Brent vs. Maury vs. Ludlow-Taylor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The half dozen IB Brent families who went on to to Jefferson this year can be thrilled with their choice without that changing the fact that more than 85% of the 4th grade families rejected the program, like they've done for years.

There are definitely more than half a dozen Brent families with kids in this year's sixth grade class at Jefferson. I know this, because my family is one of them. (And for what's it's worth, Jefferson also has kids from Van Ness this year, as Van Ness gradated its first fifth-grade class last year.)

I understand your larger point, but please try to make it without hyperbole.

Brent families, yes, in-boundary families, no.

And herein lies the rub… Vanishingly few Brent IB families go to Jefferson. The same is true for Maury/EH. At least 10 LT IB families go to SH each year.

Vanishing isn't wrong. I remember a parent at an open house asking why admins thought fewer Brent graduates were enrolled at Jefferson in 2020 than in 2019, when there were fewer still than in 2018. Admins blamed the enrollment slide on chaos related to major renovations and pandemic school closures. It sounds like there's been an uptick in enrollment from Brent this year, but it's not as though Jefferson has taken off for Brent in recent years. DCI and Stuart Hobson appear to be attracting most of the families who fail to get off the BASIS and Latin wait lists. Yet causes of lagging enrollment don't seem to have been researched by any quarter.

DCI takes the kids from its feeder immersion schools. They might take a handful of kids not in feeders and that handful will be more competitive each year. Most CH families who don’t get into Basis or Latin are not getting into DCI.

In fact, you have a much higher probability of getting into Latin and Basis than DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The half dozen IB Brent families who went on to to Jefferson this year can be thrilled with their choice without that changing the fact that more than 85% of the 4th grade families rejected the program, like they've done for years.

There are definitely more than half a dozen Brent families with kids in this year's sixth grade class at Jefferson. I know this, because my family is one of them. (And for what's it's worth, Jefferson also has kids from Van Ness this year, as Van Ness gradated its first fifth-grade class last year.)

I understand your larger point, but please try to make it without hyperbole.

Brent families, yes, in-boundary families, no.

And herein lies the rub… Vanishingly few Brent IB families go to Jefferson. The same is true for Maury/EH. At least 10 LT IB families go to SH each year.

Vanishing isn't wrong. I remember a parent at an open house asking why admins thought fewer Brent graduates were enrolled at Jefferson in 2020 than in 2019, when there were fewer still than in 2018. Admins blamed the enrollment slide on chaos related to major renovations and pandemic school closures. It sounds like there's been an uptick in enrollment from Brent this year, but it's not as though Jefferson has taken off for Brent in recent years. DCI and Stuart Hobson appear to be attracting most of the families who fail to get off the BASIS and Latin wait lists. Yet causes of lagging enrollment don't seem to have been researched by any quarter.

DCI takes the kids from its feeder immersion schools. They might take a handful of kids not in feeders and that handful will be more competitive each year. Most CH families who don’t get into Basis or Latin are not getting into DCI.

In fact, you have a much higher probability of getting into Latin and Basis than DCI.

Also want to add, if you want any chance at DCI, you need to look at getting your kid in at the charter immersion schools.

BTW there is a good contingency of CH families who go to Mundo Verde because they have a shuttle to the school from CH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The half dozen IB Brent families who went on to to Jefferson this year can be thrilled with their choice without that changing the fact that more than 85% of the 4th grade families rejected the program, like they've done for years.

There are definitely more than half a dozen Brent families with kids in this year's sixth grade class at Jefferson. I know this, because my family is one of them. (And for what's it's worth, Jefferson also has kids from Van Ness this year, as Van Ness gradated its first fifth-grade class last year.)

I understand your larger point, but please try to make it without hyperbole.

Brent families, yes, in-boundary families, no.

And herein lies the rub… Vanishingly few Brent IB families go to Jefferson. The same is true for Maury/EH. At least 10 LT IB families go to SH each year.

Vanishing isn't wrong. I remember a parent at an open house asking why admins thought fewer Brent graduates were enrolled at Jefferson in 2020 than in 2019, when there were fewer still than in 2018. Admins blamed the enrollment slide on chaos related to major renovations and pandemic school closures. It sounds like there's been an uptick in enrollment from Brent this year, but it's not as though Jefferson has taken off for Brent in recent years. DCI and Stuart Hobson appear to be attracting most of the families who fail to get off the BASIS and Latin wait lists. Yet causes of lagging enrollment don't seem to have been researched by any quarter.

