Best DCPS/Charters that DCUM ignores - aka please don't mention Key, Murch, Maury, Deal, BASIS, JR, Oyster, etc.

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

What are the best schools in the city that you never or rarely see plugged here? Want to clarify that I don't have anything against the schools mentioned in the thread title. I just feel like I get enough info about them here (and Eaton, Brent, Two Rivers, Latin, Ludlow Taylor, Hardy, Eaton, Lafayette, the list goes on) and want to see if there are any hidden (at least to DCUM) gems. I'm looking for both solidly good schools (kids generally start high and stay high) and those that are getting better-than-expected results with a more challenging population, have great classroom environments, etc.

What are these schools and why are they so hard to find?

[Anonymous]

Hyde Addison is decent. Actually, great for size and feeder. Garrison is under rated but believe most avoid because of their high Hispanic population.

[Anonymous]

There are not "hidden" schools where the kids start high and stay high, because that is largely demographically driven and those are the non-T1 schools in the city. For awhile, schools like L-T and Marie Reed and Bancroft fell into the quasi hidden category b/c they were rapidly gentrifying and so test scores didn't reflect the full school population/subcatagories that would have shown promise couldn't be reported. Those days are over. Maybe Payne is the closest thing right now? But it's not like there aren't DCUMers on that bandwaggon already. The charters that fall into this bucket are also the ones you always hear about and, honestly, most charters have bad-for-demographics test scores, in part because they're focusing on some other mission that may detract from standardized testing in various ways (immersion, Montessori, etc).

The "those getting better-than-expected results" question is way more interesting and also where DCUM has way more of a blindspot, especially if the school doesn't have a solid chunk of UMC kids.

[Anonymous]

I'd really question your definition of "good school" as "start high and stay high". Preschool students don't "start high" unless you mean their parents are high-income. You can try to assess elementary schools by PARCC scores, but there's so much student mobility and attrition, and so many schools have small PARCC-reporting cohorts, that the data is not very helpful.

Personally, I define a "good school" as a school in which the adults are doing a good job.

Seaton
Ketcham
Whittier
Post-reno JOW
Langley used to be a hot topic on this board, but now I think people accept that it's one of the many DCPS elementaries that is perfectly fine in the lower grades.

[Anonymous]

Cap City (not Center City)

With lottery waitlists so short this year, I have to wonder which schools will have to shrink or fold. But it's not considered in good taste to speculate specifically.

[Anonymous]

There are a number of really solid elementary schools in EOTP NW that do not feed to Deal/Hardy, but are great neighborhood schools (mix of IB and OOB, but neighborhood families). John Lewis, Powell, Whittier, and Bruce-Monroe come to mind. But without a "good" middle school feed, they will always lose families to charters and after third grade. It doesn't mean they are bad in the upper grades, it just means that parents start to stress and kids lose their friends as families jump ship for a middle school pathway.

[Anonymous]

I am a big believer in Wells and MacFarland. And I think JOW, when the renovation is finished, will be significantly more popular. The shine is off TR, Mundo, and Lee, and that makes people look more carefully at their other options. Aside from that whole weird thing with the principal firing a few years ago, JOW is solid.

[Anonymous]

You should take a look at EmpowerK12 and their Bold Performing Schools. Maybe not the definitions that everyone would use, but these schools demonstrate a lot of growth.

https://www.dcboldschools.org/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should take a look at EmpowerK12 and their Bold Performing Schools. Maybe not the definitions that everyone would use, but these schools demonstrate a lot of growth.

https://www.dcboldschools.org/

Yes. And there are schools that would have qualified but didn't have quite as high a percentage of at-risk kids. I remember being so frustrated when our IB would have placed very well on a similar list, but it had only 49% at-risk kids instead of 50% so was ineligible!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am a big believer in Wells and MacFarland. And I think JOW, when the renovation is finished, will be significantly more popular. The shine is off TR, Mundo, and Lee, and that makes people look more carefully at their other options. Aside from that whole weird thing with the principal firing a few years ago, JOW is solid.

Agree about JOW. That was an HR nightmare that could happen anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are a number of really solid elementary schools in EOTP NW that do not feed to Deal/Hardy, but are great neighborhood schools (mix of IB and OOB, but neighborhood families). John Lewis, Powell, Whittier, and Bruce-Monroe come to mind. But without a "good" middle school feed, they will always lose families to charters and after third grade. It doesn't mean they are bad in the upper grades, it just means that parents start to stress and kids lose their friends as families jump ship for a middle school pathway.

Agree with this. John Lewis and Bruce Monroe would be my 2 picks for sleeper DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Amidon-Bowen

Dark horse: The next new elementary school created by DCPS will be hoppin' from the moment it opens. Don't know when, don't know where, but my money is on the KC Lewis site in LeDroit Park.

[Anonymous]

Burroughs and Langdon are two sleepers in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are a number of really solid elementary schools in EOTP NW that do not feed to Deal/Hardy, but are great neighborhood schools (mix of IB and OOB, but neighborhood families). John Lewis, Powell, Whittier, and Bruce-Monroe come to mind. But without a "good" middle school feed, they will always lose families to charters and after third grade. It doesn't mean they are bad in the upper grades, it just means that parents start to stress and kids lose their friends as families jump ship for a middle school pathway.

Agree with this. John Lewis and Bruce Monroe would be my 2 picks for sleeper DCPS schools.

We've been at BMPV for a few years, and in my opinion it's actually a better school than the surrounding immersion charters. Stronger academics, better differentiation, more PTO activities, clubs, and field trips, really great school culture with strong teachers and admin. All with a harder to serve population (though gentrifying rapidly). Probably very similar experience for middle of the pack kids, but not for kids at the margins. It may not be Janney or Bethesda, but neither are the local charters. I don't judge anyone for choosing a DCI feeder because middle school comes quickly, but for us we've turned down offers at charters now that we're settled and can see what our kids are getting versus friends' kids at other schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd really question your definition of "good school" as "start high and stay high". Preschool students don't "start high" unless you mean their parents are high-income. You can try to assess elementary schools by PARCC scores, but there's so much student mobility and attrition, and so many schools have small PARCC-reporting cohorts, that the data is not very helpful.

Personally, I define a "good school" as a school in which the adults are doing a good job.

Seaton
Ketcham
Whittier
Post-reno JOW
Langley used to be a hot topic on this board, but now I think people accept that it's one of the many DCPS elementaries that is perfectly fine in the lower grades.

Agree with Seaton. the teachers are all so, so good.