So we got our DC School Lottery Results

First off, we’d pretty much given up on caring that much. The daycare that Destructo is one of those few child development centers that offers free Pre-K 3 and 4. I was angling for something a bit fancier but due to Destructo’s not being fully potty trained, put a monkeywrench in the ranking order. So maybe next year. Also we’re eying an exodus from this lovely city for career reasons in the near future, so there’s that too.

Anyway, here is what we got in the email today.

My school DC waitilist resultsYes, I knew we had a snowball’s chance in the hottest part of Hell of getting into Mundo Verde. If we got in or if his waitlist number (not shown) wasn’t 3 digits, I’d be fast tracking that potty training. For reasons, too gross to put here, I believe he has more control over his body than he’s letting on. Same thing for Yu Ying, which is also a three digit waitlist number.

If I could have found something about proximity as a preference for Cleveland Elementary, I would have. Cleveland is closer to our home than our in-boundary school Seaton. But I didn’t see anything about proximity, so apparently that wasn’t a factor…. maybe. Our waitlist number for both Cleveland slots is thirty-something.

I love the fact that DC has school choice. I didn’t have to choose a school based on an address. When I bought my house, almost 20 years ago, I was a single childless woman, so what school boundary I was in was immaterial. Looking at where we’d move to in the land of Maryland drivers, yeah, elementary school boundaries are a concern. It also helps that Seaton is our in-boundary school, which isn’t that bad, and there are a couple of good charters in walking distance.

Looking at our top 5 which actually is a top 4, you can guess what we found important. Language. What do Cleveland Elementary (DCPS), Yu Ying PCS, and Mundo Verde PCS have in common? Dual language programs. Destructo is getting a bit of that at his daycare, ad hoc, but I don’t think Tagalog is a language he can take with him past Pre-K 4.

I appreciate an article written in the Post profiling 8 families and what went into their lottery choices. I get that people want to have families choose in-boundary or neighborhood schools over charters and out of boundary DCPS schools. But the reality is some schools suck. And I have a good memory of what DC schools were like in the 1990s and early 00s, and schools have improved, but they aren’t equal to all students. We and other parents, make decisions based on what we think is best for our family or our individual kids. We only have one, but I know kids, even in the same family are different. And the school that worked for kid #1 may not work for kid #2. Same for the neighborhood school that may work for kids 1-11, but not kid #12, #32, #57 or #71- 102. And programs take time to develop and by the time it’s ready for the kids it was promised to, those individual kids have moved on.

Anyway, I hope your waitlist number was low, or you got into the school of your choice, and may the odds be ever in your favor.

Shaw School Review: Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary

100_0680.JPG

Friendship PCS- Armstrong Elementary
1400 1st St. NW or 111 O St NW

Type of school: Public Charter
Grades: PK3-5 (Note: Middle School for 2020 grades 4-8)
Before & After School care: Yes. Contact school. Prob. $70 a week for before and after care.
Enrollment: 417 (2019-20)
PreK3: 55; PreK4: 72; K: 63; 1st: 40; 2nd: 65; 3rd: 38; 4th: 37; 5th: 47
PCS LEA 1 Programmatic Capacity: 900; Unfilled seats 499 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- No figures found. Apparently those numbers will be available later in 2020 or 2021.

Attracts Students From These DCPS schools (2017-18), 10 students or more

Name of School # of Students
Thomas Elementary School 17
Truesdell Education Campus 10
Walker-Jones Education Campus 88
Browne Education Campus 23
Langley Elementary School 15
Seaton Elementary School 36
Cleveland Elementary School 13

Physical activity: Grades K-5: 65.00 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
Black White Hispanic Pac. Is/Native Am.
ELA 2018-19 9.2% n<10 n<10 n<10
Math 2018-19 22.9% n<10 n<10 n<10
Males ELA 7.3% n<10 n<10 n<10
Males Math 18.2% n<10 n<10 n<10

Views from Dunbar High SchoolMari’s 2 cents

I chose the picture of Armstrong before it was renovated. Friendship is the second charter school to take over the building. I almost feel that I should have a photo of the Langston school to show the importance of charters on the neighborhood. However, Langston is so far long gone no charter, no matter how well funded, isn’t going to touch it, unless the neighboring Slater building comes with.

