Brent parents: Give me the lowdown on the school
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Anonymous
Algebra in 7th grade is not abusive when you appropriately choose it for your kid. It is called school choice after all. I chose BASIS for my kid because I knew it was a good fit and I also did not choose plenty of other schools for my kid since I knew they would be a bad fit. Moreover, the math program BASIS does a lot of preparation in 5th and 6th grade for Algebra 1 in 7th grade in addition to a ton of supports. |
Anonymous
"Appropriately." The Soviets had an Olympics training program like that... |
Anonymous
Well that is the beauty of school choice. If you feel that way then don't choose it for your kids. OTOH many kids are more than ready and thrive on the math program at BASIS. |
Anonymous
Brent caters to parental whims in myriad ways, including offering class picnics during academic instruction time, eliminating homework for Second Graders, etc. Parents are puzzled when test scores have remained stagnant even as the ratio of IB to OOB students increases year by year. Mandarin instruction for 45 minutes a week, with bored upper grade students acting out? Absolutely pointless. Kindergarteners standing around a busy service station watching tires being changed? Quite the enriching field trip experience. The ship has no rudder. |
Anonymous
| Omg! I thought the K field trip around the hood to the police, service/station, etc. Was pretty cool! Goes to show, no pleasing everyone. |
Anonymous
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We do need more quality MS options of course. But how can we get them when those with the power to create them aren't listening, and the Brent and Maury parents have given up on lobbying them for a viable neighborhood or test-in option because the cause appears hopeless?
As things stand, Latin is taking one-third of the Hill families putting their names in the hat. By contrast, BASIS still had room for all comers in early September, meaning that some Brent families "chose" it when their kids aren't really 7th grade algebra material. If a Brent family didn't get into Latin, can't afford privates, and doesn't want to move to the burbs, what can they do but "choose" BASIS? Go with Jefferson Academy, with test scores in the 40s? Pick Two Rivers' unchallenging MS, or struggling Stuart Hobson with lottery luck? The elementary immersion schools feeding to DCI aren't convenient to the Brent District, are getting tough to crack, only take little kids, and aren't all that hot academically for either English or the target languages (look at their test scores, and ask around about absurdly low percentages of native speakers at the several non-Spanish programs). |
Anonymous
| ^^ stuart Hobson and Hardy are both reasonable safety schools and highly likely you could get a spot in 6th |
Anonymous
Really? I thought it was eh. |
Anonymous
You're right, and not a new problem described here, of course. I have a remote hope that DCI will be taking some number kids outside of the feeder schools, even if they don't come from a language immersion background. That would be a simply awesome school, and not really that hard for them to accomplish IF they have space and resources for non-immersion language classes at the old Walter Reed. Hardy will probably cease having space for many OOB within a few years. Other than that, maybe go to Catholic school at what is usually about half the "private" price? Because the options are not many, Brent parents should probably start looking at Hardy as an example (again, assuming it proves to be an example of change) and try to push en masse going to the Neighborhood school. It could work, at least theoretically. |
Anonymous
| Hardy model won't work. Hardy has only strong feeder schools. The majority of elementary schools feeding Eliot Hine and Jefferson are still struggling to bring their students up to a 5th grade level of literacy and math. That is a real issue that needs to be tackled head on by DCPS is they expect educationally ambitious parents with other choices to sign up at one of these middle schools |
Anonymous
MANY of the BASIS 7th graders who started with the school in 5th grade are now taking Algebra II, and are proud and happy to do so. Rrgardless of class level, all BASIS students have approximately 120 math homework problems a week. The premium put on relaxation is interesting -- especially when I look around and see kids who are on travel sports teams and have mutiple practices every week and games involving hours of travel time. I guess we all have our priorities, but I have no doubt that it is more likely for my DC to go to a good univerity than be drafted/recuited to play pro ball. |
Anonymous
Hardy (like its HS, Wilson) is setting up "advanced" classes that start the track to advanced classes at Wilson. It results in is separation of students on roughly SES lines, with a few exceptions of course. That sucks in some ways because of the way it looks, but there doesn't seem to be tension among students. That system may be the only way to retain higher-SES students in DCPS. If it works at places like Hardy (and to the extent it exists at Deal), it would probably work at other middle schools; but parents would have to demand the advanced classes and they would have to demonstrate commitment by sending kids there. |
Anonymous
| You know, most of our kids seldom get the chance to stroll around the neighborhood or touch the fire trucks that show up to many community events. Our preschool took three-year olds to the firehouse and arranged for MPD to visit the center. Brent's PK classes also seem to have more robust outings that actually tie into classroom projects. |
Anonymous
DCPS and the now DME could have availed themselves of opportunities to tackle this issue head on, but have chosen not to. It is not a priority when there iare systemic problems like the failure of improving test scores to materialize and 40 percent of 9th graders dropping out before graduationg from HS. Oddly enough, a pretty dood swath of the Brent district was actually IB for Wilson, but even that has now been taken away. It's also comically pathetic that someone gave a moment's thought to eliminating Brent's feeder rights to Eliot-Hime, much less think that any IB family will find Jefferson acceptable. |
Anonymous
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The kindergarten field trip tied into classroom projects well. The students used the experience as a subject to explore in writer's workshop. They drew maps which ties into their social studies curriculum. If there are kindergarten parents who have concerns, I'm sure the teachers would gladly expand on how it ties in.
I don't doubt that there are potential improvements to the school, but nit picking a kindergarten field trip seems like an odd area of focus. |