Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

What is this "so high SES families feel comfortable". Give me a break. I dare you to visit Deal and Jefferson Academy on the same day. Observe the caliber of teaching and learning in each and then come back and tell me that Brent parents avoid Jefferson because it is "uncomfortable". People are willing to throw out any possibility of a working middle school situation on the Hill for the most ridiculous reasons. Must feel great being judgemental, superior and scoffing at other people you perceive as spoiled and elitist but it does no good for the kids of our city.

I'm trying to be realistic. The ward 6 middle school plan was a great opportunity for great change to create a better middle school situation, but the powers that be decided to largely keep the status quo. Concentrating well prepared children in one school also means concentrating high SES and white children and that's not going to happen. I don't doubt that Deal has better academics than Jefferson. I likely won't send my Brent elementary school kids to Jefferson, but the new proposals holds promise, contains logical boundaries (other than the aforementioned SH), and maybe it would be better to expend effort on changing the quality of the schools in question rather than arguing about how things are divided. Maybe Jefferson can offer differentiation/honors track so that all kids in the boundary can be served. I really want Jefferson to work, and while it might not work for my older kids, maybe today's three year olds at Brent, Van Ness, Tyler, and Amidon will see it as a neighborhood school.

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

Why would a Brent feed to SH be an "odd realignment"? The SH district is after all immediately adjacent to the Brent district and within walking distance, unlike Jefferson, which doesn't even have direct bus service from the Hill. Just because the proposal continues the same stupid path as the Ward 6 plan doesn't make it defensible. After all, who is going to call out DCPS for its steadfast refusal to reevaluate OOB feeder rights for the majority of students attending Watkins, LT and JO Wilson? So why is continuing to push Brent families out of DCPS to charters and privates preferable over affording a feeder to SH that some might actually consider and could result in SH actually becoming a trie neighborhood school along the lines of Deal (IIRC, something like 45 percent of the students at Watkins are from Wards 7/8)?

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

and it doesn't address the bridge to 6th grade after the certain charter exodus after 4th

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

the problem is the so-called "middle school plan" which doesn't speak for anyone on the Hill other than the CHSPO and even that is unclear to the community. It's a massive clusterf#!* DME basically picked this failed mess of a plan slapped a ribbon on it. Brent loses Eliot Hine. Nothing else changes. Hill schools split among 3 MS. Not exactly Deal/Hardy either. This is going to continue to be a non-starter for many families, and that's not limited to Brent

Anonymous wrote:I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

What is this "so high SES families feel comfortable". Give me a break. I dare you to visit Deal and Jefferson Academy on the same day. Observe the caliber of teaching and learning in each and then come back and tell me that Brent parents avoid Jefferson because it is "uncomfortable". People are willing to throw out any possibility of a working middle school situation on the Hill for the most ridiculous reasons. Must feel great being judgemental, superior and scoffing at other people you perceive as spoiled and elitist but it does no good for the kids of our city.

I don't see how Brent gets a raw deal. This new plan seems on par with the previous Ward 6 middle school plan. I'm not sure why one would expect something different now, or why Brent would deserve some odd realignment of middle school boundaries so that high SES parents feel comfortable, when the truth is most Brent families will never (at least in the short term) go to either Jefferson, SH, or EH.

I'm somewhat optimistic about the longer term prospects for all of Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now Brent, Amidon, Van Ness and Tyler. All of those elementary schools have promise. Elliot Hine has Maury and SWS. Eastern will now encompass all of Capitol Hill (and a bit beyond). I'm continually frustrated by SH and the cluster cutting through the middle of the hill to no one's advantage, but I'm hoping that the new proposal at least breaks the Watkins/SH bind which seems detrimental to both.

These scores aren't promising however you slice then with most of the Maury, Brent and Tyler SI kids in the lower grades being being white, and white kids posting average 3rd-5th grade subgroup reading and math scores are in the 80s wherever the data is collected in DCPS.

