Is Brent the best school in Capitol hill?

[Anonymous]

I find comparisons very helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure that Brent is better than Tyler SI, Maury, or Watkins up to around 2nd grade yet, but it will be shortly.

Demographics at Brent that lend themselves to a smooth ride for teachers and administrators, a tough-minded PTA, and a new principal unafraid of catering to middle-class parents are driving change into the upper grades to a greater extent than at the other schools.

Brent knows that its math and science offerings aren't strong, but isn't dragging its feet on the issue. With a PTA that raises almost as much annually as the other schools combined, very little public housing in the district in a public school system that doesn't support gifted and talented education/curricular offerings for advanced learners," and boatloads of upper-middle-class kids entering and, increasingly, staying on until 4th grade, Brent is poised to pass the competition.

Talk to Hill realtors - they'll tell you how couples with tiny tots scramble to buy homes in the Brent District in a way that you don't see elsewhere. Almost no quality 2-3 bedroom inventory below 700K there these days that stays on the market for long.

The MS feeder situation is indeed problematic. But then half a dozen elementary schools in Upper NW have been good for decades without feeding into a MS most middle-class families were OK with until very recently, and expanding charter opportunities are filling the gap. Most of the Brent 4th graders now head to Latin or Basis, and DCI at Walter Reed will get plenty eventually, too. The Brent PTA hasn't killed itself to lobby for a Stuart Hobson feeder because the school doesn't impress as much as anything else.


Point of fact: the Brent parents have lobbied repeatedly for a feed to Stuart Hobson and have been told by DCPS that it will not happen. Don't you think even the principals at these two schools see the benefit of a partnership and have asked higher ups for this? Dcps wants Brent and Maury to anchor programs at other middle schools on the Hill. Fortunately, parents if older kids at these schools have much better options for middle school at charters.

Maybe when somebody at central office wakes up to this reality, they may re think the grand " Ward 6 Middle School Plan" that was a complete crock, given that this outcome was completely predictable and predicted.

[Anonymous]

It is pointless when comparing is a result on the "feel good" notion. Because, when data is provided there are so many who want to crush the source of the information. Oh!!! When I hear I love the school but hate the principal or vice-a-versa. I guess, that is data that can make a sound and rational decision.

Answer this, when an elementary school is rated as the best but there are parents who are not satisfied, then what? Please, don't say you can't make everyone happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Point of fact: the Brent parents have lobbied repeatedly for a feed to Stuart Hobson and have been told by DCPS that it will not happen. Don't you think even the principals at these two schools see the benefit of a partnership and have asked higher ups for this? Dcps wants Brent and Maury to anchor programs at other middle schools on the Hill. Fortunately, parents if older kids at these schools have much better options for middle school at charters.

Maybe when somebody at central office wakes up to this reality, they may re think the grand " Ward 6 Middle School Plan" that was a complete crock, given that this outcome was completely predictable and predicted.

Yes, they've lobbied, but the momentum has petered out in the last couple of years and every parent involved hasn't been optimistic about SH's prospects. The Cluster has never been an easy nut to crack. Concern is growing that the charter middle schools won't have room for all the rising Brent and Maury kids whose parents want them to go within just one or two years. Latin got something like 300 applications for 50 5th grade spots this spring, and 20 went to siblings. Basis will have a lottery next year and DCI, which is a couple years from getting started, will reserve many spots for the language immersion charter kids, and is far from Brent (Walter Reed campus).

DCPS is trying to force the Brent and Maury parents to turn around Jefferson and Eliot-Hine, which stinks- the schools' development trajectories don't look rosy to me, not without test-in academic magnet programs in the works. Yes, the Ward 6 MS plan was bad news. Disappointingly, the recent Ward 6 state-of-the-schools meeting with Kaya Henderson skirted the tough issues: class, race, safety, and challenge for advanced learners/high-SES kids, meaning extensive ability grouping.

[Anonymous]

I believe a crush at Latin and Basis will simply result in more charter schools/campuses opening to meet the demand at middle school level. Unless dcps leadership addresses some of the uncomfortable issues you raise in the previous post the neighborhood middle schools don't stand a chance. Families will leave the city before they will jump into a half baked plan to improve those schools. We would have.

[Anonymous]

A magnet MS program at Jefferson would make a huge difference.

[Anonymous]

Why does it have to be magnet program at Jefferson?

[Anonymous]

There has to be a test in, proving academic competence MS. There is physical space available at Jefferson or EH or Shaw or MacFarland, among other MS in the district.

The only MS filled to capacity are Deal (way over), Hardy, and Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Jefferson is close to center city and it's adjacent to a major transportation hub (L'Enfant Plaza) and Route 395.

[Anonymous]

Demographically, where would the housing project students who live in the neighborhood of Jefferson, what school would they attend? Remember, when a school offers a new program, we as AA are the first to apply i.e, charter schools, Deal, Hardy and Stuart Hobson.

So to test in, would actually mean to leave out. In my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Huh? Aren't banneker, SWW, ellington, mckinley all test in? And aren't they majority AA students? Don't the students who don't test in have spots at other high schools?

It would be the same at a test in program at Jefferson Middle school. Yes, students would be left out. That is the point of a test in program. But those students wouldn't be kept out of school.

[Anonymous]

It is also a certainty that having to test in to a desireable program would motivate lots of kids and their parents to take things seriously in the upper elementary years. What is wrong with that? Happens round the world, folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Demographically, where would the housing project students who live in the neighborhood of Jefferson, what school would they attend? Remember, when a school offers a new program, we as AA are the first to apply i.e, charter schools, Deal, Hardy and Stuart Hobson.

So to test in, would actually mean to leave out. In my opinion.

Current in-bounds Amidon students would be free to attend. How many are there at a maximum - 40? Co-locate programs with enrollment up to 800.

[Anonymous]

13:54 my point exactly...if you ever think DC will have a middle-school to test-in you are bonkers. If you are a true Washingtonian, then you will know that DCPS proposed testing-in middle schools and it was determined the best served community would have been in Ward 7. That is because Ward 7 has the most elementary school-aged children. Specialty schools at the high-school level is a choice, a specialty school at the middle-school would be confrontational.

15:44, Amidon is the feeder school but you will have to look at the school boundary for Jefferson and that demographic embraces more neighborhoods. Be careful of what you ask for, I have said it is not enough white students in a neighborhood to make a neighborhood school lucrative and magnet school solvent.

[Anonymous]

Does anybody know if DCPS/the Chancellor is in fact talking seriously about setting up a test-in/academic magnet middle school program? Who on the DC Council supports one? Who doesn't? What about the Mayor's Office? I'm not familiar with the politics of why there isn't such a school yet, when there have been several selective HS programs in the city for decades.

Without even a plan to launch a test-in MS program at Jefferson or elsewhere, what is a Brent or Maury parent who can't afford privates to do? S/he just has to hope for lottery luck at Latin, Basis or maybe Two Rivers, the future DCI or wherever, or move to the burbs.

Does anybody know Brent and Maury parents with rising 4th and 5th graders who say they are planning to send their children to Eliot-Hine? I haven't met a single one.