Reply to Thoughts about Brent Upper School from parents of kids who have gone through 5th?

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Reply to "Thoughts about Brent Upper School from parents of kids who have gone through 5th?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Agree. If Brent fed into SH, a significantly larger number of 5th graders would be retained year to year and US would be off the table. US is primarily the result of fluctuating 5th grade numbers and the need for staffing consistency. Lotterying into SH is by no means a sure thing at this point, and Jefferson is a non starter for most Brent parents for a variety of reasons - with an undesirable commute being a real (but not the only) consideration.

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you look at Edscape, from SY 23-24, out of about 69 kids 24 of the 4th grade class stayed at Brent. 19 were "Not in Audit" which means private or another state. Others went to Latins, BASIS, and Friendship online.

Of the 5th grade class, 12 Not in Audit, and less than 10 each to Brookland, CHML, Deal, SH, DCI, and Jefferson.
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They are only retaining ONE-THIRD of their class??? That is INSANE. How can any administrator look at that and think the US experiment is a success?  5th is not an entry year in the close-in) burbs or local privates -- in both cases, 6th is the more natural transition year. For the kids who went to BASIS or Latins, I'm sure there was nothing to be done; but for kids who moved/went private/went to any other school not starting in 6th? That's is almost certainly due to the US model and associated exodus in 95% of cases.[/quote]

They always had an exodus before 5th because of Jefferson and kids leaving for the charters. That's why they started the US model. People panic and take whatever charter spot they can get, not because of Brent, but because of the MS/HS question. If Brent fed into SH or EH this wouldn't nearly be the same issue, though all of those families still have to deal with the HS question eventually. [/quote][/quote]

I also agree that SH is an easier sell for Brent families, but it doesn’t feed into SH and nor is it likely to anytime soon, so I think if Brent families want to see change, some portion of them need to be part of the change.

One structural change that is occurring is that DCPS announced a dual language Spanish strand program beginning at Jefferson in SY27-28. That should bring more Chisholm families in. As has been mentioned here and on several threads, there is increasing buy-in to Jefferson from the other feeder schools. A lot of those families seem happy. The transportation isn’t insurmountable (hop on the Metro at Cap South or Eastern Market and off at L’Enfant for example). There are some positive headwinds for the school—it may never be enough for a subset of families, but progress is possible. 
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