Jefferson Academy Kool-Aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes but there are kids below grade level in both places. Not a majority but they are not 'accelerated' across all subjects.

No public middle schools are unless you are in a MontCo HGC.

Yes, but the curriculum is still accelerated at BASIS and Washington Latin whereas I am pretty sure it is not at Jefferson due to the 91% of their students below grade level in math and 85% below grade level in reading! These numbers of below grade level students would overwhelm any classroom.

[Anonymous]

Deal is majority white + Asian this year, and less than 20% FARMs. Moreover, Deal parents often complain that there is no academic tracking there outside of math, yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Deal is majority white + Asian this year, and less than 20% FARMs. Moreover, Deal parents often complain that there is no academic tracking there outside of math, yet.

Black: 31%
Hispanic/Latino: 13%
White: 45%
Asian: 6%
Pacific/Hawaiian: 0%
Native/Alaskan: 0%
Multiple races: 5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a skillful PR job AND a real turnaround. My question is how could parents turn around Jefferson in a city without gifted and talented programs, and with serious political problems with any arrangement that smacks of racial segregation (academic tracking)? At the Jefferson open house yesterday, I didn't come away with a clear view of how the achievement gap would be managed. It didn't sound like advanced students coming into Jefferson front Brent would be placed in appropriately challenging classes in every academic subject.

I think it is fair for parents to expect that Jefferson be able to provide challenging classes that are appropriate for their children. What is slightly less fair is to expect that such a program to already exist before the first "advanced" child walks through the door.

Does the school/principal express any flexibility or understanding of the issue. Like, if x number of "advanced" kids show up, we will have this Algebra and that Language Arts class no matter what. If that is the real issue, it doesn't seem like that is the biggest mountain to climb.

Have you ever sent your child(ren) to a DCPS Title 1 school past ECE? We have, and so I predict that academic challenge at Jefferson will in fact be the biggest mountain to climb for the simple reason that Brent alone will be feeding high SES kids into Jefferson for many years. The tiny number of Tyler Spanish Immersion parents who get to 5th grade aren't going, there aren't high SES kids even in the lower grades at Tyler Traditional or Amidon, and Van Ness is five years away from having any 5th graders to send. The only way we can have advanced programs ready for advanced kids who walk through the door is to vote in politicians who will fight for funds to be allocated to them, and we don't seem to have that in Grosso, Allen etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was a skillful PR job AND a real turnaround. My question is how could parents turn around Jefferson in a city without gifted and talented programs, and with serious political problems with any arrangement that smacks of racial segregation (academic tracking)? At the Jefferson open house yesterday, I didn't come away with a clear view of how the achievement gap would be managed. It didn't sound like advanced students coming into Jefferson front Brent would be placed in appropriately challenging classes in every academic subject.

I think it is fair for parents to expect that Jefferson be able to provide challenging classes that are appropriate for their children. What is slightly less fair is to expect that such a program to already exist before the first "advanced" child walks through the door.

Does the school/principal express any flexibility or understanding of the issue. Like, if x number of "advanced" kids show up, we will have this Algebra and that Language Arts class no matter what. If that is the real issue, it doesn't seem like that is the biggest mountain to climb.

Have you ever sent your child(ren) to a DCPS Title 1 school past ECE? We have, and so I predict that academic challenge at Jefferson will in fact be the biggest mountain to climb for the simple reason that Brent alone will be feeding high SES kids into Jefferson for many years. The tiny number of Tyler Spanish Immersion parents who get to 5th grade aren't going, there aren't high SES kids even in the lower grades at Tyler Traditional or Amidon, and Van Ness is five years away from having any 5th graders to send. The only way we can have advanced programs ready for advanced kids who walk through the door is to vote in politicians who will fight for funds to be allocated to them, and we don't seem to have that in Grosso, Allen etc.

DC attended the Montessori program at Watkins, so...maybe? Don't remember if they were Title I at the time. The Jefferson LSAT and principal can allocate funds for a program, you don't need Grosso et al, but they are not going to do that when they have 0% confidence that you will show up.

[Anonymous]

DCPS ensures that few of us will show up and parents can't be blamed. The 2008-2009 PTA meetings geared at making Jefferson Brent-worthy were an education for many of us. When I hear parents claim, well, that was ancient history, the city has changed tremendously in the last five or six years, I remain skeptical. If anything, Rhee showed more interest in committing resources to above-grade-level instruction than Henderson. The former gave press conferences to decry the dearth of enrichment in DCPS; the latter doesn't.

One parent confidence-bashing problem is that DCPS purges weak teachers very inefficiently, unlike the highest-performing charters. Weak teachers at top charters generally don't last long, while DCPS gives them one chance after another, far too many for your child and family. Also, DCPS has never institutionalized programming for advanced students below the AP courses level. You'll have a pullout group or advanced math class at an elementary or middle school one year, but not necessarily the next (the story at Watkins and Hobson through the years). Admins change and advanced offerings come and go. Without a high-capacity PTA able to raise megabucks, and push admins to cater to advanced students year in and year out, programming for above grade-level course work isn't secure in the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frankly, I am more curious about the impressions that parents of older students in 4th or 5th grade had of the open house.

Parents of small children can be dangerous because they really have no idea unless they are in the education field of how to evaluate a secondary school. And they have absolutely no skin in the game. Cheerful optimism from them can be dangerous because it maintains the status quo and doesn't fire bold action or change. Mostly they are thinking "well, it's fine for those kids". But when their own kid gets close enough to actually Go there it doesn't happen. Justifications abound.

Oh, the parents of young children absolutely have skin in the game. Their time horizon is just 3-4 years rather than 1-2 years. And for them, the highly desirable charters may not even be a dim possibility. There is definite skin in the game.

