Families leave for suburban schools just as they always have. The rallying cry at Brent is that if there were a good feeder, families will stay.

Seems to me pretty uncontroversial that if there were a good middle-school to feed into, families would stay. Folks don't move off the Hill when their kids hit 5th (or 4th, or 3rd) grade because they suddenly feel the pull of "ample parking and Applebees" right?

Brent needs to focus on compelling programming within their walls and pull away from their reliance on nonstop test prep in the 3rd-5th grades, if they are going to keep local families.

Not trying to be confrontational, because I'm finding this discussion fascinating, but, Really? 24 hours for the entire school year learning to take a standardized test? And that's "nonstop test prep"? Are you sure that's not hyperbole?

The benefit to "jumping early" is that your child doesn't learn to hate a school that substitutes test prep for actual learning.

Right, but is there some benefit to "jumping early". Why jump in 3rd or 4th rather than 5th?

When I go to the OSSE website, I can see the breakdown of FARMS versus non FARMS for Brent ES.

Last year, 3rd grade had 46% FARM.
4th grade 60% FARM.
5th grade was 80% FARM.

The overall school is 28% FARM.

It's a fine school for under 3rd grade. Good teachers and some interesting stuff happening for children.

By third grade, your child will take 6 practice tests for the DCCAS. (That's over 24 instructional hours devoted to practicing for the DCCAS.) That coupled with no substantial language offerings, no music program and a "museum magnet program" that seems to comprised of going on field trips to museums (different from any other school how??) makes other schools look more appealing.

Families leave for suburban schools just as they always have. The rallying cry at Brent is that if there were a good feeder, families will stay.

Brent needs to focus on compelling programming within their walls and pull away from their reliance on nonstop test prep in the 3rd-5th grades, if they are going to keep local families.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now...with the problematic middle school situation, keeping them all the way through fifth may be a problem.

Could you elaborate on this? What happens in 4th and 5th? Do parents move their kids to private/charters? Is that because it's easier to get into a private or charter at the 4th or 5th grade level?

I am a Brent parent. I think the next two years are going to be interesting because 3rd grade is the oldest grade with a mass of middle class parents. Will they stay through 5th? We don't know. People who want to stay public are surely going to be tempted by Watkins and Hobson. Not because Watkins is all that great, but because Hobson is an option in the way that Jefferson and Elliot Hine aren't yet. My DC is in 1st. My plan right now is to stay at Brent through 5th and then go private - I feel like my child needs the kind of individual attention he just isn't going to get at a public middle school anywhere. Brent is working for us right now.

Anonymous wrote:Now...with the problematic middle school situation, keeping them all the way through fifth may be a problem.

Could you elaborate on this? What happens in 4th and 5th? Do parents move their kids to private/charters? Is that because it's easier to get into a private or charter at the 4th or 5th grade level?

"

" Perhaps dilution is a better word. The % FARMS increases with each grade as MC and UMC families leave. If you deny that you are lying"

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This is so not true at Brent. I think you are taking situations at others schools and extrapolating. If anything, lower ses families LEFT the groups that are now in 2nd or 3rd grades and went to Watkins or Tyler.

It doesn't really matter. But I don't feel like letting people get away with spouting their incorrect assumptions as fact.

The 3rd grade at Maury expanded as well. We are a white middle class family who just switched this year from Maury to Brent due to specific needs on the part of one of our children. So, on the surface of things, we seem to have left Maury thereby decreasing the white/middle class population in the upper grades, but we left for another DCPS. The 3rd grade classes at Brent are definitely more integrated than at Maury -- about 80/20 at Maury and more like 60/40 at Brent (?) with the higher number being African American. Both are great schools and this 3rd grade's test scores are going to show the results of the upswing of middle class parents (of any hue) staying in these schools. There are a bunch of really smart kids in both 3rd grades!

Also, BTW, at Maury MORE white students joined the current 3rd grade class after PS/PK, as opposed to white students dropping out.

Anonymous wrote:Agreed that 17:13 doesn't know what she/he is talking about. 3rd grade at Brent has EXPANDED to two classes because almost all of the kids who started in PreK are still there. No drain.

