Is Brent the best school in Capitol hill?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC doesn't have as large a population as NYC and the fact of the matter is, "testing-in" will have the end result of segregation by race and socio-economic status: well off mostly whites in "gifted" and poor AA in regular classes. Everyone knows this. So keep harping about it and save up for private.

Haven't posted here before but don't see pps clamoring for "testing-in" as "harping;" they're just a little ahead of their time...

DCPS must move in the direction of such programs eventually to keep affluent voters/taxpayers in the system, explaining why the issue keeps coming up. Rhee & Bloomberg held a joint public meeting in town in early 2010 where audience members asked when DCPS will set up g&t programs like new york's. Rhee didn't duck the issue like Henderson does.

With DCPS seeking to avoid segregation by sticking with differentiated learning w/in the classroom, although the highest-performing urban school districts in the country (like chicago) rejected the model long ago, they get it on a much grander scale than they would by screening poor kids for giftedness young & providing them with a push to keep up with high SES peers.

DC can only duck the testing-in issue for so much longer, as affluent voters gain politcal capital by becoming a bigger slice of the demographic pie. Please, the size of our population isn't what's keeping the city back on test-in middle schools. Everybody knows this.

Brent's changing demographics are generating resentment & jealousy on the Hill from those who can't afford to buy in the Brent district. The development leads more and more parents to wonder why it's ok to have mostly whites in a neighborhood school, just not in a g&t program that would benefit more poor AA kids than Brent will have soon...

[Anonymous]

^^ yea, it's all in the cards because the harpers aren't going away. with so many tiny tots of high ses families on the hill, and a new generation of parents hell bent on staying in the city, the pols won't be off the hook. the only questions are testing-in when, and under whose watch. not henderson's, not gray's. we are going to see middle and high schools with predominantly middle class student populations, maybe DCPS, maybe charter, because we're already seeing a hill elementary school that supports this set up (brent). seemed impossible just 6 or 7 years back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC doesn't have as large a population as NYC and the fact of the matter is, "testing-in" will have the end result of segregation by race and socio-economic status: well off mostly whites in "gifted" and poor AA in regular classes. Everyone knows this. So keep harping about it and save up for private.

So instead, the segregation happens because the majority of white AND BLACK middle class families leave DCPS. Wouldn't it be better to at least have a chance at integration at the middle and high school level by keeping those middle class students in the public system by almost any means? Keeping those families and numbers of students invested in the public system ( rather than leaving the city or going private ). Can ONLY mean benefits for the entire system and every student in it.

You seem blind to the fact that the segregation is already happening public/private/charter and the only way to fix it is to keep middle class students from fleeing the public schools. How do you do that in the short term at least? Possibly test in programs, specialized curriculum, magnet schools and simultaneous real improvement in the basic education of ALL students

[Anonymous]

I hate burst your bubble not that many middle-class people are fleeing DC[PS]. This notion that all of sudden there's this white/black money bag families are just jetting off once their child reaches 3rd grade is a LIE!!!

Be real for one family that leaves, you best to believe there's one waiting to enter and then with that percentage there's those who stay for the long haul.

Segregation, kinda evolves doesn't it when one race leave on their own? It's like the average school lunch time, everyone must eat but the hiearchy of seat preferences are evident. You have heard of the jock table, nerd table, and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Brent's changing demographics are generating resentment & jealousy on the Hill from those who can't afford to buy in the Brent district. The development leads more and more parents to wonder why it's ok to have mostly whites in a neighborhood school, just not in a g&t program that would benefit more poor AA kids than Brent will have soon...

I'll buy that argument when Brent retains a significant number of rising 4th graders rather than watching an exodus to Latin/Basis/other for 5th, just like all Hill residing families with kids at Maury, Watkins, and Tyler SI. And seriously, as a Hill resident, if I were able or inclined to pick up and move 3 blocks for an elementary school, don't you think I'd just move to a school district that would cover my kids through HS? JKLMM and WoPP aren't out of reach to many on the Hill. Parents invest in different schools based on different preferences, which is one reason why some of the Brent community insecurity and chest thumping is so humorous. "YOU'RE #1!" There . . . feel better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC doesn't have as large a population as NYC and the fact of the matter is, "testing-in" will have the end result of segregation by race and socio-economic status: well off mostly whites in "gifted" and poor AA in regular classes. Everyone knows this. So keep harping about it and save up for private.

Haven't posted here before but don't see pps clamoring for "testing-in" as "harping;" they're just a little ahead of their time...

DCPS must move in the direction of such programs eventually to keep affluent voters/taxpayers in the system, explaining why the issue keeps coming up. Rhee & Bloomberg held a joint public meeting in town in early 2010 where audience members asked when DCPS will set up g&t programs like new york's. Rhee didn't duck the issue like Henderson does.

