Thoughts about Brent Upper School from parents of kids who have gone through 5th?

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Anonymous wrote:We have a current Brent 5th grader. Overall we have been happy for many of the reasons stated above. The problem really isn’t Brent or the upper school model. It’s that DCPS lets the charters start at 5th and many families at Brent don’t want to risk being stuck with Jefferson. If Brent fed into SH, you’d see a pattern more like Ludlow Taylor, where kids choose to stay for 5th.

Based on Term 2, the current class of 6th graders at Jefferson are leading all DCPS middle schools in passing all four core classes. 8th graders are also accepted to application HS and privates like Sidwell and Burke. I hope Brent parents will see Jefferson as a possibility and not a definite no off the bat.

Since grading isn't standardized across schools, I'm not sure this says anything meaningful about Jefferson student performance.

I think Brent will be the last of the Jefferson feeders to see any meaningful buy in from MC/UMC families. The demographics are just too different. From 8% to 61% at risk. And from 67% to 3% white.

There was Jefferson buy in at Brent before Covid and immediately after. But then word started to get around about bad experiences and the whole climate has shifted. People tried Jefferson and it did not work. Way too big of a shift from Brent to Jefferson at an age when academics really start to matter.

Meh. Seems about the same from the data available. 12 from Brent in SY20-21 6th grade class. 11 in SY21-22. Fewer than 10 in SY22-23. 10 in SY23-24. Fewer than 10 in SY24-25.

Not a complete picture. The biggest cohort going to Jefferson was SY19-20, I seem to remember that it was 17. Several Brent alums from both the SY20-21 and SY21-22 cohorts didn't make it through the school year at Jefferson. We were part of one of the cohorts from PreS3 and know the families. The word got back that there were families bailing mid-year.

I am also very familiar with many of the 2021 Brent grads who went to Jefferson. I know that some of those of kids left after the first year, but I don’t know any who bailed “mid-year.” Where would they even go if they did that?

Also, for a “complete picture,” note that there are Brent grads from that same 2021 “cohort” who went all the way through Jefferson then landed at selective high schools including SWW and Banneker.

My kid is in this cohort as well, so I know several of the kids who went to Jefferson and now are in selective high schools. None (of the several I know personally) of them (or their parents) thought it was a good school/experience (they just sucked it up and got through it); none of their younger siblings are going to Jefferson.

This. We know some of the kids, too. I can't imagine why any parent with an option to jump to BASIS, one of the Latins, or a private, Stuart Hobson or DCI for 6th grade would stick around for Jefferson here in 2026. The positive spin on Jefferson is coming from a tiny number of UMC die-hards who are trying to recruit Brent Upper School parents. All DCPS has to do to make Jefferson work for a growing cohort of Brenties year-on-year is offer definite, self-contained, test-in honors/intensified classes for science, social studies, English and math. There is no way that this will happen, at least not under Bowser, so the middle school feed never takes off and Brent continues to lose most of its 4th graders before 5th grade every single year. There's no more to say. A larger building isn't going to change the trend come 2028.

Which is why I think they are making Brent have self contained classrooms -to ‘fill’ space. Which is funny because the reno is not that large.

I’m curious if Chisholm is closing theirs down and that’s why Brent is being made to have one. I don’t think even Van Ness has one and not any schools on the hill.

This is definitely not true. L-T has 3 self-contained classes (and has run out of space to such an extent that they are currently building an extension even though they renovated less than a decade ago). Acting like it's absurd to make Brent host *one* is crazy.

https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/sy25-26-self-contained-feeder-pattern

Here is the list of classrooms and locations. It is absurd to complain about having some. Having some is the norm.

Not in ward 3…

??? Hearst, Murch, Lafayette, Stoddert & Eaton all do…

ALL schools in wards 7 and 8 have one

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We have a current Brent 5th grader. Overall we have been happy for many of the reasons stated above. The problem really isn’t Brent or the upper school model. It’s that DCPS lets the charters start at 5th and many families at Brent don’t want to risk being stuck with Jefferson. If Brent fed into SH, you’d see a pattern more like Ludlow Taylor, where kids choose to stay for 5th.

Based on Term 2, the current class of 6th graders at Jefferson are leading all DCPS middle schools in passing all four core classes. 8th graders are also accepted to application HS and privates like Sidwell and Burke. I hope Brent parents will see Jefferson as a possibility and not a definite no off the bat.

Since grading isn't standardized across schools, I'm not sure this says anything meaningful about Jefferson student performance.

I think Brent will be the last of the Jefferson feeders to see any meaningful buy in from MC/UMC families. The demographics are just too different. From 8% to 61% at risk. And from 67% to 3% white.

There was Jefferson buy in at Brent before Covid and immediately after. But then word started to get around about bad experiences and the whole climate has shifted. People tried Jefferson and it did not work. Way too big of a shift from Brent to Jefferson at an age when academics really start to matter.

Meh. Seems about the same from the data available. 12 from Brent in SY20-21 6th grade class. 11 in SY21-22. Fewer than 10 in SY22-23. 10 in SY23-24. Fewer than 10 in SY24-25.

Not a complete picture. The biggest cohort going to Jefferson was SY19-20, I seem to remember that it was 17. Several Brent alums from both the SY20-21 and SY21-22 cohorts didn't make it through the school year at Jefferson. We were part of one of the cohorts from PreS3 and know the families. The word got back that there were families bailing mid-year.

I am also very familiar with many of the 2021 Brent grads who went to Jefferson. I know that some of those of kids left after the first year, but I don’t know any who bailed “mid-year.” Where would they even go if they did that?

Also, for a “complete picture,” note that there are Brent grads from that same 2021 “cohort” who went all the way through Jefferson then landed at selective high schools including SWW and Banneker.

My kid is in this cohort as well, so I know several of the kids who went to Jefferson and now are in selective high schools. None (of the several I know personally) of them (or their parents) thought it was a good school/experience (they just sucked it up and got through it); none of their younger siblings are going to Jefferson.

This. We know some of the kids, too. I can't imagine why any parent with an option to jump to BASIS, one of the Latins, or a private, Stuart Hobson or DCI for 6th grade would stick around for Jefferson here in 2026. The positive spin on Jefferson is coming from a tiny number of UMC die-hards who are trying to recruit Brent Upper School parents. All DCPS has to do to make Jefferson work for a growing cohort of Brenties year-on-year is offer definite, self-contained, test-in honors/intensified classes for science, social studies, English and math. There is no way that this will happen, at least not under Bowser, so the middle school feed never takes off and Brent continues to lose most of its 4th graders before 5th grade every single year. There's no more to say. A larger building isn't going to change the trend come 2028.

Which is why I think they are making Brent have self contained classrooms -to ‘fill’ space. Which is funny because the reno is not that large.

I’m curious if Chisholm is closing theirs down and that’s why Brent is being made to have one. I don’t think even Van Ness has one and not any schools on the hill.

This is definitely not true. L-T has 3 self-contained classes (and has run out of space to such an extent that they are currently building an extension even though they renovated less than a decade ago). Acting like it's absurd to make Brent host *one* is crazy.

https://dcpsspecialed.wixsite.com/home/sy25-26-self-contained-feeder-pattern

Here is the list of classrooms and locations. It is absurd to complain about having some. Having some is the norm.

Not in ward 3…

??? Hearst, Murch, Lafayette, Stoddert & Eaton all do…

ALL schools in wards 7 and 8 have one

But there’s more need for those classrooms in Ward 7 and 8. They try not to place kids out of Ward, so availability tracks need. It’s not surprising that more UMC families with special needs kids have them in private settings.