Entering lottery for PK3 in 2019 — first steps?

[Anonymous]

Currently live in Riggs Park and will be entering lottery for PK3 2019 school year. Any tips/advice on how to navigate and research my options? How did you go about figuring out which schools you desired and would be a good fit for your child? Website or tours? I’m currently on maternity leave for a few months so would like to do much of the leg work now before I return to work and may be limited in time.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

1) Go to Ed Fest in December (date on the My School DC website)

2) Start researching when open houses are http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/755658.page

3) research schools online -- learndc.org has demographic info on all schools (charter and DCPS); DCPS school profile pages; results.osse.dc.gov (test scores for every school); charter school PMF (tier) reports https://www.dcpcsb.org/schoolquality; Qualitative Site Review (QSR) for charters https://www.dcpcsb.org/report/qualitative-school-reviews

[Anonymous]

Start at myschooldc.org. Watch the video. Then look at the three place should PP identifies.

[Anonymous]

Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

I’m in fort Totten very close to you. What kind of setting are you looking for? My daughter is in prek4. Got our initial offer from Yu Ying from the lottery, then got an offer from stokes French the end of August (which we took) and then last week got an offer for Stokes Spanish (which we also took). So now my daughter is at Stokes Spanish for prek4. Depending on if you want public/charter, Montessori, language immersion, etc. I can give you some guidance on the schools I visited and listed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

I’m in fort Totten very close to you. What kind of setting are you looking for? My daughter is in prek4. Got our initial offer from Yu Ying from the lottery, then got an offer from stokes French the end of August (which we took) and then last week got an offer for Stokes Spanish (which we also took). So now my daughter is at Stokes Spanish for prek4. Depending on if you want public/charter, Montessori, language immersion, etc. I can give you some guidance on the schools I visited and listed.

It is also worth getting to know and love your in-bounds school. Without sibling preference, you will have to be quite lucky to get a lottery draw as high as PP apparently did. It is much more likely that you will get in to the one school where you will have preference: in-bounds preference. You may not love it forever, but it's worth strongly considering it and listing it. The idea of making friends in your neighborhood and having a short commute should not be underestimated and there are very few schools where I think PK3 is done poorly.

If you are not willing to list your IB school, there is a decent chance that you will need to keep your current childcare arrangement for another year. If you're ok with that (or with finding a different preschool--Scrilli is good and not too expensive) then you can reach for the stars, school-wise!

[Anonymous]

Please also make a good faith effort to consider your IB school. Visit the school. Go to an open house and see it in action. Evaluate beyond demographics and test scores. The odds are greatly against you getting offers from two popular language immersion charters like the PP and greatly for you being matched at your IB school.

[Anonymous]

EdFEST is December 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

I’m in fort Totten very close to you. What kind of setting are you looking for? My daughter is in prek4. Got our initial offer from Yu Ying from the lottery, then got an offer from stokes French the end of August (which we took) and then last week got an offer for Stokes Spanish (which we also took). So now my daughter is at Stokes Spanish for prek4. Depending on if you want public/charter, Montessori, language immersion, etc. I can give you some guidance on the schools I visited and listed.

It is also worth getting to know and love your in-bounds school. Without sibling preference, you will have to be quite lucky to get a lottery draw as high as PP apparently did. It is much more likely that you will get in to the one school where you will have preference: in-bounds preference. You may not love it forever, but it's worth strongly considering it and listing it. The idea of making friends in your neighborhood and having a short commute should not be underestimated and there are very few schools where I think PK3 is done poorly.

If you are not willing to list your IB school, there is a decent chance that you will need to keep your current childcare arrangement for another year. If you're ok with that (or with finding a different preschool--Scrilli is good and not too expensive) then you can reach for the stars, school-wise!

PP here again that got into YY/stokes Brookland.

What I will say is that I was pretty prepared in case we didn’t get into the best school. We visited our in bounds (Lasalle) and met with the principal. He seems to really be working hard to advance the school and I liked the fact that many of the pre-K teachers have been there for a while. The pre-K program there seems pretty good, I think it’s 2nd and up where things might seem to go wrong. Even though I listed them 12th I was prepared if she was matched there. Also for Scrilli, they tend to have a waitlist also so that is t even guaranteed

[Anonymous]

OP here - thanks everyone for your suggestions, really helpful!

For reference, my IB schools would be Whittier and LaSalle. Again, haven't done research on these schools so not sure if they are favorable or not. I believe I would want language immersion but again very green in this area so figuring this all out now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks everyone for your suggestions, really helpful!

