Yeah… As a parent, a huge difference between 16th St. Heights and Cleveland Park is the public schools…. unfortunately, the burbs may be calling…

I love CLeveland Park, with all its public policy wonks and others in those fabulous homes too grand to be called bungalos. Its primary elementary schhol is John Eaton ES, with 18 % of its kids on free and reduced lunch. The schools in and around 16th Street Heights are Powell ES (93% free and reduced), Brightwood ES (85%) and West ES (67%). I know teachers in all above-mentioned schools and there is little difference in quality or committment between them. In fact, Powell has a whole rack of Rhee’s favorite types, 20-something Teach for America and DC Teaching Fellows. I maintain that the difference between the schools in and around 16th Street Heights and Clevelnad Park are the families of the children, and not the schools per se.

The reason that it’s easier for students whose home language is Spanish to get into Oyster is because of the type of bilingual model Oyster is. For Oyster to function as a dual-language immersion model, it needs kids who already speak Spanish at home. Therefore, they may have an easier time getting into Oyster, compared to children whose home language is English. As for Rhee, I don’t know at all, but I can only guess how she got her kids into Oyster. I don’t fault her (she is my boss). At least her kids are in the public schools; more than I can say about Fenty. She certainly makes enough to put her girls in Sidwell.