Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

LT is better than Watkins and will only continually to get better and better, so you're making a wise decision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Whoa, Tricky Dick Nixon and Howard Beale make an appearance!

DD attended Watkins and we still have a plenty of friends on the Hill. I don't recall any of this entitled, damn near colonialist attitude. Nobody is going to roll out a red carpet for you. Get in, pitch in and work.

Pls don't compare LT to Watkins. It's like comparing a shiny apple to souring grapes, respectively. LT is a "Rewards" school, Watkins isn't. You never had a kid at LT and don't even live on the Hill anymore. Did you move away for better schools. Why should we accept mediocre when we should easily have better, with a little help from DCPS? PS If you think your work at Watkins accomplished anything, look at Iraq.

No one in this 43 page thread suggested that anyone accept mediocrity. What you have been told repeatedly, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, is that you cannot change a school from the outside by screaming at the walls. No one, not the mayor, not your CM nor your ANC cares about rants.

+1 And this attitude that people should beg you to come to their school or you're not going to even give it a serious look -- oh geez, get over yourself!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Not to pick on you particularly, but this is the attitude that drives me bonkers. LT already IS a great school. It doesn't need to be "flipped"!

It's really not a great school. It did well last year when compared to other neighborhood schools, but you are deluding yourself if you think it's "great."

12:56 again. This is especially true when you consider that "proficient" in DC is already a really low bar... http://www.dcactionforchildren.org/node/927

According to the most recent DC CAS scores, less than half of D.C. elementary students were proficient in math and reading. The same was true for secondary students, with the exception of math and reading scores of public charters school students.

Judged by NAEP standards, all of those percentages (ranging from 42% to 62%) would sink even lower. Because the bar for proficiency is set lower on the D.C. test, the DC CAS seems to overstate student achievement. That’s a problem for the schools, whose already low proficiency levels take another hit. It’s also a problem for our students, who may be hearing they’re proficient, when in actuality they’re not.

OK, then let's just say it's a good school that despite having a significant number of OB kids in the upper grades continues to outscore and outperform other schools on the Hill with higher concentrations of SES'ers. OK?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Not to pick on you particularly, but this is the attitude that drives me bonkers. LT already IS a great school. It doesn't need to be "flipped"!

It's really not a great school. It did well last year when compared to other neighborhood schools, but you are deluding yourself if you think it's "great."

Is it the best school in DC? No. It's certainly a top school in Ward 6 -- comparable to Brent and Maury, which are two schools no one nowadays says could be "flipped."

Look, I get the argument that neighborhood buy-in is important. (It's not as important to me as it is to some, but I do get it.) And I am sympathetic to white parents who don't want their child to be an only.

But I really feel like many people in this forum, and perhaps in the neighborhood, are undervaluing what LT has achieved -- look at the number of kids scoring advanced! In a title 1 school! -- and talking about it like this poor pitiful thing that sorely needs an infusion of high-SES white kids if it's going to get anywhere.

So I have to wonder what their definition of anywhere is. If success, by definition, equals having a lot of IB (=white, high-SES kids), then yeah, I guess LT does need more of those kids to meet that definition of success.

But if success is determined by something other than the school's demographics, then what is the standard that LT needs to meet that Brent and Maury have already met?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Not to pick on you particularly, but this is the attitude that drives me bonkers. LT already IS a great school. It doesn't need to be "flipped"!

It's really not a great school. It did well last year when compared to other neighborhood schools, but you are deluding yourself if you think it's "great."

12:56 again. This is especially true when you consider that "proficient" in DC is already a really low bar... http://www.dcactionforchildren.org/node/927

According to the most recent DC CAS scores, less than half of D.C. elementary students were proficient in math and reading. The same was true for secondary students, with the exception of math and reading scores of public charters school students.

Judged by NAEP standards, all of those percentages (ranging from 42% to 62%) would sink even lower. Because the bar for proficiency is set lower on the D.C. test, the DC CAS seems to overstate student achievement. That’s a problem for the schools, whose already low proficiency levels take another hit. It’s also a problem for our students, who may be hearing they’re proficient, when in actuality they’re not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Not to pick on you particularly, but this is the attitude that drives me bonkers. LT already IS a great school. It doesn't need to be "flipped"!

It's really not a great school. It did well last year when compared to other neighborhood schools, but you are deluding yourself if you think it's "great."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Not to pick on you particularly, but this is the attitude that drives me bonkers. LT already IS a great school. It doesn't need to be "flipped"!

