Hill Middle Schools
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Anonymous
Only for a small area (mostly not actually on the Hill v Hill East) and for families with no bike or very local car options. Even if you, e.g., live near Watkins, your WALK to S-H (on the other side of the Hill) is the same as your public transport trip to Jefferson; one can have lots of things go wrong/delay, whereas the other really can't. |
Anonymous
There definitely are divisions along racial lines when you look at certain schools in the neighborhood. That being said, It isn't always quite as stark as it appears at the parade. From my experience as a family who has participated in their parade for the last seven or eight years, the parade doesn't have a huge turnout for the schools as a whole. It draws more early childhood and nearby families, which doesn't accurately represent the full population of the schools. I will also second what another poster said about the convenience of the locations of the various middle schools. I think it is kind of a silly conversation about combining them in the first place because it will never happen. But also they're located in different areas for a reason, if you live in the south or east parts of Capitol Hill or Hill East, which a lot of us do, Eliot Hine is much more convenient and accessible by walking, bus, or bike. |
Anonymous
| ^^ Actually, I just checked and even if you live IN the Potomac Ave metro station, your trip to Jefferson is only 3 minutes shorter than your trip to S-H. From the Stadium-Armory metro, you're still faster to get to S-H than Jefferson on public transport! Really curious where is actually appreciably faster to Jefferson than S-H? |
Anonymous
DP here, but kids used to come from all over the city to attend Jefferson when it had the gifted program. I knew kids from Shepherd Park that traveled all the way to SW for Jefferson. If a strong program were to return, I think it could absolutely get strong buy in from Hill parents. |
Anonymous
. Exactly right. Jefferson isn’t catching on with high income Hill families. Numbers are dropping a little year on year. Nobody wants to talk about the problem at Brent. |
Anonymous
A true magnet anywhere would get Hill buy in (NW too). But a special program designed to attract Hill parents short of a magnet would be better off in SH or EH. Jefferson is just too far away and it’s the only Hill MC with declining UMC buy-in. I actually wonder if part of Jefferson’s problem is just that the Brent zone is too rich. Private is a real alternative. There are more folks in the Maury, LT and Watkins zones who can’t do MS + HS private for multiple kids. |
Anonymous
Many parents don’t feel comfortable having their kids commute to Jefferson alone from the Hill in 6th grade. It’s not an issue SH has at all and EH not really. |
Anonymous
Honestly, those parents are just looking for excuses. The buses to BASIS aren’t any better than the Circulator or the metro. But somehow they are just fine. |
Anonymous
| Nobody wants to offend the pro-Jefferson contingent at Brent. Much less awkward to raise transportation issues than the socioeconomic, safety and academic concerns underlying the exodus to charter middle schools in their bad buildings. Bad full buildings, vs. the beautiful, half empty Jefferson building. |
Anonymous
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You're not wrong. BASIS and the Latins have 5th grade wait lists still running to hundreds of names by the time school starts while a few elaborately renovated DCPS middle and high school buildings sit half empty years after they were spruced up.
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Anonymous
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For the record, the waitlist at Jefferson consistently exceeds the number of offers made. If the building is “half empty” (whatever that means), then it’s due to a DCPS decision to limit enrollment. It’s certainly not due to a lack of demand.
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Anonymous
But it definitely is due to a lack of demand from those with a right to attend. They *could* fill up the building if they were actually interested in attending. |
Anonymous
| There are so many factors involved in raising happy and successful kids, focus on each, don't hyper magnify one point. Signed~ A parent who did all that and learned how little value it adds but how much it takes away from whole equation. |
Anonymous
Anybody else fed up with a tiny coterie of pro-Jefferson high SES in-boundary parents defending the lousy arrangement? Please tell us how many of the current in-boundary 5th graders at Brent are en route to Jefferson? By my count, half a dozen out of a cohort that supplied Brent with more than 60 IB 4th graders. Pre-Covid, there were at least a dozen in-boundary 5th graders heading to Jefferson. When is the political day of reckoning for this train wreck coming? Lack of demand is a growing problem of epic proportions that isn't discussed in public fora let alone addressed in any meaningful way. Why should voters settle for IB middle schools in name only, schools fed almost entirely by demand from some of the city's poorest neighborhoods here in 2023? None of it makes good sense. |
Anonymous
It isn’t coming. The ship has sailed for a generation at least. All 3 MS have been renovated. There is no way they are going to shut one down or adjust the boundaries to move more IB students into the smallest MS. There is no “fix” to this unless you can elect a mayor that would do something about it. Even then, I have a hard time believing they would do anything to weaken a school that they just put $80M into. Honestly, the only thing that would “fix” these MSs is kids showing up. That’s how you raise test scores. Most Hill parents would love to get into Hardy. If Hill kids showed up, there would be 3 schools close to Hardy. So I guess those are your answers, send your kids there (I know, a crazy thought) or organize and elect a new mayor. Good luck. |