Post lottery thoughts - Diversity focused
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Anonymous
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DCB vs YuYing vs Ludlow vs Maury
More discussions amongst other parents we know post lottery, and was curious of community thoughts on these schools; some trying to discern whether to try to stay inbounds rankingswise or prioritize the charter route; all non-yt; AA, latino, some mixed ethnicity: Maury: a few parents are inbound for Maury(K); Is the environment as exclusionary(clique-ish) as it seems from other posts? Would it be a school to avoid if youre a POC(AA, latino) or would potentially the level of academic instruction override the lack of diversity if you have an opportunity to attend the school? Ludlow: Others are inbound for ludlow; Seems similar to Maury, less academic, more "fun"? Huge playground and field and seems to have a ton of enrichment afterschools; Seems to have a diverse teacher group, whereas Maury does not. However, based on test scores, AA students dont seem to perform well there at all. YuYing: Main issue seems to be with a perceived lack of communication with the school? From other threads, some have reported a persistent lack of consistent communication with school staff. How is the environment overall? Academics seem just ok? Any specific thoughts on how happy kids seem here, how inclusive does the environment appear?, how collaborative do the parents seem? DCB: Seems to be the most balanced of all schools listed, with the main and maybe only issue being the rough dropoff? any other notable issues with DCB? If you were looking for a solid or strong academic school (though play based for ECE), warm, fun environment with good school leadership, parent groups that seem welcoming.. without factoring the language aspect.. how would you rank these schools(pk3-5)? |
Anonymous
| I would not commute to DCB or Yu Ying if I am inbounds for Maury. Maybe MVP. Also, you can go back to your inbounds school at any time so if one of the charters sound worth it give it a shot and you can always return to your home school. |
Anonymous
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Can’t speak to DCB and YY because despite initial interest, we very quickly ruled them out due to the commute. Even if they had the most magical play-based ECE (I don’t know if they do), we realized kiddo would spend a big chunk of the day in traffic, not really to run around and explore. We would rather try a school that’s closer and maybe instead of leaving early for a long commute, we can spend 20 min at the neighborhood playground/park and get the essential outdoor play time that soooooo many of these schools just don’t seem to prioritize.
As for LT and Maury, we’re in bounds for one of these and hoping to join eventually as a non-yt family. On the Hill for almost 10 years and know families at both. Both LT and Maury have involved parents and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I am sure if you go looking for it you’ll encounter (yt) parents with less than ideal attitude about their precious school, but I don’t think they necessarily define the school. They’re large enough schools. For additional context, I went to a very yt school for middle and am sensitive to this because yes I saw and experienced some things that I wouldn’t want my kid to deal with. But even Maury is more like 60%(?) and if that’s the school we have a right to, and is good with resources and the dream of an easy walking drop-off, I wouldn’t run away from it for fear my kid can’t handle or would be impacted by what I experienced in a ~90% school – or that there might be a few vocal parents with different values among what otherwise is a close-knit community of people who are living their lives and caring for their kids. |
Anonymous
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My main focus this lottery season was getting my kids away from the unmanageably high at-risk population at their current school, so my focus has been more on a low at-risk population, nice facilities, and commute, as opposed to getting super concerned about the racial demographics in isolation. All these schools are pretty diverse. My kids are biracial (black mom/white dad) for what it’s worth. Here was my top 5:
SWS Maury Brent Ludlow-Taylor Yu Ying DCB was never an option for us. Too far. YY had a pricey bus from the Hill to make it theoretically doable. |
Anonymous
According to the EmpowerK12 data, LT has *the* highest performing Hispanic ES children in the city (in math, it's 93% 4+ vs 78% at Maury, which is #2; in ELA, it's 93% vs 80% at Mann, which is #2); the multiracial data is also very good, though EmpowerK12 doesn't include it, so you need to go to the spreadsheet itself. So it's not that non-white children aren't doing well, it's that AA children aren't. My guess is that this is explained mostly by SES rather than race, because LT's socioeconomically disadvantaged kids perform particularly badly and its non-socioeconomically disadvantaged kids perform particularly well. I think that's the actual explanatory variable and race happens to cut across that. That is, most Hispanic kids at LT are UMC kids (who are IB), as are a high percentage of the multiracial kids (including kids that are part AA), which is not true in many other places in the city which have MC/LMC Hispanic populations; on the other hand, the majority of AA kids at LT are economically disadvantaged, which is not the case at some other schools. I don't say this as any kind of value judgment and it's not a good thing that economically disadvantaged kids at LT aren't doing better, but I think that's actually what's happening. Certainly, even in a vacuum, non-White non-AA kids are doing great at LT academically. |
Anonymous
I cannot imagine being IB for Maury or LT and trekking to YY or DCB unless immersion was a MASSIVE priority. Adding a long commute and losing neighborhood friends are definitely not counterbalanced for me by a slightly different flavor of diverse school community. Because, honestly, all of these schools are pretty diverse (especially by DC standards). |
Anonymous
Brent is in a swing space that is a long commute from the Hill and has not good facilities for at least another year, FYSA. |
Anonymous
Yes, I visited the swing space and thought it was fine for what it is. The principal did a great job selling the school at the open house I attended, and the undesirability of the swing space situation will hopefully increase our odds of matching or getting off of the waitlist. I’m willing to deal with all of that for a year if the end result is gaining access to a very good school community in a brand new building that’s right on our regular commute route to boot. |
Anonymous
OP Here; I think you kinda nailed it and also thank you for all of the replies! Essentially, it seems some parents considering YY and DCB are inbound for not great schools and looking forward to the immersion aspect and pseudo diversity, while the Maury and L-T parents seem somewhat pensive about the classroom demographics and some of the issues that could come along with that. I think the advice of trying out the inbound school and pivoting elsewhere if needed, is probably a sound one. |