List of schools for Pre-k3, will move to the area for k and 1st graders

[Anonymous]

JR is Jackson Reed high school. Be careful because some elementaries have recently been re-zoned to MacArthur, the new high school.

US News is likely counting PK4 as PK and not making a distinction between schools with PK3 and schools with PK4. Or USNews is just out of date.

Apple tree is done through the same lottery process as all the other schools I believe.

I suggested Inspired Teaching because you asked about charters and as a charter, it doesn't have a boundary. So you won't be ranked behind in-boundary applicants. It's a place where your kids can all get in, if one of them has a pretty good number. And it's in a lower housing cost area, does that matter?

As for reading proficiency, attend carefully to the at-risk percentages and ELL (English Language Learner) and special needs percentages of each school when you're judging performance. It's considered impolite to say you don't want a school with very many kids with special needs or low income etc., even if you actually feel that way. You'll fit in better in this left-leaning and policy-aware city if you're careful to be tactful about that. Inspired Teaching, for example, has far higher percentages than JR feeder schools do. And that correlates closely with various scores. Yes proficiency is higher in upper NW schools, but that doesn't necessarily mean the teaching is better, sometimes it just means the kids are an easier group because they have better support at home.

As for Virginia, different states report performance metrics differently so it's hard to compare. The definition of "proficient" varies by state. So it's hard to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools on your list do not offer PK3 at all. You might be able to get a free seat at a publicly funded preschool such as Communikids or Appletree, but there's no guarantee-- that just depends on your lottery number.

It seems like you don't quite understand how the lottery works in practice. For DCPS schools that have a boundary, your older two children will have the right to attend if you live there, no lottery needed. If you enrolled one or both of your older kids, that would cause your PK3 to have sibling preference and maybe get in, or maybe still not get in. Your PK3 will likely not get into a "good" school without that sibling preference, because the lottery is much, much easier for older kids. So it's more likely that one of your older kids would get in by the lottery and then pull in your younger kid. You can lottery for any kid in any grade, it's not just for preschool.

If you want a school that is "good" (which I guess means high test scores in your view?) and that all of your kids can get into, including your PK3, that's going to be very hard to find. If a school is "good", it will have many PK3 applicants and will not be able to serve them all.

Having said that, I would suggest you look at Brent, Maury, Ludlow-Taylor, and Seaton. For Montessori, look at Lee, that's really the only Montessori option if you want a well-functioning school that isn't teaching a language. Inspired Teaching is a pretty good school with strong reading and phonics, and you could have all your kids there through 8th. I wouldn't recommend Two Rivers at all.

Thanks for pointing that out. It looks like there was some kind of error on the school finder, because they were showing up when PK3 was selected when I searched before...but I just searched again and I see those schools are not listed. They're listed on usnews as starting with PK so that's confusing. I'm trying to figure out the lottery, and we're in a unique situation since we're military and don't live in DC yet. They will not have sibling preference, but as I understand, PK is the hardest to get into, so I'm entering the lottery mainly for my youngest. I'll apply for the older kids, too, so if they get accepted, maybe we can apply and try for our PK3 to get in after the first pick with sibling preference. But that seems really unlikely. Worth a try, anyway. We will arrive after the lottery closes, so we can choose our neighborhood off of that, guaranteeing a spot for my older kids. This is all "allowed" since we are military.

We want a school that is good, and the criteria to find that has been difficult. Test scores are one of the tangible measures I can find. I can't see sending my kids to schools with low (and some are scary low compared to NW and VA) test scores. I understand the challenge of getting my PK3 into a "good" school (subjective but not really), and I will apply and see what happens. Maybe we'll get lucky.

No, you won't get lucky, at schools that have a boundary. The PK3 class will fill with in-boundary students who are siblings of current students and have good lottery numbers. The in-boundary siblings with bad lottery numbers will be placed on the wait-list. Your child, even with the best lottery number ever, will be placed on the wait-list behind all the in-boundary siblings, even those with bad lottery numbers, and most of them will not get in. There is no amount of luck that can change that. Some of the schools also offer a preference for low-income kids. Really try to understand it ain't gonna happen. At a school with no boundary, that's where you can get lucky.

[Anonymous]

Everyone is guaranteed a spot for K and up at their in-boundary school. It's not a special rule for military. It's how the city fulfills its obligation to educate all kids who live here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is guaranteed a spot for K and up at their in-boundary school. It's not a special rule for military. It's how the city fulfills its obligation to educate all kids who live here.

