We have an academy at Eastern that has an intake process. The IB program is being instilled at Eastern due to the popular demand of Cap Hill residents. So now I am sensing that's not what Cap Hill residents want for their neighborhood. I think we should have stucked with Rhee's suggestion of instituting an African-American studies program at Eastern. I wonder if it is too late to go in that direction?

I agree PP. Who are these doom and gloom ppl and wheredo they send their kids to school? Are they the folks who move to Arlington after K? Are they somehow jealous of those that don't? Or do they want everyone else to go with them?

I have nothing against Arlington; heck, I might move there in 5 or 6 years myself. I don't need everyone else to agree with me and be on the same trajectory.

Anonymous wrote:"Thanks for this breath of sanity. It's a rare thing on this board. If you replace "Brent" for "Maury" you've described our situation to a 't'."

No, what you're referencing is pretty much the mainstream view. Experienced Hill parents and a bunch of others are challenging the notion though.

Yes, you can get by just fine with public elementary school.

By middle school and high school the public options in DC, including the very "best" are still weak compared to our suburban counterparts and most privates in the area.

Brent is fine. Just fine. Nothing extraordinary but for this side of the park, it is probably one of the "best" as is Maury.

The problem is, the bar is so low here in DC, being the "best" means precious little.

Does it really matter much in elementary school? No. But wait until middle school. Just wait. And be sure and save your nickels or be prepared to move if you want a top quality education for your child.

You sound like the evil fairy in a Disney movie. Frankly, so what if middle school sucks. The alternative is to move somewhere that sucks *now*--with no tangible benefit--so that we can avoid the grim fate of living on Capitol Hill until the middle school years, at which point things will either be better, or they won't, so we'll move somewhere that sucks or pay for middle school.

As you say so ominously, "Just wait". Thanks, I think I'll do just that.

Anonymous wrote:"Thanks for this breath of sanity. It's a rare thing on this board. If you replace "Brent" for "Maury" you've described our situation to a 't'."

Anonymous wrote:No, what you're referencing is pretty much the mainstream view. Experienced Hill parents and a bunch of others are challenging the notion though.

Yes, you can get by just fine with public elementary school.

By middle school and high school the public options in DC, including the very "best" are still weak compared to our suburban counterparts and most privates in the area.

Brent is fine. Just fine. Nothing extraordinary but for this side of the park, it is probably one of the "best" as is Maury.

The problem is, the bar is so low here in DC, being the "best" means precious little.

Does it really matter much in elementary school? No. But wait until middle school. Just wait. And be sure and save your nickels or be prepared to move if you want a top quality education for your child.

Try telling this to the folks at CHPSPO and the Cluster.

"Thanks for this breath of sanity. It's a rare thing on this board. If you replace "Brent" for "Maury" you've described our situation to a 't'."

No, what you're referencing is pretty much the mainstream view. Experienced Hill parents and a bunch of others are challenging the notion though.

Yes, you can get by just fine with public elementary school.

By middle school and high school the public options in DC, including the very "best" are still weak compared to our suburban counterparts and most privates in the area.

Brent is fine. Just fine. Nothing extraordinary but for this side of the park, it is probably one of the "best" as is Maury.

The problem is, the bar is so low here in DC, being the "best" means precious little.

Does it really matter much in elementary school? No. But wait until middle school. Just wait. And be sure and save your nickels or be prepared to move if you want a top quality education for your child.

Anonymous wrote:Who are all these posters who are so into telling us DCPS and charter schools are second rate? Do you have kids in these schools?

My sons go to Brent and I don't see their education as second rate. My MIL was a teacher in a highly ranked suburban district and she is very happy with what my sons are learning (she volunteers at Brent). One of my son's was recently evaluated privately and was above grade-level in reading and, more than a grade above grade-level in math. There are so many bright kids in his grade at Brent. We may move to the suburbs for middle school; I'm not that excited about any of the options where we might lottery in. I don't want to move before all my kids go all the way through 5th at Brent.

Staying at Brent is not becuase I love my Hill house so much and because I don't want to pay for privates, it's because I believe it really is about the best place my kids could be in school. Every teacher my kids have had at Brent is passionate about teaching and about my kids. They will stop me in the hallway and tell me about how my son figured out how to do a complicated math problem in a creative way, or how my son was a really good friend to a new student that day. The principal knows each of my kids by name - my kids all get really excited when they see him.

I also don't dream of the Ivy Leagues for my children - not because my dreams for them are small - actually my dreams are bigger than tha. I want my children to be well prepared for college, go to good colleges, and have careers that they love. I want them to be good self-advocates and make choices for themselves.

Thanks for this breath of sanity. It's a rare thing on this board. If you replace "Brent" for "Maury" you've described our situation to a 't'.

