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New North MS Principal Selection

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The DCPS School Planning team has been working with the Family and Public Engagement and School Leader and Recruitment Teams to engage northern Ward 4 about the ideal school leader for New North MS.

DCPS has gathered feedback from stakeholders on the qualities and experiences to prioritize in the ideal school leader, as well as hopes and dreams for New North MS.
The DCPS school planning team has meet with parents and families at each education campus throughout Fall 2018.

Across all four EC communities, DCPS has learned that parents and families are looking for an experienced leader of middle school students who has prior knowledge about the area and DCPS, including experience building relationships with students and families from diverse backgrounds.

Themes that resonated across all 4 education campuses include that the New North MS Principal should be a person who is:

  • A leader with demonstrated success in building strong relationships amongst students, parents and families across various socioeconomic and language backgrounds.
  • A candidate who has experience as either an AP and/or with middle school aged students.
  • A candidate who has some knowledge and/or experience with DC Public Schools, including DCPS central office.
  • A candidate who has knowledge of or has experience related to the challenges schools in Northern Ward 4 face.
  • A candidate who is to be able to navigate the large DCPS organization and collaborate with superiors at DCPS to advocate for the school’s needs and challenges.

DCPS has convened a community panel of representatives from each New North MS feeder community that will inform the principal selection process. This community panel will conduct panel interviews with 3-5 final candidates for the principal position. The community panel will develop and select the questions they will use in their interviews. After the interviews, the panel provides feedback on the candidates to inform DCPS’ final decision on the principal selection.

On November 8, 2018, New North MS panel members came together to brainstorm questions that they would like to ask candidates.

Pictures are posted below and you can find the presentation from the meeting here

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Ketcham ES Child Development Center

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Child Development Center

A child development center for babies and infants ages 0-3 will open at Ketcham Elementary School next school year starting in August 2018. The center will be operated by a community partner and childcare vouchers will be accepted.

How can I learn more?
Parents and families are welcome to come to a community meet at Ketcham ES on Thursday, March 15 starting at 5pm in the school’s library.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP here.

Child Development Center - Copy - Copy

What opportunities will there be to provide input?
We will have information soon for parents and community members to join a panel that will help us select the partner who will run the 0-3 center.

How can I stay updated and who can I contact if I have questions?
You can e-mail dcps.earlychildhood@dc.govFind it at Ketcham (Flyer)

MacFarland Middle School Update from Principal Mark Sanders

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DCPS SM Postcard_SCHOOL7

MacFarland Middle School reopened in August 2016 as a dual-language middle school. Next year, it will continue to grow its Dual-Language program and welcome their first 6th grade comprehensive (non-dual language) class.  It will welcome this class in a newly modernized and renovated state of the art building. You can find the full letter from Principal Mark Sanders right here. 

Library
Library
Hallway
Hallway
Library
Library
School Entrance
School Entrance
Hallway
Hallway


What is the timeline for the MacFarland Opening?
MacFarland Middle School will grow its comprehensive middle school program over the next three school years starting with 6th graders. It will become a full 6 – 8th grade middle school in SY20-21. You can find the full timeline below.

Expansion Timeline

What schools and programs feed into MacFarland?
As a middle school with both comprehensive and a dual-language programs, MacFarland has both geographic and programmatic feeder schools.

  • Families who live in the boundaries of the geographic feeder schools below have rights to enroll in the MacFarland MS comprehensive program.
  • Dual-language programmatic families have the right to enroll their child in the MacFarland MS dual-language program.  

MacFarland Feeders

How can I learn more?
MacFarland Middle School will host school tours for families on Wednesday mornings at 9:30am throughout February and March. The tours will be in the school located at 4400 Iowa Avenue NW. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Principal Sanders directly at mark.sanders@dc.gov or please call 202-671-6033.

Connecting art & emotional responses: Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors field trip

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Last week, Ms. Mills took a group of students on a field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Hirschhorn Museum. Artist Yayoi Kusama’s avant-garde pieces are known for their ability to evoke various emotional responses based on her unconventional use of space, color, light and reflection. In her Infinity Mirrors exhibit, Kusama created six rooms of wonder on the beauty, stereotypes and evolution of the human condition. Students viewed the rooms as well as her earlier creations such as “Works on Paper.” Students then analyzes the six rooms and critically discuss Kusama’s perspective on the “incredible beauty of humanity.” Check out photos from their day below:

Field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Students analyse Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Students analyse Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Students analyse Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.
Field trip to see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrors exhibit.

If you are interested in this exhibit, information on their free timed-passes is here. 

Dual Language Planning Updates

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Our DL engagement process is ongoing. Want to connect for an update or to share your thoughts? Contact DCPS.Planning@dc.gov or (202) 821-6557.

Background

This school year, DCPS opened three new Dual Language programs at Houston ES, MacFarland MS, and Roosevelt HS, bringing the total number of English/Spanish programs  in DCPS to 11. Through all our work engaging school communities over the past two years around dual language, we’ve heard demand from parents across the city for more language programming in DCPS. Some parents want more English/Spanish programs, some want a more equitable spread of programs across the city, others want to see new languages like Mandarin, French, or Arabic introduced.

dl-map

Map of DCPS Dual Language Programs.

