Ranking - Immersion Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re DCI and children from its Spanish language feeder programs, have any kids not gotten off the DCI waitlist with an offer for admission?

My understanding is that some elementary schools have used all of their reserved seats, but all kids who wanted to have been offered a spot.

All kids from feeders, even those that expanded and could not guarantee seats, got in. All of them for 6th this year.

Do you think it might be in part because the DCB cohort was small compared to past years? The graduating 5th grade DCB class last year had less than 50 students, which was an outlier in recent years. Those DCB graduating classes are increasing again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do Hill families actually commute to these immersion charters? Seems like a big headache. What is that like in PK3, first, later on? How do you manage it? I’ve always worked remotely but looking for a new job now. If that’s still remote, it’s still a long commute for drop off / pick up but at least I have flexibility. Suppose I get a job in NoVa or downtown…ooof.

YY has a hill bus, and a couple buses from other neighborhoods (there’s talk of a Chevy Chase bus)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re DCI and children from its Spanish language feeder programs, have any kids not gotten off the DCI waitlist with an offer for admission?

My understanding is that some elementary schools have used all of their reserved seats, but all kids who wanted to have been offered a spot.

All kids from feeders, even those that expanded and could not guarantee seats, got in. All of them for 6th this year.

Do you think it might be in part because the DCB cohort was small compared to past years? The graduating 5th grade DCB class last year had less than 50 students, which was an outlier in recent years. Those DCB graduating classes are increasing again.

I think this will be the last year that DCI can accommodate all students and it will impact those without sibling preference the most. Our feeder has a much bigger classes coming up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re DCI and children from its Spanish language feeder programs, have any kids not gotten off the DCI waitlist with an offer for admission?

My understanding is that some elementary schools have used all of their reserved seats, but all kids who wanted to have been offered a spot.

All kids from feeders, even those that expanded and could not guarantee seats, got in. All of them for 6th this year.

Do you think it might be in part because the DCB cohort was small compared to past years? The graduating 5th grade DCB class last year had less than 50 students, which was an outlier in recent years. Those DCB graduating classes are increasing again.

I think this will be the last year that DCI can accommodate all students and it will impact those without sibling preference the most. Our feeder has a much bigger classes coming up.

Even with 95% retention, no backfilling past a certain age means if you start with 100 kids in prek 3 you only have 66 or so at 5th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MV8 is the answer. Strong CAPE scores across the board. Strong in spanish. Maintains fedility to the immersion model where everything is taught in both spanish and english.

It is a well known fact MV is weak in ELA. Look at the most recent CAPE scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re DCI and children from its Spanish language feeder programs, have any kids not gotten off the DCI waitlist with an offer for admission?

My understanding is that some elementary schools have used all of their reserved seats, but all kids who wanted to have been offered a spot.

All kids from feeders, even those that expanded and could not guarantee seats, got in. All of them for 6th this year.

Do you think it might be in part because the DCB cohort was small compared to past years? The graduating 5th grade DCB class last year had less than 50 students, which was an outlier in recent years. Those DCB graduating classes are increasing again.

I think this will be the last year that DCI can accommodate all students and it will impact those without sibling preference the most. Our feeder has a much bigger classes coming up.

Even with 95% retention, no backfilling past a certain age means if you start with 100 kids in prek 3 you only have 66 or so at 5th

But arent most of these feeders backfilling? I think the only one that makes a point not to is LAMB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re DCI and children from its Spanish language feeder programs, have any kids not gotten off the DCI waitlist with an offer for admission?

My understanding is that some elementary schools have used all of their reserved seats, but all kids who wanted to have been offered a spot.

All kids from feeders, even those that expanded and could not guarantee seats, got in. All of them for 6th this year.

Do you think it might be in part because the DCB cohort was small compared to past years? The graduating 5th grade DCB class last year had less than 50 students, which was an outlier in recent years. Those DCB graduating classes are increasing again.

I think this will be the last year that DCI can accommodate all students and it will impact those without sibling preference the most. Our feeder has a much bigger classes coming up.

