How different are various DCPS elementary schools in terms of curriculum/policies?

[Anonymous]

Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest.

Our family has experience at two different DCPS elementary schools and they are different. Reading is the same at both schools (fundations etc). Math is Eureka at both but the better one has more options for upward differentiation. Social studies, science and writing are dramatically better and way less screen time during the day.

24 schools is a lot! But I would highly recommend going to as many open houses as you can, looking at student work, and asking the principal "what do you offer that my current school doesn't." They know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest.

Might be helpful to post the schools you're most curious about in this thread and ask for only people with direct experience to weigh in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest.

Our family has experience at two different DCPS elementary schools and they are different. Reading is the same at both schools (fundations etc). Math is Eureka at both but the better one has more options for upward differentiation. Social studies, science and writing are dramatically better and way less screen time during the day.

24 schools is a lot! But I would highly recommend going to as many open houses as you can, looking at student work, and asking the principal "what do you offer that my current school doesn't." They know.

OP here. This is really, really helpful (though it makes my current conundrum worse). We do have two top picks that we'll definitely go to open houses for - maybe for the other 22, we just get a sitter for EdFest, each take 11 schools, and see if we can bang through all of them with some basic questions. Hopefully that gets us down to like 10ish schools (or puts us in a place where we're comfortable doing a second round of cuts based on commute), and that many open houses is probably reasonable over 2-3 months.

11 a person at EdFest seems nearly impossible though, even without the kids. It's three hours. You'd probably need five minutes to find each school. That gives you about 10 mins per school. That's TIGHT! Especially cause you'd have to be taking notes cause there's no way to internalize the information that fast.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest.

Might be helpful to post the schools you're most curious about in this thread and ask for only people with direct experience to weigh in.

OP here. I'm torn on this. I see your point, but I can search for each of these schools on DCUM and get people's feedback, and I worry if I post them here, it'll just turn into a debate about whether various schools are "good enough" which isn't really helpful to me. And, there isn't really anything people could say on DCUM anecdotally about the specific schools that would cause me to drop them from the list at this stage. Yes, DCUM feedback can be helpful as part of a holistic view of schools, but we're not at the holistic stage yet. So this is really a process question about building a short list.

[Anonymous]

Have you weighed likelihood of getting in via lottery? Or will you move?
(TBH: maybe you said you would move in your original post but it was quite long.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you weighed likelihood of getting in via lottery? Or will you move?
(TBH: maybe you said you would move in your original post but it was quite long.)

OP here. Yeah, brevity's not really my strong suit.

That's a good point. We will not move, and I haven't really considered that at this stage. For what it's worth, most of the schools on my list you'd have a good to great shot at in the lottery, though I've got a few Deal feeders and more competitive charters as well.

Not sure how I'd factor that in at this stage - lottery likelihood is (roughly) inversely related to academic quality (or at least test scores). I'll probably want some reaches on my final list in case we get a good numbers and will definitely want some safeties too. So it's hard to use this as an elimination factor at this stage.

[Anonymous]

OP here - sorry folks, I should have stuck with my initial instinct and not posted any school names, as we've immediately veered into "this one's best, don't do this one" which is not at all the point of this thread. I've reported the last four posts (two of which are mine) and asked Jeff to delete them so we can get back on track.

The question here is a process one:

When you have 24 schools on your potential list, how can you narrow when you've already considered commute, feeders, and baseline academics? I can't go to 24 open houses!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here - sorry folks, I should have stuck with my initial instinct and not posted any school names, as we've immediately veered into "this one's best, don't do this one" which is not at all the point of this thread. I've reported the last four posts (two of which are mine) and asked Jeff to delete them so we can get back on track.

The question here is a process one:

When you have 24 schools on your potential list, how can you narrow when you've already considered commute, feeders, and baseline academics? I can't go to 24 open houses!

And also generally: How do DCPS schools differ besides student body/test scores, feeder, and location? Are they very similar across the board in other respects?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here - sorry folks, I should have stuck with my initial instinct and not posted any school names, as we've immediately veered into "this one's best, don't do this one" which is not at all the point of this thread. I've reported the last four posts (two of which are mine) and asked Jeff to delete them so we can get back on track.

The question here is a process one:

When you have 24 schools on your potential list, how can you narrow when you've already considered commute, feeders, and baseline academics? I can't go to 24 open houses!

And also generally: How do DCPS schools differ besides student body/test scores, feeder, and location? Are they very similar across the board in other respects?

Teacher quality, admin quality, level of involvement of parents (reflected in PTA & LSAT & community events), extracurriculars offered/aftercare, etc, etc

I also don't think EdFest is that helpful. I think you need to go to open houses to really get a good sense of schools.

I know you don't want this post to get bogged down in individual folks' rankings of the schools... but I would recommend going through this forum and looking for trends. If schools are in your bottom 50% based on proximity/whatever other factors you care about AND this forum is majority negative, scratch them off the list. Although individual posters definitely have agendas, I think there is a lot of wisdom to be found in combing this forum for trends. (My school actually found our aftercare provider by trawling this forum for schools whose aftercares got positive reviews and we've been VERY pleased.)

[Anonymous]

I’d whittle down by teacher and principal turnover (lower is better), percentage of neighborhood kids attending (higher is better), and enrollment growth rate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d whittle down by teacher and principal turnover (lower is better), percentage of neighborhood kids attending (higher is better), and enrollment growth rate

Enrollment growth rate only matters in gentrifying schools that aren’t maxed out. It’s not a good measure at established schools or full schools.

[Anonymous]

Edfest is not helpful.

Open houses are extremely helpful and I've rearranged my list after several.

Look at academic growth scores ( shows how effective the teaching is) and limit your list by commute and feeder pattern. Honestly, the lists (like the US news ranking of elementary schools) is good. Ranking your list according to it would serve you well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d whittle down by teacher and principal turnover (lower is better), percentage of neighborhood kids attending (higher is better), and enrollment growth rate

I second looking at teacher retention rates. Any school with a high turnover I would cross off my list.

[Anonymous]

The big difference is that the rich area WOTP schools have PTAs that pay for extra teaching aides to be placed in the classrooms.