applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on

[Anonymous]

OP- you’re right. Applications have greatly increased over the years and it’s harder to get accepted from a public school than another private (even a private in another city for relocating families).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the detailed and sobering reality check.

Thank you so much. I have been wondering about timing, and as the public schools is good for now, child is bored, teachers say he is beyond grade level and to just "keep pushing him to the next level," and from past threads, it does not sounds like skipping a grade is an option and maybe not good for the socio-maturity level.

[Anonymous]

Another thank you to OP for the sobering reality check. We've got 3rd grader and k in JKLM and this is in the back of mind as something we may have to think about down the road (but I'm not going to sit here and claim they are prodigies, just good kids who maybe I'd like to have in smaller classes and learning good study habits with all the extras that private can offer). Going all-in on private starting at K is not a financial possibility for all of us and it seems way too soon to judge whether Deal/Wilson will be a good fit for them or not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- you’re right. Applications have greatly increased over the years and it’s harder to get accepted from a public school than another private (even a private in another city for relocating families).

Cite your source/research, or it's just your silly opinion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another thank you to OP for the sobering reality check. We've got 3rd grader and k in JKLM and this is in the back of mind as something we may have to think about down the road (but I'm not going to sit here and claim they are prodigies, just good kids who maybe I'd like to have in smaller classes and learning good study habits with all the extras that private can offer). Going all-in on private starting at K is not a financial possibility for all of us and it seems way too soon to judge whether Deal/Wilson will be a good fit for them or not...

I can say that privates do not offer much to highly gifted kids either. We were told to look at public by our Big 3 private. The privates offer a lot of homework but not much in way of advanced academics.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?

It doesn't translate that way, but also the tests do not align -- PARCC is testing a grade level, middle school SSAT is testing a range of grades (5-7). For high school, our DC did very little prep; never even took a full practice test. The SSAT scores were completely consistent with DC's top PARCC scores. DC got no rejections. Actually, DC did better on the SSAT than on the ELA part of the PARCC and thought the SSAT was easier than PARCC. There was nothing in the math part of the SSAT that DC had not learned in school, so the score there was pure test performance. There was no knowledge gap. I will add that in the interviews, ADs consistently had enthusiastic comments about their experiences with kids admitted from DCPS schools.

What school were you coming from? Kids at our JKLM bombed the ssat and isee. A large amount of the math was brand new to them. I know because I studied it with my child and it was all parents talked about. Our kids had never seen the concepts before.

What grade? The SSAT for middle school is the same test for 5th through 7th graders, so you would expect to see new stuff if you are a 5th grader, unless you are tracked to 7th grade math.

The 5th graders at our JKLM had never seen much the SSAT math before but it was the same for the ISEE. The kids all did badly, despite many having top PARCC scores.
I was the one who studied with my child and he/she had never seen a number of the concepts before (even for the ISEE which was normed to be a 4th/5th grade test).
None of us (parents) could figure out what went wrong in their math curriculum. These are smart kids, who have 4's in math and good if not great PARCC scores but who did horribly on the SSAT and ISEE without a signifiant amount of tutoring
and test prep. Many of the kids ended up taking the SSAT/ISEE 4 or 5 times to get their scores up!
It was eye opening and I'm still not sure why it happened. This is from one of the most popular JKLM schools.

SSAT is SO not hard. I've done quant sample with my 5th grade non-JKLM DCPS student who finished it without errors and 6 minutes to spare. You people are absurd.

huh. My JKLM student and classmates had never been taught a lot of what was on the test. In the fall of 5th they hadn't done any work with negative numbers, fractions, etc.

Is this common, that JKLM students are not being taught negative numbers or fractions by 5th grade?

No. It is so far removed from reality that it has to be a troll.

not a troll and 4th grade. DC scored nearly perfect on PARCC too. just not a big deal. Finished 1/2 test eyeballing without even writing anything down.

If your child is scoring 100% on the middle level (5th-7th grade) SSAT in 4th grade with one eye closed and half the time you have an prodigy math genius on your hands.
SSAT score reports used to come with a predictive SAT score. A perfect or even 99% on the math SSAT is predictive of a 790-800 math SAT. If your child is doing it in half the time and a
grade level early you are looking at a 800 SAT by 8th grade.

PP - not a prodigy but very strong. could score very high on SAT if works hard. has lots of time to develop. just not going to stress out a 10 year old over this stuff.

