New to looking at Capitol Hill DCPS. Any majority high SES schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The likelihood of a similar project happening the Brent area is not great at the current time.
/quote]

Quote of the year.

Is Greenleaf Gardens included in the Brent area? Tongue firmly in cheek.

[Anonymous]

OP you might also find another long thread, entitled "Brent vs. Haynes," useful. It started in late 2011. Both schools are now predominantly high SES.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/197423.page#1914961

As for the lottery process, just look on the DCPS home page for relevant links/info. In a nutshell, at Brent there are no longer preK 3 or 4 spots Out of Bounds (OOB) and probably none for K and 1st. You may get into Maury PreK OOB but your chances are low.

You can learn all about BASIS on half a dozen threads started in the last six months (just search for "Basis" after clicking on the DC Public and Charter school link). Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: So if parental income, social/educational status is your key criteria for buying into a neighborhood, then all you need to do is look at the home prices. Taking school poverty rates as an indicator isn't getting you any closer. In fact it may just blur your analysis.

Tell that to the Stanton Park neighborhood families in pricey homes IB for Ludlow Taylor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% agree with the above. To wit: it has nothing whatsoever to do with the demographics of the students currently there and everything to do with the curriculum, pedagogy, management, expectations and yes, middle school feeder patterns currently in place

Can you be more specific? Is it the new math curriculum or other subjects? Management as in actions of the principal? Are there concrete things you can name to improve the pedagogy or expectations?

[Anonymous]

Ward 6 has the most low income housing units. Capitol Hill is a neighborhood and not a Ward???? Gosh-darn-it, get over yourself elementary school parents, there are not enough white children in a neighborhood to make a school sufficient. This bragging that a school is no longer all AA is beyond KKK-kreepy and I am saying that in the most sincere way.

[Anonymous]

I am pp and was in no way bragging about the 5th grade at Brent not being all one race. I was correcting another poster who keeps getting it wrong. You read bragging into it, which says somrthing about your state of mind

[Anonymous]

1 -- parent of a 5th grade student here who is apparently black and poor when I always thought that he was white and middle class. Hmm.

2 -- strange since his sibling in a lower grade couldn't possible be black and poor because the younger kids are all white and high-SES.

3 -- We are very happy with the school, to include the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. Plenty of challenge, pull out for extra challenge as appropriate, and a wonderful set of kids.

4 -- The 5th grade has, I believe, 16 kids and looks to be about 1/4 white. Not sure who's in or out of bounds or poor or rich (other than us, apparently black and poor -- no one seems to dispute that we are out-of-bounds). The kids all seem lovely in my numerous interactions with them over the years.

OP -- you would be wise to look for a school using a broader metric, but you would do well if you chose Brent, despite it's generally higher SES, because it's a great school and a great community.

Now, I'm off to break it to my son that he's a different race than he had previously been.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:100% agree with the above. To wit: it has nothing whatsoever to do with the demographics of the students currently there and everything to do with the curriculum, pedagogy, management, expectations and yes, middle school feeder patterns currently in place

Can you be more specific? Is it the new math curriculum or other subjects? Management as in actions of the principal? Are there concrete things you can name to improve the pedagogy or expectations?

The irony is that the several Hill ES programs with the most momentum--Brent, Maury, Tyler Spanish Immersion--are also the ones with a catastrophic middle school feeder, Eliot-Hine (read no white kids and precious few high-SES kids). Meanwhile, two schools with a better feed-into Stuart Hobson--are losing high-SES families. Look at DCPS stats on demographics for Ludlow-Taylor and Watkins and note that the percentage of white kids is three or four percentage points lower at both this year than in 2011. New charters like Inspire DC are creaming off IB kids at the weaker Hill schools. Curriculum and pedagogy don't seem to be the problem as much as "management" which, on the Hill at least, includes PTA-fueled management. Strong PTAs virtually select their principals these days, and raise funds to hire staff DCPS won't pay for (e.g. Brent's first PE teacher and now a part-time math teacher).

One reason that Brent is doing so well is that the school is on its second kick ass head, while Ludlow-Taylor's princpal turns almost everybody off and Watkins is governed by the increasingly out of touch Cluster management team. Also, Brent has better facilities and a more robust after school program than the other Hill schools.

You need a good-sized cohort of high-SES families to push for robust change, and pay for extras, at least in the short-term (before DCPS gets onboard). I disagree that demographics have nothing to do with progress, but concur that demographics alone do not progress make.

[Anonymous]

"...research shows children benefit from a culturally, racially, and also socioeconomically non-homogeneous context."

Genuinely curious in the research (trying to dissuade husband from move to super homogenous town w little / no student diversity in any regard). Can you cute and / or provide links please?

[Anonymous]

What good influences will a child get from going to school with kids from abusive and violent homes in the hood that doesn't value education or literacy, and have little regard for the lives, interests or property of others?

Is that how they should learn to not live their lives, and are supposed to tease the "good" influences from bad ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What good influences will a child get from going to school with kids from abusive and violent homes in the hood that doesn't value education or literacy, and have little regard for the lives, interests or property of others?

Is that how they should learn to not live their lives, and are supposed to tease the "good" influences from bad ones?

It might surprise you that not all low income people are abusive or don't value education or literacy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What good influences will a child get from going to school with kids from abusive and violent homes in the hood that doesn't value education or literacy, and have little regard for the lives, interests or property of others?

Is that how they should learn to not live their lives, and are supposed to tease the "good" influences from bad ones?

It might surprise you that not all low income people are abusive or don't value education or literacy.

I never said or implied anything about "all" low income people, but it definitely cannot be denied that some fall in that category.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What good influences will a child get from going to school with kids from abusive and violent homes in the hood that doesn't value education or literacy, and have little regard for the lives, interests or property of others?

This is so moronic it hardly merits a response, but I'll ask the obvious question to this poster -- do you have any regard for the "lives, interests or property" of the many lower income children and their families you blatantly stereotype and malign? Or do you just wish to pretend those with less fortunate circumstances than either disappeor or just have no interaction with you or your family.

I'll even provide you an example -- my priviledged DC routinely refuses high quality healthful, and even delicious food if it's not to the precise demands of a stubborn 6 yr old pallete. We don't encourage that behavior or coddle it, and we sincerely hope its outgrown. DC could DEFINITELY learn something from children who eat what is given to them because they don't have the luxury of rejecting nourishment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What good influences will a child get from going to school with kids from abusive and violent homes in the hood that doesn't value education or literacy, and have little regard for the lives, interests or property of others?

Is that how they should learn to not live their lives, and are supposed to tease the "good" influences from bad ones?

It might surprise you that not all low income people are abusive or don't value education or literacy.

I never said or implied anything about "all" low income people, but it definitely cannot be denied that some fall in that category.

Umm I got that from your post considering it immediately follewd a question about diversity, not just in regards to race, benefits children in school. You are right of course there are some in low income families but also in high income families. What good influence do they provide? Your post implied that those you could only find those types of bad influence from the hood.

[Anonymous]

My state of mind, is what prey-tell?