DCI takes the kids from its feeder immersion schools. They might take a handful of kids not in feeders and that handful will be more competitive each year. Most CH families who don’t get into Basis or Latin are not getting into DCI.

In fact, you have a much higher probability of getting into Latin and Basis than DCI.

In theory, but not true this year. We got off the DCI wait list late this past summer with a number we never thought would work in the spring. DCI went deep into wait lists for all three languages this year. No idea if it will happen again though. We didn't get off the BASIS wait list last year or this year.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is at Jefferson and is NOT the only white kid in his homeroom. So please don’t be suggesting that there is some intentional practice of making white kids the “only.”

If you don’t believe me, I would be happy to meet you at the school or morning and show you.

This crap is really pissing me off.

This is what I mean—instead of getting pissed off and high and mighty, parents could meet this kind of concern without assuming some kind of blanket racism. “I hear what you are saying, that you are concerned your 10 year old starting in a new school may feel out of place just starting off. I can assure you that there really isn’t any attempt to isolate anyone by race and when my kiddo started, she knew new people and made friendships easily by the end of the first day! Would you like to come by the school and I can introduce you to some people?”

Voila. Compassion and not assuming the worst go a long way. It’s definitely what you would afford to any “only” of anything joining a new community.

why is it on actual Jefferson parents to address your online racial trolling?

Why is it on actual Jefferson parents to come on and insinuate people are racist? Would take the same energy to assume the best and be kind—and would make our neighborhood a better place.

I am not a Jefferson parent. The Hill MS parents on here have only been giving their experiences, which are rebutted with weird rumors and claims that they must be mistaken or delusional. The moment you’re obsessing over your child being the “only” (assuming it’s impossible that the black & latino friends cojld be good classmates - maybe even smarter!) is the moment I know you’re not for real. If you think the challenge here is to convince white parents that black kids are OK, don’t know what to tell you.

get back to me when you have specific questions about curriculum, homework, social-emotional support, extra curriculars …

You must be a white person unused to being the only person of your race in a room. We're Asian who won't send our children to a middle school where the student body is around 1% Asian like at Jefferson. This is our story no matter how many nice, smart black and Latino friends await at a particular middle school.

If DCPS wants to get serious about de-segregating middle schools, they can track more academically. The highly diverse public schools I attended in NYC offered extensive tracking when I attended them and still do.

Please get back to us when have specific answers about when DCPS will stop dropping Brent grads who read one or two years above grade level into Jefferson ELA classes where most students read and write below grade level. PARCC data tells me that many of these kids read and write not just a little below grade level, but 2-4 years below.

Yep. This. Middle school academics actually matter.

And the assumption that there can never be acceptable academics in Hill middle schools is more about fear and phobia and less about what you actually know about the schools. And why are you even here if not to insist that “those” schools can never be acceptable? Just move to the burbs and let the rest of us figure it out without your dramatics.

I don’t see how academics will improve without a lot of UMC Asians/Jews moving into the area. The academic standards of the whites on the Hill is shockingly low.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

Yes, but did all of the rest of your old school move along with you? That's the point. You're dropping into a new school culture, so it's different even though you alone are the same. Maury "culture" was still basically the same during the temporary relocation to E-H during construction, because the students and families were the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Completely disagree. I’m an educator and have spent time in many educational settings. School culture is SET and MODELED by the adults in charge in many explicit and nuanced ways. It is malleable and can be changed in fairly short order. It is not dependent on the kids and families coming to school. It’s an intentional molding of expectations and behaviors.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

Yes, but did all of the rest of your old school move along with you? That's the point. You're dropping into a new school culture, so it's different even though you alone are the same. Maury "culture" was still basically the same during the temporary relocation to E-H during construction, because the students and families were the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

Yes, but did all of the rest of your old school move along with you? That's the point. You're dropping into a new school culture, so it's different even though you alone are the same. Maury "culture" was still basically the same during the temporary relocation to E-H during construction, because the students and families were the same.

Strongly disagree. I’m a teacher and have spent time in many educational settings. School culture is SET and MODELED by the adults in the building in explicit and nuanced ways. It is malleable and can change ( for better or worse ) in short order. School culture is created through expectations and behaviors within the school, it is not dependent on the individual families or students coming to the school.