In the past, DCPS has generally opened new Dual Language (DL) programs one at a time, addressing needs and demand from school communities as they come. As you may notice in the map above, there is now a strong concentration of DL programs in Wards 1 and 4, an area there is also a high concentration of native Spanish speakers.

While opening in this cluster helps programs enroll a mix of native Spanish and native English speakers, it makes equity of access across the city difficult. Looking at the map above, if you’re a student in Ward 8 or 5 you’re looking at a lengthy commute if you’re able to get into a DL program. Having programs clustered in Columbia Heights / Petworth also makes it challenging to offer convenient feeder patterns for schools outside that hub.

Process

Our goal through this process is to engage a wide range of stakeholders across the city and develop a multi-year plan for dual language going forward. In particular, we want to address equity of access and complete feeder patterns (referenced above). We’re talking with parents who have kids in DL, parents who don’t, school leaders, staff, dual language experts, and community members and asking:

  • What’s going well with dual language now? What do you like about it or find appealing?
  • What do you want to see change going forward?
  • How do you think DCPS should expand dual language?

What we’ve done

  • One on one meetings or phone calls with 30 different parents and community members.
  • Larger community meetings at Takoma EC, Marie Reed ES, the Ward 5 Council on Education, Tubman ES, and the Ward 4 Education Alliance.
  • Conversations with dual language leaders and staff members at Oyster Adams, Tyler ES, CHEC, Powell, and Bancroft.
  • Looked at preliminary data on English Language Learner (ELL) and non-ELL performance in our dual language programs.
  • Spoke with a range of dual language researchers and other school districts and states across the country with successful DL programs.

What we’ve heard

  • Parents are interested in ways for their kids to learn another language. Many are excited about dual language specifically, but many are also open to alternative ways for students to learn a second language. This could include more intensive language study, or after school and summer programs.
  • Dual Language school leaders are bought into and excited about dual language, and want it to be available to more students across the city.
  • While parents are excited about language, there are reservations about adopting the program at their school because of what it would mean for the school culture and staff. Moving to DL often implies significant staff turnover to get the right number of bilingual educators.
  • Parents and staff want clear, logical feeder patterns so students can progress in dual language from elementary to middle to high school.
  • Parents, staff, and community members want students across the city to be able to access dual language programming more easily. They’ve pointed out the lack of DCPS programs in Wards 5 and 8 specifically.
  • Concerns about strand programs vs. whole school models. Some parents and community members feel strand programs can create divisions within one school community, while others feel it’s important to offer the option of a non-DL program in their neighborhood school.

Meeting Schedule

Interested in talking with us or want to schedule a larger meeting at your school community? You can always reach us at DCPS.Planning@dc.gov or (202) 821-6557, or feel free to join us at an upcoming meeting:

  • Oyster Adams Bilingual School (2801 Calvert St. NW) at 9am Friday, 11/4
  • Ward 8 Education Council house meeting – Monday, November 28th (Location TBD)
  • Miner Elementary School PTO – Monday, 12/5 at 6pm
  • Ward 7 Education Council (TBD)

 

Ron Brown HS Speakers Series

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RBHS Speakers Series

Ron Brown College Preparatory High School will launch a weekly speakers series as part of its College and Career Exploration Program.  It is designed around the three core pillars of the school – to develop a young man’s character, academic curiosity, and service toward his community.

Sign up to share your story by visiting http://bit.ly/RBHSspeaker, emailing rbhs.speaker@dc.gov, or calling 202-729-4343.

rbhs-speaker-series

Ron Brown HS June Meeting

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Ron Brown HS June Meeting

Cabinet members heard updates on the school’s enrollment, facilities, and hiring plans, learned about DCPS’ 500 for 500 mentoring program in order to apply lessons learned when considering RBHS’ mentoring program concept, and provided feedback on the role of the Community Cabinet moving forward.

6-20-16-rbhs-community-cabinet-meeting-minutes

 

DCPS Dual Language Planning

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Over the past two months, the DCPS Planning Team has been meeting with stakeholders to discuss dual language in DCPS and possible ways to expand programming in the future. We’re meeting with parents, community members, school leaders, and dual language advocates to hear thoughts on what’s working, what’s not, and where DCPS should go next with dual language.

Last year we worked to open three new dual language programs at Roosevelt High School, MacFarland Middle School, and Houston Elementary School, making 11 total in DCPS. Still, we continue to hear demand from parents for more bilingual programs in more languages across the city. While we are not able to open a new dual language program at every school we hear support for it, our goal for this process is to develop a plan for expanding bilingual programming in a more systematic way over multiple years. This plan should lead to increased equity of access to dual language programs across the city and more complete feeder patterns, while taking into account the input of our stakeholders over the coming months.

We plan to continue engaging with folks over the coming months and develop some initial recommendations for next steps in late October/early November. Please see below for the presentation we used at a recent meeting with leaders of ward education concils, and as always, reach out to us with any questions or comments at DCPS.Planning@dc.gov.

DCPS Dual Language Planning