news from Southwest: Amidon-Bowen and Jefferson

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh shut up, reverse racism-minded troll. Some of us will have to move if the Hill MS situation doesn't get sorted out within the next five years or so if there isn't room at BASIS, Latin and possibly DC Global (there won't be, not for all comers). I don't know anybody at Brent who's planning to send a child to Jefferson Academy. Even the K and 1st grade families seem to think that the school is a bridge too far in under a decade. And these are parents who're paying attention. I went to a Jefferson open house with some lower grades Brent parents last year and we left shaking our heads. The academics seemed several hundreds miles away from what would work for us, and not because the leadership or teaching were weak. The housing projects, multigenerational urban poverty and the absence of a test-in program are the problems of course.

Jefferson is only 34% inbound. If you have confidence in the leadership and teaching, why not try it out as a cohort? How is that different than what Brent parents did a decade ago?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I might be willing to give serious consideration to Jefferson if it still fed to Wilson, even if it Wilson wouldn't necessarily be at the top of my list. Eastern is a nonstarter so there doesn't seem to be any reason to jump on the Jefferson bandwagon.

Jefferson hasn't fed to Wilson for many, many years. Before this most recent boundary change, Jefferson fed to Eastern but many families IB for Jefferson were also IB for Wilson. So if they sent kids to Jefferson, they had a choice of Wilson (based on geography) or Eastern (based on feeder pattern).

If the only general admission high school you'd accept is Wilson, the only feeder option seems to be Hardy (or Adams if you're bilingual--Deal doesn't offer any OOB slots). Charterwise, what are the options you'd be willing to take (I'm guessing BASIS, Latin, or DCI?). They're not going to have room for everyone who wants to go there. Some families will therefore move or go private--or do Jefferson for middle and then see how their kids do in the applications for Banneker, SWW, McKinley Tech, or Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I might be willing to give serious consideration to Jefferson if it still fed to Wilson, even if it Wilson wouldn't necessarily be at the top of my list. Eastern is a nonstarter so there doesn't seem to be any reason to jump on the Jefferson bandwagon.

Jefferson hasn't fed to Wilson for many, many years. Before this most recent boundary change, Jefferson fed to Eastern but many families IB for Jefferson were also IB for Wilson. So if they sent kids to Jefferson, they had a choice of Wilson (based on geography) or Eastern (based on feeder pattern).

If the only general admission high school you'd accept is Wilson, the only feeder option seems to be Hardy (or Adams if you're bilingual--Deal doesn't offer any OOB slots). Charterwise, what are the options you'd be willing to take (I'm guessing BASIS, Latin, or DCI?). They're not going to have room for everyone who wants to go there. Some families will therefore move or go private--or do Jefferson for middle and then see how their kids do in the applications for Banneker, SWW, McKinley Tech, or Ellington.

Many, many? I wouldn't call it that many. I have only taught for 10 years and Jefferson was definitely feeding to Wilson for the first 5 years of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I might be willing to give serious consideration to Jefferson if it still fed to Wilson, even if it Wilson wouldn't necessarily be at the top of my list. Eastern is a nonstarter so there doesn't seem to be any reason to jump on the Jefferson bandwagon.

Jefferson hasn't fed to Wilson for many, many years. Before this most recent boundary change, Jefferson fed to Eastern but many families IB for Jefferson were also IB for Wilson. So if they sent kids to Jefferson, they had a choice of Wilson (based on geography) or Eastern (based on feeder pattern).

If the only general admission high school you'd accept is Wilson, the only feeder option seems to be Hardy (or Adams if you're bilingual--Deal doesn't offer any OOB slots). Charterwise, what are the options you'd be willing to take (I'm guessing BASIS, Latin, or DCI?). They're not going to have room for everyone who wants to go there. Some families will therefore move or go private--or do Jefferson for middle and then see how their kids do in the applications for Banneker, SWW, McKinley Tech, or Ellington.

Also, Eastern only reopened 4 years ago and was only taking 1 class a year. This year was Eastern's FIRST graduating class under Principal Skerritt.

[Anonymous]

If your kid attends Jefferson, then you can swing by the fish market every now and then for fried oysters and shrimp.

[Anonymous]

Nobody goes to the Wharf anymore. It's just too crowded.

[Anonymous]

Thanks folks. Remember, I'll be here all week. Tip your severs well. Goodnight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh shut up, reverse racism-minded troll. Some of us will have to move if the Hill MS situation doesn't get sorted out within the next five years or so if there isn't room at BASIS, Latin and possibly DC Global (there won't be, not for all comers). I don't know anybody at Brent who's planning to send a child to Jefferson Academy. Even the K and 1st grade families seem to think that the school is a bridge too far in under a decade. And these are parents who're paying attention. I went to a Jefferson open house with some lower grades Brent parents last year and we left shaking our heads. The academics seemed several hundreds miles away from what would work for us, and not because the leadership or teaching were weak. The housing projects, multigenerational urban poverty and the absence of a test-in program are the problems of course.

Jefferson is only 34% inbound. If you have confidence in the leadership and teaching, why not try it out as a cohort? How is that different than what Brent parents did a decade ago?

Utterly and completely different. A decade ago, Brent parents of babies and toddlers convinced neighbors to start using a school that was 0% in-boundary (really) in a 10 block square catchment area. The small upscale catchment area had almost no public housing.

When you "try out" a struggling middle school mainly serving low-income families for your kid as a cohort, the joke is on you fast. Most of the other high SES families bail after a year or so (the story at Stuart Hobson forever and a day) and then you have no middle school. You end up at 7th grade in VA or MoCo; few private schools will take 7th graders, even if you have the dough. If Jefferson Academy offered a serious test-in program, like the one planned in Ward 7, some of us might indeed try it.

The strong leadership and teaching at Jefferson Academy are geared toward bringing the bottom up, vs. toward challenging your "advanced" (read garden variety high SES kid with professional parents). The achievement gap in ES is much narrower at the get go, and the peer group much less of a concern.

[Anonymous]

Obviously. Old hat.

[Anonymous]

Remember all the lip service paid to parity in programming across DCPS middle schools as part of the feeder pattern review dog-and-pony show? And who can forget "Alice Deal for all!" How is that been working out for Jefferson?

[Anonymous]

How soon we forget....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:bumping this because the Southwester again has a story about an Amidon-Bowen family, plus an article by a 6th grader about a visit to Jefferson by Wharf developers, and one about Jefferson students getting involved in a podcast book club. http://thesouthwester.com/july2015.pdf

Jefferson's top pitcher will also be throwing out the first pitch at Nationals Park on July 8th for SW/Near SE Neighborhood Night at the ballpark.

Aw, the middle schooler's essay on the Wharf was cute - thanks for posting!