I should write about the program. As the mom of a toddler, I should point out this is one of the few (the only I found) charters that seems forgiving when it comes to potty training. KIPP and Mundo Verde demand that students be potty trained.

They will have an open house on

Sources:
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/150
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/120-0269
Copy of EdScape_Chapter 3 Facilities_Facility Enrollment and Utilization_6
2018-19 School Year Annual Enrollment Audit Report Supplemental Tables
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance

Truxton Black History Link- Dunbar Cadet Corps

Right now the Library of Congress website is being very uncooperative. They have photographs of Dunbar High School girl cadets from the 1940s. So instead I’m going to link to someone else’s old blog post about the boys’ cadet corps circa 1950-1960.

It’s a pretty good post with photos from the Dunbar High School year book describing what the cadet corps did and their history. The author, Marion Woodfork Simmons,  said that the cadet corps was the precursor to the JROTC. My niece is in the JROTC at our (I & her mom – my sister- went there too) Florida high school. She’s interested in the Navy. Anwho, it seems Dunbar still has an JROTC program.

Shaw School Review: City Center- Shaw

Center City PCS

Center City PCS – Shaw
711 N St. NW

Type of school: Public Charter
Grades:   PK4-8
Before & After School care: Yes. Contact school. Monthly cost $180.00.
Enrollment: 230 (2018-19)
PreK4: 16; K: 24; 1st: 20; 2nd: 21; 3rd: 26; 4th: 24; 5th: 26; 6th: 25; 7th: 25; 8th: 23
PCS LEA 1 Programmatic Capacity: 280; Unfilled seats 50 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- No figures found. If I were more confident with math, I’d try. But I’m a humanities person, I don’t do math.

Attracts Students From These DCPS schools (2017-18), 10 students or more

Name of School # of Students
School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens 26
Walker-Jones Education Campus 20
Cardozo Education Campus 11
Thomson Elementary School 28
Seaton Elementary School 38

Physical activity: Grades K-5: 270.00 Minutes/week
Grades 6-8: 90.00 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
Black White Hispanic Asian
ELA 2018-19 26.5% n<10 32.2% n<10
Math 2018-19 28.9% n<10 33.9% n<10
Males ELA 13.6% n<10 26.9% n<10
Males Math 31.8% n<10 34.6% n<10

Schools
Mari’s 2 cents– I remember when this was the Immaculate Conception Catholic School. And that makes me sad. What makes me happy is that I had my wedding reception in this school building, but that has nothing to do with the school itself. The Center City schools exist in the former buildings of struggling catholic schools closed by the Archbishop. The reason why they were struggling is that those schools served primarily low-income students and the city was offering free charters, and it is hard to compete with free. So when you can’t beat them, join them. If things go downhill for St. Augustine, this could be their fate too.

Sources:
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/150
https://secureservercdn.net/45.40.149.159/x6k.c0b.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/ExtendedDayOverviewEnglish.pdf
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/156-1107
https://dcpcsb.org/center-city-pcs-shaw
2018-19 School Year Annual Enrollment Audit Report Supplemental Tables
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance

Shaw School Review: KIPP GROW/LEAD/WILL

Technically these are three separate schools…. but on one campus on the corner of P and 5th St NW.
KIPP- Will KIPP Shaw DC Campus
421 P Street NW

Type of school: Public Charter
Grades:   Grow Academy Grades PreK3-K
………………Lead Academy Grades 1-4
………………WILL Academy Grades 5-8
Before & After School care: Yes. See operator, AlphaBest’s flyer for prices.
Enrollment: 1046 (Grow 318; Lead 400; WILL 328)  (2018-19)
PCS LEA 1 Programmatic Capacity: 1050 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- $19,269 2018 DC Funding per Student/$21,057 Expenses per student for all KIPP schools. Neither the DCPSCB nor OSSE has this data broken down by school.

