Brent is a high poverty school?!

[Anonymous]

In other words, DCPS just pays lip service to immersion but nobody takes them seriously. Perhaps their motto should be "If you can't make it, fake it."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems to me they do very little checking to see who legitimately does or doesn't qualify, so that "75%-90%" number could well be made up.

No, it DOESN'T make sense to just figure on feeding them all for free. What about parents who make their kids lunches for allergy reasons or other dietary reasons? What about those who can and should perfectly well pay their own way for a school lunch?

And doesn't it foster a culture of unrealistic expectation, where there's a free lunch to be expected everywhere?

In practice, in my experience working in schools that offer free lunch to everyone, the high SES kids all bring their lunch from home rather than eat the school lunch. And I agree that school lunch is far preferable than some of the absolute junk (cold French fries from the corner take out and a Lil' Hug drink is my favorite example of a lunch I saw a girl bring to school) that some of the kids bring in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:cold French fries from the corner take out and a Lil' Hug drink.

That was a second grader's lunch, BTW.

[Anonymous]

That's not a function of poverty, that's a function of poor parenting and being clueless on nutrition.

[Anonymous]

Sooo.... DCPS feeds even kids whose parents can afford to feed them, because their parents don't know how to properly feed kids.

What next, DCPS should start dressing kids and wiping their butts too, because their parents are irresponsible?

Ridiculous. When does this come to an end, when do people start taking responsibility and realize they need to figure out how to properly take care of their kids?

[Anonymous]

^^ actually, the ps3 and pk4 teachers have had training in butt-wiping because of the (often high-ses) parents who can't seem to potty train their children. Wouldn't want little Olivia to lose her self-esteem by losing the pullups.

[Anonymous]

The parents must all be busy studying their phds and don't have time to parent

[Anonymous]

Plenty of high SES families wont sent their kids to immersion. Im one of them. A block away from Bruce Monroe. The kids can't read or write in any language. No thanks. Its definitely not Oyster.

Go tell the other poster who is convinced if there were more immersion schools the rich families would flock to them.

Seems to me they do very little checking to see who legitimately does or doesn't qualify, so that "75%-90%" number could well be made up.

No, it DOESN'T make sense to just figure on feeding them all for free. What about parents who make their kids lunches for allergy reasons or other dietary reasons? What about those who can and should perfectly well pay their own way for a school lunch?

And doesn't it foster a culture of unrealistic expectation, where there's a free lunch to be expected everywhere?

http://dc.gov/DCPS/Beyond+the+Classroom/Food+Services/Application+for+Free+and+Reduced+Meals
Apparently 88 schools qualify for universal free lunch regardless of the family's financial sitatuion


There's nothing to stop a parent from packing a lunch from home for students even if they get a free lunch at school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Bragging about the low FARMS rate at one's school is obnoxious. Our mission should be to pool knowledge to improve situations not to look smugly down on everyone who is struggling, be it financially, academically, or both.

NP her-- and a Brent parent. I don't see anyone bragging about Brent being low FARMS. Afterall, it really wasn't that long ago (five years ago? three?) that BRent really was a high poverty school and all the kids were entitled to free lunch and free breakfast and very low cost aftercare. It's possible that the higher grades at Brent still have plenty of FARMs kids.

[Anonymous]

For the record, Brent was Title I until last school year.

[Anonymous]

OP is trolling. It seems the teacher is trying to raise $300 to purchase some storage bins and friends and parents have donated about $115 through Donors Choose. It's not like anyone is being misled here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the record, Brent was Title I until last school year.

Not true.

[Anonymous]

Brent hasn't been Title 1 for several years.

What a silly thread! Nobody who has visited the school lately would ask such a goofy question, even on DCUM.

Just look at the PreS3, PreK4, K, 1st and 2nd grade classes. Hardly a low-income or AA kid left. Give Brent a few years and it will be as white as JKLM, for better or worse.

[Anonymous]

IIRC, Brent last received Title I funds in FY 2010 (2009-10 SY)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Brent hasn't been Title 1 for several years.

What a silly thread! Nobody who has visited the school lately would ask such a goofy question, even on DCUM.

Just look at the PreS3, PreK4, K, 1st and 2nd grade classes. Hardly a low-income or AA kid left. Give Brent a few years and it will be as white as JKLM, for better or worse.

Huh, last I looked at DC's 2nd grade class, there were plenty of AA kids. Huge range of incomes; yes, many high SES and many not even close. 5th grade is 9 AA kids, then 2 Latino kids and 5 white. 3rd and 4th seem pretty diverse as well; I know personally a good handful of single parents who certainly don't make much money.

However, back to the topic at hand, I think we have established that the teacher at Brent did not specify that Brent is high poverty.

Also, Tyler is clearly not 99% FARMS given the large number of middle class parents in the Spanish Immersion program and some in the autism and Arts Integration programs.