It’s the same way your office or workplace sets a tone or creates a culture no matter who the individual employees are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

Yes, but did all of the rest of your old school move along with you? That's the point. You're dropping into a new school culture, so it's different even though you alone are the same. Maury "culture" was still basically the same during the temporary relocation to E-H during construction, because the students and families were the same.

Strongly disagree. I’m a teacher and have spent time in many educational settings. School culture is SET and MODELED by the adults in the building in explicit and nuanced ways. It is malleable and can change ( for better or worse ) in short order. School culture is created through expectations and behaviors within the school, it is not dependent on the individual families or students coming to the school.

It’s the same way your office or workplace sets a tone or creates a culture no matter who the individual employees are.

In theory. Here on a Capitol Hill, in public schools with strong UMC buy-in by all races, school cultures are invariably acceptable, if not good or great. In schools without strong UMC buy-in, school cultures are all over the map and a happy atmosphere can't compensate for weak or middling academics due to demographics/DCPS' aversion to test-in middle school programs. I don't doubt that Jefferson's school culture is good, because the school's leadership seems to be first-rate. Even so, UMC buy-in remains weak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The half dozen IB Brent families who went on to to Jefferson this year can be thrilled with their choice without that changing the fact that more than 85% of the 4th grade families rejected the program, like they've done for years.

There are definitely more than half a dozen Brent families with kids in this year's sixth grade class at Jefferson. I know this, because my family is one of them. (And for what's it's worth, Jefferson also has kids from Van Ness this year, as Van Ness gradated its first fifth-grade class last year.)

I understand your larger point, but please try to make it without hyperbole.

Brent families, yes, in-boundary families, no.

And herein lies the rub… Vanishingly few Brent IB families go to Jefferson. The same is true for Maury/EH. At least 10 LT IB families go to SH each year.

Vanishing isn't wrong. I remember a parent at an open house asking why admins thought fewer Brent graduates were enrolled at Jefferson in 2020 than in 2019, when there were fewer still than in 2018. Admins blamed the enrollment slide on chaos related to major renovations and pandemic school closures. It sounds like there's been an uptick in enrollment from Brent this year, but it's not as though Jefferson has taken off for Brent in recent years. DCI and Stuart Hobson appear to be attracting most of the families who fail to get off the BASIS and Latin wait lists. Yet causes of lagging enrollment don't seem to have been researched by any quarter.

DCI takes the kids from its feeder immersion schools. They might take a handful of kids not in feeders and that handful will be more competitive each year. Most CH families who don’t get into Basis or Latin are not getting into DCI.

In fact, you have a much higher probability of getting into Latin and Basis than DCI.

In theory, but not true this year. We got off the DCI wait list late this past summer with a number we never thought would work in the spring. DCI went deep into wait lists for all three languages this year. No idea if it will happen again though. We didn't get off the BASIS wait list last year or this year.

Yes, in terms of the lottery, BASIS is getting tougher to get into every year.

Latin is hard to to get into but for different reasons, and will be even harder now for non-at-risk.

DCI seems a lot easier to get into.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nobody did this:

“ Dude. You guys are the ones insisting that a parent who wrote here that they are happy at Jefferson must be wrong”

They offered what’s known as an additional perspective. Are you all incapable of rational thought?

This exquisite sensitivity has to end. Lordy.

yeah no, that’s not what happened. clearly you have no actual interest in these schools except as a foil for your own choices. so please just step away.

Again—fall in line or step away. There’s no room for questions.

Nobody seems to have asked any bona fide questions. Just random rumors and claiming the people who say they are satisfied are wrong.

Questions asked and brushed off:
“That is a worthwhile thing to do. Three questions 1) how many Brent to Jefferson to Walls/Banneker students are we talking about? 2) How many non-Brent Jefferson students have moved to Walls/Banneker and can we also talk to them? 3) Why did these Jefferson students not attend Eastern HS which is the feeder High school? “

Talk about moving the goal posts. Now Jefferson is a "bad" school because of Eastern. Ok...

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Anonymous wrote:Give us a break. Most high SES families of all stripes who enroll at LT for ECE still leave by 4th or 5th grade. But it was the very same story at Brent and Maury for the first decade after each of these schools started to "turn." LT will catch up soon enough, within 4 or 5 years. It takes a lot longer for neighborhood parents in a gentrifying area to collectively feel confident about the upper ES grades in a DCPS school that new parents tend to think. The reality is that embassy types are about the last neighborhood parents stay through 4th or 5th.