Attracts Students From These DCPS schools (2017-18), 10 students or more

KIPP GROW-Pre-K 3& 4 and K # of Students
Hendley Elementary School 11
Walker-Jones Education Campus 22
Thomson Elementary School 14
Tubman Elementary School 10
Smothers Elementary School 16
Nalle Elementary School 10
Langley Elementary School 19
Seaton Elementary School 37
Cleveland Elementary School 10
KIPP-LEAD Grades 1-4 # of Students
Thomas Elementary School 15
Truesdell Education Campus 10
Walker-Jones Education Campus 26
Thomson Elementary School 17
Plummer Elementary School 11
Langdon Elementary School 14
Langley Elementary School 18
King Elementary School 12
Seaton Elementary School 45
Cleveland Elementary School 22
KIPP WILL Grades 5-8 # of students
School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens 17
Walker-Jones Education Campus 42
Cardozo Education Campus 34
Hart Middle School 20
Johnson Middle School 11
Columbia Heights Education Campus 6-8 (CHEC) 16
Brookland Middle School 10
Sousa Middle School 11
Kelly Miller Middle School 31
McKinley Middle School 11
Seaton Elementary School 14
LaSalle-Backus Education Campus 11
Kramer Middle School 10

Physical Activity Time: Grades K-5: 335.00 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations KIPP- LEAD
Black White Hispanic Asian
ELA 2018-19 39.7% n<10 n<10 n<10
Math 2018-19 68.6% n<10 n<10 n<10
Males ELA 30% n<10 n<10 n<10
Males Math 62.2% n<10 n<10 n<10
PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations KIPP- WILL
Black White Hispanic Asian
ELA 2018-19 36.4% n<10 53.8% n<10
Math 2018-19 32.1% n<10 53.8% n<10
Males ELA 29.3% n<10 n<10 n<10
Males Math 28.7% n<10 n<10 n<10

Mari’s 2cents– Well the enrollment numbers explain the traffic clusterfrack that sometimes occurs along P Street and the 1500 block of 5th Street in the mornings and afternoon. So many Maryland tags…..
KIPP is a large collection of schools and only some data points are broken down by individual schools. DC isn’t the only source of revenue for KIPP as they use Federal and donor funds.
The math test scores for African-American boys at KIPP-Lead are better than I’ve seen than any school in Shaw. ELA (English) is ‘eh’.
KIPP does attract a number of students away from Shaw in-boundary schools like Seaton and Cleveland Elementary. But what I found curious was the number of students from School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens, which is a stone’s throw from the Park. What’s up with that? Also there are a bunch of schools I had not heard of that aren’t Shaw or Brookland or Eckington adjacent. For KIPP-WILL a lot of students are in the Cardozo and Walker-Jones boundaries. Because of logistics, if you are on the other side of the road of death that is New York Avenue, I understand why. And Cardozo is a PITA to get to.

Sources:

Schools


https://www.alphabest.org/kippdc
https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/2018-19%20UPSFF%20Payment%20Letter.pdf
EdScape_Chapter 3 Facilities_Facility Enrollment and Utilization_6
https://dcpcsb.egnyte.com/dl/CLgymS38ng/
https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/media/file/KIPP%20DC%20PCS_Financial%20Analysis%20Report_2.pdf
FY1718_Public School Enrollments per DCPS Boundary
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance

Shaw School Review: St. Augustine Catholic School

St. Augustine school DC
1421 V Street NW

Type of school: Parochial / Private
Grades: Pre-K3 to 8
Before School care: Unsure (ADW says yes)
After School care: Yes, $1,875.00 per child
Enrollment: 183 (2018-19)
Student:Staff Ratio: 6:1

