| I can't figure out if I'm missing something here, but it seems like, for PK3 on the Hill, you only really have a shot at your in-bounds school (if you're lucky). For context, our in-bounds in Tyler, but we are quite close to Payne, with Maury, Brent, Van Ness all being walkable. Historic lottery data seems to indicate that there is basically no way we'd get into any of those (maybe Payne) out of bounds, even with the world's best lottery number. If that's the case, why am I even stressing about how I rank schools? Like I said, am I missing something here? Or should I just assume Tyler is where we'll end up and not really worry about the rankings? |
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Congratulations, you do understand the lottery! Far better than a lot of PK3-to-be parents.
The ranking is for charter schools, which don't have a boundary so you do have a better chance. There are also DCPS-operated schools that don't have a boundary, such as Capitol Hill Montessori@Logan and School-Within-School, so if you are applying there you will want to think about the ordering. And then there's charters to consider. That is why people think about the order. If you're fine with Tyler, then just put Tyler. |
What she said |
| Two Rivers also draws heavily from the Hill. |
| You should print this out and distribute it at every playground on the Hill. The wasted time obsessing about the prek3 lottery when it's exactly as you describe. In-bound if you're lucky. Charter and DCPS operated non boundary are the ones you rank. There are some interesting dynamics with proximity preference but not at the prek3 level. You can sneak into a few schools on the Hill OOB (like Ludlow Taylor) say in K, and certaintly into the Cluster, but none of that is relevant for Prek3. You have won the lottery already by not devoting any obsessing to this. |
| you can often lottery into the nearby schools you listed in the later elementary school grades but almost definitely not in preK |
| You may be able to get into Miner |
| Appletree, SWS, Logan. That’s pretty much it, aside from your by-right school. I had a kid end up at Appletree and then both ended up at SWS, so it does happen! |
| OP here -- thank you all for affirming that I am not missing something obvious here : ) We will put SWS and Appletree on our list, too, but realize SWS is a pipe dream. |
| SWS is not as great as it seems. |
| OP, I am excited for you that you’ve figured this out. I am a pretty patient person, but I have friends I’ve explained this to multiple times who still don’t understand. |
It does have that certain je ne sais quoi. How do you say in English? Oh yes, blanc. |
| SWS is a trek if you live in the Tyler boundary. It’s easy enough to lottery into it in the upper grades these days, so I’d stay walkable for PK3. |
Oh, you again. Things change, PP. You clearly haven't been to SWS in a while. The school is pretty diverse, both in students and faculty. |
53% white in a citywide school is "pretty diverse"? And you want to credit for faculty diversity to darken up the place? OK. |