For reference, my IB schools would be Whittier and LaSalle. Again, haven't done research on these schools so not sure if they are favorable or not. I believe I would want language immersion but again very green in this area so figuring this all out now.

I believe it's one or the other. There was some grandfathering under which some kids had more than one IB school as part of the lottery change, but entering PK3s only have one IB.

What you want doesn't necessarily have a lot to do with it. I would check out LaSalle-Backus, as I believe they have a desirable socioemotional program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

I’m in fort Totten very close to you. What kind of setting are you looking for? My daughter is in prek4. Got our initial offer from Yu Ying from the lottery, then got an offer from stokes French the end of August (which we took) and then last week got an offer for Stokes Spanish (which we also took). So now my daughter is at Stokes Spanish for prek4. Depending on if you want public/charter, Montessori, language immersion, etc. I can give you some guidance on the schools I visited and listed.

It is also worth getting to know and love your in-bounds school. Without sibling preference, you will have to be quite lucky to get a lottery draw as high as PP apparently did. It is much more likely that you will get in to the one school where you will have preference: in-bounds preference. You may not love it forever, but it's worth strongly considering it and listing it. The idea of making friends in your neighborhood and having a short commute should not be underestimated and there are very few schools where I think PK3 is done poorly.

If you are not willing to list your IB school, there is a decent chance that you will need to keep your current childcare arrangement for another year. If you're ok with that (or with finding a different preschool--Scrilli is good and not too expensive) then you can reach for the stars, school-wise!

PP here again that got into YY/stokes Brookland.

What I will say is that I was pretty prepared in case we didn’t get into the best school. We visited our in bounds (Lasalle) and met with the principal. He seems to really be working hard to advance the school and I liked the fact that many of the pre-K teachers have been there for a while. The pre-K program there seems pretty good, I think it’s 2nd and up where things might seem to go wrong. Even though I listed them 12th I was prepared if she was matched there. Also for Scrilli, they tend to have a waitlist also so that is t even guaranteed

Hi PP, were there specific dates for open houses that you attended to visit the schools or would you go visit on your own discretion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good suggestions above. Also, you can most likely rule out quite a few school based on an honest assessment of what kind of commute you can tolerate (not just to school but to and from work after if that is relevant).

I’m in fort Totten very close to you. What kind of setting are you looking for? My daughter is in prek4. Got our initial offer from Yu Ying from the lottery, then got an offer from stokes French the end of August (which we took) and then last week got an offer for Stokes Spanish (which we also took). So now my daughter is at Stokes Spanish for prek4. Depending on if you want public/charter, Montessori, language immersion, etc. I can give you some guidance on the schools I visited and listed.

It is also worth getting to know and love your in-bounds school. Without sibling preference, you will have to be quite lucky to get a lottery draw as high as PP apparently did. It is much more likely that you will get in to the one school where you will have preference: in-bounds preference. You may not love it forever, but it's worth strongly considering it and listing it. The idea of making friends in your neighborhood and having a short commute should not be underestimated and there are very few schools where I think PK3 is done poorly.

If you are not willing to list your IB school, there is a decent chance that you will need to keep your current childcare arrangement for another year. If you're ok with that (or with finding a different preschool--Scrilli is good and not too expensive) then you can reach for the stars, school-wise!

PP here again that got into YY/stokes Brookland.

What I will say is that I was pretty prepared in case we didn’t get into the best school. We visited our in bounds (Lasalle) and met with the principal. He seems to really be working hard to advance the school and I liked the fact that many of the pre-K teachers have been there for a while. The pre-K program there seems pretty good, I think it’s 2nd and up where things might seem to go wrong. Even though I listed them 12th I was prepared if she was matched there. Also for Scrilli, they tend to have a waitlist also so that is t even guaranteed

Hi PP, were there specific dates for open houses that you attended to visit the schools or would you go visit on your own discretion?

I went to open houses for close to 9 schools between Jan-March. I also went to the Ward 5 fair, which Lasalle was at surprisingly even though they are in Ward 4. I visited Lasalle I’m a scheduled visit since they are so close to me.

[Anonymous]

Sela is very close to you. It's tier one and has an active parent community.

[Anonymous]

In general you can't just walk into schools and have them show you around--there are security protocols to keep strangers out, and it's distracting to the staff and students. Check the school's website, twitter, or facebook pages as well as local listservs and the myschooldc website for open house dates. If you can't find out from that, email the principal or the PTA if there is one.