Deal cannot be the entire answer to helping those below grade level students. That thinking leads to where we are now

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

The disparities need to be addressed, but I wouldn't want my kids in a school where 100% of kids are simply at grade level. Proficiency needs to be the floor, not the ceiling. If DCPS feels its mission is straight mediocrity that's the trade-off, because Latin and Basis aim higher. The Ward 3 schools aim higher.

Yes, if only those students in Ward 7 would wake up tomorrow and be just like the students in Palisades? Why, they could have Key in their own neighborhood by next week! Thanks for the useful suggestion!

It's easier to aim higher when you're starting from a launchpad instead of a sand trap.

You make a lot of assumptions. DCPS doesn't retain enough advance MS students to bring up the floor. The baseline expections are woefully low, and they fail to meet even that. They fail the Ward 7 kids as much as they are failed by circumstance. Even success comes with a big question mark. And why is KIPP so successful at educating these Ward 7 kids where DCPS fails miserably?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

The disparities need to be addressed, but I wouldn't want my kids in a school where 100% of kids are simply at grade level. Proficiency needs to be the floor, not the ceiling. If DCPS feels its mission is straight mediocrity that's the trade-off, because Latin and Basis aim higher. The Ward 3 schools aim higher.

Yes, if only those students in Ward 7 would wake up tomorrow and be just like the students in Palisades? Why, they could have Key in their own neighborhood by next week! Thanks for the useful suggestion!

It's easier to aim higher when you're starting from a launchpad instead of a sand trap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think for Brent it was that Jefferson does a great job remediating the outrageously dismal test scores of Amidon. If Amidon students went to JEfferson with the a higher level of proficiency, Brent parents would be more likely to give Jefferson a shot. But is is galling that Stuart-Hobson is actually closer to Brent and more part of Captiol hill neighborhood, yet S-H is not an option.

So, a simplier option is to make S-H a middle school option for those that live in the S-H area. They could do this by stopping the automatic feed to S-H for those that attend certain elementary schools that feed into S-H out of boundary.

Stopping the automatic feed into a middle school based upon what elementary school you attended for 5th grade would actually reduce many DCPS problems.

The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

Charters are the escape route of choice, not DCPS. If families can travel to OOB school they can travel to charter.

Anonymous wrote:
The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

The disparities need to be addressed, but I wouldn't want my kids in a school where 100% of kids are simply at grade level. Proficiency needs to be the floor, not the ceiling. If DCPS feels its mission is straight mediocrity that's the trade-off, because Latin and Basis aim higher. The Ward 3 schools aim higher.

Anonymous wrote:I think for Brent it was that Jefferson does a great job remediating the outrageously dismal test scores of Amidon. If Amidon students went to JEfferson with the a higher level of proficiency, Brent parents would be more likely to give Jefferson a shot. But is is galling that Stuart-Hobson is actually closer to Brent and more part of Captiol hill neighborhood, yet S-H is not an option.

So, a simplier option is to make S-H a middle school option for those that live in the S-H area. They could do this by stopping the automatic feed to S-H for those that attend certain elementary schools that feed into S-H out of boundary.

Stopping the automatic feed into a middle school based upon what elementary school you attended for 5th grade would actually reduce many DCPS problems.

The problem with this, from DCPS's point of view, is that it shuts down an escape route for lower-SES families from dismal neighborhood schools. When >50% of DCPS students can't perform at grade level, that's a more glaring, demanding, urgent issue than satisfying the Brent parents. It's already a given that the majority of those parents will choose Latin or Basis over SH even if it were an option.

I can't agree. Demanding something of DCPS doesn't really get results. It is a messed up inequitable system. Generations of parents have dealt with this by putting students in Ward 3 schools and now charter schools.

DC owes it to its citizens to correct decades of poor management. Parents have a role to play as well. But it is the system that is rotten.

Anonymous wrote:What it means is, white parents don't show until a certain school "gets good" and then once it does they say it "needs to be a neighborhood school."

Did this happen or not at Hill elementary schools?

Nice try. It is not just white parents. Cities change over time. Some gentrify like DC, some decay like Detroit. The fact that a neighborhood school reflects those living in its boundaries is the effect of the DCPS neighborhood school system. I might prefer if my child had the option to attend a JKLM but that would require sacrifices and trade offs that may not be worth it for me. But the fact remains that schools like Brent and Maury "got good" in large part because saw an influx of high-SES families as the neighborhoods became increasingly gentrified. Reclaiming a neighborhood school from mediocrity or worse is nothing to be ashamed about and it's up to parents of lower performing schools to do the same by demanding more of DCPS and their own children.

^^ obviously. I was pushing back on a pp suggestion that white parents are somehow the only ones who avoid failing schools without significant promise if improvement

There are many black middle class and academically ambitious families at Peabody/Watkins and Maury. There are some at Brent.

Anonymous wrote:What it means is, white parents don't show until a certain school "gets good" and then once it does they say it "needs to be a neighborhood school."

Did this happen or not at Hill elementary schools?

And the black middle class and academically ambitious parents? What do they do?

And no, that didn't happen at Hill Elementary Schools.

Sorry, equating the desire of middle class famiiies to have better options does not equate with "inappropriate exclusive ownership." Kudos for the gratuitous snark and condescension.

What it means is, white parents don't show until a certain school "gets good" and then once it does they say it "needs to be a neighborhood school."

Did this happen or not at Hill elementary schools?