What elementary school on The Hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, we are going to MV instead of Brent next year. And no, we are not ECE, but opting for the school that seems to be the best fit for our family.

We've been pleasantly surprised with the number of new and existing Hill families that attend, which creates another sense of community that's localized for those pursuing Spanish immersion.

That simply cannot be!!! DCUM posters declared it to be so. You and your family are obviously mistaken and misguided. Brent is the best ever for everyone at all times in all ways. And to question that is both unacceptable and an affront to Brent. Just watch what happens now. Brent boosters will come out of the woodwork and take personally your decision to go to MV. Please apologize and immediately re-enroll in Brent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, you don't really have an issue with Brent other than your belief/perception that DCPS teachers are required to "teach to the test"?

What is wrong with you people!!! Could you be any more thin skinned or be so unsure of yourselves? No one took a shot at your beloved Brent. She doesn't like it as much as she likes MV.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't be surprised if there were some families that were shut out of Brent for ECE and found a good fit for their family at another school. I think this is how charter schools would ideally work. They provide alternative options to families looking for a different educational model, as opposed to an attempt to avoid a dysfunctional neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Brent has been the best DCPS elementary school outside of Ward 3 for several years now. It will continue to be a strong elementary school due to the demographics at the school. The good thing for Ward 6 is that there are now several good options for elementary school. Brent, Maury, Ludlow-Taylor, Van Ness, SWS, Peabody, etc. You can't go wrong with any of these schools.

[Anonymous]

Yet Brent, like Janney, Lafayette, Oyster, any school you can name- is not a good fit for ALL students.

And yes, there are reasons to both laud Brent for their strengths- as well as criticize the school leadership for their handling of issues over the past 18 months. (Chinese language, communication with parents, and that horrible case with the adoptive parent being served truancy papers as reported and verified in the Washington Post.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be surprised if there were some families that were shut out of Brent for ECE and found a good fit for their family at another school. I think this is how charter schools would ideally work. They provide alternative options to families looking for a different educational model, as opposed to an attempt to avoid a dysfunctional neighborhood school.

There you go again. What's the thesis, that only someone who was not allowed to attend Brent wouldn't? Because no one would prefer an alternative? Montessori or expeditionary or dual language? You exhaust me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent has been the best DCPS elementary school outside of Ward 3 for several years now. It will continue to be a strong elementary school due to the demographics at the school. The good thing for Ward 6 is that there are now several good options for elementary school. Brent, Maury, Ludlow-Taylor, Van Ness, SWS, Peabody, etc. You can't go wrong with any of these schools.

I don't know -- Lafayette, Powell and Sheppard in Ward 4, Ross in Ward 2 and that's not as clear cut a distinction for Brent as you seem to think. Some of those school have seen higher rates of student progress. Why is Van Ness which hasn't educated a child in nearly a decade a school where one "can't go wrong?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent has been the best DCPS elementary school outside of Ward 3 for several years now. It will continue to be a strong elementary school due to the demographics at the school. The good thing for Ward 6 is that there are now several good options for elementary school. Brent, Maury, Ludlow-Taylor, Van Ness, SWS, Peabody, etc. You can't go wrong with any of these schools.

I don't know -- Lafayette, Powell and Sheppard in Ward 4, Ross in Ward 2 and that's not as clear cut a distinction for Brent as you seem to think. Some of those school have seen higher rates of student progress. Why is Van Ness which hasn't educated a child in nearly a decade a school where one "can't go wrong?"

That's not fair. How dare you use "logic" and "facts" to debunk the echo chamber IB for Brent.

It is a good school to be sure, and has long been the best DCPS on the Hill but some of the Brent boosters confuse "best on the Hill" with best education anywhere, ever. They're also pretty well entrenched that no school could ever approach it. That won't be true if more and more ECE kids stay at their schools and then matriculate to MS. At that point parents will have to think hard on a longer time horizon. (Cue the Brent defenders! Basis blah blah blah, Latin blah blah blah, private, and so on).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Brent has been the best DCPS elementary school outside of Ward 3 for several years now. It will continue to be a strong elementary school due to the demographics at the school. The good thing for Ward 6 is that there are now several good options for elementary school. Brent, Maury, Ludlow-Taylor, Van Ness, SWS, Peabody, etc. You can't go wrong with any of these schools.

I don't know -- Lafayette, Powell and Sheppard in Ward 4, Ross in Ward 2 and that's not as clear cut a distinction for Brent as you seem to think. Some of those school have seen higher rates of student progress. Why is Van Ness which hasn't educated a child in nearly a decade a school where one "can't go wrong?"

Only DC school that can honestly claim no kid there has failed, gone wrong, been abused by the system or by teachers or by fellow students in nearly a decade. VN has a lot to be proud of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm neighbors with 2 rising first graders from Peabody, and both families have told me that almost the entire class is going to Watkins. A few more classes like that and Watkins will be a different place.