Even with 95% retention, no backfilling past a certain age means if you start with 100 kids in prek 3 you only have 66 or so at 5th

But arent most of these feeders backfilling? I think the only one that makes a point not to is LAMB

I can’t speak for others but Yu Ying absolutely doesn’t past either first or second grade, and if you look at the lottery numbers they let a very small number in past pre-k 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MV8 is the answer. Strong CAPE scores across the board. Strong in spanish. Maintains fedility to the immersion model where everything is taught in both spanish and english.

It is a well known fact MV is weak in ELA. Look at the most recent CAPE scores.

.

I looked at ELA and all immersion charters cluster between 50-60%. DCB tad lower than 50% so not sure what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MV8 is the answer. Strong CAPE scores across the board. Strong in spanish. Maintains fedility to the immersion model where everything is taught in both spanish and english.

It is a well known fact MV is weak in ELA. Look at the most recent CAPE scores.

.

I looked at ELA and all immersion charters cluster between 50-60%. DCB tad lower than 50% so not sure what you are talking about.

Where are you pulling your information? Here is the report card for MV Cook for you reference.

https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/171/school/3065/report

ELA percentages meet or exceed expectations in ELA are below some comparable schools.

MV Cook. 37%
DCB 50%
MV - C8 54%
LAMB 54%
Yu Ying 54%
Stokes Brookland 60%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MV8 is the answer. Strong CAPE scores across the board. Strong in spanish. Maintains fedility to the immersion model where everything is taught in both spanish and english.

It is a well known fact MV is weak in ELA. Look at the most recent CAPE scores.

.

I looked at ELA and all immersion charters cluster between 50-60%. DCB tad lower than 50% so not sure what you are talking about.

Where are you pulling your information? Here is the report card for MV Cook for you reference.

https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/171/school/3065/report

ELA percentages meet or exceed expectations in ELA are below some comparable schools.

MV Cook. 37%
DCB 50%
MV - C8 54%
LAMB 54%
Yu Ying 54%
Stokes Brookland 60%

PP here same source except I saw 48% I think for DCB. We were discussing MV8 and who I was alluding to.

[Anonymous]

Just keep in mind that there are a lot of MV kids that speak Spanish at home and PK-K (these years are taught entirely in Spanish) and may have steeper learning curve in later grades for ELA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for all the feedback. Of course I agree with all the points about the commute to DCB or LAMB being probably untenable. And points taken re: Montessori at LAMB. But as a follow up, what I want to know is - why is DCB, at least (and possibly LAMB) viewed as “better”/ more sought after than MV? What makes it better?

LAMB is a very specific program and a lot of people want Montessori, so the waitlist is long. I don’t think there is much difference between MV and DCB, so not sure why DCB viewed at “better.” Maybe people assume the long waitlist means it is better? We are at DCB and the Spanish instruction is not strong. We are native speakers and work a lot at home. My kid in upper EL has classmates that barely speak Spanish. It is a very nice community and that’s why we stay, but have many friends at MV who are happy and it also seems like a nice community. I would not select DCB/ Lamb over MV from the hill for the commute.

Because MV went through a really difficult time in the past 5 or so years and DCB has been pretty steady.

Also DCB offers a DCI guarantee, MV only has a preference.

DCB is near DCI so it's possible to live really close to both. That's not really possible with MV.

DCB also expanded so the lower grades will not have the DCI guarantee.

Not only lower grades. Current Fourth grades don’t have a guarantee already.

Ok, wow, literally just yesterday had a DCB parent whose kid is younger tell me they chose it for the DCI guarantee. Looks like it's preference now? With 50 spots available.

As a parent of a middle schooler now, yes you definitely need to consider the middle schooler feed when looking at elementary. I did and absolutely no regrets. Middle school comes up real fast.

Here is what you don’t get and that is stats. Yes no guarantee for DCI but if you are in a feeder then that is by far your best chance for not only a good middle school but ALSO high school. Something like 60-70%. It’s probably higher.

Going to our IB middle was a non-starter. So 0 vs 70% is a huge difference.

Basis I think is prob around 40-50% currently.

Latin 20% or whatever.