I actually bet the number of high SES kids at the schools in 5th grade isn’t as different as you think. LT sends some high SES kids to SH every year whereas Brent and Maury send almost none to their respective feeders.

Not true about Maury. Significant numbers trying Eliot-Hine.

Doesn't EH have like 20 white kids total? "Significant numbers" seems like a pretty big stretch there. My impression is that UMC POCs are even less likely to try these middle schools for reasons I totally understand.

Maury has a small 5th grade class and a lot of them are enrolling. I expect this to continue with UMC Payne families too. I’m not trying to prove anything about race either way. Everyone would love to have a neighborhood MS so we and I assume most other families have an open mind.

Honestly, if I were a family that had only been at Maury from PK to 5th, I too would have an open mind, because I would never have seen how chaotic a school can really be. As a OOB family new to Maury this year, I simply cannot believe how much nicer this school is compared to my IB. It actually makes me angry to know that such a vast difference can occur between schools that are within walking distance of one another.

+1. There was a day a few years back when I visited Deal MS and Jefferson Academy on the same day and I thought my head would explode with the stark difference in resourcing and school culture within the same school system. It’s when I realized DCPS Central Office is actually criminal in its neglect of a majority of its student population.

I’ve never set foot in either school, but if there is a stark difference in physical plant resources, I agree that it’s criminal. School culture is a bit trickier since many aspects of culture (for better or worse) are imported into the school via the student body. It’s just a hell of a lot easier to cultivate a strong(ish) academic culture at Deal vs EH/Jeff. But I suppose if we have to lift heaven and earth to do it, so be it.

I am PP that is OOB for Maury. I’m not talking about the building. I’m talking about the school culture. The expectations of students, the behavior of the teachers, the attitude of the administration, the behavior of parents toward each other, etc. If you think you can move heaven and earth and change all of these things in the limited time your kid is at the school, good luck to you.

School culture isn’t imported into the school via the student body. My family is the same as it always was. However, the experience we have now that we moved schools is completely different.

Yes, but did all of the rest of your old school move along with you? That's the point. You're dropping into a new school culture, so it's different even though you alone are the same. Maury "culture" was still basically the same during the temporary relocation to E-H during construction, because the students and families were the same.

Strongly disagree. I’m a teacher and have spent time in many educational settings. School culture is SET and MODELED by the adults in the building in explicit and nuanced ways. It is malleable and can change ( for better or worse ) in short order. School culture is created through expectations and behaviors within the school, it is not dependent on the individual families or students coming to the school.

It’s the same way your office or workplace sets a tone or creates a culture no matter who the individual employees are.

I don't disagree that the adults working in the building are important, but it seems insane to me to dismiss the role of parents--and students' home lives more broadly--on the way things are at school. But I'm happy to have a teacher say that, because frankly it seems that many administrators (and some educators) tend to blame students and parents when things aren't good. "We can only do so much inside the school!"

[Anonymous]

IME, UMC families bring a strong customer service attitude that affects school culture in negative ways. This is evident at schools across the city, not just CH, but it’s very strong at schools like Brent and Maury.

As individual families we have not done enough to demand that DCPS stop funding their bloated central office in favor of providing resources to schools that really need it—resources like librarians and social workers and buildings that have functioning HVAC. Getting rid of IMPACT which penalizes teachers who work in Title I schools.

I get that it’s hard to see the forest for the trees or what an individual can do to make a difference—especially when you have to make a choice for your kid. But the idea that we bear no responsibility when our choices clearly perpetuate privilege is just wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:IME, UMC families bring a strong customer service attitude that affects school culture in negative ways. This is evident at schools across the city, not just CH, but it’s very strong at schools like Brent and Maury.

As individual families we have not done enough to demand that DCPS stop funding their bloated central office in favor of providing resources to schools that really need it—resources like librarians and social workers and buildings that have functioning HVAC. Getting rid of IMPACT which penalizes teachers who work in Title I schools.

I get that it’s hard to see the forest for the trees or what an individual can do to make a difference—especially when you have to make a choice for your kid. But the idea that we bear no responsibility when our choices clearly perpetuate privilege is just wrong.

interesting perspective. but I don’t think it’s realistic to expect parents to do anything that isn’t in their perceived self interest, unfortunately. I almost think all the demanding parents should be required to take a turn on the LSAT so they can get some degree of insight into all the different factors that go into running a school - and understand why the admins can’t just drop everything for the parents’ pet project or pet peeve.