[Anonymous]

NP here. My child is in upper elementary at MCPS and I purchased an ISEE practice book trying to familiarize him with potential G&T test questions. From what I've seen, there's no way an MCPS fourth-grader (or most fifth-graders, for that matter, unless you tutor or supplement) can do well on the math portion since the material simply hasn't been covered. The language part seems to be easier if you have an advanced reader with a large vocabulary and a decent grasp of grammar. But math - hell, no!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh this is really fascinating!

The stuff on the SSAT is all 6th grade common core stuff. (or at least 50%) of it.
DCPS students (unless their parents teach them) have just never seen these concepts (which is why they all need tutoring to take the SSAT by mom and dad or an outside tutor OR they were informally tutored all along by their parents).


Spring of 5th grade concepts (taught after the kids take the SSAT):

-Summarize and describe distribution (i.e. making a line plot---have yet to learn this in class and we're in March)
-Graph points on the coordinate plane to solve real-world and mathematical problems. (introduction of the axis----my 5th grader has yet to learn this in class and we're in March)


6th grade common core concepts (at total list). These are all over the SSAT. Essentially this is the lower level SSAT which kids take to enter 6th grade. Except Common core doesn't introduce any of them until 6th.


-Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
-Apply and extend previous understandings of multiplication and division to divide fractions by fractions.
-Compute fluently with multi-digit numbers and find common factors and multiples.
-Apply and extend previous understandings of numbers to the system of rational numbers. (i.e. the first time negative numbers are taught!)
-Apply and extend previous understandings of arithmetic to algebraic expressions.
-Reason about and solve one-variable equations and inequalities.
-Represent and analyze quantitative relationships between dependent and independent variables.
-Solve real-world and mathematical problems involving area, surface area, and volume.
-Statistics and probability: Develop understanding of statistical variability.
-Statistics and probability: Summarize and describe distributions.

The SSAT is full of probability questions. These were completely new to my DCPS 5th grader.

People, the SSAT for middle school covers 5th through 7th graders -- of course, it has material new to a 5th grader.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?

It doesn't translate that way, but also the tests do not align -- PARCC is testing a grade level, middle school SSAT is testing a range of grades (5-7). For high school, our DC did very little prep; never even took a full practice test. The SSAT scores were completely consistent with DC's top PARCC scores. DC got no rejections. Actually, DC did better on the SSAT than on the ELA part of the PARCC and thought the SSAT was easier than PARCC. There was nothing in the math part of the SSAT that DC had not learned in school, so the score there was pure test performance. There was no knowledge gap. I will add that in the interviews, ADs consistently had enthusiastic comments about their experiences with kids admitted from DCPS schools.

What school were you coming from? Kids at our JKLM bombed the ssat and isee. A large amount of the math was brand new to them. I know because I studied it with my child and it was all parents talked about. Our kids had never seen the concepts before.

What grade? The SSAT for middle school is the same test for 5th through 7th graders, so you would expect to see new stuff if you are a 5th grader, unless you are tracked to 7th grade math.

The 5th graders at our JKLM had never seen much the SSAT math before but it was the same for the ISEE. The kids all did badly, despite many having top PARCC scores.
I was the one who studied with my child and he/she had never seen a number of the concepts before (even for the ISEE which was normed to be a 4th/5th grade test).
None of us (parents) could figure out what went wrong in their math curriculum. These are smart kids, who have 4's in math and good if not great PARCC scores but who did horribly on the SSAT and ISEE without a signifiant amount of tutoring
and test prep. Many of the kids ended up taking the SSAT/ISEE 4 or 5 times to get their scores up!
It was eye opening and I'm still not sure why it happened. This is from one of the most popular JKLM schools.

SSAT is SO not hard. I've done quant sample with my 5th grade non-JKLM DCPS student who finished it without errors and 6 minutes to spare. You people are absurd.

huh. My JKLM student and classmates had never been taught a lot of what was on the test. In the fall of 5th they hadn't done any work with negative numbers, fractions, etc.

Is this common, that JKLM students are not being taught negative numbers or fractions by 5th grade?

No. It is so far removed from reality that it has to be a troll.

not a troll and 4th grade. DC scored nearly perfect on PARCC too. just not a big deal. Finished 1/2 test eyeballing without even writing anything down.

Not you, the one who claims her kid didn't learn fractions in 4th grade.

[Anonymous]

So a EOTP ES made fun of in this thread definitely had a 5th grader get into a Big 3 for MS this year w/ worse objective stats than OP is describing. (White girl w/ no family connection.) I am NOT saying this to insult OP, but I actually do wonder if your kid somehow rubbed interviewers the wrong way. Any chance s/he tanked the interview because s/he didn't want to leave his/her friends? I know a family that happened to.

