Is DCI a good school?

[Anonymous]

Just want to point out that DCI does seem to have tracking for many junior and senior classes though (High vs Standard Level), or am I misreading the course catalog?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids at DCI who get into the top universities would be getting into those schools regardless of their high school. I would attribute it more to the student and their personality/determination/academic excellence than DCI’s instruction.

DCI is a mediocre school, but for DC purposes, it is unfortunately one of the better public options.

This can be said for Latin, Basis or J-R.

This is exactly what I’m trying to figure out. Is there a real standout school among these or these 4 are about the same and you pick what’s best for you based on the distinct offerings at each.

The reason for the snark from the early posters is that there are many other threads asking this (or very similar) questions and there is not a clear cut answer (in large part because while some people do have experience in more than one of these schools, most people don't). So you get plenty of second-hand information, which is then filtered through the lens of this board. It's a difficult situation because certain choices foreclose the possibility of the other options in the future (i.e., if you choose DCI now you could move to Deal/JR later, but if you choose Deal now, you won't be able to switch back to DCI later). Also, there is enough differences in these schools (and in where they are located) that "good" for one family may not equal "good" for another. You've actually gotten some decently useful information here, but there really isn't anything that a poster can point to that can solve this problem for you (and certainly nothing that hasn't been rehashed several times already).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids at DCI who get into the top universities would be getting into those schools regardless of their high school. I would attribute it more to the student and their personality/determination/academic excellence than DCI’s instruction.

DCI is a mediocre school, but for DC purposes, it is unfortunately one of the better public options.

This can be said for Latin, Basis or J-R.

This is exactly what I’m trying to figure out. Is there a real standout school among these or these 4 are about the same and you pick what’s best for you based on the distinct offerings at each.

The reason for the snark from the early posters is that there are many other threads asking this (or very similar) questions and there is not a clear cut answer (in large part because while some people do have experience in more than one of these schools, most people don't). So you get plenty of second-hand information, which is then filtered through the lens of this board. It's a difficult situation because certain choices foreclose the possibility of the other options in the future (i.e., if you choose DCI now you could move to Deal/JR later, but if you choose Deal now, you won't be able to switch back to DCI later). Also, there is enough differences in these schools (and in where they are located) that "good" for one family may not equal "good" for another. You've actually gotten some decently useful information here, but there really isn't anything that a poster can point to that can solve this problem for you (and certainly nothing that hasn't been rehashed several times already).

This is re-hashed ad nauseum every week. There's snark and sarcasm because this is an anonymous message board--that will not change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just want to point out that DCI does seem to have tracking for many junior and senior classes though (High vs Standard Level), or am I misreading the course catalog?

IB Diploma classes taught at the Higher vs. Standard Level aren't exactly "tracked." The way the curriculum works is that must students take 3-4 IBD exams at the Higher Level and 2-3 at the Standard Level to earn the Diploma. The content isn't really easier at the Standard Level (comparable to AP Level work but not tested via multiple choice questions), there's just less of it than subjects taught at the Higher Level. It's not terribly difficult for students to learn low IBD passes, since the pass range is 25-45 points. Students pass each exam of six with 3-7 points, then can earn up to 3 more points for good work in the Theory of Knowledge (ToK) class senior year, and on the Extended Essay (long research paper). I haven't heard of any DCI senior who's scored more than around 36 points but perhaps somebody has. To my knowledge, DCI hasn't been seeing IBD points totals in the 40s.

[Anonymous]

The average worldwide IB score is around 30-33.

The average DCI score is below the worldwide average but some DCI students do beat the average.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for this helpful input.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The average worldwide IB score is around 30-33.

The average DCI score is below the worldwide average but some DCI students do beat the average.

This. Ignore the people who want DCI to have averages of high 30’s to 40’s.

I would also add that worldwide, the majority of IB schools are private or accessed by select group.