PS K 1st  2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th
15 15 12 17 20 18 24 21 18 23

Cost Per Pupil-$13,750  Tuition: $6,250.00 per child (Archdioceses of Washington-ADW provides a $7,750.00 subsidy for every student)

2017-18 PARCC Classification

St-Aug-1

St-AugMathRegion

St-Aug-Reading St-Aug-Math

Mari’s 2cents: This will be the only private school I will be reviewing because finding information about private schools is a bit more challenging. The data is stale because it looks like the Roman Catholic Archdioceses of Washington (ADW) only bothered testing everyone in the 2017-2018 school year. When I look for test data at other Catholic schools they cite 2017-2018 as well. They have a different test, Scantron.
Compared to the rest of DC, and I’m assuming it is DCPS, charter and maybe some other schools, St. Augustine tests very well. Forty-nine percent of it’s students are performing at or above expectations (using the PARC 1-5 system) in reading/ ELA and 51% in Math, compared to DC-State at 28% and 27%. I should also mention the school is about 98% African American.

Sources:
https://staug-dc.org
Q4 Attachment – Private School Enrollment SY14-15 SY15-16 SY16-17, SY17-18 to date (Excel Sheet)
https://adwcatholicschools.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/2018-2019-Strategic-Data-Portfolio-FINAL.pdf
https://d2y1pz2y630308.cloudfront.net/17051/documents/2019/3/St.%20Augustine%202017%20-%202018%20Local%20PARCC.pdf

Shaw School Review: Cleveland Elementary School

Schools

1825 8th St. NW

Type of school: Public
Grades: Pre-K 3 to 5

PreK3: 29;  PreK4: 44; K: 42; 1st: 37; 2nd: 35; 3rd: 40; 4th: 39; 5th: 38

Before School care: No
After School care: Yes, Fee
Enrollment: 304 (2018-19)
Permanent DCPS Programmatic Capacity, 346; Unfilled Seats, 42 (2018-19)
Cost Per Pupil- $11,029 (300 students 2019-2020 General Education)

Boundaries

Percent of in-boundary participation: 29.1% (2017-18)

Schools attended by in-boundary students (2017-18)

Name of School # of Students
Seaton Elementary School 25
KIPP DC – Lead Academy PCS 22
Thomson Elementary School 17
Friendship PCS – Armstrong 13
KIPP DC – Grow Academy PCS 10

Physical Activity Time: Grades K-5: 75 Minutes/week

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
Black White Hispanic Asian
ELA 2018-19 20.3% N/A 29.7% n<10
Math 2018-19 20.3% N/A 40.5% n<10
Males ELA 10.8% N/A 21.1% N/A
Males Math 24.3% N/A 42.1% N/A

Mari’s 2cents: I’m taking the participation rate with a grain of salt because I’m not sure if they are counting Pre-K kids who have to lottery into the boundary and space is limited. I have another table for other institutions that take OSSE money for Pre-K so there is that. Also notice which schools students are going to instead of Cleveland, Seaton (DCPS), KIPP Lead and Grow, Friendship-Armstrong, and Thompson (DCPS), these are schools in Shaw or close to it. Two of them are other DCPS schools, so it isn’t that DCPS schools aren’t fitting a need, just that particular one. I’m including unfilled seats because someone tweeted about a horrible number of unfilled seats in Ward 5. Forty-two seats seem small and I suspect those are spread out to the higher grades as the peak number of kids is below 1st grade. Cleveland has a dual language program for Spanish and English which looks very interesting and appealing. But you want to know what’s even more appealing? It’s like almost across the street from the Shaw metro.