With DCPS seeking to avoid segregation by sticking with differentiated learning w/in the classroom, although the highest-performing urban school districts in the country (like chicago) rejected the model long ago, they get it on a much grander scale than they would by screening poor kids for giftedness young & providing them with a push to keep up with high SES peers.

DC can only duck the testing-in issue for so much longer, as affluent voters gain politcal capital by becoming a bigger slice of the demographic pie. Please, the size of our population isn't what's keeping the city back on test-in middle schools. Everybody knows this.

Brent's changing demographics are generating resentment & jealousy on the Hill from those who can't afford to buy in the Brent district. The development leads more and more parents to wonder why it's ok to have mostly whites in a neighborhood school, just not in a g&t program that would benefit more poor AA kids than Brent will have soon...

Whites/middle class folks already have JKLMM. DCPS already has segregation by race and SES and now that there is a sizable middle class on the Hill, they feel they are entitled to get their own 'school' using testing-in to accelerate the process. Good luck with that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Be real for one family that leaves, you best to believe there's one waiting to enter and then with that percentage there's those who stay for the long haul.

thank you so much for painting such a hilarious scene!! I'm picturing families at the Maryland and VA border just salivating over delicious DC public school slots and occasionally hollering---
"Yippee!!! Another family of a DCPS soon-to-be middle schooler has decided to leave DC for the wilds of VA and MD! Now one of us can take their place! Congrats to you, you lucky family! Finally allowed to leave MD and VA for the bright future that surely-- so surely!-- awaits you in a DC public school!"

"Sigh . . . but when will it be our turn to get into DC public school? When when our family at last be allowed to leave VA/MD and come to the Promised Land that is the DC public school system?"

"Keep strong, keep your faith-- and if in the end you aren't allowed into DC to attend the public schools, well, just make due with whatever sorry scraps of an education MD/Va public schools can provide you in the meanwhile."

snort!!

You too crazy!

signed, DCPS parent of a soon to be middle schooler

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Parents invest in different schools based on different preferences, which is one reason why some of the Brent community insecurity and chest thumping is so humorous. "YOU'RE #1!" There . . . feel better?

Where is this chest-thumping by Brent folks that you speak of? I'm a happy Brent parent, but I wouldn't say it is the best school on Capitol Hill-- and I have never heard another Brent parent say that it is. As you say-- parents have different preferences, so it is impossible to say which school is "best". So having "You're #1!" doesn't make anyone feel better at Brent since it is both untrue (no school is really "#1") and misspelled.

But a guarantee of a great middle school within a half-mile would be lovely and make us Brent folks feel much better!

[Anonymous]

Test-in ms programs may be pie in the sky, but couldn't we just have challenge for our kids? My first made it through 5th at Watkins, not terribly challenged but OK because of some great teachers. We lasted a year at S-H (after striking out in the 6th grade Latin lottery) without challenge, then switched to an excellent and almost affordable parochial school. My second is at Brent (we were always IB, but not happy enough with where Brent was for our eldest, with a 7-year gap between the two). He's getting more challenge at Brent than his older sibling did in the Cluster. If that makes Brent the best school on the Hill, so be it.

Why the heck won't DCPS and DC charter (other than BASIS??) ability group for ms, other than for 8th grade algebra and maybe Spanish? Honestly, my advanced kid was thrown into S-H classes with very disruptive housing project children (from Wards 6, 7 and 8) who could barely read. What could the poor teachers do but focus on keeping the low-end kids from falling through the cracks? The set up made me angry. And the parents telling me to go private because I couldn't find challenge for my kid while paying property tax on a 700K house made me equally angry. I'm hoping for public middle school challenge for my second because we won't be able to afford parochial for the two kids coterminously, but don't expect it. We may be MoCo bound, despite being active on Hill PTAs for years, sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where is this chest-thumping by Brent folks that you speak of? I'm a happy Brent parent, but I wouldn't say it is the best school on Capitol Hill-- and I have never heard another Brent parent say that it is. As you say-- parents have different preferences, so it is impossible to say which school is "best". So having "You're #1!" doesn't make anyone feel better at Brent since it is both untrue (no school is really "#1") and misspelled.

But a guarantee of a great middle school within a half-mile would be lovely and make us Brent folks feel much better!

I'm referring to the supposedly "jealous" Hill families forced to endure our mostly comparably achieving ES option while otherwise sharing similar MS concerns

And if YOU'RE going to incorrectly call out non-existent spelling errors (you're = acceptable contraction of "you are") maybe you should let YOUR little G&T DC spell check your DCUM posts. Maybe I missed some grammatical fine points in there too, so I'd welcome the feedback.

