Anonymous
Post 04/15/2023 20:59     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:It does seem like some schools are awfully light in the kids department. But they have the whole summer to recruit, not everything has to fill up on lottery day-- in fact it's a good thing if kids moving here post-lottery have some options. But other times, it does make me wonder if the school will survive. It's so easy to get into a bad spiral of low funding, making cuts, laying off teachers, then parents and teachers smell it and start leaving, and that makes it worse.

It does seem like certain schools are in the danger zone of having to downsize-- Harmony, Hope Tolson, maybe Bethune, Paul, maybe SSMA, Meridian... I'm sure there are more.


Rocketship Rise and Eagle Congress Heights.
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 13:31     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I ran the numbers against last year. Here are a few things of note:

Coolidge +275 (really!??)


417 Freshmen at Coolidge. Not long ago there was less than that in the entire school.

Eastern up to 21 white students.


Wow. How is the staff coping? Are they going to go on a hiring spree?
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 13:31     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
It does seem like some schools are awfully light in the kids department. But they have the whole summer to recruit, not everything has to fill up on lottery day-- in fact it's a good thing if kids moving here post-lottery have some options. But other times, it does make me wonder if the school will survive. It's so easy to get into a bad spiral of low funding, making cuts, laying off teachers, then parents and teachers smell it and start leaving, and that makes it worse.

It does seem like certain schools are in the danger zone of having to downsize-- Harmony, Hope Tolson, maybe Bethune, Paul, maybe SSMA, Meridian... I'm sure there are more.
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 13:27     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:How do new schools like Capital Village and Social Justice survive? They seem dangerously under-enrolled (the former more than the latter)


They're sort of crunchy alternative schools, so they can more easily adapt. (Which means, basically, lay off staff). They game out a low-enrollment scenario in advance.
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 13:13     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
How do new schools like Capital Village and Social Justice survive? They seem dangerously under-enrolled (the former more than the latter)
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 13:02     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I ran the numbers against last year. Here are a few things of note:

Coolidge +275 (really!??)


417 Freshmen at Coolidge. Not long ago there was less than that in the entire school.

Eastern up to 21 white students.


Eastern has 21 white students out of 865 (2.4%)
Banneker has 28 white students out of 579 (4.8%)
J-R has 817 white students out of 2153 (37.9%)
Walls has 290 white students out 602 (48.2%)
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 12:51     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:I ran the numbers against last year. Here are a few things of note:

Coolidge +275 (really!??)


417 Freshmen at Coolidge. Not long ago there was less than that in the entire school.

Eastern up to 21 white students.
Anonymous
Post 04/06/2023 09:54     Subject: Re:Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
The data shows that more kids are staying at BASIS DC for high school.

-8th grade is -5 from previous year but +16 from 2 years ago.
-9th grade is +25 from previous year and +7 from 2 years ago

Interestingly, the senior class at BASIS this year is only 42 kids. Next year it will probably be around 60 or 61.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2023 16:02     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I ran the numbers against last year. Here are a few things of note:

Browne +24
Bunker Hill +18
Borroughs +17
CHML +41
Coolidge +275 (really!??)
Deal -5
Dunbar +140 (really?!?!)
Ellington -15
Dunbar +140 (wow)
Eastern +99 (kind of a high school theme developing here)
Garrison +44 (wow)
HD Woodson +65 (again with the high schools)
Hardy +40
JR +91
John Lewis +56
MacFarland -100 (ouch)
McKinley Middle -55 (ouch)
Murch +50
Roosevelt +116 (again high school growth!)
Roosevelt STAY +156!!
Shepherd -17
Stuart-Hobson -44
Takoma +29
Thomson -29
Walker-Jones -50 (ouch)
Watkins -48 whaaat?
Whitlock (Aiton) -55
Whittier +44

Eagle Congress Heights -127 (31% drop)
Friendship schools-- small decrease almost all locations. Big drop in Online.
Harmony +19, guess it's not gonna close
Hope Tolson -79-- that's a 28% decrease, uh oh
KIPP schools-- a mixed bag.
Lee Brookland +21
Bethune -26, not a good sign
Mundo P St -34, ouch
Paul -38
Rocketship a mixed bag, Rise lost 133 which is 20%.
SSMA +17
TR+14, TRY +8, TR Middle +33
Washington Global +31
Yu Ying +33



I like this analysis as a person who worked on the audit. We are looking at some trends base on school, ward, and lea over the years. We also might publish this analysis next year as we always take a year to publish in-house to see the result.


I look forward to reading it!

