Anonymous wrote:There is already "tracking" for math and ELA at SH, Hardy and Brookland -- and perhaps more.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, but your generalized view of the situation at DCPS middle schools doesn't meet well with the facts on the ground at MacFarland. It has a capacity of about 600 and has more than 200 (I actually think more than 225!) 6th graders. And don't forget that full DCPS lead to choices and options for students - in classes, staffing, extracurriculars, sports, etc.

So the building will be full, probably over capacity, before you know it. I think a lot of people have DCPS frozen in their minds at like 1995 or 2005 or when MacFarland closed in 2013.

The schools around there are full, with waitlists, with diverse groups of parents interested in the schools. Parents like West. Parents like Powell. Bruce Monroe More and more people are interested in schools like Truesdell, Barnard, Height, which are highly utilized as well. The neighborhood is dense and full of kids, with the citywide charters at Haynes, Latin, DC Bilingual, et al., full and successful too. Schools west of Rock Creek Park are a pain to get to and too often full. Private schools are expensive and difficult to access. Middle school "options" in the charter sector are unlikely lottery successes. The suburbs are what we already said no to.

Basically, people in this area of DC are bound to use MacFarland and Roosevelt and by doing so we will make it succeed, I believe sooner rather than later, and without paying any mind to our harrumphing neighbors over 50.

And there are really some serious bright spots people should see. I like both the principal of MacFarland and the principal of Roosevelt, and key people on their staff, like the global studies staff, are there to help make the language and global learning parts of the curriculum real. I see an easy bridge from my kids' dual language school straight into a middle school that adds differentiated options in math, etc., to the mix.

Seriously, this future is coming, the only question is how fast our neighbors decide to join it.

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Anonymous wrote:Mainly in the Takoma, Brightwood, Brightwood Park, Petworth and Fort Totten neighbohoods. Where do folks send their 10, 11 and 12 year olds? We are in a feeder for MacFarland and want to take a hard pass on it.

Currently in the 3rd grade and hope to "win" the lottery for a feeder with a decent MS.

Why won't you give McFarland a chance to mature before you "hard pass". You are very lucky to have a center feeder.

We think the English-only path won't be supported or as rigorous as the Spanish track.

Greetings! I am the 8th grade ELA teacher at MacFarland. I strongly encourage you learn more about the academic programs we offer before jumping to conclusions about the academic programs we offer.

Ha! The sentence I wrote is a mess! Not a good look for the ELA teacher, but you get my point. Please take the time to learn about our school community.

We can see your demographics for ourselves, and we know that the achievement gap isn't a gap, it's a chasm. We also know that MacFarland doesn't offer a test-in program for students who work at or above grade level.

Sadly, you can market your school cheerfully without being able to offer us what we're looking for.

NP. So demographics is destiny, end of story? The ELA teacher asked you to look at their academic program offerings. Where is there a test-in program in DCPS for MS anywhere?

For us, yes. Call us realists, or trolls, that's the name of that tune. Academic offerings are meaningless to us without a cohort of UMC peers who are strong students. We're happy for poor kids to be in class with ours, indeed we prefer to have them, as long as they work at or above grade level in every subject.

Stuart Hobson doesn't permit students who don't work at grade level into their honors classes. That's as close to as a test-in program as we can find. If we don't get into Washington Latin at the end of the month, we will move on from Tyler SI to SH for middle school because we're in-boundary and can find the peer group we're looking for there. We plan to use a MoCo Spanish program on weekends and hire Spanish tutors. SH Hobson principal will permit us to home school in advanced Spanish with other Tyler families who won't go on to MacFarland. Not too bad.

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Anonymous wrote:To the PP who said they like Roosevelt’s principal, is it still the same woman who was caught on tape threatening to humiliate a sexual assault victim?

No. Internet will tell you the answer by the way.

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Anonymous wrote:You sound fairly new to the city. This neighbor under 50 has heard all this before, for 25 years. Hope you're right. Doubt it. If we don't get into Latin or BASIS, we're moving, like some of our other neighbors.

I know several parents in grades 3 and above at Powell who are not enrolling in MacFarland. I hope they change their minds as I would like to reconnect with them once our child is of age.

At some point, folks are going to have no choice.

Brookland is a beautiful shiny new building with test scores that make e wonder if the kids even went to elem school. And it’s half empty and the UMC parents won’t touch it. Dunbar, another shiny new object, half empty and patheatic scores. DCPS has no track record here folks. Mac garland might change in 20 years.

Anonymous wrote:To the PP who said they like Roosevelt’s principal, is it still the same woman who was caught on tape threatening to humiliate a sexual assault victim?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You sound fairly new to the city. This neighbor under 50 has heard all this before, for 25 years. Hope you're right. Doubt it. If we don't get into Latin or BASIS, we're moving, like some of our other neighbors.

I know several parents in grades 3 and above at Powell who are not enrolling in MacFarland. I hope they change their minds as I would like to reconnect with them once our child is of age.

At some point, folks are going to have no choice.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, but your generalized view of the situation at DCPS middle schools doesn't meet well with the facts on the ground at MacFarland. It has a capacity of about 600 and has more than 200 (I actually think more than 225!) 6th graders. And don't forget that full DCPS lead to choices and options for students - in classes, staffing, extracurriculars, sports, etc.

So the building will be full, probably over capacity, before you know it. I think a lot of people have DCPS frozen in their minds at like 1995 or 2005 or when MacFarland closed in 2013.

The schools around there are full, with waitlists, with diverse groups of parents interested in the schools. Parents like West. Parents like Powell. Bruce Monroe More and more people are interested in schools like Truesdell, Barnard, Height, which are highly utilized as well. The neighborhood is dense and full of kids, with the citywide charters at Haynes, Latin, DC Bilingual, et al., full and successful too. Schools west of Rock Creek Park are a pain to get to and too often full. Private schools are expensive and difficult to access. Middle school "options" in the charter sector are unlikely lottery successes. The suburbs are what we already said no to.

Basically, people in this area of DC are bound to use MacFarland and Roosevelt and by doing so we will make it succeed, I believe sooner rather than later, and without paying any mind to our harrumphing neighbors over 50.

And there are really some serious bright spots people should see. I like both the principal of MacFarland and the principal of Roosevelt, and key people on their staff, like the global studies staff, are there to help make the language and global learning parts of the curriculum real. I see an easy bridge from my kids' dual language school straight into a middle school that adds differentiated options in math, etc., to the mix.

Seriously, this future is coming, the only question is how fast our neighbors decide to join it.

Anonymous wrote:You sound fairly new to the city. This neighbor under 50 has heard all this before, for 25 years. Hope you're right. Doubt it. If we don't get into Latin or BASIS, we're moving, like some of our other neighbors.

Anonymous wrote:You sound fairly new to the city. This neighbor under 50 has heard all this before, for 25 years. Hope you're right. Doubt it. If we don't get into Latin or BASIS, we're moving, like some of our other neighbors.

Anonymous wrote:I think we in the soon-to-be-at MacFarland cohort don't need test-in demographics lady...

Anonymous wrote:Dude you know the answer to this. You can enter DL at MacFarland if you can test at grade level in Spanish. Otherwise you take 3 classes with your friends who are doing DL classes instead of all 5.