Anonymous wrote:^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

This is so sad. I am in bounds for Watkins but I live way closer to LT, and think that LT (unlike Watkins) could be a great school if there was enough buy-in from neighborhood families. It is such a small school compared to Watkins and could be flipped so easily if people would just stick around. I am even thinking of trying to lottery in for PK and trying to get a cohort of parents together to stick it out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Whoa, Tricky Dick Nixon and Howard Beale make an appearance!

DD attended Watkins and we still have a plenty of friends on the Hill. I don't recall any of this entitled, damn near colonialist attitude. Nobody is going to roll out a red carpet for you. Get in, pitch in and work.

Pls don't compare LT to Watkins. It's like comparing a shiny apple to souring grapes, respectively. LT is a "Rewards" school, Watkins isn't. You never had a kid at LT and don't even live on the Hill anymore. Did you move away for better schools. Why should we accept mediocre when we should easily have better, with a little help from DCPS? PS If you think your work at Watkins accomplished anything, look at Iraq.

No one in this 43 page thread suggested that anyone accept mediocrity. What you have been told repeatedly, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, is that you cannot change a school from the outside by screaming at the walls. No one, not the mayor, not your CM nor your ANC cares about rants.

Why should they care, when this issue will solve itself over the years? Over time the areas that send the most OB kids will transform demographically to higher SES, won't they? At which point the entire dynamic will change. There is a big difference between wanting to see LT transformed, and wanting to see it transformed in time to help high SES IB families with kids who will be reading for a K within a few years. The Mayor and Councile have only limited reasons to worry about the latter, compared to their concern with the former.

^ Trouble is, they don't care about politely phrased constructive criticism from neighborhood parents either. I'm in-boundary and privately relieved to be avoiding LT's upper grades. By our family's definition, far too many of the students there are bogged down by depressing home lives (unlike most of the neighborhood kids).

Anybody IB who sticks with LT past prek, you have my respect and best wishes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Whoa, Tricky Dick Nixon and Howard Beale make an appearance!

DD attended Watkins and we still have a plenty of friends on the Hill. I don't recall any of this entitled, damn near colonialist attitude. Nobody is going to roll out a red carpet for you. Get in, pitch in and work.

Pls don't compare LT to Watkins. It's like comparing a shiny apple to souring grapes, respectively. LT is a "Rewards" school, Watkins isn't. You never had a kid at LT and don't even live on the Hill anymore. Did you move away for better schools. Why should we accept mediocre when we should easily have better, with a little help from DCPS? PS If you think your work at Watkins accomplished anything, look at Iraq.

No one in this 43 page thread suggested that anyone accept mediocrity. What you have been told repeatedly, ad nauseum, ad infinitum, is that you cannot change a school from the outside by screaming at the walls. No one, not the mayor, not your CM nor your ANC cares about rants.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Whoa, Tricky Dick Nixon and Howard Beale make an appearance!

DD attended Watkins and we still have a plenty of friends on the Hill. I don't recall any of this entitled, damn near colonialist attitude. Nobody is going to roll out a red carpet for you. Get in, pitch in and work.

Pls don't compare LT to Watkins. It's like comparing a shiny apple to souring grapes, respectively. LT is a "Rewards" school, Watkins isn't. You never had a kid at LT and don't even live on the Hill anymore. Did you move away for better schools. Why should we accept mediocre when we should easily have better, with a little help from DCPS? PS If you think your work at Watkins accomplished anything, look at Iraq.

Anonymous wrote:PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Whoa, Tricky Dick Nixon and Howard Beale make an appearance!

DD attended Watkins and we still have a plenty of friends on the Hill. I don't recall any of this entitled, damn near colonialist attitude. Nobody is going to roll out a red carpet for you. Get in, pitch in and work.

PP, you're not IB so why are you here? DCPS failed the neighborhood by not providing substitutes to cater to the neighborhood. And I don't think there's a minority complaining, but instead a silent majority that's mad as hell.

Anonymous wrote:Much too easy to blame in-boundary parents for their alleged stupidity. Some of us bought when Cobbs' predecessor was on his way out, a time when LT's prospects as a true neighborhood school looked better than Maury's. Reading the tea leaves on the development tragectories of DCPS Hill elementary schools has been an inexact science in the past decade. Just ask parents who bought in-boundary for the Cluster before DCPS yanked SWS and Cap Hill Montessori out.

Pushing for a more upper middle income/neighborhood friendly school culture at LT isn't whining, it's pretty darn reasonable.

Err, DCPS didn't "yank" SWS or CHM out...both of those programs worked for years to advocate for and acquire their own space.

Please show me an organization anywhere that has changed it's culture at the suggestion of outsiders.

LT's improving prospects and test scores mean that, if you don't enroll, you will have virtually no say in the matter. But please continue the ranting because it is quite entertaining.