Latin had issues in its first six years as well. Latin has not always been where it is today.

DCI parent here. Yes there are challenges. There are also opportunities. In a city where the opportunity gap between public’s and privates is insurmountable for most, DCI provides a more than adequate option. We supplement academically, and that’s a lot less expensive than say a 45K + per year private. And I don’t expect it to be one either.

The article the parent wrote speaks to challenges that Latin also faced at the beginning; Latin’s early challenges are very public , noted in both the schools meeting minutes posted online as well as the many articles about Latin published circa 2008/2010ish.

Rather than bash the school , one should compare it to others at the same stage of development and note differences, versus highlighting the cracks.

Great to hear the good news on the college progress! This is kind of off topic but still related to the Chromebook. As far as I can tell, students aren't being given any type of formal keyboarding instruction, which is really important for freeing up cognitive attention as well as gaining speed and accuracy so that students can focus on their writing rather than the task of finding letters on the keyboard via the inefficient hunt-and-peck process. If anyone has a kid who has learned to keyboard would love to hear how long it took (how many hours per week) etc.

For all the naysaying and mean girl talk: check this out (75 seniors and it's very early in the college application process....)
For the class of 2020, it is only November and they have....
over $750,000 in scholarships
319 college applications, and
35 acceptances!

Pp here. We'd rather not move but I have considered parochial schools. There just don't seem to be too many affirdable options for girls in DC.

I am going to contact the tech dept at DCI and see what they can do. It sounds like my kid is not the only one with this issue.

We could have gone to DCI for middle school but chose our in-boundary school, Staurt Hobson. At Hobson 100% are proficient of advanced in ELA honors classes and 100% in math honors classes. Moreover, 100% are proficient or advanced in science and social studies honors classes. We pay to supplement in the target language our student studied at a DCI feeder, but that's a small price to pay to avoid a round-trip commute of more than one hour to academically lagging DCI.

Wake up already, DCI admins.

Anonymous wrote:The majority of the student body is not low SES or poor performing. Maybe by DCUM standards but not statistically.

DCI is a Title 1 school with 19% at risk. 55% are proficient or advanced in PARACC ELA; 38% in Math.

Whatever. DCI runs a chaotic middle school that fails to offer much challenge to high-performing students in any subject.

The majority of the student body is not low SES or poor performing. Maybe by DCUM standards but not statistically.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Have you tried talking to the teachers about this? Asking about it? Or reaching out to admin or the tech people about the classes in which your kid seems to have a lot of free time? Seems like a problem that could get solved.

I'm not OP, and it does seem like a problem that could get solved if, and it's a big if, admins and teachers were really on the ball. For the most part, they aren't.

Dealing with hundreds of poorly prepared low SES kids (read the majority of the student body) is a big job for them. You can't expect can't expect special treatment for your low-key, working-at-or-above-grade-level UMC kid (if you enroll one).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Have you tried talking to the teachers about this? Asking about it? Or reaching out to admin or the tech people about the classes in which your kid seems to have a lot of free time? Seems like a problem that could get solved.

As a parent of a kid at a feeder who will rush through work to be on the chromebook even now in 4th grade, I'm worried about this, too. And it's unclear if the feeders are ramping up the chromebooks so much because it's what the teachers want or because they want the kids prepared for DCI.

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Have you tried talking to the teachers about this? Asking about it? Or reaching out to admin or the tech people about the classes in which your kid seems to have a lot of free time? Seems like a problem that could get solved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Can parents of middle schoolers at other schools possibly weigh in? Is this normal? We're at a DCI feeder but this thread, plus comments from parents I know who have pulled their kids out, make me think this school is not going to serve my children either. These chromebooks seem to be a major problem. I also expected IB would mean the school would be even more challenging, but instead it seems less. At this point, I have no idea what we'll do.

MS IB is not known to be particularly challenging or rigorous. HS IB is -- but that doesn't really start until 11th grade.

Why believe that IB Diploma studies will be challenging/rigorous in the upper HS grades when IB students weren't particularly before? This sounds seriously optimistic.

Not what I meant. I meant the curriculum itself is very difficult, at least in the high level courses. IB MYP is just not (aside: WIS dropped IB MYP for this reason but still follows IB for 11/12 and students test for the diploma).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Can parents of middle schoolers at other schools possibly weigh in? Is this normal? We're at a DCI feeder but this thread, plus comments from parents I know who have pulled their kids out, make me think this school is not going to serve my children either. These chromebooks seem to be a major problem. I also expected IB would mean the school would be even more challenging, but instead it seems less. At this point, I have no idea what we'll do.

DCI should engage fourth grade feeder parents more. We had to scramble to tour DCI after our child matched at BASIS and it was kind of grudging as the process isn't designed for fourth grade families. I understand why, but I think waiting until fifth grade to start to get feeder families excited is too late.

Why? To try to convince 4th grade families that DCI's middle school will be rigorous when, for the most part, it won't be?

Um, convincing strong students to stay versus peeling off for fifth is only going to help. We talked to as many DCI parents as we could when making our decision, but what was lacking was a strong sell from the school itself, highlighting the good parts of DCI, of which there are many.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a 6th grader at DCI. My frustration is centered on the fact that my kid seems to have an awful lot of free time at school during classes. And it seems I have to manage this free time from afar by asking the school to lock down certain websites so she can't play games, open up accounts on music sites, etc. And then I get to be the bad guy when she's bored. Asking for more to do doesn't seem to be encouraged and in some classes, she said she has already completed the next module/assignment so she plays games.

I don't have a problem with chromebooks per se. I have an issue with my kid needing it to fill her time in class when she is finished with her work. And with me feeling like I have to manage this.

We have no other options.

Can parents of middle schoolers at other schools possibly weigh in? Is this normal? We're at a DCI feeder but this thread, plus comments from parents I know who have pulled their kids out, make me think this school is not going to serve my children either. These chromebooks seem to be a major problem. I also expected IB would mean the school would be even more challenging, but instead it seems less. At this point, I have no idea what we'll do.

DCI should engage fourth grade feeder parents more. We had to scramble to tour DCI after our child matched at BASIS and it was kind of grudging as the process isn't designed for fourth grade families. I understand why, but I think waiting until fifth grade to start to get feeder families excited is too late.

Why? To try to convince 4th grade families that DCI's middle school will be rigorous when, for the most part, it won't be?