[Anonymous]

Parent of two students at DCI: one graduated, one graduating. It is an incredibly wonderful school! Diverse, extra curriculars, and the Diploma and Career programs offered to all. The language tracks are so good (mine were in Chinese). Our friend who is an admissions officer at a prestigious university said the combination of IB, years of foreign language (we were from a feeder) and a DC public charter school that is very diverse is extremely appealing to colleges. We never supplemented and have no friends whose kids had tutors or other supplementation that a previous poster tried to suggest is common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average worldwide IB score is around 30-33.

The average DCI score is below the worldwide average but some DCI students do beat the average.

This. Ignore the people who want DCI to have averages of high 30’s to 40’s.

I would also add that worldwide, the majority of IB schools are private or accessed by select group.

Source? Fact is, the majority of IB schools are public schools here in the US, not abroad, not private, not exactly accessed by "select group." What happens is that public IBD programs in this country are generally school-within-a-school programs catering to self-selecting advanced students, vs. to average students like at DCI. If you doubt this, look around in the DC burbs. IBD programs in this Metro area, like the nearest one in, at Washington-Liberty in Arlington, require pre-IBD students to have earned high grades to qualify to take Diploma classes in 11th and 12th grades. DCI's seems to have no standards for entry to IBD classes. It's IB for All. That's the problem, not DCI is a public school, or a DC school, or fairly new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two students at DCI: one graduated, one graduating. It is an incredibly wonderful school! Diverse, extra curriculars, and the Diploma and Career programs offered to all. The language tracks are so good (mine were in Chinese). Our friend who is an admissions officer at a prestigious university said the combination of IB, years of foreign language (we were from a feeder) and a DC public charter school that is very diverse is extremely appealing to colleges. We never supplemented and have no friends whose kids had tutors or other supplementation that a previous poster tried to suggest is common.

OK, so what did your kid score on IBD Mandarin? Let me guess, a 3 or 4 out of 7 at the Standard Level. If you never supplemented, your kid can't speak Chinese halfway decently, period.

[Anonymous]

If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The kids at DCI who get into the top universities would be getting into those schools regardless of their high school. I would attribute it more to the student and their personality/determination/academic excellence than DCI’s instruction.

DCI is a mediocre school, but for DC purposes, it is unfortunately one of the better public options.

This can be said for Latin, Basis or J-R.

This is exactly what I’m trying to figure out. Is there a real standout school among these or these 4 are about the same and you pick what’s best for you based on the distinct offerings at each.

Don't forget that there is a lottery, too. You either play for Latin/Basis in fourth grade, or have very little chance in fifth. Most people play the lottery, see if they get either Latin or Basis, then decide whether to stay at their school for fifth, then decide between DCI and Deal for sixth. You may not have as many options as you think you do.

[Anonymous]

I'm new to all this, and my kid is little so bear with me.

How does getting into DCI work?

I know there are feeder elementaries that are all immersion schools, which to me means most/all of those kids are fluent or nearly fluent. From my understanding, the feeder rights are a preference, not a guarantee. But then DCI also takes some kids from the lottery for both middle and high school. If that's the case, 1) wouldn't the preference essentially be a guarantee? They're not going to take any kids without a preference until all the kids with a preference have a seat, right? Are there some years where there hasn't been enough space. 2) The lottery is random. Wouldn't that mean kids coming in who have zero experience with the target language? How does that work? You can't teach 6th or 9th grade math in Chinese to a kid that doesn't know any Chinese, that's ludicrous. And you certainly can't have classes taught in Chinese where some of the kids are essentially fluent and some kids are just learning "hello, how are you?"

Is there some kind of proficiency test?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to all this, and my kid is little so bear with me.

How does getting into DCI work?