[Anonymous]

So a EOTP ES made fun of in this thread definitely had a 5th grader get into a Big 3 for MS this year w/ worse objective stats than OP is describing. (White girl w/ no family connection.) I am NOT saying this to insult OP, but I actually do wonder if your kid somehow rubbed interviewers the wrong way. Any chance s/he tanked the interview because s/he didn't want to leave his/her friends? I know a family that happened to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So a EOTP ES made fun of in this thread definitely had a 5th grader get into a Big 3 for MS this year w/ worse objective stats than OP is describing. (White girl w/ no family connection.) I am NOT saying this to insult OP, but I actually do wonder if your kid somehow rubbed interviewers the wrong way. Any chance s/he tanked the interview because s/he didn't want to leave his/her friends? I know a family that happened to.

OP here.
So after school today parents were talking more. Many kids with as good as or better scores than mine didn't get in either. Really lovely, well spoken, kind, well-rounded kids. It's just a numbers game and the odds are really bad at the moment (so many kids applying).

I am putting this to rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not unhappy with DCPS, but my sixth grader has not learned to take notes. No textbooks, so study skills aren't applicable.

Well, depends on the school. My third grader at charter is great at taking notes and study skills.

[Anonymous]

They use the same SSAT math section for grade groupings, so you shouldn't freak out if you kids haven't seen what's on the test. The schools know how to interpret scores based on grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?

It doesn't translate that way, but also the tests do not align -- PARCC is testing a grade level, middle school SSAT is testing a range of grades (5-7). For high school, our DC did very little prep; never even took a full practice test. The SSAT scores were completely consistent with DC's top PARCC scores. DC got no rejections. Actually, DC did better on the SSAT than on the ELA part of the PARCC and thought the SSAT was easier than PARCC. There was nothing in the math part of the SSAT that DC had not learned in school, so the score there was pure test performance. There was no knowledge gap. I will add that in the interviews, ADs consistently had enthusiastic comments about their experiences with kids admitted from DCPS schools.

What school were you coming from? Kids at our JKLM bombed the ssat and isee. A large amount of the math was brand new to them. I know because I studied it with my child and it was all parents talked about. Our kids had never seen the concepts before.

What grade? The SSAT for middle school is the same test for 5th through 7th graders, so you would expect to see new stuff if you are a 5th grader, unless you are tracked to 7th grade math.

The 5th graders at our JKLM had never seen much the SSAT math before but it was the same for the ISEE. The kids all did badly, despite many having top PARCC scores.
I was the one who studied with my child and he/she had never seen a number of the concepts before (even for the ISEE which was normed to be a 4th/5th grade test).
None of us (parents) could figure out what went wrong in their math curriculum. These are smart kids, who have 4's in math and good if not great PARCC scores but who did horribly on the SSAT and ISEE without a signifiant amount of tutoring
and test prep. Many of the kids ended up taking the SSAT/ISEE 4 or 5 times to get their scores up!
It was eye opening and I'm still not sure why it happened. This is from one of the most popular JKLM schools.

SSAT is SO not hard. I've done quant sample with my 5th grade non-JKLM DCPS student who finished it without errors and 6 minutes to spare. You people are absurd.

huh. My JKLM student and classmates had never been taught a lot of what was on the test. In the fall of 5th they hadn't done any work with negative numbers, fractions, etc.

Is this common, that JKLM students are not being taught negative numbers or fractions by 5th grade?

No. It is so far removed from reality that it has to be a troll.

not a troll and 4th grade. DC scored nearly perfect on PARCC too. just not a big deal. Finished 1/2 test eyeballing without even writing anything down.

If your child is scoring 100% on the middle level (5th-7th grade) SSAT in 4th grade with one eye closed and half the time you have an prodigy math genius on your hands.
SSAT score reports used to come with a predictive SAT score. A perfect or even 99% on the math SSAT is predictive of a 790-800 math SAT. If your child is doing it in half the time and a
grade level early you are looking at a 800 SAT by 8th grade.

PP - not a prodigy but very strong. could score very high on SAT if works hard. has lots of time to develop. just not going to stress out a 10 year old over this stuff.

My kid got 93% SSAT for 9th grade and she didn’t work at all for the college SAT’s and ACT’s but she worked hard in school (private school) and her College scores were 99th percentile & that would be better. Point being is that if your kid gets a high SSAT score you can probably lay off as long as they work hard in school - that’s probably enough. No $5000 test prep class needed, your kids own brain is enough.