Reply to Kaya Henderson has Undermined her own Leadership

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous]
Not the PP, but my take on Jefferson...

Jefferson was a good school in the recent past largely due to a strong Principal who attracted/recruited strong students.  The principal retired and the school's quality fell.  Rhee asked Capitol Hill parents what they would like in a middle school.  There was not a consensus opinion, but one request was for a stronger academic program at Jefferson.  Rhee created Jefferson academy at the school in response to the ask, but it was less than the parents wanted, and it wasn't fully funded to make it successful.  Jefferson has a new strong principal who has had some success with discipline and test scores, but still no/few middle class Capitol Hill kids attend Jefferson.

Much of what would be good for Unicorn Middle School would be good for Jefferson.  The biggest necessary improvement would be more academic rigor.  The school serves students with a wide range in academic preparedness, and offering a more demanding academic track for those who are able would help to attract more CH families.  The physical campus for Jefferson is great, but the school is need of modernization.

Things related to Jefferson that may or may not be important factors for Unicorn Middle School, Stuart Hobson is nearby and attracts many of the potential students (to an inferior campus).  An even bigger factor luring students away is Basis and to some degree Latin.[/quote]

Thanks. Have the Jefferson folks had any discussion with Hardy parents or closely reviewed developments there? What you are facing is the classic "chicken and egg" dilemma that exists all over the city. It seems that Hardy has come closer than anyone to cracking the code on this. At a very high-level, as I understand things, this was basically an agreement among families to attend combined with an agreement with the principal to provide programming they desired. [/quote]

I think part of the challenge is that there really aren't a lot of "Jefferson folks."  They don't have an active PTA.  The principal is pretty busy running the school and dealing with IB certification.  There's some community involvement/support, but not a lot of folks at feeder schools who are really pushing for it to feel like a better option to middle class and/or white families.  Amidon has a small PTA of mostly families with younger kids.  There's enough work to do there without getting involved in the middle school too.  Van Ness is similar--they're almost all parents of kids under age 5 and I think many are unsure what their plans will be for middle school.  They are working on opening their school first (plus, when you read stuff like the GGE article and threads on this website, you might also get the feeling that some families in Navy Yard aren't very interested in their kids mingling with poor or black folks....). Tyler and Brent are totally disconnected from Jefferson geographically and ideologically.  With Eliot-Hine having so many open seats, I think many of them are focusing there.

In contrast, many of the families currently at the school or hoping to go are understandably content with the school being a "hidden gem"--a place where mostly black, mostly low-income kids do pretty well.  Jefferson is significantly better than Eliot-Hine on test scores, and is approaching Hardy on some metrics, especially for 8th graders (whose test scores are arguably the best reflection of what the school can do, while 6th grade scores are more influenced by elementary education) and if you compare apples-to-apples by comparing economically disadvantaged students at each school.  Learndc has all this data.  So not everyone agrees the school needs to be doing more to reach out and woo more families (especially families they fear might look down on them!).

One last point to note: the school is scheduled for substantial renovations starting Summer 2016.  I don't trust DCPS on everything, but after seeing Dunbar, Cardozo, etc. I think they do a beautiful job on construction.  [/quote]

Brent parent here.  No one from Brent has been focused on Eliot-Hine and none will ever do so IMHO.  In any event, the DME just took away the Brent "feed" to Eliot-Hine, as if this actually means anything when the school is significantly underenrolled and NO IB student has ever found a reason to attend.  I can't see anyone from our cohort attending Jefferson either.  We are continuing to assess options, including moving IB for Deal or Montgomery County after 4th Grade as Latin has become nearly impossible to get into and the Basis model may not be a good fit for our DC.  We might have given Stuart-Hobson a shot but DCPS and the DME have no interest in finding a way to push that school to the next level by ensuring that it becomes a true neighborhood school.  Truly disappointing.[/quote]

This reads like every option except one that creates a high ses enclave at SH is off the table for Brent parents. You did realize this is a city, right?[/quote]

Said the smug asshole who lives IB for Janeey/Deal no doubt.[/quote]

Wrong, but thanks for playing.[/quote]

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