“This is our issue in Ward 5, and we’re not going to go away,” Thomas said.
Many educators say a skimpy middle school program can alienate kids at a crucial moment in their lives.
“It’s the time when we need to sort of hyper-engage them so we can carry them through high school. If they are not hooked by sixth grade, it gets progressively harder,” said Jennifer Niles, founder and head of E. L. Haynes, one of several public charter schools that has had more success with the hybrid model. One big reason is that Haynes and other charters built gradually, starting at the lower grades, allowing staff to build a cohesive school culture and bonds with families. The plan is to eventually expand to PS-12.
The public PS-8s were pressed together because of closures that generated considerable bitterness and mistrust.
Haynes’s well-appointed Georgia Avenue NW campus has 250 middle-grade students and will expand to 300 next year. It offers Spanish and Arabic, with electives that include robotics, songwriting and video game strategies. Its middle grades show strong achievement compared with those in other city schools.
Henderson defends the PS-8 programs, citing pre-algebra and algebra at Langdon, Browne and Brookland, and Chinese and Spanish at Langley Education Campus, also in Ward 5. But the low enrollment has forced some parents to make painful decisions.
Mary Melchior acknowledges that she pushed for Langdon to become a PS-8 as an alternative to the available middle school options. She invested years of energy as an active parent, serving on the parent-staff committee that reviewed school budgets. Her triplet sons’ third-grade teacher last year, Perea Brown-Blackmon, was one of the District’s “highly effective” educators honored last week at a lavish Kennedy Center ceremony. The boys were scheduled to have her again in fourth grade.
But Melchior pulled them from Langdon, securing fourth-grade seats this fall at Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan through her transfer rights under the No Child Left Behind law. Melchior said she wants her children to get a middle school program that will help them compete for a top academic high school, such as Banneker or School Without Walls.
Last year, one Langdon eighth-grader made it to Banneker, but none went to School Without Walls. But nine Langdon students were admitted to McKinley Technology High School, one of the city’s other application-only high schools.
The spots at Logan put Melchior’s sons in the feeder pattern for Stuart-Hobson.
“I would have loved to stay [at Langdon],” she said, “but I know we’re not going to get the funding we need to provide a decent middle school.”
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