New to DCI-Anything we should know?

[Anonymous]

All grand until DCI students start taking IB exams and applying to highly selective colleges, particularly if they're not URMs. These tough exams just aren't geared to your garden variety middle-class social-justice oriented American family because IB was created to serve the children of European diplomats in international schools abroad. How do I know how difficult the exams are? I used to teach IBD humanities courses at one of the test-in suburban IBD programs in this Metro area. Even there, few of the families were prepared for the rigor of HL IB. Parents would generally assume that the kids would ace the exams, scoring 6s and 7s. Seldom the case. Would that we had a DC charter combining what DCI and BASIS are teaching with the enrichment of WIS.

[Anonymous]

Honestly, nobody at DCI cares about Diploma exams, or AP exams either. This is a big reason we left. It’s just not a great school, a thought I keep to myself when I’m around friends with kids who are still there.

[Anonymous]

It's a great school for the social justice minded.

[Anonymous]

DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

Huh?

BASIS DC has only graduated a few classes and has a much smaller senior class than DCI. Yet it seems a lot stronger academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

Huh?

BASIS DC has only graduated a few classes and has a much smaller senior class than DCI. Yet it seems a lot stronger academically.

JFC, it’s exhausting how Basis boosters want to hijack every thread. What don’t you get about self selection?

Open the school for all kids, take all kids in every grade, increase your at risk 3 fold, increase your SPED 3 fold. Then come back and talk to us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

Which kids scored in the 40s? We're in the DC high school and don't know of a single student who's scored higher than the mid 30s. We've asked around for each graduating class to keep tabs on points totals. If DC wanted to see scores in the high 30s+, they track academically outside math and language in middle school. There's nothing stopping them from doing it but admins won't even consider it. Bottom line, DCI already has the students to do much better. Apologists like you aren't doing them any favors.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you're still there know that it's all too easy to claim that DCI seniors are scoring sky high on IB exams because IB Geneva doesn't publish anonymized exam results by IB World School for public consumption and neither does DCI. Really too bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you're still there know that it's all too easy to claim that DCI seniors are scoring sky high on IB exams because IB Geneva doesn't publish anonymized exam results by IB World School for public consumption and neither does DCI. Really too bad.

They showed a graph of IB scores at at least one of the family meetings. I wish I had a screenshot.I think the school recognizes that there are many areas for improvement. It's a good thing that they're not saying everything is perfect.

[Anonymous]

We bailed from a DCI feeder to BASIS, along with a dozen other families, because the whole DCI feeder-DCI pyramid isn't half as serious academically as it could be. The pyramid has the demographics to aim high without the ambition. Concerns about equity seem to trump rigor at every turn, with social promotion watering down DCI academics like mad. We keep up with language on our own.

We just sent our kid to a Concordia MN immersion camp. Groups of IB Middle Years students from all around the country turned up in packs. We discovered that many of the campers came on scholarships from their schools or cities, plenty from the East Coast, Boston, NYC, Philly, Raleigh etc. Turns out that our teen was the only DC PS student at the session (with hundreds of fellow campers). Where were the DCI students? Is anybody asking?

[Anonymous]

We get it. This DCI parent would be at BASIS if we'd got a spot. It's a common tale.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We bailed from a DCI feeder to BASIS, along with a dozen other families, because the whole DCI feeder-DCI pyramid isn't half as serious academically as it could be. The pyramid has the demographics to aim high without the ambition. Concerns about equity seem to trump rigor at every turn, with social promotion watering down DCI academics like mad. We keep up with language on our own.

We just sent our kid to a Concordia MN immersion camp. Groups of IB Middle Years students from all around the country turned up in packs. We discovered that many of the campers came on scholarships from their schools or cities, plenty from the East Coast, Boston, NYC, Philly, Raleigh etc. Turns out that our teen was the only DC PS student at the session (with hundreds of fellow campers). Where were the DCI students? Is anybody asking?

We've asked multiple times but DCI doesn't raise money to send students to summer immersion camps or run their own either. Lame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

Huh?

BASIS DC has only graduated a few classes and has a much smaller senior class than DCI. Yet it seems a lot stronger academically.

JFC, it’s exhausting how Basis boosters want to hijack every thread. What don’t you get about self selection?

Open the school for all kids, take all kids in every grade, increase your at risk 3 fold, increase your SPED 3 fold. Then come back and talk to us.

Can we please stop with the virtue signaling? UMC posters to DCUM are concerned about THEIR kids' educations and THEIR college options. People like PP who make all kinds of noise about increasing at risk at other schools make me sick. It's a red herring/shiny object to distract from empirical evidence suggesting less good outcomes. You don't really care about all of those at risk kids.

P.S. At risk kids who don't have a foundation can't succeed at any rigorous school anymore than DC HS "graduates" who were socially promoted up can succeed at MIT, RIT or any tier one college.

[Anonymous]

+1. We deserve better for our tax dollars than endless rounds of "virtue signaling" extoling the virtues of social justice/IB Diploma-for-all at DCI.

IBD works as a GT high school program for highly academic students bound for competitive colleges. The curriculum just isn't designed for another purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI just graduated what their 3rd class? 3 classes. The high school has barely started and people on here complaining they don’t have their stuff together and are not as strong as some of the suburban programs. No sh’t Sherlock Holmes. These people have no perspective. Why don’t you tell us how the other programs did after they graduated their 3rd class, not now when they have been around for 30, 40 years or whatever.

I’ve been watching the trajectory of the school. They are on a rapid trajectory and getting better. They already have kids getting into Ivy’s URM or not. They already have kids scoring high in the 40. Sure some of these families might have supplemented or not but if you don’t have a solid IB program, you are not going to be scoring anywhere even in the mid 30’s. Not only that, but the high school offers 3 tracks, not just IB diploma, and juggling to manage those tracks and offers variety of pathways for different kids.

Bottom line. You want what the good suburban IB schools offer now, move to the burbs. BTW, good luck getting your kid into some of those programs. But if you have time like some of us do, watch the trajectory of the school in the next 3-5 years. This is just the beginning and early infancy.

Huh?

BASIS DC has only graduated a few classes and has a much smaller senior class than DCI. Yet it seems a lot stronger academically.

JFC, it’s exhausting how Basis boosters want to hijack every thread. What don’t you get about self selection?

Open the school for all kids, take all kids in every grade, increase your at risk 3 fold, increase your SPED 3 fold. Then come back and talk to us.

NP... not sure I understand your point about "self selection" - ALL charters, including DCI are self-selected. Also, do you have some data to show that DCI has 3 times more SPED than BASIS or other schools?