I know there are feeder elementaries that are all immersion schools, which to me means most/all of those kids are fluent or nearly fluent. From my understanding, the feeder rights are a preference, not a guarantee. But then DCI also takes some kids from the lottery for both middle and high school. If that's the case, 1) wouldn't the preference essentially be a guarantee? They're not going to take any kids without a preference until all the kids with a preference have a seat, right? Are there some years where there hasn't been enough space. 2) The lottery is random. Wouldn't that mean kids coming in who have zero experience with the target language? How does that work? You can't teach 6th or 9th grade math in Chinese to a kid that doesn't know any Chinese, that's ludicrous. And you certainly can't have classes taught in Chinese where some of the kids are essentially fluent and some kids are just learning "hello, how are you?"

Is there some kind of proficiency test?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

I believe that each feeder school gets x number of seats. Often, they have x number of students, and if 10% of them decline, then those become lottery seats for that language track. In future years, the x is actually lower than the number of feeder students, so a few of the feeder kids will be turned away, and there will be no lottery for that language track.

The new students don't need to have any prior familiarity with the language and will start from scratch. This is not ideal, especially for Chinese (but if the kid has been learning Chinese outside of school setting, they will take a placement test and be placed into whatever level they qualify for). The Spanish program takes very few kids this way. The French program is probably best bet.

DCI isn't a true immersion school. Once you are in a level 4 language class (presumably if you went to a feeder and are a decent student, that's where you should be), you can take one or two electives (or subjects like social studies) in the foreign language. Until then, you are only taking the language class, and there is no additional language support (though you may get assigned another language support elective, if you ask).

TLDR: if you are in a feeder and doing well with language, DCI will work better than if you're coming in without a language. (And as more and more YuYing kids do enroll at DCI, number of Chinese spots will decrease, so learning Chinese on your own in hopes of getting in is not a rational choice, unless kid was planning to learn it either way.) French is probably easier, especially if your kid is good in languages and/or has had exposure to another Romance language.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to all this, and my kid is little so bear with me.

How does getting into DCI work?

I know there are feeder elementaries that are all immersion schools, which to me means most/all of those kids are fluent or nearly fluent. From my understanding, the feeder rights are a preference, not a guarantee. But then DCI also takes some kids from the lottery for both middle and high school. If that's the case, 1) wouldn't the preference essentially be a guarantee? They're not going to take any kids without a preference until all the kids with a preference have a seat, right? Are there some years where there hasn't been enough space. 2) The lottery is random. Wouldn't that mean kids coming in who have zero experience with the target language? How does that work? You can't teach 6th or 9th grade math in Chinese to a kid that doesn't know any Chinese, that's ludicrous. And you certainly can't have classes taught in Chinese where some of the kids are essentially fluent and some kids are just learning "hello, how are you?"

Is there some kind of proficiency test?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

I believe that each feeder school gets x number of seats. Often, they have x number of students, and if 10% of them decline, then those become lottery seats for that language track. In future years, the x is actually lower than the number of feeder students, so a few of the feeder kids will be turned away, and there will be no lottery for that language track.

The new students don't need to have any prior familiarity with the language and will start from scratch. This is not ideal, especially for Chinese (but if the kid has been learning Chinese outside of school setting, they will take a placement test and be placed into whatever level they qualify for). The Spanish program takes very few kids this way. The French program is probably best bet.

DCI isn't a true immersion school. Once you are in a level 4 language class (presumably if you went to a feeder and are a decent student, that's where you should be), you can take one or two electives (or subjects like social studies) in the foreign language. Until then, you are only taking the language class, and there is no additional language support (though you may get assigned another language support elective, if you ask).

TLDR: if you are in a feeder and doing well with language, DCI will work better than if you're coming in without a language. (And as more and more YuYing kids do enroll at DCI, number of Chinese spots will decrease, so learning Chinese on your own in hopes of getting in is not a rational choice, unless kid was planning to learn it either way.) French is probably easier, especially if your kid is good in languages and/or has had exposure to another Romance language.

PP here - thank you so much, this makes sense. I think the key detail I was missing is that this isn't an immersion school. Everyone is taking most of their classes in English. Thank you!