Ranking assistance - Cap Hill/Brookland area

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the bottom line if you have a high performing kid, it is Basis and DCI.

Average kid Latin

If your kid doesn’t get into the above, move to MD or VA. I would pick VA for state school benefit for college.

No good options for middle school other than above EOTP.

Don’t waste your time on settling for a poor middle school only to have to settle for another poor high school or move in high school which is worst.

And to be clear, we’re talking about your kid’s performance midway through 4th grade, right? 4th grade performance and lottery luck locks you in for the remaining 8 years until HS graduation?

I remember now why I quit reading these threads.

Yep because in this town of such poor options, you lock in the good ones if you get it. If it doesn’t work out you can always look at other options.

We are at DCI and so glad we were at a feeder and got into DCI. We know a few high schoolers who got into Walls and declined. These kids had options and opportunities - that is a luxury in this town if you are EOTP.

Lastly, we are all at a huge disadvantage with colleges where VA has the best choices of really good schools (UVA, William & Mary, etc..) saving you hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I started looking at middle school feeder paths in prek. Middle school comes up fast. So glad I did. We would have moved out of the city if middle school didn’t work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They presumably entered the 5th grade lottery for Latin, did not get in, and then went to SH. That is the story for a lot of kids at SH and in 5th grade this year at its feeders.

OK but if you were happy at SH, you would not continue to lottery every year. That is the point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They presumably entered the 5th grade lottery for Latin, did not get in, and then went to SH. That is the story for a lot of kids at SH and in 5th grade this year at its feeders.

OK but if you were happy at SH, you would not continue to lottery every year. That is the point.

That’s just not true. People lottery for the HS feed. It’s at least half the reason Latin is so popular to begin with.

[Anonymous]

I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

[Anonymous]

It is pretty easy to enter the lottery. There is no obligation to accept a match. Some people enter the lottery lots of years just to see what happens. Latin is really hard to lottery into. Ir is possible to overall like your middle school and think you would have also liked Latin (plus Latin has high school). It is also possible for an older sibling to like SH but a younger sibling to get in and go to Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

Bad decision and ROI. Move to burbs in a good pyramid for guarantee middle and high school, especially if you have multiple kids.

Then use all those savings for college which you will need much less money for each kid if they go to UMD, UVA, etc...

Bonus is all the stress gone of the uncertainty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

Bad decision and ROI. Move to burbs in a good pyramid for guarantee middle and high school, especially if you have multiple kids.

Then use all those savings for college which you will need much less money for each kid if they go to UMD, UVA, etc...

Bonus is all the stress gone of the uncertainty.

Not moving to the burbs. We actually can’t without one of us switching job. But also, we have friends who did this and moved to a good pyramid in MD, and middle school has been an absolute nightmare for their kid so far. I’m sure that’s not the norm, but uprooting your entire family for school is a lot of pressure to put on kids too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

Bad decision and ROI. Move to burbs in a good pyramid for guarantee middle and high school, especially if you have multiple kids.

Then use all those savings for college which you will need much less money for each kid if they go to UMD, UVA, etc...

Bonus is all the stress gone of the uncertainty.

Not moving to the burbs. We actually can’t without one of us switching job. But also, we have friends who did this and moved to a good pyramid in MD, and middle school has been an absolute nightmare for their kid so far. I’m sure that’s not the norm, but uprooting your entire family for school is a lot of pressure to put on kids too.

You are the outlier then. What other better reason to move than for the schools for your kids?

Millions of families do this all over the country - move to a much better school district for their kids

[Anonymous]

Eh. a lot of people move just to go private for high school anyways. the odds that all of your kids both get in and want to attend uva or umd is not always so great either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

Bad decision and ROI. Move to burbs in a good pyramid for guarantee middle and high school, especially if you have multiple kids.

Then use all those savings for college which you will need much less money for each kid if they go to UMD, UVA, etc...

Bonus is all the stress gone of the uncertainty.

Not moving to the burbs. We actually can’t without one of us switching job. But also, we have friends who did this and moved to a good pyramid in MD, and middle school has been an absolute nightmare for their kid so far. I’m sure that’s not the norm, but uprooting your entire family for school is a lot of pressure to put on kids too.

Better to do it now for 6th than for 9th is you don’t get into Walls or the good privates which is also very competitive and no guarantee.

Is your back up plan sending your kid to Dunbar or whatever equivalent DCPS high school that is your IB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd probably move ITDS up, if it's convenient location-wise to you.

OP Here.. Any reasoning on why? Also the replies here have been SUPER helpful..so thank you again!

Thus far were looking closely at Chisolm, ITS, MV8, YuYing, Barnard, Stokes, SWS, Lamb if we want to make the commute (know alot of families there who rave about it), ludlow, peabody

Because it's a good school and gets you to 8th, with a decent track record of selective high school admissions. If you have more than one kid, it keeps them in one location and on one calendar together, which is so nice.

Yep, that about sums it up. -parent of both a middle schooler and early elementary student at ITDS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

You have low expectations if you’re happy with SH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the bottom line if you have a high performing kid, it is Basis and DCI.

Average kid Latin

If your kid doesn’t get into the above, move to MD or VA. I would pick VA for state school benefit for college.

No good options for middle school other than above EOTP.

Don’t waste your time on settling for a poor middle school only to have to settle for another poor high school or move in high school which is worst.

Totally disagree with this. High performing kids definitely fit in at Latin. ITDS definitely has high-performers -- maybe not as many as some other middle schools because it's small -- and a really good track record of 8th graders getting into Banneker and Walls. I'm sure some Hill parents have something to say as well.

