Reply to Is Brent the best school in Capitol hill?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
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PP here Sorry, but I'm calling BS and chalking this to pervasive Brent boosterism. The Hill estate market is very healthy right now, inentory shortages are pervasive, and days on market are short. . . but that's as much of a red herring as Brent's real estate market reflecting its value as a school. Given the fact that Brent families are peeling off around 4th grade just like other Hill ES options reinforces the underlying MS concern.

signed Hill/DCPS parent who CAN afford Brent's district but wouldleave DC outright if driven primarily by public school performance metrics.[/quote]

I'm a Brent parent and i agree with you in part.  the boosterism is annoying, unseemly and wrong-- how do you really know the other Hill schools are so much worse than Brent?

But I have a rising 4th grader and he will stay thorugh 4th and so will many of his cohorts (or so the parents tell me!!-- hmmmm . . . ).  BASIS and Latin pulled off a lot of Brent rising 5th graders this year, but next year (for better and worse) it will likely be far more difficult for rising 5th graders to get into those charters, so there may be more staying put at Brent.

Anyway, whether or not kids will pull out of Brent after 4th, Brent kids will get 7 years of decent elementary school if they start in preK 3.  Not bad!

But whether those 7 years are spent at Brent or at, say, Maury, is unlikely to make a signficant difference in the overall scheme of your kid's life.

YMMV
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I suspect the Basis will evolve into a 'go to' option for many Hill families, and it's a very rigorouis curriculum and that will prevent it from becoming just another acceptable PCS option.  It's not going to serve the merely "proficient" -- it's going to serve advanced students.  The charters are continually pushing to fill gaps where DCPS is not meeting expectations.  Basis, Latin,  or some other PCS (existing or new)  will fill this gap.  It's a shame, because if you pooled Brent, Maury, Watkins, Tyler SI, Logan Montessori, SWS families, you could make a pretty fantastic MS feeder rather than having SH serve a relatively small number of Hill families, many OOB families, and a pipeline to privates, charters, and suburban MS schools.  I'm still looking for a single Hill familiy excited about the prospects for Eliot Hine -- I have yet to meet that family, although I hear some exist, almost like an urban myth.

I agree that Brent is a good ES option and I know families who've been happy there to date (skewing younger, but still).  I could see my kid thriving there, much as I see my kid thriving elsewhere.  I wouldn't play boosterism for my own kid's Hill ES even though I'm happy with it and think it's an excellent program - parents look for different things in schools.  The boosters may find this hard to believe, but I personally know families who've declined offers for Brent.[/quote]

Brent Parent -- I hated that some parents from the old guard Cluster were always shouting about how great the CLuster was and tha all Hill parents should send their kids there.  I have seen some Brent parents start to act the same way.  Hate it too.  Which is why threads like this make me crazy.  There is no best.  There are different schools with different strenghts.  Better question, why do you like Brent.  I like tha that it is small. I  like the huge parent involvement to get things started.  I like that there has been a huge greening push making our school yard and playground really nice.  I like that our teachers are all good now.  When we first started there were some that I would have fought to get fired because they couldn't even speak English well.[/quote]

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