Reply to Thoughts about Brent Upper School from parents of kids who have gone through 5th?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is a self contained classroom? Asking as an upcoming Brent in-bounds family. [/quote]

My understanding is that it’s a special ed classroom for kids who can’t be in a mainstream classroom. I’ve never seen it used in the gifted context like PP does above.

But agree with the PP’s premise. More than 1/3 of last year’s Brent 4th got 5s on the math cape. [b]You can’t expect all those parents to be totally fine with their kids being kids being thrown into classes where 90% of the kids are not at grade level. [/b]The school would need to lead with differentiation to attract many Brent families. [/quote]

Yes - it would be criminal to do that, but plenty of equity advocates would love to see it.[/quote]

That’s not how it works though. Math at Jefferson is expressly tracked. And those in the higher track are placed in the same homeroom together, which essentially means that there is some level of tracking for all classes that are part of the homeroom.

Or at least that’s how it was for my kid, who finished at Jefferson a couple years ago.

- Signed, not an “equity advocate” (whatever that means)

[/quote]

Current Jefferson parent. Yes, they still do this.  My higher achieving child is in accelerated math and is challenged appropriately in other classes (they are not in the higher level Spanish class, but have made great strides).  My child hasn't had any complaints about students interrupting classes with their behavior this school year.

As someone noted previously in this thread, this year NJHS will be inducting their largest class yet.  The standards at Jefferson are not any different than at any other DCPS middle. [/quote]

Tell me more about the math tracking. Do these same kids take ELA together? Will the school acknowledge that they track like this? This is honestly the most encouraging thing I have heard about Jefferson. [/quote]

It may not be all the exact same kids, as there are enough that there are more than one class of higher achievers, but yes, they are primarily with similarly achieving students for ELA too. There may be more variation in learning level in other classes (e.g., PE and electives).  That said - I have no problem with that.  I don't find it reasonable to think that my child should only be with similarly achieving students all the time forever. Every other child has the same right to an education that my child does.

My child historically has not been a huge fan of ELA/writing, and their teacher shared with me last week some recent in-class writing. I was floored at how much growth they have had this school year.  Honestly, going into Jefferson, I thought it'd be a decent enough experience with the usual middle school hiccups.  It's truly surpassed my expectations both academically and socially.  [/quote]

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