Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

I disagree. The bonds formed in cohorts and communities are valuable and it would be harmful to pull a child out of their cohort and community once established. If feeder rights were removed, there would be mass exodus from DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:
They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.


I disagree. The bonds formed in cohorts and communities are valuable and it would be harmful to pull a child out of their cohort and community once established. If feeder rights were removed, there would be mass exodus from DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

I disagree. The bonds formed in cohorts and communities are valuable and it would be harmful to pull a child out of their cohort and community once established. If feeder rights were removed, there would be mass exodus from DCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

You cleaned out J/R real quick!

well, I wouldn't have opened MacArthur so that would have helped, but that ship has sailed. Shifting kids to Coolidge and Roosevelt balances the size of those schools and what courses and extracurriculars they can offer. Definitely good for athletics. It also allows for kids from schools with higher test scores to be more spread out, so that people who won't try their IB school because there isn't a "cohort of high achievers" may be more likely to continue in the feeder pattern. This will also open up some more OOB seats at JR, which is metro-accessible, without the school being overcrowded.

I’m skeptical your numbers work, but I do like picturing Lafayette parents freaking out. (And I am a Lafayette parent.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

You cleaned out J/R real quick!

well, I wouldn't have opened MacArthur so that would have helped, but that ship has sailed. Shifting kids to Coolidge and Roosevelt balances the size of those schools and what courses and extracurriculars they can offer. Definitely good for athletics. It also allows for kids from schools with higher test scores to be more spread out, so that people who won't try their IB school because there isn't a "cohort of high achievers" may be more likely to continue in the feeder pattern. This will also open up some more OOB seats at JR, which is metro-accessible, without the school being overcrowded.

Anonymous wrote:They should absolutely get rid of OOB feeder rights. There's no reason lottering into a school in K should give you an automatic path to that school's feeders till 12th.

Anonymous wrote:Wow creating an all-city high school lottery would be a big deal. But TR families will never allow it.

I actually have a tweak to suggest in our neighborhood though -- thanks for flagging this OP so I can reach out to suggest my idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are my ideas:

If you move OOB you only get to stay in your school until the end of the year (exceptions for foster care, homelessness, or legally-required reasons, but centralize that exemption process rather than leaving it with principals and registrars).

If you get into a school OOB, you have rights to it until the terminal year, but no rights to the destination school. This ends the shuffle of people leaving elementaries they like in hopes of a better feeder pattern, reduces overcrowding at in-demand middle and high schools, and creates more equity for people who didn't live in DC when their kids were little or couldn't get little kids across town, but can enter the lottery for older kids. Create a feeder pattern preference in the lottery if necessary for a compromise.

All bilingual elementary schools (and bilingual programs at schools like Marie Reed and Tyler that have bilingual tracks) have programmatic feeder into MacFarland and Roosevelt (that’s right, Oyster and Bancroft lose their Deal/JR feeds). Oyster becomes a PK3-5 school, with younger grades at Oyster and older grades at Adams.

Lafayette and Shepherd to Wells and Coolidge. For folks who say it won’t fit, there is room at Coolidge. Make an 8th grade academy in the Coolidge building and use Wells for just 6th and 7th. If necessary, move Coolidge Early College to Cardozo, which is more centrally located and will have extra space because of the item below.

Francis-Stevens drops the SWW name, gets its own principal, and becomes a PK3-5 school. Schools that feed there for middle go to the new Shaw Middle School along with the schools that already feed into Cardozo. Expect David Alpert, who is on the advisory committee from Ross, to freak out about this, but a 6-school feeder would have the resources to differentiate and offer some good programming.

CHML becomes PK3-5. This creates more PK spots on Capitol Hill, though open to everyone. DCPS offers Montessori middle school program at Brookland middle (closer to Montessori charters, uses underutilized space, and centrally located with CHML, Langdon, and Nalle, all of which would have programmatic feeder rights to the BMS program). The BMS Montessori middle would also take kids at 6th grade if extra space is available.

Make Browne, Walker-Jones, and Wheatley ECs PK3-5 only. Walker-Jones would go to McKinley MS (adding a 3rd feeder to it...right now it's just Langston and Langley) and Dunbar. Browne currently feeds to Eastern and Wheatley to Dunbar, but they'd both go to Eastern (which is closer) and join the middle school options below.

Re-draw Capitol Hill elementary boundaries to be more geographically compact.

Eliot-Hine becomes an arts-focused citywide magnet middle school, providing instruction in the same fields Ellington offers. Possibly run by the folks who run Ellington if they're willing; if not, by DCPS. At-risk preference and then a preference for kids at schools that currently feed to E-H plus Browne and Wheatley. No minimum grade cut-off or focus on pre-existing arts talent/lessons, but some behavior requirements (like no suspensions in the past year, teacher recommendation, etc.) and an essay about why you want to attend or something minimal. Feeds to Eastern. Then, either divide the schools that currently feed Jefferson, Stuart-Hobson, and Eliot-Hine (plus Browne and Wheatley) into JA and SH, or make Jefferson an amazing 6th grade academy for everyone with 7th and 8th at Stuart-Hobson. With Jefferson so close to the Wharf and the Mall, it would be possible to do some really cool partnerships and help the kids build skills and make new friends. A model for this would be Grand Rapids, which has 6th grade-only programs like Zoo School, a nature program, and more.

Fire away, folks!

You cleaned out J/R real quick!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

Kids have been crossing west across the park to attend Deal/JR for decades. Why can't Lafayette kids cross it east (apart from the unsaid reasons)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

Kids have been crossing west across the park to attend Deal/JR for decades. Why can't Lafayette kids cross it east (apart from the unsaid reasons)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

Kids have been crossing west across the park to attend Deal/JR for decades. Why can't Lafayette kids cross it east (apart from the unsaid reasons)?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.

Kids have been crossing west across the park to attend Deal/JR for decades. Why can't Lafayette kids cross it east (apart from the unsaid reasons)?

Anonymous wrote:Leaving Lafayette in its current feeder pattern and just moving Shepherd makes sense in that it would give Deal and Wells equal number of feeder schools, and not require Lafayette kids to cross the park. But I think it's politically infeasible to remove only Bancroft and Shepherd from the Deal/JR feeder patterns because those schools have the highest populations of Black and Hispanic students.

Two things that would make the boundary reassignments more palatable would be a commitment to working with DDOT and WMATA on the buses required to get kids where they need to go, and a promise to offer honors English and math...the 6th grade classes would be for kids who score 4s and 5s on the 5th grade PARCC, and 7th and 8th would be based on the previous year's performance and teacher recommendations.