16:59 - what do you mean by 'politicize' the teachers?

+1. The PTA is controlled by super PC types who got involved early on. It's their way or the highway. Increasingly, IB parents choose the latter. No room for bold innovation or a fresh start. Hint: high wattage WHITE GUILT in the air.

Nobody wants to hear it, but if the PTA had a vision, they'd be talking like the new one at Payne (also w/a thriving PreK program serving neighborhood families, and a school that scarcely appeals to IB parents above PreK). The PTA would be asking DCPS to shut the place down, rennovate and reopen with a new staff and population that's almost entirely IB by offering strong Montessori or accelerated learning programs (either of which could keep large numbers of upper-middle-class and low-income kids comfortably in the same elementary grade classrooms). The Payne PTA openly debates the possibility, unlikely as it is that Tommy Wells or DCPS would play ball.

But no, LT would rather limp along as an Anacostia and PG Country ES on the Hill, hardly a non-AA teacher in sight, losing more PreK IB families that it retains. Nice and very well-intentioned clutch of parents, but, on a pratical level, not an effective group. I picture almost all the white parents quietly voting with their feet by 3rd as a result. You'll hear PTA parents pontificate on the subject of how, if only ALL THE IB FAMILIES rallied behind the school, LT would thrive one year, only to find out that they've escaped to Peabody or Maury the next.

the crappy situation at LT is tough on the northeast side of the stanton park neighborhood. i've seen a number of neighbors without lottery luck leave over concerns about the quality of the school, with some simply moving elsewhere on the Hill, or to NW. but you do have parents who adore principal cobbs, and they seem to get their way on the PTA.

Sorry, but why is Peabody unproven, when the Cluster has been around since the early 90s? LT is hardly anybody's first choice if they're IB and lack neighborhood roots going back more than a decade (black, white, purple)- it's a safety school for parents who strike out at Peabody, Tyler Immersion, Maury, Logan Montessori etc. People want schools where their kids can surely stay, and remain challenged academically, into the upper ES grades.

All that's happening now is that parents who weren't wild about LT from the start are getting a second shot at Peabody and Logan, both growing. I concur that it's not just the principal that's the problem, it's the PC PTA, the special ed kids bused in from Anacostia in great numbers, and the shabby appearance of the school. Maybe parents should be more open-minded, but not everybody is. I hear IB parents saying, I went to a much better seeming ES in...Kansas, New York, Alaska, Texas, Germany, wherever, so can't send my kid to LT above PreK and feel good about it. Why be surprised when Stanton Park area property values have doubled in under a decade.

My spouse works at Central Office. Principal Cobbs does not have a good reputation. She has politicized her teachers and most inbound families left this year-- which is never a good sign. I think they are confounded on what to do. Principal Albert-Garvey at Maury is extremely well regarded on the other hand and the schools are very close to each other.

Peabody, although unproven would be a better choice than Ludlow Taylor.

+1. Messed up equation above PreK, not neccessarily going anywhere anytime soon. ANC 6C boosters are partly to blame.

Yes, greater access to Peabody for IB LT families this spring has drained the school of local input above PreK.

Ever since the Cluster was created, it's been unreasonable that families living within several blocks of Peabody (e.g. on 6th Street between D and E, and on Lexington Pl.) are not IB - it's LT, charter luck, or privates for them. Meanwhile, families out almost to RFK Stadium are IB for Peabody and DCPS has been deaf to calls to rework illogical boundaries for Hill schools for years.

IB parents often don't feel comfortable with the idea of their children advancing beyond K. Yes, there's great diversity in PreK, and, to a much lesser extent in K, 1 and 2, but parlaying that into diversity in the testing grades has proven a tremendous challenge. The principal, a good many teachers, and lots of the AA parents with neighborhood roots, if not residence, don't seem interested in the argument that Stanton Park newcomers should have an ES they're comfortable with for their tax dollars. There's a strong sense of ownership by those pushed out by gentrification that should be vestigial at this stage in Hill history, but isn't. You've also got a "tyranny of the minority" issue with white parents active on the PTA - we're thrilled with the way LT works above PreK, so why aren't you? Get with the program! No wonder so many IB families head to Peabody, Maury etc. after PreK-3 or PreK-4.

LT, at least for middle-class parents, the majority around Stanton Park these days, remains a tough nut to crack but shouldn't be.

It's rotten to accuse white parents of pushing for segregation in the Stanton Park neighborhood. Parents at every point along the socioeconomic spectrum want their kids to be challenged at school, a hard sell for upper-middle-class parents of all races locally when low-income kids make up almost the entire student body of a school from grade 1 up. Many parents are in favor of talented and gifted programs in DCPS elementary schools system-wide to help schools remain diverse. When you have the major education-minded think tanks in the country, including Brookings, CATO, Heritage and Urban Institute, all saying that, by middle school, children from affluent families are, on avarge, 2-3 grade levels ahead of their low-income counterparts, you need brave, practical solutions to keeping a good mix of kids in schools. Fine teachers and a little "differentiated learning" within a classroom don't go far enough for many LT IB families.

Maury is hiring its own teachers aides, Brent and Watkins are running their own "accelerated learning programs;" LT isn't doing much to keep IB parents paying hefty property tax on board. Other Hill ES are raising money like crazy to improve facilities; LT isn't there yet.

Give parents a break when it's the city making achieving diversity an uphill struggle at LT, not parents. More than 90% low-income AA kids, most OOB, doesn't make for much diversity.

As long as we can make it so the minority children don't attend the school should be fine. Maury has the right idea with segregating the title 1 population from the darling white children. This practice should be adapted everywhere. We need more militant gentrifying. Let's get the minorities out of our schools so we can feel comfortable sending our children there! First step: Posting on blogs like this.

this is BS. i can understand why you might think this way, based on how things have been phrased here. but as a Maury parent, i'm calling BS. in what way is there segregation at Maury?? Who makes up the "Title 1 population"? you have no idea what you are talking about, but i hope it made you feel good to slam a perfectly well-functioning neighborhood public school.

and, by the way, black folks gentrify, too!!

Second he request for the Maury explanation.

Anonymous wrote:Maury has the right idea with segregating the title 1 population from the darling white children.

Capitol Hill resident here, but not Maury parent -- what is this person talking about it?

As long as we can make it so the minority children don't attend the school should be fine. Maury has the right idea with segregating the title 1 population from the darling white children. This practice should be adapted everywhere. We need more militant gentrifying. Let's get the minorities out of our schools so we can feel comfortable sending our children there! First step: Posting on blogs like this.

There are a lot of very nice families there but I think that it is true that most of the PS3 inbound families with walking distance preference are taking advantage of the expansion of Peabody and moving on. I think that would have happened even LT was a better school with sounder leadership, but the principal makes it an easy decision.

If you land there - you and your child will join a community of great parents (who are more diverse than the prior posts make it seem - I see Asian, black, and Latino children who are inbound, by the way). But without channges from the top down many of those fmailies will continue to leave at K and 1st grade.

Things should improve with the principal goes. Anybody know when?