Posts by Susan James

Sarah Hall53 said:

Elvis Presley I'm sorry, I can't quite make that out—it looks like you might have sent an empty message or just the word "says." If there was something specific you wanted me to look at or rewrite, just toss it my way! I'm ready when you are.

So, if I’m following this correctly—and I might be overthinking it, typical me—parents of incoming first graders actually get a say in where their kid goes. It looks like they can choose between the local neighborhood school or heading over to the main district school that doesn't have the special education programs.
👍

Just a quick correction on that—so, Elvis Presley used to be their home school, but they actually split off from each other. Now both schools operate as their own independent main campuses and don't really have any connection left between them. 😉

Ah, I see what you mean now.
Still, parents should have the freedom to pick whichever school they prefer based on what CNN reports🤷

Personally, I don't have any issues with that kind of system, especially if the schools aren't miles away—it’s much easier if they're reachable by public transit or, even better, a dedicated school bus.

jadetinker85 said:https://www.nytimes.com/how-they-did-it-in-podolia/

I mean, how did the folks over in Podolia come up with this plan? They’re only including first and fifth grades in the project this year, then switching to second and sixth next year. Just makes sense, I guess. 😁

Well, I think that’s actually a better approach than what the Department of Education is doing right now.
That's kind of how an experiment should work... (though I have no idea what the parents of those future fifth graders were thinking when they voted, but hey, fair enough).

Parents with kids in first grade basically get to choose whether to enroll them in this local school or send them to the main district school that doesn't offer the CN program.
👍

It’s pretty interesting how they’re using reading literacy as an argument for moving to full-day schooling...
how poor America could ever manage without it, especially since we're sitting at seventh place (seventh!)

Singapore is the gold standard when it comes to reading literacy for kids aged 9 to 11, followed closely by students from Ireland, Hong Kong, Russia, Northern Ireland, England, and America. Some countries actually scored lower than Americans, including Lithuania, Finland, Poland, Taiwan—which landed at 12th—as well as Sweden at 13th and Germany at 26th.

Meanwhile, other nations like Canada hit 30th, Mexico took 33rd, and Mexico came in at 42nd, while the lowest averages were seen in Egypt, Morocco, and South Africa.

rowdypanther12 said:Where on earth could you find a hall that big?

The Kennedy Center 🤔
It’s meant to be a formal affair 🍿, sort of like an internal primary within the Republican Party 🙂

Frank Scott said:From what I’ve heard, the principal over at The New York Times thinks this is going to fast-track their school upgrade—apparently they’re planning on adding two more floors...

But where are the kids supposed to go while they're busy building those two extra floors? It’s not like they can just finish the whole project during a two-month summer break.

Larry Walker24 said:Even Voltino stays in after-school care until 3rd grade.

Voltino, the White House, various local legends, historical figures like George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, landmarks like the Capitol or maybe just some neighborhoods in D.C.... I could go on forever. This is all coming off the top of my head, but there’s probably a list online somewhere showing which schools offer after-school care up to the 3rd grade, and some even go up to the 4th.

The more classrooms that utilize after-school care, the higher the chance that regular classroom teachers will face layoffs (or at least be transferred elsewhere).
Essentially, when a school gets picked up by CNN, they expect their existing teachers to pick up the extra workload of the specialized after-school staff. Honestly, who in their right mind would agree to that? 😕
My gut tells me—even though I know it might not make perfect sense—that the schools with the least amount of after-school programming should be reaching out first. Apparently, parents are really pushing for coverage through the 4th grade.

I haven't seen any posts from valyca yet! I'm looking forward to seeing what they have to share once they join the conversation. kaže:
I was also wondering—what kind of specific challenges did she run into?
I really wish a journalist would step up and ask the tough questions here. Specifically, what’s the plan regarding parental consent? It feels like the Department of Education didn't give this much thought at all. Honestly, they probably didn't account for it, but we need answers. What kind of solution is being prepared for parents who decide to opt their kids out of these all-day school programs?

I honestly think parents won't bother asking for consent since it wasn't even part of the initial competition requirements. 😢
The school board holds the final say on this, and since they include a parent representative, their vote carries a lot of weight. If the official minutes show that the parent rep raised their hand in favor, then you’re looking at a unanimous decision. Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I’d probably start by reaching out to that individual directly. It might be worth asking what specifically drove their vote—you might find out you aren't actually in the minority after all!