Future Jefferson and E-H "honors courses," which is what DCPS will offer in an attempt to calm the waters (since they're about to offer them at Hardy, and already do at S-H) full of kids who simply test proficient won't do the trick, not when a third of the white kids test advanced.

How many more years will the Brent families have to bolt for charters, privtaes and the burbs, with the Maury families about to follow suit, before DCPS gets the message? We're into our 3rd succesive year of almost every Brent family bailing on DCPS for middle school - do we need a decade of this dead end? A generation? Cue Charles Allen.

Anonymous wrote:SH and EH have metal detectors and safety concerns. You'd have to be crazy to send DC there. What you need is a magnet MS where kids that want to learn can enroll, and not have to worry about weapons and getting beat up. Otherwise, go charter, private or move.

DEAL has metal detectors as well. Many families would love to be able to attend. It's just the day and time we live in unfortunately.

Anonymous wrote: Feeding to Jefferson with two low-performing Title I schools, Amidon and Tyler, with the majority of students at the latter themselves being OOB, doesn't bode particularly well for Jefferson, and I jist don't see Van Ness tipping the balance down the road because of relatively low IB numbers.

Right now, Jefferson has 63% proficient or advanced in math and 45% in reading.
Stuart-Hobson has 64% for math and reading
Elliot-Hine's numbers are 42% and 36%

S-H is doing better on reading, but its FARMs rate is 57% instead of 99% at Jefferson. Amidon's principal is a literacy specialist and I think it is possible that as more kids from the neighborhood go there and to Tyler (guaranteed access to preK for in-bounds families might help with that) I could see Jefferson getting close to SH. They already are pretty much equal on math.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if SWS, Maury and Brent all sent their kids to E.H. What would it take?

Brent is not going to invest time or resources fight to preserve the dual-feed to Eliot-Hine. It will be interesting to see how things play out for SWS. My sense is a fair number of those families are already IB for Peabody/Watkins or Ludlow, and thus still have rights to Stuart-Hobson if necessary. Brent, however, is hung out to dry once again. It essentially gets nothing in exchange for enrolling 35+ "at risk" students. Feeding to Jefferson with two low-performing Title I schools, Amidon and Tyler, with the majority of students at the latter themselves being OOB, doesn't bode particularly well for Jefferson, and I jist don't see Van Ness tipping the balance down the road because of relatively low IB numbers.

agreed. raw deal for Brent. even considering Van Ness joining the Jefferson feed, it's going to lag well behind in grades (it may top out initially with 1st grade -- 5 years away from feeding anything). As an SWS parent who just gained SH by right over Eliot Hine without feeding from the Cluster, I'd see better prospects for SH with Brent in the fold (and yes, lots of SWS families are IB for SH). Maybe DME is going King Solomon and deliberately ruining it for everyone. Not sold on staying in the DCPS fold for MS anyway, but we have some time.

SH and EH have metal detectors and safety concerns. You'd have to be crazy to send DC there. What you need is a magnet MS where kids that want to learn can enroll, and not have to worry about weapons and getting beat up. Otherwise, go charter, private or move.

Anonymous wrote:Imagine if SWS, Maury and Brent all sent their kids to E.H. What would it take?

Brent is not going to invest time or resources fight to preserve the dual-feed to Eliot-Hine. It will be interesting to see how things play out for SWS. My sense is a fair number of those families are already IB for Peabody/Watkins or Ludlow, and thus still have rights to Stuart-Hobson if necessary. Brent, however, is hung out to dry once again. It essentially gets nothing in exchange for enrolling 35+ "at risk" students. Feeding to Jefferson with two low-performing Title I schools, Amidon and Tyler, with the majority of students at the latter themselves being OOB, doesn't bode particularly well for Jefferson, and I jist don't see Van Ness tipping the balance down the road because of relatively low IB numbers.

Anonymous wrote:No one in their right mind would go to EH or SH for MS.

Good thing they're middle schools then, because the target population is pretty much all out of their mind.

Imagine if SWS, Maury and Brent all sent their kids to E.H. What would it take?

But would they go to mythical middle school with an IB MYP that combines Maury and Brent?