Clearly this data spells danger for a lot of schools, especially combined with shorter lottery waitlists across the board and some schools not coming even close to filling up their classes in the initial lottery.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2023 11:29     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:I haven't had a chance to dig in, but OSSE (quietly) posted the enrollment audit today.

Someone else dig so I don't have to!

https://osse.dc.gov/page/2022-23-school-year-enrollment-audit-report-and-data


Thanks for the info!
Anonymous
Post 03/31/2023 22:23     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:I ran the numbers against last year. Here are a few things of note:

Browne +24
Bunker Hill +18
Borroughs +17
CHML +41
Coolidge +275 (really!??)
Deal -5
Dunbar +140 (really?!?!)
Ellington -15
Dunbar +140 (wow)
Eastern +99 (kind of a high school theme developing here)
Garrison +44 (wow)
HD Woodson +65 (again with the high schools)
Hardy +40
JR +91
John Lewis +56
MacFarland -100 (ouch)
McKinley Middle -55 (ouch)
Murch +50
Roosevelt +116 (again high school growth!)
Roosevelt STAY +156!!
Shepherd -17
Stuart-Hobson -44
Takoma +29
Thomson -29
Walker-Jones -50 (ouch)
Watkins -48 whaaat?
Whitlock (Aiton) -55
Whittier +44

Eagle Congress Heights -127 (31% drop)
Friendship schools-- small decrease almost all locations. Big drop in Online.
Harmony +19, guess it's not gonna close
Hope Tolson -79-- that's a 28% decrease, uh oh
KIPP schools-- a mixed bag.
Lee Brookland +21
Bethune -26, not a good sign
Mundo P St -34, ouch
Paul -38
Rocketship a mixed bag, Rise lost 133 which is 20%.
SSMA +17
TR+14, TRY +8, TR Middle +33
Washington Global +31
Yu Ying +33



I like this analysis as a person who worked on the audit. We are looking at some trends base on school, ward, and lea over the years. We also might publish this analysis next year as we always take a year to publish in-house to see the result.
Anonymous
Post 03/31/2023 20:16     Subject: Re:Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:How does it happen that DCPS sends a student to a school in Florida (from the file: Devereux Florida Viera Campus Viera FL)? Isn't there anything closer? I guess I'd be grateful if my child needed the services and DCPS was willing to pay, but that's far! Does the district pay travel expenses?



When a kid is in crisis, you send them wherever has an opening at that point even if it's far. There is huge demand for places that will handle mental illness and/or serious behavioral needs and accept what DC will pay. Also sometimes the kid has a history of being a perpetrator or victim of violence and needs to be away from certain other kids placed closer to home.


Those are called non-public placements and they are for kids with very significant special needs, mental illness, suicidality, or other things that nobody would wish on anyone. Yes it's far, but every child is entitled to an education and DCPS has to take what it can find. If there were places available closer to here I'm sure DCPS would be thrilled, but it can be very hard to find a place.
Anonymous
Post 03/31/2023 20:14     Subject: Re:Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:How does it happen that DCPS sends a student to a school in Florida (from the file: Devereux Florida Viera Campus Viera FL)? Isn't there anything closer? I guess I'd be grateful if my child needed the services and DCPS was willing to pay, but that's far! Does the district pay travel expenses?



When a kid is in crisis, you send them wherever has an opening at that point even if it's far. There is huge demand for places that will handle mental illness and/or serious behavioral needs and accept what DC will pay. Also sometimes the kid has a history of being a perpetrator or victim of violence and needs to be away from certain other kids placed closer to home.
Anonymous
Post 03/31/2023 19:55     Subject: Re:Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
How does it happen that DCPS sends a student to a school in Florida (from the file: Devereux Florida Viera Campus Viera FL)? Isn't there anything closer? I guess I'd be grateful if my child needed the services and DCPS was willing to pay, but that's far! Does the district pay travel expenses?

Anonymous
Post 03/31/2023 18:40     Subject: Enrollment Audit Finally Posted
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Why are application high schools with Wait Lists allowing non-DC students to enroll? Walls, Banneker

...and (Drum Roll Please) 53 students from Ellington!


I was wondering the same thing.

Not only do non-DC residents not need to pay traffic tickets, they can pay tuition at a highly sought after school that claims not to have enough space for residents. I can understand the story of the oboe player that DC does not have and therefore they must open the doors and find it outside of the city - but 50 students. Please explain to me WHY that needs to occur?


The Ellington boosters will be along momentarily to tell you it's tradition.


It's no tradition, it's part of their contract with DCPS. They can have 10% of the student body be out of DC. They have never reached that percentage all the way. That amounts to maybe two students per department per grade. They've also been audited for the last 5 years by OSSE and are at 100% compliance, which means those 53 are paying tuition.