Point is being at a feeder is your best shot for a decent middle school and that is DCI. Middle school feed was not our top criteria, it was immersion and Spanish but having the middle school feed was definitely a consideration in the rankings

This logic for a current family playing the lottery is totally irrelevant. Assuming 50% sibling preference and most kids trying to continue to DCI, DCB’s current fourth grade class has either a 100% or about a 1/3 chance of DCI without a sibling preference. My oldest is a fourth grader and we’re all lotterying this year. Can’t speak to the other feeders, but it’s a huge difference between those with an older sibling and those without.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for all the feedback. Of course I agree with all the points about the commute to DCB or LAMB being probably untenable. And points taken re: Montessori at LAMB. But as a follow up, what I want to know is - why is DCB, at least (and possibly LAMB) viewed as “better”/ more sought after than MV? What makes it better?

LAMB is a very specific program and a lot of people want Montessori, so the waitlist is long. I don’t think there is much difference between MV and DCB, so not sure why DCB viewed at “better.” Maybe people assume the long waitlist means it is better? We are at DCB and the Spanish instruction is not strong. We are native speakers and work a lot at home. My kid in upper EL has classmates that barely speak Spanish. It is a very nice community and that’s why we stay, but have many friends at MV who are happy and it also seems like a nice community. I would not select DCB/ Lamb over MV from the hill for the commute.

Because MV went through a really difficult time in the past 5 or so years and DCB has been pretty steady.

Also DCB offers a DCI guarantee, MV only has a preference.

DCB is near DCI so it's possible to live really close to both. That's not really possible with MV.

DCB also expanded so the lower grades will not have the DCI guarantee.

Not only lower grades. Current Fourth grades don’t have a guarantee already.

Ok, wow, literally just yesterday had a DCB parent whose kid is younger tell me they chose it for the DCI guarantee. Looks like it's preference now? With 50 spots available.

As a parent of a middle schooler now, yes you definitely need to consider the middle schooler feed when looking at elementary. I did and absolutely no regrets. Middle school comes up real fast.

Here is what you don’t get and that is stats. Yes no guarantee for DCI but if you are in a feeder then that is by far your best chance for not only a good middle school but ALSO high school. Something like 60-70%. It’s probably higher.

Going to our IB middle was a non-starter. So 0 vs 70% is a huge difference.

Basis I think is prob around 40-50% currently.

Latin 20% or whatever.

Point is being at a feeder is your best shot for a decent middle school and that is DCI. Middle school feed was not our top criteria, it was immersion and Spanish but having the middle school feed was definitely a consideration in the rankings

This logic for a current family playing the lottery is totally irrelevant. Assuming 50% sibling preference and most kids trying to continue to DCI, DCB’s current fourth grade class has either a 100% or about a 1/3 chance of DCI without a sibling preference. My oldest is a fourth grader and we’re all lotterying this year. Can’t speak to the other feeders, but it’s a huge difference between those with an older sibling and those without.

The problem is that if your number isn't good enough for a non-sibling spot at DCI, that's because it's a bad number. Lowest third, quartile, or worse. So then what do you do? That's not going to get you in anywhere else desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for all the feedback. Of course I agree with all the points about the commute to DCB or LAMB being probably untenable. And points taken re: Montessori at LAMB. But as a follow up, what I want to know is - why is DCB, at least (and possibly LAMB) viewed as “better”/ more sought after than MV? What makes it better?

LAMB is a very specific program and a lot of people want Montessori, so the waitlist is long. I don’t think there is much difference between MV and DCB, so not sure why DCB viewed at “better.” Maybe people assume the long waitlist means it is better? We are at DCB and the Spanish instruction is not strong. We are native speakers and work a lot at home. My kid in upper EL has classmates that barely speak Spanish. It is a very nice community and that’s why we stay, but have many friends at MV who are happy and it also seems like a nice community. I would not select DCB/ Lamb over MV from the hill for the commute.

Because MV went through a really difficult time in the past 5 or so years and DCB has been pretty steady.

Also DCB offers a DCI guarantee, MV only has a preference.

DCB is near DCI so it's possible to live really close to both. That's not really possible with MV.