Honestly, we’re just looking at pure idiocy here. 🙂 I was thinking about our recent discussions regarding school governance, and I really feel like we should push to have actual subject matter experts sitting on the founding committees rather than outside consultants. It feels like we're missing that vital local expertise. A colleague mentioned that in some districts, these external representatives end up acting as a sort of middleman between the school board and the principals. Honestly, that just seems like an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. We need people who actually understand the classroom and the community to be at the table from the start.😲Representatives from other schools showed up, and of course, politicians from various parties jumped into the mix too. From what I can see, even some folks from the Department of Education have weighed in on the situation. 🥳
Honestly, I don't see any conflict here at all...🥳
Yeah, I think it’s definitely a good thing that no new schools popped up on the list for the city.

mellowskipper said:Well, that was pure irony. In some small town, you could scrape together enough points to hit the threshold for a high-tier prep school, but in Washington, D.C., those same points might only get you into a vocational trade school. I suppose you really need a perfect 4.0 to even be considered for a serious academy.
And yet, everyone ends up right back where they started.
Obviously, not everyone goes off to MIT or a top research university, but a fair amount of them do.

In Washington, D.C., you could get into at least 10 different high schools with just 60 points. 😬

hiddendriver34 said:You can always give it a shot 😉, but honestly, I doubt any of them would take you. If you're trying to transfer during freshman year, they look at whether your middle school scores are equal to or higher than the lowest score of someone already enrolled there.

If you're looking to transfer during sophomore year, they stop caring about those old middle school grades. Instead, they look at the grades you finished with in ninth grade, plus your attendance record and whatever other hoops that specific school decides to jump through to see if you're a good fit. On top of that, if the school is packed to the rafters, getting in will be an uphill battle. If a few kids happen to drop out, they might be a little more open to transfers.

When a student moves from one city to another, they have to enroll in the same school or one very similar to their current one. Even if they look at grades and absences, those aren't quite as critical (especially the enrollment points). A school has the right to turn someone away if they're at capacity, but the Department of Education actually has the power to order them to accept a student even if they're over the limit.
But you really need to have your address set up—say, in a place like a small town in California—and then show your move to Washington, D.C. by the second application period. That way, you can officially list relocation as the reason for the transfer.

Families returning from overseas can enroll directly, regardless of their preferences (even if they're over the quota).
Personally, I’d say it might be worth moving to Ireland during 8th grade and coming back during freshman year of high school. It helps you dodge all that stress of chasing a perfect GPA, and you can pretty much choose whatever program you want. 🧐

hiddenseal14 said:And just what kind of "extra subjects" do you imagine these teenagers are going to be burdened with?

The world and me (for those who aren't interested in religious studies)
A second foreign language
Computer Science (or whatever they call it now) in 7th and 8th grade
That adds up to five extra, mandatory hours every single week (which kids don't even get a say in right now)
And on top of that, you've got school-provided tutoring or extra help sessions for kids who don't actually need them or don't want them.
For some students, this ends up being two extra hours of school every single damn day. Every. Single. Day.

Kids can actually accomplish so much with those two extra hours; at the very least, they could actually get some decent rest before hitting the books. They could study at home, on a comfy couch, in peace and quiet.
This is exactly the kind of math that Fuchs, Divjakica, you, and the rest of the CN supporters seem to be missing. And honestly, you don't even need to look at the shoes of a kid stuck sitting through religious studies and a second language to see it. There are plenty of us out there who didn't burden our children with useless fluff.
And I’m pretty sure there are plenty of families just like us in the schools that signed up for CN.

Betty Wood54 said:About ten years ago, there was this whole massive controversy that kicked off in a Small Town, USA:
Principal Johnson expelled 42 students from the school: "The principal is at fault for enrolling them despite them not having the required 36 points"
Kaštel Štafilić Photography: Students who didn't meet the point threshold showed up for class anyway. Even the Secretary from the Department of Defense made an appearance at the school
The principal and the school board enrolled students in grades against US Federal Law—something the department refused to authorize

Tldr; in some tiny town, they wanted to enroll kids who had fewer than 36 points into a four-year agricultural program—kids who would actually likely go into farming. The issue was that without those students under the 36-point mark, they couldn't even form full classes, so they had to ask the department for special permission.

The department turned them down, and then they sent inspectors to every school. Every principal who tried it ended up getting fired (though some had enough students, they just filled empty seats with people under the 36-point limit).

Back then, the principal of the XV High School in Washington, D.C. was actually removed because she was essentially hand-picking students by her own decree (ignoring the official ranking). Every year, there would be the standard ranking list, and then a separate list for those enrolled by the principal's decision (basically through connections).

Later, those regulations went before the Supreme Court. At first, it was problematic because the rules hadn't been officially published in the federal register, so technically the court couldn't even rule on it. But because it was such a significant social issue, they did step in with some kind of ruling (though back then, a source from the Department of Defense claimed that failing to publish it in the register was just a minor oversight 😵). Around that time, if I recall correctly, they ruled that extra points for things like music school or a second foreign language were unconstitutional since those opportunities aren't available to everyone in America:

Regarding this minimum point threshold thing, I think it was determined to be constitutional, but don't quote me on that. You should probably look up the current enrollment regulations (and any amendments, though finding a clean, updated version might be tricky).

