Inspired teaching list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

People are freaked out because they wrote off the possibility when they saw their numbers in April and when they saw their numbers move very slowly (or not at all at ITS) all summer.

This. Her number was in the 70s at the beginning of August, FFS. If I had known, I would not have run for a PTA board seat, and I would have done more to prepare DC for a possible transition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

[Anonymous]

NP: I think ITS does a disservice to the process by not moving their lists at least some over the summer (or starting August 1st). It creates a domino effect in the whole system, and doesn't allow cohesive summer playdate opportunities.

- Current ITS family that got in after the beginning of the school year and it took me a couple months to get on the right lists, groups, IFA, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

Yes. This seems like a really sketchy practice designed to weed out people who can’t jump on a dime.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

I know a family that moved out of school right after school started. Multiple kids. Another kid that is having health issues that is homeschooling. Things happen and lists tend to move fast after school starts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

I know a family that moved out of school right after school started. Multiple kids. Another kid that is having health issues that is homeschooling. Things happen and lists tend to move fast after school starts.

But ITS is dropping several spots a day, when my other HRCS in the southern Ward 5 area are moving maybe one spot every few days. Our number has dropped more than 60 spots since August 1. If it's really just the result of making offers later, fine, but it seems like an awful lot of change and it makes me wonder if something is amiss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

I know a family that moved out of school right after school started. Multiple kids. Another kid that is having health issues that is homeschooling. Things happen and lists tend to move fast after school starts.

But ITS is dropping several spots a day, when my other HRCS in the southern Ward 5 area are moving maybe one spot every few days. Our number has dropped more than 60 spots since August 1. If it's really just the result of making offers later, fine, but it seems like an awful lot of change and it makes me wonder if something is amiss.

What grade are you talking about? Seems like a few folks have chimed in about roster changes they know about (moving, homeschooling due to illness, etc) and could try to assuage your concerns/answer your questions with a bit more info. We are a family with a couple of kids there and know some of the reasons for late movement - a new ECE family got a spot at another well regarded charter that was much more geographically convenient, for instance, so that opened up a spot after the year began. I haven’t noticed anything amiss writ large so i would try not to worry too much. Easier to say than it is to do, I know!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why you're freaked out by it. The further you get into a school year, the more reluctant people feel to move their kid. It make sense that it takes more offers to fill a spot, especially since their list didn't move too much over the summer.

Why do they do this to families? Their list didn't move over the summer because they didn't make offers, right?

I know a family that moved out of school right after school started. Multiple kids. Another kid that is having health issues that is homeschooling. Things happen and lists tend to move fast after school starts.

But ITS is dropping several spots a day, when my other HRCS in the southern Ward 5 area are moving maybe one spot every few days. Our number has dropped more than 60 spots since August 1. If it's really just the result of making offers later, fine, but it seems like an awful lot of change and it makes me wonder if something is amiss.

What grade are you talking about? Seems like a few folks have chimed in about roster changes they know about (moving, homeschooling due to illness, etc) and could try to assuage your concerns/answer your questions with a bit more info. We are a family with a couple of kids there and know some of the reasons for late movement - a new ECE family got a spot at another well regarded charter that was much more geographically convenient, for instance, so that opened up a spot after the year began. I haven’t noticed anything amiss writ large so i would try not to worry too much. Easier to say than it is to do, I know!

Talking about K. It moved 60 spots since the beginning of August. It's hard to see how a few family switches could explain that.

[Anonymous]

And it didn’t budge much in June or July.

[Anonymous]

I can appreciate the idea of waiting so that you get families who really want to be at the school, rather than churning through a ton of offers. But when a school with 50-ish K students needs to extend a ton of offers to backfill, isn't that a little concerning? Or are most people turning down the offers? It just seems like this list is behaving differently from all my other lists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can appreciate the idea of waiting so that you get families who really want to be at the school, rather than churning through a ton of offers. But when a school with 50-ish K students needs to extend a ton of offers to backfill, isn't that a little concerning? Or are most people turning down the offers? It just seems like this list is behaving differently from all my other lists.

But waiting to get families who ‘really’ want it is a manipulation of the open lottery. Tempted to call MSDC and ask them to look into it.


To answer your question I would ask the school how many K students there are and how many are new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can appreciate the idea of waiting so that you get families who really want to be at the school, rather than churning through a ton of offers. But when a school with 50-ish K students needs to extend a ton of offers to backfill, isn't that a little concerning? Or are most people turning down the offers? It just seems like this list is behaving differently from all my other lists.

But waiting to get families who ‘really’ want it is a manipulation of the open lottery. Tempted to call MSDC and ask them to look into it.


To answer your question I would ask the school how many K students there are and how many are new.

They won't do anything about it. The charter board favors its schools over any systemwide or fairness issues, and MSDC is under their thumb.

[Anonymous]

The Kindergarten waitlist is moving because ITS did not try to fill slots opened by PreK4 kids who moved out of the area, switched either to their IB DCPS or another charter school, etc. until a couple of weeks into the new year. No idea why the delay in offering the slots. Perhaps the school needed to confirm that the students were not actually returning. Perhaps the school was trying to determine if the Kindergarten slots would be filled by siblings of enrolled or matched students. Parents likely passing on the waitlist offers because their kids are happily settled at their schools or they are holding out for a school they desire more. ITS is a wonderful school. From what I've observed in our years there, the elementary school kids are very welcoming to new students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Kindergarten waitlist is moving because ITS did not try to fill slots opened by PreK4 kids who moved out of the area, switched either to their IB DCPS or another charter school, etc. until a couple of weeks into the new year. No idea why the delay in offering the slots. Perhaps the school needed to confirm that the students were not actually returning. Perhaps the school was trying to determine if the Kindergarten slots would be filled by siblings of enrolled or matched students. Parents likely passing on the waitlist offers because their kids are happily settled at their schools or they are holding out for a school they desire more. ITS is a wonderful school. From what I've observed in our years there, the elementary school kids are very welcoming to new students.

It seems like there must have been a lot of PK4 attrition.

[Anonymous]

Waitlist length (today) = waitlist length (yesterday) + net additions - removals