No tracking at Deal other than for math. That's been the policy for more than a decade. It comes from DCPS HQ, not Deal admins.

Anonymous wrote:You aren't wrong. SH has only offered actual honors 7th and 8th grade English post Covid. Admins will tell you that DCPS won't let the school offer honors social studies or science in any grade.

Doesn't Deal offer tracking/honors courses? Why can another DCPS do these things but not in Ward 6? It's interesting to me how DCPS is always talking up "equity" but then do stuff like this which is obviously inequitable. Honers courses at Ward 6 MSs would benefit low-SES kids! We are MC and I'm sure considered poor by the standards of the rich folks on the Hill, and I know our kid would benefit. She's very academic and loves a challenge.

This is why we'll end up at a charter even though I'd rather just send her to S-H. I can't in good conscience keep her from those kinds of opportunities. It makes no sense.

We all know the only workable plan for Hill MS is to combine all 3 MS or at least combine SH and EH.

You aren't wrong. SH has only offered actual honors 7th and 8th grade English post Covid. Admins will tell you that DCPS won't let the school offer honors social studies or science in any grade.

Anonymous wrote:If DCPS middle school honors classes were out of the question in Ward 6, why has Stuart Hobson been able to offer them for English and math from 6th-8th grade for more than a decade now? Because the government hasn't noticed?

With a little more political will, particularly a push from Allen, Stuart Hobson, Eliot-Hine and Jefferson Academy could all offer not only advanced English and math, but advanced science and social studies.

Hill parents can contact their ANC reps and Ward 6 to ask for honors classes. Getting up petitions in your elementary school communities wouldn't hurt. Some of us have already taken these simple steps to press for change.

My (very limited, I admit) understanding is that all SH sixth graders take honors English. I’ve always wondered how “honors for all” is really honors, when the class can only go as fast as the slowest students. But, again, I don’t know much about the school so maybe I am incorrect.

If DCPS middle school honors classes were out of the question in Ward 6, why has Stuart Hobson been able to offer them for English and math from 6th-8th grade for more than a decade now? Because the government hasn't noticed?

With a little more political will, particularly a push from Allen, Stuart Hobson, Eliot-Hine and Jefferson Academy could all offer not only advanced English and math, but advanced science and social studies.

Hill parents can contact their ANC reps and Ward 6 to ask for honors classes. Getting up petitions in your elementary school communities wouldn't hurt. Some of us have already taken these simple steps to press for change.

Anonymous wrote:For starters, definite designated honors/advanced classes across the board at the several DCPS Ward 6 middle schools in all core subjects, preferably held at the same campus. Transparent admissions criteria for admission to honors classes with a “flex tracking” system like MoCo uses. Allen may not be able to make this happen, but he could try for a change.

I think you fundamentally misunderstand how government works.

For starters, definite designated honors/advanced classes across the board at the several DCPS Ward 6 middle schools in all core subjects, preferably held at the same campus. Transparent admissions criteria for admission to honors classes with a “flex tracking” system like MoCo uses. Allen may not be able to make this happen, but he could try for a change.

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. As far as I can tell, Allen isn't a realist about the middle school problem on the Hill, or a mover and shaker. He pretends that all's well.

What would you have him (or anyone else) do to appease you? Is there some performative act? Every ES on CH is getting renovated over a 10 year period. That finding came from the Council. People like you have all the anonymous answers...because fixing pubic education is just so easy I guess.

Seriously, what act would you like to see?

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Anonymous wrote:Whatever. As far as I can tell, Allen isn't a realist about the middle school problem on the Hill, or a mover and shaker. He pretends that all's well.

+100. Allen has his good points, but does nothing to solve the MS/HS problem.

He may see the problem as his kids enter into middle school.

Anonymous wrote:Whatever. As far as I can tell, Allen isn't a realist about the middle school problem on the Hill, or a mover and shaker. He pretends that all's well.

+100. Allen has his good points, but does nothing to solve the MS/HS problem.

Suck lemons. We've been on the Hill since the 1990s. How long have you been here? Where do your kids go to school?

Do the right thing and move your family to a nice neighborhood where they will enjoy growing up.

Whatever. As far as I can tell, Allen isn't a realist about the middle school problem on the Hill, or a mover and shaker. He pretends that all's well.

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Anonymous wrote:We voted out Brandon Todd. Ward 4 views may not be same as Ward 3 or 6 views!

Good for you guys up in Ward 4. We need your spirit down here on CH, but there don't seem to be enough educational minded voters to oust Charles Allen. What can he really do about schools anyway? He's just one council member and the Mayor doesn't give a hoot.

I appreciate your energy, but would appreciate it more if you would take a few minutes to understand how the Council works and that your ire is misdirected. There used to be a Standing Committee on Education. Mendelson disbanded the Committee and moved it to the Committee of the Whole. In essence there is no direct oversight; it is "oversight by all". Which means little oversight. And what oversight exists is controlled on high by Mendelson. As long as oversight lives with the Committee of the Whole, Mendelson controls it.

Completely agree. I don't love Charles Allen on crime, but I actually think he's reasonable on schools. I also like that he walks to walk by actually having his kids enrolled in his neighborhood DCPS. I am curious to see what he does next year, as he's about to have a personal stake in the Hill's MS situation (which is more than I can say for basically anyone else on the Council). (I know White & Bowser have their kids in their DCPS, but those kids are little little IIRC. Allen has a 5th grader in his IB EOTP DCPS.)

Has anyone approached him on schools and advanced options DCPS wide? It's a proposal that he can work on with parents and there is a Chancellor's Parent Advisory Board. That's where change starts.

Would his middle schooler go to SH? If so, I think that is exactly where his child will go. He has always struck me as the type of guy who "walks the walk" by sending his kid to somewhere that many would not, and when questioned, repeats the trope that "upper middle class children surrounded by books will be fine anywhere." He might even believe it, because I know plenty of intelligent well-meaning CH parents who do. I don't see him as wanting to even acknowledge that the status quo is not ok, much less work to change it. But I'd be happy to be proven wrong!

Charles Allen has played the cap hill school game just let every other family. When he was first elected he lived in the Miner boundary but sent his kids to JO Wilson. Then he moved west (I'm assuming partially to avoid getting redistricted into Ward 7) and into the Ludlow boundary. Both schools would allow a feed into S-H. I'm not impressed by a politician who wants bonus points for sending his kids to Ludlow. We'll see if they end up at Eastern - doubtful.

Actually, only his older kid ever went to JO (via the lottery). She then lotteried into LT and they moved IB afterwards. (FWIW there are lots of things that could have motivated his move beyond redistricting — and I think his older house remains in Ward 6. His new house is, for instance, in a safer neighborhood closer to amenities and public transport.) His son went to PK at Miner for a year. I don’t fault a politician who does the lottery legitimately. I don’t think he wants bonus points for sending his kids to LT, but I absolutely give him credit for keeping his kids in public schools gives what his colleagues do. I assume his older daughter will start at SH next year. No way he sends his kids to Eastern — he isn’t Joe Weedon and isn’t vocally anti-charter or anti the selective schools. I assume he hopes she gets into Walls.