+1. The smartest kids at our DCI feeder went to Basis and Latin. We also know some super high performing kids at ITDS.

When was this? Because from our feeder all the smart kids went to DCI

One family with average kid did go to Latin because he needed more hand holding and smaller class but they are planning on sending younger kid to DCI.

I also call BS on the PP saying the “smart” kids went to Latin and basis. The only kids who ended up at Latin, Basis, or Deal were those who struggled with the target language or were burnt out with our charter administration. I’m not saying those kids are less intelligent but certainly would not describe them as the “smart” kids. DCI has been a great experience for us.

+1. I’m the PP and same at my feeder. Kids left because they just struggled with the language which of course affected core subjects.

I don’t blame them. I would pull my kid out too if they were struggling with math and ELA especially ELA where kids get 50% less teaching time.

Immersion isn’t for everyone and that’s OK. But it’s great for kids whom things coming easy in other subjects and who picks up languages easily.

We are a native Spanish speaking family that chose Latin over DCI. My kid scored 5s on Cape and advanced on Spanish MAP. I have seen this comment a few times here that kids that choose Latin over DCI are failing at the target language and that isn’t always the case. The screen usage at DCI is unappealing to us. Our neighbors kids go there and play video games during class. Some families want a different experience for their kids. That doesn’t mean they are immersion flunkies.

The spanish MAP you’re talking about is reading comprehension only. The gold standard in DC is the STAMP test which measures speaking, writing, comprehension, and understanding. I understand that only one immersion school continues to dupe their families by using this reading comprehension test as some sort of metric when there is so much more to spanish language learning. I’m glad you’re happy at Latin (great school!) but you’re deluded if you think that NWEA score means anything.

Also I am sure your kid is doing great but the majority of kids who did not continue at dci usually did because they struggled with spanish which is a really good move IMO. If your kid excelled at spanish beyond reading comprehension, I personally would not be at Latin but whatever. It’s a great place for the middle of the road kid!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am 100% happy with sending my kid to SH for middle school. I am petrified of what we’re going to do for HS. I assume blow our college savings on privates for our multiple children.

Bad decision and ROI. Move to burbs in a good pyramid for guarantee middle and high school, especially if you have multiple kids.

Then use all those savings for college which you will need much less money for each kid if they go to UMD, UVA, etc...

Bonus is all the stress gone of the uncertainty.

Not moving to the burbs. We actually can’t without one of us switching job. But also, we have friends who did this and moved to a good pyramid in MD, and middle school has been an absolute nightmare for their kid so far. I’m sure that’s not the norm, but uprooting your entire family for school is a lot of pressure to put on kids too.

Personally I agree it is a lot of pressure for the kids. That said would rather pressure them with the move than pressure them to get into walls (total crapshoot) or other application high school. Moving makes you the bad guy. Not getting in makes them feel like a loser. But you do whatever works for you. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the bottom line if you have a high performing kid, it is Basis and DCI.

Average kid Latin

If your kid doesn’t get into the above, move to MD or VA. I would pick VA for state school benefit for college.

No good options for middle school other than above EOTP.

Don’t waste your time on settling for a poor middle school only to have to settle for another poor high school or move in high school which is worst.

Totally disagree with this. High performing kids definitely fit in at Latin. ITDS definitely has high-performers -- maybe not as many as some other middle schools because it's small -- and a really good track record of 8th graders getting into Banneker and Walls. I'm sure some Hill parents have something to say as well.

+1. The smartest kids at our DCI feeder went to Basis and Latin. We also know some super high performing kids at ITDS.

When was this? Because from our feeder all the smart kids went to DCI

One family with average kid did go to Latin because he needed more hand holding and smaller class but they are planning on sending younger kid to DCI.

I also call BS on the PP saying the “smart” kids went to Latin and basis. The only kids who ended up at Latin, Basis, or Deal were those who struggled with the target language or were burnt out with our charter administration. I’m not saying those kids are less intelligent but certainly would not describe them as the “smart” kids. DCI has been a great experience for us.

+1. I’m the PP and same at my feeder. Kids left because they just struggled with the language which of course affected core subjects.

I don’t blame them. I would pull my kid out too if they were struggling with math and ELA especially ELA where kids get 50% less teaching time.

Immersion isn’t for everyone and that’s OK. But it’s great for kids whom things coming easy in other subjects and who picks up languages easily.

We are a native Spanish speaking family that chose Latin over DCI. My kid scored 5s on Cape and advanced on Spanish MAP. I have seen this comment a few times here that kids that choose Latin over DCI are failing at the target language and that isn’t always the case. The screen usage at DCI is unappealing to us. Our neighbors kids go there and play video games during class. Some families want a different experience for their kids. That doesn’t mean they are immersion flunkies.

The spanish MAP you’re talking about is reading comprehension only. The gold standard in DC is the STAMP test which measures speaking, writing, comprehension, and understanding. I understand that only one immersion school continues to dupe their families by using this reading comprehension test as some sort of metric when there is so much more to spanish language learning. I’m glad you’re happy at Latin (great school!) but you’re deluded if you think that NWEA score means anything.

Also I am sure your kid is doing great but the majority of kids who did not continue at dci usually did because they struggled with spanish which is a really good move IMO. If your kid excelled at spanish beyond reading comprehension, I personally would not be at Latin but whatever. It’s a great place for the middle of the road kid!

+1. STAMP is the real test. All the kids take it in 5th at our charter took it before heading to DCI and you will know exactly where your kid stands in all areas. DCI administers it every year which is a good thing and uses it for spanish placement.