Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 10:18     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:Earlier this year, I went on a field trip with Whittier 8th grade students. They were mostly IB and a great group of very smart kids. When I asked them where they planned to attend high school next year they said McKinley, School Without Wall, and Banneker. "What about Coolidge?" All of them said they'd go there if they had to, but it was basically last on their list. They didn't want to go to school in a falling down old building and their perception is that it wasn't a good place for academically-minded students because anyone smart would have figured out a way to avoid going there.

I think both those critiques are related. Having the last comprehensive high school that's not modernized really handicaps Coolidge from being able to draw students from the neighborhood when there are other, more compelling options. The talk of delaying modernization even further make me sad for the students who won't have other options and neglects the potential benefit to the neighborhood of having a world class building like the other modernized high schools. Of course, it's not enough to just building, you also have to ensure the school has great leadership, an amazing staff, rigorous curriculum, and exciting programs for students to want to go there. But leaving a school to decay and then pointing to low enrollment as a reason to continue ignoring it just seems really unjust to me.


Yeah but it also means that we may not need more capacity/another big comprehensive high school. Those 8th grade kids aren't ending up on the street because of a lack of space. The most academically minded are going to good application DCPS high schools - why not send the others to Roosevelt.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 09:50     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
There aren't many people on this thread suggesting that the kids at Coolidge keep going to an unrenovated school.

The ideas I've seen here are to

a) combine the boundaries and send them to a (renovated) Roosevelt for a couple years until there's the money, time, and enrollment to renovate Coolidge, or to

b) renovate Coolidge to have a 6-8 campus for the middle schoolers in the current ECs as well as a 9-12 program.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 09:05     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Earlier this year, I went on a field trip with Whittier 8th grade students. They were mostly IB and a great group of very smart kids. When I asked them where they planned to attend high school next year they said McKinley, School Without Wall, and Banneker. "What about Coolidge?" All of them said they'd go there if they had to, but it was basically last on their list. They didn't want to go to school in a falling down old building and their perception is that it wasn't a good place for academically-minded students because anyone smart would have figured out a way to avoid going there.

I think both those critiques are related. Having the last comprehensive high school that's not modernized really handicaps Coolidge from being able to draw students from the neighborhood when there are other, more compelling options. The talk of delaying modernization even further make me sad for the students who won't have other options and neglects the potential benefit to the neighborhood of having a world class building like the other modernized high schools. Of course, it's not enough to just building, you also have to ensure the school has great leadership, an amazing staff, rigorous curriculum, and exciting programs for students to want to go there. But leaving a school to decay and then pointing to low enrollment as a reason to continue ignoring it just seems really unjust to me.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 08:27     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
The IB is Coolidge. Not appealing to most. There are many choices at HS level and the neighborhood is on major Metro and bus lines so not hard for kids to get to school.

Cap City, Paul, McKinley, CHEC,EL Haynes all have large Ward 4 populations. Higher SES neighbors kids tend to be at Wilson (secured OOB feeder slots years ago), SWW, Ellington, Latin, Basis and DCI (more MS) and some privates.
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 08:12     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:At all of these schools, except Takoma, IB students far outnumber OOB. That said, the test scores are really weak for all of them and there is a fast growing ELL population. Most of these students need a lot of support.

Brightwood - 81%IB
Takoma - 42% IB
Truesdell - 81% IB
Whittier - 75% IB



If these schools have such high IB rates, where are they going to high school?


High IB rates is a relatively new phenomenon. But not sure we have that data - CHEC


Why CHEC over their true IB HS?
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 07:06     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:At all of these schools, except Takoma, IB students far outnumber OOB. That said, the test scores are really weak for all of them and there is a fast growing ELL population. Most of these students need a lot of support.

Brightwood - 81%IB
Takoma - 42% IB
Truesdell - 81% IB
Whittier - 75% IB



If these schools have such high IB rates, where are they going to high school?


High IB rates is a relatively new phenomenon. But not sure we have that data - CHEC
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 00:34     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:At all of these schools, except Takoma, IB students far outnumber OOB. That said, the test scores are really weak for all of them and there is a fast growing ELL population. Most of these students need a lot of support.

Brightwood - 81%IB
Takoma - 42% IB
Truesdell - 81% IB
Whittier - 75% IB



If these schools have such high IB rates, where are they going to high school?
Anonymous
Post 05/21/2016 00:33     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That was probably too emotional for this board. Prepared to be eaten by the wolves.

But we've got a good thing going. Let us work on it.


Point taken. But it is Title 1 and therefore not a barebones budget. Maybe no PTA funded extra but still comparably higher on a per pupil basis than many other schools.


DCPS title 1s get plenty of money. The highest amount in the nation is not bare bones.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 20:46     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That was probably too emotional for this board. Prepared to be eaten by the wolves.

But we've got a good thing going. Let us work on it.


Point taken. But it is Title 1 and therefore not a barebones budget. Maybe no PTA funded extra but still comparably higher on a per pupil basis than many other schools.


Sigh.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 20:41     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:That was probably too emotional for this board. Prepared to be eaten by the wolves.

But we've got a good thing going. Let us work on it.


Point taken. But it is Title 1 and therefore not a barebones budget. Maybe no PTA funded extra but still comparably higher on a per pupil basis than many other schools.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 20:02     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
That was probably too emotional for this board. Prepared to be eaten by the wolves.

But we've got a good thing going. Let us work on it.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 19:59     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:The money is going to build a school for the kids NOW enrolled in the feeder school. Just because they aren't high SES or scoring well on PARCC doesn't mean they should have to go to school in that building.


When I enrolled my son at Whittier, I didn't know anybody there either. Guess what? It's a great school. There are a lot of kids who need help but there are a lot of solid kids there too. Nobody else on my block goes there and frankly they are missing out. We have a terrific principal who is responsive to suggestions. The test scores aren't low because it's dangerous or a bad environment. We just operate on a bare bones budget because we don't have involved parents yet and we're too small for extras.

You want a neighborhood school system you can stop griping about? Stop knocking the EOTP schools that are working.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 19:52     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:The money is going to build a school for the kids NOW enrolled in the feeder school. Just because they aren't high SES or scoring well on PARCC doesn't mean they should have to go to school in that building.


Too many folks on DCUM have a blindspot for this concept. But then again, I guess that is how those buildings got into that state to begin with; if my kids didn't go there, I don't really care that the school that is falling down around someone else's kids.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 18:50     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
The money is going to build a school for the kids NOW enrolled in the feeder school. Just because they aren't high SES or scoring well on PARCC doesn't mean they should have to go to school in that building.
Anonymous
Post 05/20/2016 18:27     Subject: Funding for Coolidge
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There is just no reason for parents to take a gamble and commit to this feeder. No middle school and the high school is a disaster. That will take more than 10 years to sort out even if everyone of the IB families commit 100% right now. The Coolidge pattern is a mess and there is no stability past elementary.


what other options are there? we can't all get in to Latin, BASIS, DCI, or a WOTP school. We can't all afford private (and our kids aren't all getting in, anyway). We could all move to Maryland, I guess.


I understand! I'm fully aware and I don't know what the solution is, but I'm very sick of seeing money go towards great, expensive buildings in the hopes that the problems will go away and there will be a critical mass of brave pioneers. My kids aren't pioneers.