Reply to let's have Middle Schools start at 6th grade -- BASIS, Latin, Cap City, etc. realign

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Reply to "let's have Middle Schools start at 6th grade -- BASIS, Latin, Cap City, etc. realign"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I agree with the idea that Middle School grades should be aligned across the system. If kids are peeling off from DCPS ES to go to good charters, perhaps all the ES should stop at 4th grade. Or else, all middle schools should start at 6th grade.

The problem with the current system is that motivated parents are the ones who pull their students out of DCPS for charters in 5th grade, because of the lack of good DCPS middle school alternatives and the impossibility of getting into good charters at later grades. This makes the DCPS 5th grade population much smaller. [b]This trend will just accelerate over time resulting in clearly under-populated 5th grades in ES that have no good MS to feed into. [/b][/quote]

I don't agree, at least not with every EotP DCPS 5th grade.  What you're seeing now in great swathes of the city are affluent parents of little kids who are trying DCPS for elementary when they probably wouldn't have even five years ago.  With seven or eight years of nearly free DCPS under our belts, some of us will have the cash flow for private middle schools.  Alternatively, we will rent in the burbs for middle school and high school, returning to District homes we own as empty nesters.

People like us are going to want to stick around for 5th grade, particularly on the Hill at Brent, Maury, SWS, Tyler SI etc.  I'd wager that, within two or three years, you're going see a higher percentage of 5th graders staying at Brent for the reasons mentioned, even if the MS feed hasn't been sorted out.  You won't get more than a small class worth of families to stay, but you will no longer see principals calling around begging for OOB 5th graders to come either.  This was the case with JKLM schools before Deal began to improve dramatically 5 or 6 years ago.

More kids will also be hanging around for 5th because they lack lottery luck at Latin and aren't cut out for BASIS.  Also, the big new DCI school at Walter Reed will start with 6th, and some Hill kids are going to lottery in, particularly Tyler SI students.  Also, Stuart Hobson is improving, not dramatically or quickly, but they are offering honors classes for the first time, which will tempt more DCPS Hill parents to head there for 6th.

All told, I'm far from convinced that DCPS 5th grades EotP are a dying breed. [/quote]

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