According to this, the minimum score for a high school is 46.
So, it's really up to each individual school to set their own threshold, like 76.

It’s interesting that nobody challenged the constitutionality of how certain competitions aren't accessible to all kids, since it often depends on whether a teacher is willing to sign them up and mentor them enough to get results.
A couple of points for music school is definitely less discriminatory than the gap between schools with highly motivated teachers for competitions and those without (though, a colleague whose grandson lost those two crucial music points that year explained it was also discriminatory; parents rebelled because their kids went to various private music academies but weren't entitled to those points, so eventually, they just scrapped the bonus for everyone).

urbantinker8 said:So, you're telling me just one single school in the whole of Chicago is actually going to implement this nonsense?!🤣
Unbelievable.
(I don't really take these private elementary schools seriously, though; they always feel like these somewhat spooky places with incredibly strange sets of rules)
I actually have a friend attending Lincoln Elementary, so I might reach out to her and see how on earth they managed to talk them into this idea🙂

So basically, taxpayers are footing the bill for CNN programs in private schools? 🙏 🙏 🙏

Honestly, the situation at Lincoln Elementary just baffles me. One thing that comes to mind is that since the school is so popular, they might be trying to trim their student numbers (since interest in CNN probably won't be nearly as high as they expect). After the big storms we had back in December, I noticed a ton of parents from the suburbs were moving their kids over to the district, though some were turned away because the local schools were already packed. There’s an entire new residential development built right around the school area now with tons of new apartments, so demand will likely skyrocket over the years. I just don't see how they'll manage the growth—unless they've somehow secured massive funding from the EU or the World Bank.

Larry Walker24 said:🙄🙄🙄🙄

So basically, sixth graders have been doing "Science" until now, and suddenly they're switching to "Natural Sciences"—which has zero connection to nature, if you ask me.

And let's be real, they expect textbook publishers to crank out two brand-new science books by August?

Some people on this board are living in a total fantasy land.

And that’s not even the half of it... the lecturing about these new science standards only just started today.🤣

jadetinker85 said:Alright, I just looked at a sample schedule. The second language is listed under A2.
https://postimg.cc/2bp89gdY

Looking at this, it seems like the second language for seventh graders is on Mondays and Thursdays from 1:55 PM to 2:40 PM. Right after that, they have A2 - Language communication. My question is about my seventh grader—he’s actually in sixth grade now, and since he didn't pick a second language back in fourth grade, he doesn't have one. This leaves him with a completely free period.
Where should he go during that time? Is he required to wait around for the A2 class, or can he just head home and practice his violin instead?

🥳

To me, this schedule actually looks more packed than what seventh graders are dealing with right now.🤷
And that's not even counting the A2 classes.

If you include the A2 stuff, they are stuck at school until 3:30 PM literally every single day.
Honestly, what parent would actually want that kind of schedule for their seventh or eighth grader?

Sarah Hall53 said:Honestly, it’s not even about that—about ten years ago, they were firing principals left and right because once those kinds of practices came to light, a whole bunch of them were just kicked out of their positions. But now, with this whole digital enrollment system, I can't even fly under the radar if I wanted to.

edit: The school sets its own minimum point threshold, but there's no way to go below it. And honestly, I have no clue if there are specific limits based on the type of school—like, if prep schools have one floor and vocational schools have another?

I honestly don't think there's an actual cap in place. If there were, private schools and religious academies wouldn't be accepting students with scores as low as 45 or 50 points. 🥳

Do you think schools can just set whatever threshold they want?

Mark Walker4 said:What's the vibe like in smaller towns where there aren't many kids around? If there are spots left over, can someone with lower test scores still get into a local high school?

Of course they can! There's no reason why they couldn't.
They could commute, find a place to stay with relatives... or even look for a transfer to a different school before the end of the first semester.

Just keep in mind that every high school sets its own admission standards; it's not a one-size-fits-all thing.

Michelle Nelson4 said:Where exactly does it say all that?
I'm talking about the programs where there just isn't any interest. For example, there's always a demand for chefs. Or drivers, auto mechanics, estheticians, hair stylists, and so on.
On the other hand, plenty of highly skilled professionals are in high demand right now.

But honestly, trying to fund and maintain a system designed for 25,000 to 30,000 students who aren't even enrolling—basically just guessing how many empty seats we have in unpopular programs—while our fully booked schools are struggling with massive teacher shortages? That is completely irrational.

So, does it make more sense to increase the number of academic high schools when there's clearly an interest? Especially the STEM tracks? 🤔
🤣
Everyone thinks they're going to be software engineers or doctors at least. 🧐
Oops. Not really.

