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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OK, so why isn't Jefferson a lot more popular with UMC in-boundary families and families with children in the several feeder elementary schools?  Mainly a question of poor public relations?

At a Jefferson open house I attended this spring, admins were more than a little cagey about what sort of "honors classes" were offered and how students tested into these classes. I couldn't get a straight answer out of them, couldn't make sense of how the placement system worked.  By contrast, at Stuart Hobson, I was told exactly how students were evaluated for/admitted to honors English and math classes.  I was also told that there weren't any honors science or social studies classes, or any planned.  [/quote]

Brent parents considering Jefferson Academy have complained about this issue repeatedly on DCUM in the last several years. Brent parents who send their children to JA invariably respond with assurances that appropriate rigor is ensured across the board, never mind what the test-in-to-honors-classes-system might be (if there is indeed a system). Needless to say, UMC buy-in at JA from Brent, Tyler and Van Ness remains low and has a desperate feel (as in, we're all for JA, never mind the fact that we were shut out of BASIS and Latin, lack access to Hobson, and can't handle the commute to DCI).[/quote]

Anyone on the hill who wants access to SH can lottery into Watkins in fifth grade. They keep 4 classes despite attrition to BASIS and Latin. Odds aren’t bad for fifth grade at JO and LT, either.[/quote]

Generally speaking I think this is such an unrealistic-in-practice idea.  Sure you technically could do this to your kid, but at what cost?  Take them out of elementary school where they have been with all their friends and put them in new one where they know nobody for a year?  Then they have to move schools again in a year where they need to make friends all over again?  My kid would have been really unhappy if I did this to her.  I understand desperate times = desperate measures . .. but I'd rather just move once (to Basis or Latin, assuming you get a slot).[/quote]

Other parents choose differently than you do, because the fifth grade at Watkins is full, and the kids go to SH. So, Hill parents may see that as a desperate option but there are other families that choose it as a better option over their own feeder pattern.[/quote]

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