[Anonymous]

Strut your stuff, Brent families. Brag on or bring it on, Brent families. Let's see the goal is to get a middle-school to keep white families here after 3rd grade. Hmmm, nothing beats a failure but a try. It worked with the Banneker and the SWW experiment. So, keep at it, don't give up Brent families, I am counting on you to do this as an AA family, I am so vested to this idea. Go head white families lay down the foundation and I as an AA family will just enter on the premise; that if you try to keep me out, I will scream racism. See, the harder you try to change, it will all remain the same in some form or fashion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Strut your stuff, Brent families. Brag on or bring it on, Brent families. Let's see the goal is to get a middle-school to keep white families here after 3rd grade. Hmmm, nothing beats a failure but a try. It worked with the Banneker and the SWW experiment. So, keep at it, don't give up Brent families, I am counting on you to do this as an AA family, I am so vested to this idea. Go head white families lay down the foundation and I as an AA family will just enter on the premise; that if you try to keep me out, I will scream racism. See, the harder you try to change, it will all remain the same in some form or fashion.

I'm AA and I'll be the one calling you a reverse racist, hon. What a pathetic post. Tax payers deserve challenge for their kids. PPs aren't talking about keeping white families after 3rd grade; they're talking about keeping voters w/children here. My advanced kid is just as bored at S-H as white kids and some other AA kids, so we're bailing. Scream racism all you like, you will be in the dim-witted minority on the Hill soon enough and the politicians won't be able to listen AND keep their jobs. The harder the Brent and Maury parents try, the more likely they are to succeed because they deserve success for their incredibly hard work in turning those schools around. Some of you have short memories and histories on the Hill - I remember Brent when there wasn't a middle-class kid of any color there.

I'd kill for a test-in MS, like those in other E. Coast cities, because my kid would almost certainly test-in. We've made sure of that at home. Hint: we don't have a TV, hire tutors, and have the integrity and vision not to cry racism when we can't, or won't, compete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'll buy that argument when Brent retains a significant number of rising 4th graders rather than watching an exodus to Latin/Basis/other for 5th, just like all Hill residing families with kids at Maury, Watkins, and Tyler SI.

I can speak only for one of the latter but it seems to me that this thing about leaving after 4th grade is a Brent phenomenon. We're perfectly happy with what our non-Brent school from the rest of that list has to offer in the upper grade and aren't willing to compromise that just because some "harpers" (I like that term) have to feel better about their angst by causing others to be anxious. If you can't see how your own child is benefiting from a good school regardless (or maybe because) of the socioeconomic makeup of the school as a whole, then either Brent isn't so great or you're just never going to be happy in the city's schools. Why bother trekking to Basis or Latin, where the same angst will inevitably catch up with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: I can speak only for one of the latter but it seems to me that this thing about leaving after 4th grade is a Brent phenomenon. We're perfectly happy with what our non-Brent school from the rest of that list has to offer in the upper grade and aren't willing to compromise that just because some "harpers" (I like that term) have to feel better about their angst by causing others to be anxious. If you can't see how your own child is benefiting from a good school regardless (or maybe because) of the socioeconomic makeup of the school as a whole, then either Brent isn't so great or you're just never going to be happy in the city's schools. Why bother trekking to Basis or Latin, where the same angst will inevitably catch up with you?

Call me a harper in a growing chorus. My kid was bored at another Hill school, so we switched to Brent, where I'm happy to find that she's no longer is. Kids are different - some are on the bell curve and don't need extra challenge, some, like mine, are probably off it, or standing in the nether regions. But we're all DC tax payers and we all deserve challenge for our children and good schools.

The pps who point out that the socioeconomic make-up of a particular Hill school would be less of an issue if real challenge were consistently provided to all students are on the right track. It's DCPS that motivates parents to group around Brent, and other mostly white enclaves.

You make a good point about trekking to Latin, where there is almost no ability grouping/tracking to be had although some kids come in below Basic. We'll have to see about Basis. But parents who want more for their tax dollars and kids don't have to say "never," take no for an answer, go private or move. They're free to remind politicians who pays the bills. The more who do this, the more likely that challenge for all will follow. We've talked to Tommy Wells' office and dearly wish that more inspired harpers would do the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I can speak only for one of the latter but it seems to me that this thing about leaving after 4th grade is a Brent phenomenon. We're perfectly happy with what our non-Brent school from the rest of that list has to offer in the upper grade and aren't willing to compromise that just because some "harpers" (I like that term) have to feel better about their angst by causing others to be anxious.

My point isn't to disparage the above ES programs. There's a lot of shared angst from Hill families about MS prospects. Charters, private schools and moving have been the prefered 5th grade options for Hill families. If you like your DCPS ES but not MS options on the Hill (or most anywhere in DCPS), you'd have to have your head in the sand to feel at least some angst. You can hear some of the same angst on this board about Deal, and my WoPP friends are still on the fence about Deal for their ES kids.