Sources:

2018-19 School Year Annual Enrollment Audit Report Supplemental Tables
EdScape_Chapter 3 Facilities_Facility Enrollment and Utilization_6
http://dcpsbudget.ourdcschools.org/
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/1-0224
https://www.myschooldc.org/schools/profile/23/
Detailed 2018-19, 2017-18, 2016-17 PARCC And MSAA Performance
FY1718_Public School Enrollments per DCPS Boundary

Shaw School Review: Dunbar High School

Dunbar High School DC (new building).jpg
By DC Public Schools – http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/school_images/full_size/dunbar.jpg, Public Domain

101 N Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

Type of school: Public
Grades: 9-12
Enrollment: 667 (2018-19)
Permanent DCPS Programmatic Capacity, 1135; Unfilled Seats, 468 (2018-19)
Boundaries

Dunbar HS boundaries

Percent of in-boundary participation: 52%

Schools attended by in-boundary students (2017-18)

NAME OF SCHOOL # of Students
McKinley Technology High School 128
Woodrow Wilson High School 109
Washington Mathematics Science Technology PCHS 90
Columbia Heights Education Campus 9-12 (CHEC) 88
Duke Ellington School of the Arts 87
Paul PCS – International High School 83
KIPP DC – College Preparatory Academy PCS 82
Benjamin Banneker High School 75
Cardozo Education Campus 70
Washington Leadership Academy PCS 69
Friendship PCS – Collegiate Academy 65
School Without Walls High School 65
Washington Latin PCS – Upper School 59
Goodwill Excel Center PCS 53
Capital City PCS – High School 53
Luke C. Moore High School 52
Eastern High School 48
District of Columbia International School 46
Roosevelt High School 42
E.L. Haynes PCS – High School 39
Ron Brown College Preparatory High School 37
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Capitol Hill 35
Phelps Architecture, Construction and Engineering High School 35
Coolidge High School 34
Kingsman Academy PCS 32
IDEA PCS 30
Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS 29
Cesar Chavez PCS for Public Policy – Parkside High School 28
Washington Metropolitan High School 28
Richard Wright PCS for Journalism and Media Arts 27
H.D. Woodson High School 14
BASIS DC PCS 14
Ballou High School 13
Maya Angelou PCS – High School 12
SEED PCS of Washington DC 10

Physical Activity Time: 160 minutes a week

Before Care/ After Care: None

PARCC by Race

PARCC Scores 2018-19, % meeting & exceeding expectations
Black White Hispanic Asian
ELA 2018-19 16.5% N/A n<10 N/A
Math 2018-19 .5% N/A n<10 n<10
Males ELA 13.4% N/A n<10 N/A
Males Math .9% N/A n<10 n<10

 

Mari’s 2 cents: I’m playing around with the format of this so bear with me.  The boundaries of Dunbar cover a huge swath of Ward 5, but cuts out portions of the Truxton Circle/ Shaw neighborhood where it resides. I can understand why so many students would prefer to go to McKinley Technology High School, an application DCPS high school, as it is far closer to the red line that serves the ward. That and McKinely has better test scores. The next largest number of kids go to Wilson, which is on the other side of the red line, and it too has better scores. But, Dunbar has a great football team and a beautiful building. The school is 96% black and so there are so few of the other racial categories, there is no test data when there are fewer than 10 or 25 students.

Sources:
https://edscape.dc.gov/page/facilities-unfilled-seats
https://www.dcschoolreportcard.org/schools/1-0467
http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Dunbar+High+School
https://www.myschooldc.org
https://dcps.dc.gov/node/1018342
https://www.tablesgenerator.com/html_tables#

No such thing as a bad school in DC

Dunbar2
Old Dunbar High School being demolished in 2013


Are there any bad public schools in DC?

I think there are but I don’t know if I really want to bother with petty fights with people who feel the need to defend failure. No one is free to say that since a school fails to have a decent bell curve of failing and excelling students and is skewed towards failure, that maybe it could be a bad school. Nor can you point to low in-boundary participation, the mismatch of demographics between the school and the neighborhood, and empty seats and say that people/parents are saying something in their actions.