Anonymous wrote:DCPS keeps opening more schools in Ward 6. Last year Logan Montessori, this year SWS gets their own school. Kind of hard to figure out...

It is hard to figure out when the middle-class cohort is already spread far too thin, helping explain why neither Miner, Payne nor Ludlow-Taylor is on track to become the next Brent or Maury.

Completely disagree with the Eastern booster that all kids are welcome there - non AA kids certainly aren't, and probably won't be forever and a day without strong Hill MS feeders. Eastern could easily support test-in academic magnet programs/academies within the school, like Blair in Silver Spring, but won't for political reasons. The Princeton interviewer and supporters said it all.

DCPS keeps opening more schools in Ward 6. Last year Logan Montessori, this year SWS gets their own school. Kind of hard to figure out...

17:10 are you ready for the battle because the mere thought of suggesting a closure of a Ward 6 school would cause a war?

Ward 6 has many more elementary school seats than students. That leads to lots of OOB students coming in for elementary.

One or two Ward 6 elementary schools need to close.

Again, changing the school boundaries in this city would almost cause a riot. Look, didn't we go through trials and tribulation when they tried to change Ward 7 and 6 boundaries as it pertained to voting residents. That didn't even involve one iota of a school boundary issue and all HELL broke lose.

Believe me, if you would like to attend Eastern then by all means make it your priority to come to the school. Currently, Eastern has students from all of the quandrants in this city and that was the result of DCPS making Eastern a city-wide project for recruitment, relaunching and restoring. I am not saying that Duddington is not wanted but it is not our dog in this fight. A school plays the hand that it is dealt. So, don't make it so personal that a Eastern Booster doesn't want or does want Duddington,it is not all that serious. We have to educate each and every child that has selected Eastern regardless of the DCUM prevalent issues of race, economics, neighborhoods and what-so ever else.

You have to understand the best is all of over this city and if any school of comprehensive stamina knows that theyhave to recruit from all over this city to remain prominent. We are on-line to be an IB certified school that will serve our in-school boundary kids that are definitely worthy within Ward 6, 5 and 7. It would never be my intentions to say that a child is not welcome to Eastern. I will stand firm, that for those who don't want us for reasons beyond our control are probably the same ones we don't want for reasons that we can control.

TW just needs to stop talking out both sides of his neck when it comes to the schools within Ward 6.

Anonymous wrote:11:49 you're an idiot....Enough about you and your hatred for Eastern, let Brent have their blog back.

If 11:49 is indeed an idiot, then at least s/he is in the company of hundreds of high-SES Hill parents who aren't going to touch Eastern, the joke being on a struggling high school's parents & students.

None of us hate Eastern: it's too much of a non-entity to bother. But we resent how Eastern doesn't, and won't, serve most of our Hill community members with children well, even as we pay taxes to support its entrenched mediocrity (at best) for years to come.

I interview for Cornell, where DCPS kids fare a little better than at super academic Princeton. But it's a burnout volunteer gig. Hate it when I talk to a low SES kid who might have made the cut if they'd been in a gifted program at one point, or a private. I don't worry about high SES kids - with all their advantages, and a little luck, they'll do well enough. That'll be the story with most of the Brent kiddos.

11:49 you're an idiot. DCPS can't survive having another application only high-school for the size of this city. If it was solely dependent on having more than a handful of whites to attend Eastern, then we shouldn't have opened it up until 2020.

This waiting for whites to enter Eastern has become folklore or fodder, as we have been waiting since year 2000. By all the dialogue presented to AAs that everything done for the betterment of Eastern was to benefit the influx of whites that are magically going to Eastern. Right now whites and Santa Claus are both becoming elusive to making an appearance. LOL


Again the attack is for AA's that selected a spanking new DCPS school. This is no different than when the Banneker plan was put into place. Hence, the population has been predominantly AA and all of sudden the lustre of the school is in question because whites are not in attendance. You are failing to ingest the fact that Eastern was a city-wide project and once again AAs saw the challenge and rode to the occasion. You do realize that Eastern resembles the percentatge of the school population that is majority AA? C'mon the percentage of eligible whites for an incoming 9th grade class is what less than 4%. Hell, you are victims of your own numbers, by dividing among our high schools you are weakening your own power to be viable.

In essence, why don't you become the first to visit Eastern, until then get involved and get into working with us. We are neighbors and we hardly know y'all. I'll recognize you, you'll be the parent with that exudes that "white is bright" attitude. Look for me I will have on a "I am Black and I am proud" tee-shirt on.

Enough about you and your hatred for Eastern, let Brent have their blog back.

"One is sad. But, take heart, now we've got Latin and Basis to turn it all around! We'll beat TJ and Blair by 2018, at the latest... "

This is a joke. It must be. If not, there are some looow literacy skills here on DCUM. And I'm not talked Eastern word salad lady either.