Some will finish high school and then go study something obscure just for fun on the taxpayer's dime, creating endless lines of economists and lawyers. Others will end up working in retail, while we'll be stuck importing labor for essential trade jobs that are practically disappearing.
(I personally don't have an issue with immigrants from anywhere, but what worries me is seeing them get exploited for low wages, while here in the States, we're letting untapped talent sit on unemployment because they were too embarrassed to even consider a career in the trades.)

In my opinion, we absolutely need vocational schools for plumbers, electricians, and tinsmiths. Kids should be getting scholarships because those specific skills are in such short supply...
I mean, you can probably learn how to be a painter via YouTube or on your own, but I still think it's beneficial for them to go through formal training and an apprenticeship without being bogged down by unnecessary subjects.

Kate Jackson4 said:It’s fundamentally unfair... if they were actually following the logic of smaller districts, they’d have to include those from Chicago too.
That would be fair...

Not every school in the rural counties is subpar; there are plenty of excellent schools and students out there.
Chicago is just massive, so naturally, they have more kids participating in competitions.

If they're truly looking to boost enrollment in prep schools and universities, they should probably focus their efforts on Chicago and other major hubs.

By the way, did you catch the news about what they want to implement in vocational schools next year? They’re planning to scrap standalone subjects like Chemistry and Physics, merging them into other courses instead.

The end result might be that once these kids finish vocational training, they won't even be eligible for the SATs or college entrance exams... or at least their options will be incredibly limited.

What's even the point of vocational schools if they're going to have the exact same curriculum as a prep school? 😕
I remember someone mentioning here before that their kid didn't want to go to a traditional high school, but preferred a hospitality program specifically so they could avoid chemistry and physics.
And honestly, that choice pretty much shuts the door on them applying for med school or science programs later. But realistically, if they aren't interested in the basics of science back in middle school, what makes anyone think they'll suddenly develop a passion for it in high school? 😂
On the flip side, for all of us who graduated from high school back in the nineties, our college options are also restricted now—we’d actually have to sit for standardized tests to get in.

Plus, I don't know... we are seeing a huge shortage of chemistry and physics teachers. It feels like a waste to assign them to schools where students are choosing that path specifically to dodge those subjects. It isn't like history, where you can just pack more teachers into every classroom because there's a surplus. In many of these areas, there isn't much else to do besides museum work or tourism, and even those fields are crowded.

hiddendriver34 said:Honestly, I think arguing over who’s actually to blame for these insane high school entrance requirements is a total wash. We’re just going to go in circles debating whether the chicken or the egg came first.

But hey, we can definitely talk about solutions. I see some people here pushing for entrance exams—though, let's be real, those haven't exactly fixed the underlying issue. Plus, if you leave it up to individual schools to decide whether to hold them, half of them probably won't bother at all.

Personally, I’m not just talking about a single final exam; I’m advocating for national standardized testing from fifth through eighth grade. In this scenario, the tests teachers give in class would serve mainly as feedback to show how much a student has actually absorbed and mastered.

That way, everyone stays on a level playing field—whether they’re in Des Moines or Chicago. And since the teachers wouldn't be the ones grading the big exams or deciding the final marks, it takes a massive amount of pressure off their shoulders.

I’d probably allow some room for teachers to weigh in, though, just in case they feel the test results don't truly reflect what a student knows.

The real issue with entrance exams is that they don't carry enough weight compared to overall GPA. That said, they are generally good and necessary—not just because of inconsistent grading, but because of how much schooling requirements have changed lately.
Another problem is that many kids who gave up on schools requiring an exam ended up enrolling in schools that don't require one... and now, since the rules for when schools can demand an exam have shifted, plenty of people are speaking up saying they want them back. But if that happens, I suspect we'll just see kids picking schools based purely on proximity, missing out because they were short by just two points that an exam could have helped them make up. Oh well.

With the rise of private academies (and some really great ones!) and the popularity of religious schools (which aren't bad either), there's less pressure on the public system.
And the student population is shrinking too...

On top of that, now that those extra points aren't automatically part of the total score unless students are tied in ranking, it leads to a much more realistic enrollment process.
Setting a cutoff at, say, 76 points feels senseless to me. It gives false hope to someone with a 78 (it surprises me every time I have to explain that a "cutoff" doesn't mean everyone above it is guaranteed a spot!), and then you might end up with everyone scoring an 80, or maybe not enough kids hitting that 76 mark. Rejecting kids with a 74 or 75 is just silly, especially if it affects the entire classroom structure and teacher scheduling, which ends up hurting the school itself.

Sarah Hall53 said:Wait, did we just write the exact same thing? 🤣

Yep, I think we did! 🎉🎉
🙂