Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you think that DCPS would get its act together? If yes, what was the basis for your optimism? Fenty/Rhee might have pulled that one off eventually, but Gray and Bowser?

The school system may be improving, but I'm stating the obvious in noting that there haven't been high-performing by-right middle schools in Ward 6 since prior to Dc home rule. No brainer that none are in the works.

NP, but I did think that it was *possible* that Stuart-Hobson would improve sufficiently in the time from before my DD was conceived to when she entered 6th grade. That's 12 years. And I will say that it has improved somewhat, just not quite enough to make us choose it over our other options. But it isn't crazy that someone would think that 12 years could have some impact. Hardy wasn't always how it is now, right?

Unlike Hardy, SH's improvement has been bogged down by several highly problematic developments in the last decade. The writing has been on the wall for slow progress for almost 12 years.

*The rise of BASIS, Latin and DCI/DCI feeder language immersion schools, creaming off most high SES in-boundary DCPS families by 7th grade. No charters in Upper NW to draw away students from DCPS elementary schools.
*Unstable and generally weak leadership at SH. Three heads in five years, only one of them competent. Hardy's leadership has been exceptional for a decade, meaning many great teachers hired and retained.
*Staunch historic DCPS resistance to academic tracking outside math. Unlike SH, Hardy has the in-boundary students to attract a critical mass of well-prepared high SES families to humanities classes.

Teacher quality is really key. I do know a lot of happy SH families though, and I have no reason to think they are lying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you think that DCPS would get its act together? If yes, what was the basis for your optimism? Fenty/Rhee might have pulled that one off eventually, but Gray and Bowser?

The school system may be improving, but I'm stating the obvious in noting that there haven't been high-performing by-right middle schools in Ward 6 since prior to Dc home rule. No brainer that none are in the works.

NP, but I did think that it was *possible* that Stuart-Hobson would improve sufficiently in the time from before my DD was conceived to when she entered 6th grade. That's 12 years. And I will say that it has improved somewhat, just not quite enough to make us choose it over our other options. But it isn't crazy that someone would think that 12 years could have some impact. Hardy wasn't always how it is now, right?

Unlike Hardy, SH's improvement has been bogged down by several highly problematic developments in the last decade. The writing has been on the wall for slow progress for almost 12 years.

*The rise of BASIS, Latin and DCI/DCI feeder language immersion schools, creaming off most high SES in-boundary DCPS families by 7th grade. No charters in Upper NW to draw away students from DCPS elementary schools.
*Unstable and generally weak leadership at SH. Three heads in five years, only one of them competent. Hardy's leadership has been exceptional for a decade, meaning many great teachers hired and retained.
*Staunch historic DCPS resistance to academic tracking outside math. Unlike SH, Hardy has the in-boundary students to attract a critical mass of well-prepared high SES families to humanities classes.

Teacher quality is really key. I do know a lot of happy SH families though, and I have no reason to think they are lying.

Anonymous wrote:I live on the Hill and I'll say one thing about this conversation:

Your attitude on the viability of MS/HS options on the Hill is often driven by whether you bought your home within the last 8-10 years, versus 10 or more years ago. People who bought earlier tend to have more willingness to figure it out because they are sitting on a gold mine -- relatively low mortgage plus skyrocketing house value gives you tons and tons of options. If you've got a basement you can lease out? Even better. The reason you encounter "middle class" people on the Hill who are blasé about these issues is that they are very fortunate (yes, fortunate, you didn't buy on the Hill when you did because you are some kind of real estate savant, you bought here because that's when you could afford to buy and housing on the Hill was affordable back then) in their housing timing and therefore have or can access cash more easily. This enables them to do things like "try out" SH for a year and see how it goes, hope for the best in the lottery and see how it goes, assume they can "always" rent or buy in NW or the suburbs if they need to.

If you bought long enough ago that your own a house on the Hill but pay less than say 2800 in monthly mortgage payments, you always have access to cash. You can lease your house for a few years and make money off of it. You could sell it for a huge cash windfall. Or you can just live in it and pocket the money that your neighbors are paying just to live there.

If you bought in the last 8 years or so years, you either have a huge mortgage payment (like 3k and up, maybe way up depending on location and size of your house) or you live in a teeny tiny home that you are struggling to imagine staying in as your kids hit MS age (a condo or condo-alternative house, no outdoor space, maybe just 700-800 sq ft).

People in the latter situation, even if they can afford their mortgage and have job security, are much more likely to go looking for more certainty in their school situation past elementary. They are in a fundamentally different financial situation and cannot simply magic up cash for private, nor do they have the flexibility with renting out their home, that people who bought earlier did. They also may worry more about things like saving for college or retirement because they are not going to see the same equity out of their homes and cannot save as aggressively as someone with a much lower mortgage payment.

It is annoying to me how few people seem to understand this and want to attribute these differences to personality or something. It's not. Most of this is just about timing, real estate, and $$$. And regardless of how modest you might think your income is ("DH is just a GS-11 and I'm a teacher! We're not rich."), if you are sitting on 500k or more in home equity in your CH row house, you are, for all intents and purposes, wealthy. Your education choices will reflect that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you think that DCPS would get its act together? If yes, what was the basis for your optimism? Fenty/Rhee might have pulled that one off eventually, but Gray and Bowser?

The school system may be improving, but I'm stating the obvious in noting that there haven't been high-performing by-right middle schools in Ward 6 since prior to Dc home rule. No brainer that none are in the works.

NP, but I did think that it was *possible* that Stuart-Hobson would improve sufficiently in the time from before my DD was conceived to when she entered 6th grade. That's 12 years. And I will say that it has improved somewhat, just not quite enough to make us choose it over our other options. But it isn't crazy that someone would think that 12 years could have some impact. Hardy wasn't always how it is now, right?

Unlike Hardy, SH's improvement has been bogged down by several highly problematic developments in the last decade. The writing has been on the wall for slow progress for almost 12 years.

*The rise of BASIS, Latin and DCI/DCI feeder language immersion schools, creaming off most high SES in-boundary DCPS families by 7th grade. No charters in Upper NW to draw away students from DCPS elementary schools.
*Unstable and generally weak leadership at SH. Three heads in five years, only one of them competent. Hardy's leadership has been exceptional for a decade, meaning many great teachers hired and retained.
*Staunch historic DCPS resistance to academic tracking outside math. Unlike SH, Hardy has the in-boundary students to attract a critical mass of well-prepared high SES families to humanities classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you think that DCPS would get its act together? If yes, what was the basis for your optimism? Fenty/Rhee might have pulled that one off eventually, but Gray and Bowser?

The school system may be improving, but I'm stating the obvious in noting that there haven't been high-performing by-right middle schools in Ward 6 since prior to Dc home rule. No brainer that none are in the works.

NP, but I did think that it was *possible* that Stuart-Hobson would improve sufficiently in the time from before my DD was conceived to when she entered 6th grade. That's 12 years. And I will say that it has improved somewhat, just not quite enough to make us choose it over our other options. But it isn't crazy that someone would think that 12 years could have some impact. Hardy wasn't always how it is now, right?

Anonymous wrote:Did you think that DCPS would get its act together? If yes, what was the basis for your optimism? Fenty/Rhee might have pulled that one off eventually, but Gray and Bowser?

The school system may be improving, but I'm stating the obvious in noting that there haven't been high-performing by-right middle schools in Ward 6 since prior to Dc home rule. No brainer that none are in the works.

Anonymous wrote:ch parents of babies and toddlers buy houses wearing blinders and leave bitter with pre teens and teens, same old same old