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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The only way their "quick" solution works is if a bunch of 4th grade parents return for 5th, then send their children to a ms with proficiency pass rates in the low 20s.  It's a hard sell, and the boosters really want to recruit your family, so 4th grade parents get pestered to jump on board. Can't count how many times I've been asked if we're coming back for 5th if the last few weeks. We have zero interest in Jeff Ac, but aren't talking about what we're planning. Being left alone would rock.[/quote]

I didn't say it would be easy, but sounds like these parents are working hard on the most feasible option. good for them. I am zoned for EH (Maury) and would probably consider it if there were an organized group of parents planning to try it. [/quote]

I'm a social worker by training who's served families in SW housing projects over the years. Privately, I'm not seeing a "feasible option" at Jefferson Academy, given the awful conditions many of the students face in nearby housing projects.  I see well-intentioned Brent parents determined to stay in their neighborhood dramatically over-estimating how OK the demographics and academics of Jefferson Academy will be because they don't spend time in the projects...[/quote]

Could you please explain what you are foreseeing in terms of challenges with demographics and academics given your work as a social worker?  I've heard lots of people speculate but none of them seem to have real-world experience for their beliefs.  It sounds like you do.[/quote]

Jefferson's dismal 6th grade PARCC scores tell the story. Many of the SW project kids come from multi-generational families in which all the adults--great-grandparents, grandparents and parents- are functionally illiterate. The adults in the home didn't read to the kids as toddlers because they couldn't. Public preschool programs help fill the gap, but they can only do so much for families without books in the home (I've seen this many times).  Sexual, verbal and physical abuse of preteens is rife in the SW housing projects despite aggressive intervention by the city, though not to the same extent as in the projects in Wards 7 and 8.  At least two-thirds of middle school-age kids in the SW projects do not live with a father, and at least a third don't have a father in the picture.  It's common for grandmothers in their early to mid 30s to be raising middle school-age kids in local projects.  If the kids arriving at MS working two or three years below grade level (very common) were put into remedial classes, while the Brent graduates were put in different classes, I'd say OK, maybe Jefferson could work for Brent. But academic tracking at the MS level isn't DCPS policy. Even at Stuart Hobson, where there are "honors" (grade level) classes in several subjects, kids are not separated into higher and lower classes across the board.

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I  hope you are not playing the lottery for a Washington Latin slot.  Some of the very kids you dismiss are attending Latin, and are in the same classes with kids you want to distance them from academically. I cannot speak about Basis as I do not have children in attendance at Basis. I supposed you are moving or going private with your MS kids based on your above suggestions/requirements. [/quote]

Right, not interested in Latin, perhaps because I went to the original Latin, in Boston, coming from a low SES background. Leaning toward returning to my home town so our learners can try to can test into one of that city's several excellent 7th grade+ test in programs. I was well prepped for the entrance exam at a city run prep center. If your kids are really bright and you don't have the time, money and energy to supplement extensively at home, life is probably too short to use DC public schools after elementary, other than BASIS and Deal.  [/quote]

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