Personally, I know that acknowledging problems is the first step to recovery and towards success. Doesn’t guarantee success, but it helps to stop the self-deception.

There are some great public schools in the District of Columbia, not all of them charters.  Shepherd Elementary School in upper northwest, does an awesome job of educating black boys. Over 70% of Shepard’s African American boys, between 2016-2019, approached, met and exceeded expectations on PARCC scores in math and ELA. Sadly, this is rare.

The number of schools where black boys fail to meet or even partially meet expectations are many. So many. Both charters and DCPS. But I’m not going to name them for they have their defenders.

I get it. Education is hard. There is a mix of building issues, the kinds of families (students and parents) a school attracts, the staff who come and stay, and the leadership. These need to be in balance. But you can’t fix the problem and try to figure out what is out of wack if you won’t even identify what is a bad school.

I’ll be exploring Shaw schools, and I will name names.

and then you will quietly move away

The message I’m hearing is that if you want a high quality public school education for your children, you should move. Quietly. If not quietly, apologize profusely, publicly state your commitment to traditional and neighborhood public schools, maybe mumble something about needing more space, and move to an overwhelmingly middle or upper class neighborhood. There, the minorities are in the minority, other involved parents are in your demographic, and no one is going to make you feel guilty about being a tax paying, college educated homeowner.

Don’t send your kid to a charter

I love charters. They are the thing that kept many people in the city after they had kids. I had neighbors who stayed longer because of charters and moved because of charters (kid #1,#2 or #3 didn’t get in). It stays with you when a family puts their house up for sale soon after the March/ April lottery results come in. And it’s reinforced when I notice families with 2-3 year olds sell or move in late Spring and early summer.

The anti-charter/ pro-DCPS voices are making parents feel bad about charters. Charters aren’t transparent. Charters funnel money and good students/parents away from neighborhood schools. Charters have a powerful lobby. Charters are connected with current/historical segregation. Simply charters are morally suspect and you’re a horrible person if you support them.

And some of that is true. Charters could stand to be more transparent and publish the same data as DCPS schools. With nearly half of DC students attending charters, yup that money isn’t going to DCPS. Involved and conscious parents are going to choose certain schools for their kids. Compared to other pro-traditional schools organizations with older and deeper ties to DC’s political body, the powerfulness of FOCUS is questionable. And even traditional school districts are getting more segregated.

However, I don’t see the anti-charter school push moving parents towards neighborhood schools. Maybe to DCPS schools WOTP (West of the Park- Rock Creek) as one notable blogger has done. And even when some parents decide to take a chance on their neighborhood school, their presence isn’t necessarily welcomed.

Step back, move away from the school

The Post has an article about PTOs, Parent Teacher Organizations and the problems of inclusion with racially mixed parent groups. What the article leaves out is not every DC public and charter school has a PTO. Dunbar doesn’t seem to have an active PTO, nor does Garrison Elementary. It makes it look like this is a DC, East of the Park problem.

So I guess racial harmony exists over in the burbs and WOTP? Because those areas never seem to pop up in gentrification stories, where most of the Washington Post’s readership lives. If involved parents want to avoid this stigma, they should… I dunno, move to the burbs and WOTP?

Private School Snob?

It’s expensive, so move.

There is someone out there to make you feel bad if you choose private schools.

  But Matthew’s kid is still very young and not all private schools are “fancy”.

…. I should write a blog post about all the private predominately black schools in DC. I digress.

I’ll end with this: Can pro-traditional DC public school advocates draw middle class parents to DCPS without sending the message, move to NoVa or parts of Maryland? Yes, DC Charters are the competition, but so are the surrounding jurisdictions of Arlington, Alexandria, Montgomery, Charles, and Howard Counties. Not so much PG County Schools. I’ve heard no one come out and say directly they’re moving because of schools. But when you notice people with kids start mysteriously disappearing when their eldest hits a certain age (2-3 or middle school), it’s hard not to conclude, they are moving because of schools.