Jefferson Academy Kool-Aid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Ha!

[Anonymous]

good luck with that. There are families that literally move mm and kids from Korea to Virginia for TJ while Dad stays back to work. The kids cram for the TJ admission test for many hours a day for YEARS. There are special tutors. Your typical bright white rich kid at Brent is unlikely to make it.

[Anonymous]

This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good luck with that. There are families that literally move mm and kids from Korea to Virginia for TJ while Dad stays back to work. The kids cram for the TJ admission test for many hours a day for YEARS. There are special tutors. Your typical bright white rich kid at Brent is unlikely to make it.

And how are they here legally? Last I checked high schools don't give out student visas for the whole family.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

How about DCPS only just getting a curriculum, but if it makes yourself better just keep blaming the teachers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

The idea is that the advanced ( read: on normal grade level/not remedial ) academic program will not "spring up" before your kid gets there. The idea is that if your kid enrolls there along with his/her classmates from Brent the class/program would THEN be provided. Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS and take that gamble? I don't get it. Especially with all the PTA leaders telling you they will make sure it happens. Plus, how entitled if you to think an appropriate educational program should be simply provided for you. You have to work for it. Work it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

What about BASIS - any non-siblings get in from Brent? Any non-siblings get into other MS - like Two Rivers, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

The idea is that the advanced ( read: on normal grade level/not remedial ) academic program will not "spring up" before your kid gets there. The idea is that if your kid enrolls there along with his/her classmates from Brent the class/program would THEN be provided. Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS and take that gamble? I don't get it. Especially with all the PTA leaders telling you they will make sure it happens. Plus, how entitled if you to think an appropriate educational program should be simply provided for you. You have to work for it. Work it!

Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS? LOL!!!! Just show up and all will be FINE.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

The idea is that the advanced ( read: on normal grade level/not remedial ) academic program will not "spring up" before your kid gets there. The idea is that if your kid enrolls there along with his/her classmates from Brent the class/program would THEN be provided. Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS and take that gamble? I don't get it. Especially with all the PTA leaders telling you they will make sure it happens. Plus, how entitled if you to think an appropriate educational program should be simply provided for you. You have to work for it. Work it!

Are you seriously asking why a Hill parent wouldn't trust DCPS? I can't tell if your post is sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:good luck with that. There are families that literally move mm and kids from Korea to Virginia for TJ while Dad stays back to work. The kids cram for the TJ admission test for many hours a day for YEARS. There are special tutors. Your typical bright white rich kid at Brent is unlikely to make it.

TJ isn't even straight test in anymore and now is holistic (read: discriminating in favor of all non-Asians, even white). I easily tested into the NYC version of TJ. My kid is at least as smart as me (and a more diligent student), TJ is actually statistically easier to get into than the NYC version (smaller catchment, bigger class) and I am way more clued in than my parents were in terms of prep. I actually think 50% of the high SES Brent kids would test into TJ with limited prep (5-10 hours of test familiarity type stuff); probably 75% with concerted effort.

[Anonymous]

Well first those Brent kids need to get through Rachel Carson middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:good luck with that. There are families that literally move mm and kids from Korea to Virginia for TJ while Dad stays back to work. The kids cram for the TJ admission test for many hours a day for YEARS. There are special tutors. Your typical bright white rich kid at Brent is unlikely to make it.

And how are they here legally? Last I checked high schools don't give out student visas for the whole family.

Mom could enroll in a grad program in the US. Or she could get a job here if she can find a sponsor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

The idea is that the advanced ( read: on normal grade level/not remedial ) academic program will not "spring up" before your kid gets there. The idea is that if your kid enrolls there along with his/her classmates from Brent the class/program would THEN be provided. Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS and take that gamble? I don't get it. Especially with all the PTA leaders telling you they will make sure it happens. Plus, how entitled if you to think an appropriate educational program should be simply provided for you. You have to work for it. Work it!

Are you seriously asking why a Hill parent wouldn't trust DCPS? I can't tell if your post is sarcastic.

DCPS and PTA board members are asking a hell of a lot in instructing parents to work to build an advanced academic program in a school where more than 80% of 11-15 year olds don't test proficient. Why not just instruct us to end poverty in the city? Eliot-Hine has had an "advanced program," the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program, for a couple years and you don't see high SES families lining up to attend.

Is that how BASIS and Washington Latin got their advanced academic programs, by asking parents to work to build them? I'd settle for enough charters "springing up" to offer advanced middle and high school courses, like many other Brent parents.

[Anonymous]

Latin is a good school but it isn't advanced. Grade level in middle school - which is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This mom of a bright, not-so-rich Brent kid regrets attending a Jefferson open house. Our PTA spin doctors now count me among those seriously interested in the school after learning more, when the opposite is true. I can't see a suitably advanced academic program springing up at Jefferson at all, let alone in the few years we have before middle school. My kid attended a Johns Hopkins CTY camp last summer, finding social studies hard for the first time.

Four fourth graders without siblings are into Latin while two dozen applied. We are an upper grades school community in trouble, folks.

The idea is that the advanced ( read: on normal grade level/not remedial ) academic program will not "spring up" before your kid gets there. The idea is that if your kid enrolls there along with his/her classmates from Brent the class/program would THEN be provided. Why wouldn't you want to trust DCPS and take that gamble? I don't get it. Especially with all the PTA leaders telling you they will make sure it happens. Plus, how entitled if you to think an appropriate educational program should be simply provided for you. You have to work for it. Work it!

14:39, where has this happened before, a small number of middle-class families from a feeder elementary school building a strong advanced academic program at a large, failing public MIDDLE SCHOOL that's two-thirds empty? Can you give us an example from this century or this country?