Now...with the problematic middle school situation, keeping them all the way through fifth may be a problem.

Perhaps dilution is a better word. The % FARMS increases with each grade as MC and UMC families leave. If you deny that you are lying.

Agreed that 17:13 doesn't know what she/he is talking about. 3rd grade at Brent has EXPANDED to two classes because almost all of the kids who started in PreK are still there. No drain.

Now...with the problematic middle school situation, keeping them all the way through fifth may be a problem.

I don't think this is accurate. I don't think PP knows Maury. Parents leave, but the 1st grade class is diverse and the vast majority of families aren't leaving - now I don't know what percentage will stay trhough 5th. I do think we'll see a jump in test scores at both Maury and Brent this year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the single mom of the 2nd grader -

The crushing demand for Maury is in the early childhood grades (particularly preschool and pre-K). As a parent of a 2nd grader, you should have a far easier time getting in to Maury or any of the other good Capitol Hill schools (i.e, Brent, Tyler, Ludlow-Taylor - I'm not sure how this plays out for Watkins though). Of course as the years go by, and everyone sticks around, it will be harder to get in at the 2nd grade and higher grades. But for this coming school year at least, I think you'd still have a good shot - at all three schools really - the first class that showed the increased demand at Maury and Brent are just hitting 3rd grade and at Maury at least, there's very few 'white' parents that started in the early childhood grades that have stuck with it through 3rd grade. I know of at least one child that joined Brent as a 2nd grader last year in the spring so openings do happen.

Good luck!

I'm curious: where do these children of "white parents" go after 1st or 2nd grade? Do they all move to Clarendon? Do massive numbers of slots open up at the top charter schools? Honestly curious. It just seems strange to me that you have a set of elementary schools that have changed so *radically*, even in the last 5 years, and folks want to talk about what has happened historically.

Look at the test scores (and the FARMS rates) in 3rd and up. You'll see they haven't changed that radically after all.

The drain starts in K and rapidly accelerates through 2nd.

I looked at Brent and Maury in the Spring of 2007 for my rising preschooler. I don't think there were any white kids at the school then. Brent had a few. I do think both schools had a lot of of middle class AA families.

Anonymous wrote:For the single mom of the 2nd grader -

The crushing demand for Maury is in the early childhood grades (particularly preschool and pre-K). As a parent of a 2nd grader, you should have a far easier time getting in to Maury or any of the other good Capitol Hill schools (i.e, Brent, Tyler, Ludlow-Taylor - I'm not sure how this plays out for Watkins though). Of course as the years go by, and everyone sticks around, it will be harder to get in at the 2nd grade and higher grades. But for this coming school year at least, I think you'd still have a good shot - at all three schools really - the first class that showed the increased demand at Maury and Brent are just hitting 3rd grade and at Maury at least, there's very few 'white' parents that started in the early childhood grades that have stuck with it through 3rd grade. I know of at least one child that joined Brent as a 2nd grader last year in the spring so openings do happen.

Good luck!

I'm curious: where do these children of "white parents" go after 1st or 2nd grade? Do they all move to Clarendon? Do massive numbers of slots open up at the top charter schools? Honestly curious. It just seems strange to me that you have a set of elementary schools that have changed so *radically*, even in the last 5 years, and folks want to talk about what has happened historically.

For the single mom of the 2nd grader -

The crushing demand for Maury is in the early childhood grades (particularly preschool and pre-K). As a parent of a 2nd grader, you should have a far easier time getting in to Maury or any of the other good Capitol Hill schools (i.e, Brent, Tyler, Ludlow-Taylor - I'm not sure how this plays out for Watkins though). Of course as the years go by, and everyone sticks around, it will be harder to get in at the 2nd grade and higher grades. But for this coming school year at least, I think you'd still have a good shot - at all three schools really - the first class that showed the increased demand at Maury and Brent are just hitting 3rd grade and at Maury at least, there's very few 'white' parents that started in the early childhood grades that have stuck with it through 3rd grade. I know of at least one child that joined Brent as a 2nd grader last year in the spring so openings do happen.

Good luck!