Agreed. Our kid will be in prek at Amidon (and most likely will stay for elementary) and guess where his middle school will be - Jefferson (gasp, it's not just Hill parents that feed to Jefferson). There's a bunch of middle class families in SWDC who are making the effort to send their kids to Amidon and want to see their neighborhood ES and MS succeed. We want our kids to go to the local schools and not have to be schlepped all over town to go to school. Jefferson will be the next focus and believe me, in 2-3 years time, I'm sure us prek/k parents at Amidon will be thinking about middle school and how we can feed into a good neighborhood school.

Also, with the construction going on at the Wharf, and all around SW, it is bound to bring in some families (not too many since they are mostly building studios and 1 bedrooms) but there's opportunities to have your voice heard at DCPS and let them know we want better options at Jefferson for our kids and the families that continue to grow (and stay) in the local neighborhoods.

The PARCC is a joke.

So... you presently have zero personal experience with DCPS, much less knowledge of what it takes to improve a school, or the proven intestinal fortitude to have withstood the slow drain of students with each passing year.

You'll have to patient and wait until you know whereof you speak before anyone takes you seriously, sweetie.

+1. You can have your voice heard and then promptly disregarded. The Wharf will be a nice destination, but hardly a draw for families looking for somewhere to live with a middle school aged kid. In the end, it's about the cohort, and most Hill families aren't buying the magic unicorn optimism that seems to be motivating some well-intentioned parents. Too many at-risk kids (62%). Too many kids testing at below proficiency (80%). Too many suspensions (30%). Declining enrollment (310 in 2014).

PP here -- all i'm saying is don't discount the parents with young ones either, as we can help make a difference too. I even said that not many families will be moving in .. but there are families that are already here and are staying and sending their kids to Amidon and who want a good middle school in the area to send our kids to. Also, why would you say that I have no knowledge of what it takes to improve a school? We've already been active with the existing parents in the school and have gone to several meetings about the future of the school. I've been living in DC for 13+ years and have friends with kids in the DCPS system and also friends that teach/are principals in the system as well. I'm pretty familiar with the school system. Good luck to those on the Hill -- all I'm saying is it might be worth working together with other parents in other ES to pull resources together and lobby for better schools.

[Anonymous]

A video made by Jefferson is here: you can see the building, a few students, teachers, VP, and principal. The VP was a teacher at the school before and makes the videos every year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43SmlY3D0ng

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A video made by Jefferson is here: you can see the building, a few students, teachers, VP, and principal. The VP was a teacher at the school before and makes the videos every year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43SmlY3D0ng

That was awesome! I wish my school did something like this when we had to take tests! Making testing fun instead of boring.

[Anonymous]

This is one for the DCCAS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYkoF0Zyqzo

[Anonymous]

I think the truth of the matter is also that people are more willing to take a flier on ES than MS as long as it's safe. Most of what you learn in ES from an academic perspective your parents can also teach you/easily supplement (most of the high SES white Brent parents referred to in this thread could keep their kids at grade level for reading even if their kid just watched TV all day at school), while the same isn't necessarily true come MS. So ESs can turn pretty quickly when there are many people willing to take a leap at once; that sort of coordination for MS, where the leap is so much riskier and the number of people needed to leap at once for the leap to have an impact is so much greater, is just a lot harder.

[Anonymous]

When you look at parents on the Hill and like 25% of them went to an Ivy or equivalent, they are just not going to send Larlo to a school where 10% of kids read at grade level. Moreover, to the PPs laughing at their assumption that their kids can get into one of the DC privates or TJ, or if worse comes to worst, simply do well enough at Montgomery Blair to get into a good college: I don't think the assumption is particularly bad for many of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why not set up a comprehensive middle school on Capitol Hill spread out on two campuses? 6th grade at Stuart-Hobson and 7th and 8th grade at Elliott-Hine. Feeders would be JO Wilson, LT, Watkins, Brent, Maury, Tyler, SWS, Payne, Miner, Van Ness, and Amidon-Bowen. There could be a Spanish immersion track to support students from Tyler Bilingual as well as Hill families from LAMB and Mundo Verde looking for a neighborhood school for the MS years. Turn Jefferson into a test-in STEM MS.

Lamb parent here- we are planning on attending DCI, but would be thrilled to have a test-in local option. That would absolutely be our first choice if we had that option. Pretty sure we are not alone either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why not set up a comprehensive middle school on Capitol Hill spread out on two campuses? 6th grade at Stuart-Hobson and 7th and 8th grade at Elliott-Hine. Feeders would be JO Wilson, LT, Watkins, Brent, Maury, Tyler, SWS, Payne, Miner, Van Ness, and Amidon-Bowen. There could be a Spanish immersion track to support students from Tyler Bilingual as well as Hill families from LAMB and Mundo Verde looking for a neighborhood school for the MS years. Turn Jefferson into a test-in STEM MS.

Lamb parent here- we are planning on attending DCI, but would be thrilled to have a test-in local option. That would absolutely be our first choice if we had that option. Pretty sure we are not alone either.

There will never be a test-in option. Just accept it, and enjoy DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When you look at parents on the Hill and like 25% of them went to an Ivy or equivalent, they are just not going to send Larlo to a school where 10% of kids read at grade level. Moreover, to the PPs laughing at their assumption that their kids can get into one of the DC privates or TJ, or if worse comes to worst, simply do well enough at Montgomery Blair to get into a good college: I don't think the assumption is particularly bad for many of them.

+1. Whites would be in the majority at TJ if Hill parents moved to the burbs.