I'm the parent of a rising First Grader from Peabody who will be going to Watkins. I currently only know of two kids (from a total of four classes) in the entire school NOT going to Watkins. I'm sure there are more than a handful, but, honestly, I just don't know of more than two, and I've been asking....(and I presently haven't heard of anybody going to MV, though maybe my kid's in another circle.)

As for SES status, if it's any indicator, I've been to A LOT of birthdays that cost over $500. And The school's starting to look like a mini-Boden catalog.

There's also a visible demographic shift between my K child's class and my Pk3 child's. (The PK3 class is diverse, but my impression--based on no hard-data, but impressions from fellow parents--is that it's more uniformlyl higher SES.)

I'm the parent of a rising 2nd grader at Watkins. The vast, vast majority of kids in PK4 have continued to 1st grade at Watkins, I haven't heard of any 1st graders who aren't continuing to 2nd (though I'm sure there will be some), and we've had many conversions with other parents (yes, lawyers, etc.) who really hope and plan for the cohort to continue through to Stuart Hobson.

If you're interested, see this relatively recent thread with several hundred posts: http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/461253.page (Watkins Parents: How pleased are you? How optimistic?)

PP what are your impressions of Watkins so far? Do you feel like your child is getting a good education? Did your kid's class have any behavioral issues that you didn't feel were adequately addressed?

If you magically got into SWS or Brent tomorrow, would you stay at Watkins?

Short version: yes, good education; impressed with academic progress ; from child reports, no behavioral issues beyond what you'd expect from pretty much any group of 6&7 year olds.

Long version: see earlier thread.

also https://twitter.com/MsDrummAP https://twitter.com/MrLawsonAP http://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/our-schools/watkins-elementary/new-at-watkins-elementary - obviously not a unbiased picture, but gives you a sense of things that are going on.

As to switching to SWS or Brent, would not switch because of continuity problems. If we had been able to start out in one of those schools, maybe. My sense is that upper elementary is more of a sure thing at those schools, but there wouldn't be the continuity through middle school (Stuart Hobson), and from what I've heard, having a good peer group is especially important at those ages.

[Anonymous]

Many of the parents of IB Watkins kids (who are currently attending lower grades at Watkins) I've talked to would not switch to Brent or SWS right now because 1) they are familiar with the current cohort of kids since they've known them since Peabody, and 2) SWS and Brent are currently dependent on lottery luck for middle school. It's working out now, but what will the waitlists for Latin or Basis look like in a few years?

Meanwhile, L-T and Peabody/Watkins seems to be turning, with JO Wilson catching up. By the time these kids get to SH, things might be great. If not, they can enter the lottery just as they would at SWS or Brent. It also helps that SH is part of the Cluster, so parents who are already participating in the Cluster PTA for Peabody and Watkins can also be involved with SH, before their kids even arrive.

One of the biggest knocks against Watkins (for IB families) in the upper grades were the huge numbers of OOB kids. However, now that the school is reducing the number of classes at each grade to match the 4 classes coming from Peabody, more parents feel there is a better chance of the cohort staying the same all the way through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many of the parents of IB Watkins kids (who are currently attending lower grades at Watkins) I've talked to would not switch to Brent or SWS right now because 1) they are familiar with the current cohort of kids since they've known them since Peabody, and 2) SWS and Brent are currently dependent on lottery luck for middle school. It's working out now, but what will the waitlists for Latin or Basis look like in a few years?

Meanwhile, L-T and Peabody/Watkins seems to be turning, with JO Wilson catching up. By the time these kids get to SH, things might be great. If not, they can enter the lottery just as they would at SWS or Brent. It also helps that SH is part of the Cluster, so parents who are already participating in the Cluster PTA for Peabody and Watkins can also be involved with SH, before their kids even arrive.

One of the biggest knocks against Watkins (for IB families) in the upper grades were the huge numbers of OOB kids. However, now that the school is reducing the number of classes at each grade to match the 4 classes coming from Peabody, more parents feel there is a better chance of the cohort staying the same all the way through.

Funny -- like many SWS families, we look at SH as a fallback as our boundary school. It's nice to have options as SH has its own share of issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of the parents of IB Watkins kids (who are currently attending lower grades at Watkins) I've talked to would not switch to Brent or SWS right now because 1) they are familiar with the current cohort of kids since they've known them since Peabody, and 2) SWS and Brent are currently dependent on lottery luck for middle school. It's working out now, but what will the waitlists for Latin or Basis look like in a few years?

Meanwhile, L-T and Peabody/Watkins seems to be turning, with JO Wilson catching up. By the time these kids get to SH, things might be great. If not, they can enter the lottery just as they would at SWS or Brent. It also helps that SH is part of the Cluster, so parents who are already participating in the Cluster PTA for Peabody and Watkins can also be involved with SH, before their kids even arrive.

One of the biggest knocks against Watkins (for IB families) in the upper grades were the huge numbers of OOB kids. However, now that the school is reducing the number of classes at each grade to match the 4 classes coming from Peabody, more parents feel there is a better chance of the cohort staying the same all the way through.

Funny -- like many SWS families, we look at SH as a fallback as our boundary school. It's nice to have options as SH has its own share of issues.

What grade does SWS run up through?