What elementary school on The Hill?
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Anonymous
Well, it seems that there is one family leaving Brent for MV because they are interested in an expeditionary immersion program. Conversely, families attending SWS, LT and Peabody are still finding ways to transfer to Brent. The grass is always greener . . . |
Anonymous
Huh? You need to get out more and walk due east. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
"Fine" Cap Hill DCPS Elementary Schools Brent Maury Ludlow Taylor SWS Peabody/Watkins Van Ness "Not Fine" Cap Hill DCPS Elementary Schools Tyler Spanish JO Wilson Payne Tyler Miner |
Anonymous
Yay! We made the cut! Future L-T parent =) |
Anonymous
i would have to edit the "Fine" Cap Hill DCPS Elementary Schools to include Capitol Hill Montessori. Many happy families there including myself. I also have several friends who are very happy with JO Wilson and Tyler Spanish. |
Anonymous
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Back to OP's initial question, which seems to have been more or less forgotten. Although I am sure that you can mine the information from earlier discussions, here a few salient pros and cons:
Although Brent has an excellent ECE program with a Reggio-inspired curriculum, it has become more and more difficult to get into PK. In fact, about ten families with an older sibling already at the school were shut out in this year's lottery. Brent has managed to maintain small class sizes, with three classrooms for each grade between K and 4. Brent has one of the finest Science teachers in DCPS. Brent will be hiring 3-4 aides to partner with classroom teachers next year and provide greater opportunities for intervention and differentiated learning. Brent has a robust music and performing arts program, while the visual arts program is lackluster. Several of Brent's teachers and staff live in the neighborhood snd have children who attend the school. Brent will be hiring a new teacher to relaunch the world language program as it transitions from Chinese to Spanish. Brent has become less diverse in racial and socioeconomic terms as the IB population of the school continues to increase. Brent has high quality extracurricular programs including chess, tennis, soccer, running, tots gymnastics, dance, labyrinth games, etc. However, the aftercare program itself could be vastly improved. There is generally a positive sense of community at Brent and children frequently cross paths in a variety of settings across the Hill. I hope this type of specifics helps. |
Anonymous
The stats don't bear out much of what you're saying. Yes, Jefferson is seeing more progress and meeting the needs of students of color better than SH. But SH has a smaller percentage of kids who are advanced in math than Jefferson does. I don't know what each school does for the couple dozen kids in each grade who are advanced in math and/or reading (separate classes? pull outs? in-class enrichment? all of these, if executed well, can be successful) whatever it is, it's working better at Jefferson than at SH. You can tell this from the median growth percentiles. Those are in the equity reports available at http://osse.dc.gov/node/739452. MGP is a measure of how much kids grow compared to kids throughout the district who had the same starting point. So a kid who scored in the 25th percentile on last year's CAS is compared to the others who scored at that percentile to see who made more progress, and kids who were at the 90th percentile are compared to each other. The whole idea is for it to be a way of comparing schools while excluding the fact that kids at some schools come in a lot more prepared than kids at other schools. The DC average is 50. Stuart-Hobson's overall MGP was 36 in math and 49 in reading. Jefferson's overall was 57 in math and 54 in reading. You're right that SH's MGP is especially low for black students and those kids receiving FARMs. But they are also lower than the DC average for white non-Hispanic students: 47 and 57 for math and reading, compared to DC averages of 59 and 62, respectively. So even those kids are not progressing particularly well; they just came in higher and stagnated. |
Anonymous
| But Tyler and Van Ness also feed into Jefferson. Are you saying those aren't Hill schools either? |
Anonymous
Jefferson is interesting. It used to have a really great reputation, but went downhill after the principle left (or so I understand). In the broader community, I think people still have a memory of it being a solid place, which may mean that ambitious OOB families seek it out. |
Anonymous
In defense of PP, her characterization was clearly with respect to MOST elementary schools. By definition, MOST does not encompass ALL. Is is that irksome that she might very well live IB for Brent? |
Anonymous
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Here: Jefferson from 1997, a "highly sought after" school for parents seeking an academic environment. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1997-09-28/news/1997271035_1_jefferson-metal-detector-model-of-efficiency
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Anonymous
Didn't you just confirm PP's claims (the stats DO, not don't, bear out what PP claims)? Am I missing something? |
Anonymous
No, not irksome. But I think she's ignorant outside of the Brent boundary, and thus should only opine on what she knows. You too, for that matter. |
Anonymous
No, Van Ness isn't on the Hill and neither is Jefferson. Capitol Riverfront or Navy Yard or whatever you want to call it isn't part of the Hill anymore than the residential areas of SW south of the Freeway. If it were, then Amidon would be considered to be a Hill elementary school and realtors would be marketing properties in SW as the Hill. Brent hasn't sent an IB kids to Jefferson in recent memory, SY 2015-16 will be the first year that Tyler feeds to Jefferson, and Van Ness will not be graduating a Fifth Grade class until the Spring of 2021. Is there something that I might have overlooked? |