DCB also expanded so the lower grades will not have the DCI guarantee.

Not only lower grades. Current Fourth grades don’t have a guarantee already.

Ok, wow, literally just yesterday had a DCB parent whose kid is younger tell me they chose it for the DCI guarantee. Looks like it's preference now? With 50 spots available.

As a parent of a middle schooler now, yes you definitely need to consider the middle schooler feed when looking at elementary. I did and absolutely no regrets. Middle school comes up real fast.

Here is what you don’t get and that is stats. Yes no guarantee for DCI but if you are in a feeder then that is by far your best chance for not only a good middle school but ALSO high school. Something like 60-70%. It’s probably higher.

Going to our IB middle was a non-starter. So 0 vs 70% is a huge difference.

Basis I think is prob around 40-50% currently.

Latin 20% or whatever.

Point is being at a feeder is your best shot for a decent middle school and that is DCI. Middle school feed was not our top criteria, it was immersion and Spanish but having the middle school feed was definitely a consideration in the rankings

This logic for a current family playing the lottery is totally irrelevant. Assuming 50% sibling preference and most kids trying to continue to DCI, DCB’s current fourth grade class has either a 100% or about a 1/3 chance of DCI without a sibling preference. My oldest is a fourth grader and we’re all lotterying this year. Can’t speak to the other feeders, but it’s a huge difference between those with an older sibling and those without.

I’m not sure that DCI gives both a feeder preference and sibling preference. You might want to ask them and clarify this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - thanks for all the feedback. Of course I agree with all the points about the commute to DCB or LAMB being probably untenable. And points taken re: Montessori at LAMB. But as a follow up, what I want to know is - why is DCB, at least (and possibly LAMB) viewed as “better”/ more sought after than MV? What makes it better?

LAMB is a very specific program and a lot of people want Montessori, so the waitlist is long. I don’t think there is much difference between MV and DCB, so not sure why DCB viewed at “better.” Maybe people assume the long waitlist means it is better? We are at DCB and the Spanish instruction is not strong. We are native speakers and work a lot at home. My kid in upper EL has classmates that barely speak Spanish. It is a very nice community and that’s why we stay, but have many friends at MV who are happy and it also seems like a nice community. I would not select DCB/ Lamb over MV from the hill for the commute.

Because MV went through a really difficult time in the past 5 or so years and DCB has been pretty steady.

Also DCB offers a DCI guarantee, MV only has a preference.

DCB is near DCI so it's possible to live really close to both. That's not really possible with MV.

DCB also expanded so the lower grades will not have the DCI guarantee.

Not only lower grades. Current Fourth grades don’t have a guarantee already.

Ok, wow, literally just yesterday had a DCB parent whose kid is younger tell me they chose it for the DCI guarantee. Looks like it's preference now? With 50 spots available.

As a parent of a middle schooler now, yes you definitely need to consider the middle schooler feed when looking at elementary. I did and absolutely no regrets. Middle school comes up real fast.

Here is what you don’t get and that is stats. Yes no guarantee for DCI but if you are in a feeder then that is by far your best chance for not only a good middle school but ALSO high school. Something like 60-70%. It’s probably higher.

Going to our IB middle was a non-starter. So 0 vs 70% is a huge difference.

Basis I think is prob around 40-50% currently.

Latin 20% or whatever.

Point is being at a feeder is your best shot for a decent middle school and that is DCI. Middle school feed was not our top criteria, it was immersion and Spanish but having the middle school feed was definitely a consideration in the rankings

This logic for a current family playing the lottery is totally irrelevant. Assuming 50% sibling preference and most kids trying to continue to DCI, DCB’s current fourth grade class has either a 100% or about a 1/3 chance of DCI without a sibling preference. My oldest is a fourth grader and we’re all lotterying this year. Can’t speak to the other feeders, but it’s a huge difference between those with an older sibling and those without.

I’m not sure that DCI gives both a feeder preference and sibling preference. You might want to ask them and clarify this.

DCI’s waitlist data for member schools suggests that there is, within teach school’s preference, a sub-preference for siblings.