Applying for the lottery without living there is a special rule for the military. We are fortunate because we can participate and if we happen to get a spot, we can move to the area and become IB for my older 2, guaranteeing them a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is guaranteed a spot for K and up at their in-boundary school. It's not a special rule for military. It's how the city fulfills its obligation to educate all kids who live here.

Applying for the lottery without living there is a special rule for the military. We are fortunate because we can participate and if we happen to get a spot, we can move to the area and become IB for my older 2, guaranteeing them a spot.

I don't get what's special about this. Anyone can lottery and then move IB for a school. Even if they don't get a spot in the lottery, anyone can move here at any time. Are you sure you fully understand this special rule? Do you mean it's an extension of the enrollment deadline?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
No, you won't get lucky, at schools that have a boundary. The PK3 class will fill with in-boundary students who are siblings of current students and have good lottery numbers. The in-boundary siblings with bad lottery numbers will be placed on the wait-list. Your child, even with the best lottery number ever, will be placed on the wait-list behind all the in-boundary siblings, even those with bad lottery numbers, and most of them will not get in. There is no amount of luck that can change that. Some of the schools also offer a preference for low-income kids. Really try to understand it ain't gonna happen. At a school with no boundary, that's where you can get lucky.

Good to know the order of preferences. School with no boundary - are these charter schools? What's the best way to find a list of these? Seems like they're all mixed together on the DC boundary site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, you won't get lucky, at schools that have a boundary. The PK3 class will fill with in-boundary students who are siblings of current students and have good lottery numbers. The in-boundary siblings with bad lottery numbers will be placed on the wait-list. Your child, even with the best lottery number ever, will be placed on the wait-list behind all the in-boundary siblings, even those with bad lottery numbers, and most of them will not get in. There is no amount of luck that can change that. Some of the schools also offer a preference for low-income kids. Really try to understand it ain't gonna happen. At a school with no boundary, that's where you can get lucky.

Good to know the order of preferences. School with no boundary - are these charter schools? What's the best way to find a list of these? Seems like they're all mixed together on the DC boundary site.

Charter schools have no boundary. There are a few DCPS schools with no boundary, but the only one you would like is School Within School.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, you won't get lucky, at schools that have a boundary. The PK3 class will fill with in-boundary students who are siblings of current students and have good lottery numbers. The in-boundary siblings with bad lottery numbers will be placed on the wait-list. Your child, even with the best lottery number ever, will be placed on the wait-list behind all the in-boundary siblings, even those with bad lottery numbers, and most of them will not get in. There is no amount of luck that can change that. Some of the schools also offer a preference for low-income kids. Really try to understand it ain't gonna happen. At a school with no boundary, that's where you can get lucky.

Good to know the order of preferences. School with no boundary - are these charter schools? What's the best way to find a list of these? Seems like they're all mixed together on the DC boundary site.

Charter schools have no boundary. There are a few DCPS schools with no boundary, but the only one you would like is School Within School.

Actually there is also Military Road Early Learning Center and Francis Stevens Early Learning Center, those are DCPS preschools with no boundary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello! I made an earlier post about a lottery and you all were so helpful for making a strategy for my 3 kids, PK3, K, and 1st. We are military and not in the area yet so nothing is IB for us yet. My husband will be McNair for a year, and then likely the Pentagon for a few years, and we'll likely leave and come back to the area, and at some point, for good. For short term purposes and Dec 11th DC lottery application, my plan is to apply for the PK3 schools that I would like all 3 kids to attend, and then move IB so my K and 1st grader can go there, too. I'm having a difficult time/getting overwhelmed with the list, and hoping for some feedback from you all. For long term purposes, it seems like anything feeder into JR is the way to go, and I don't really know much about that. Since we come in and out of the area, it'd be nice for my kids to see familiar faces and friends when we come back.

I'm gathering "good/best" schools are NW and I realize will be difficult to get to, but I'd like to at least try. I understand my husband will have a longer commute, but he's looking at 30+ mins if we go to VA, so it's fine. We both have a desire to live in DC, as long as we can find good schools for our kids.

Here are some of the schools I'm looking at, but nothing is final yet (hoping to do that with feedback from you all).

- Hyde-Addison
- Key Elementary
- Janney
- Mann
- Lafayette
- Murch
- Hearst
- Eaton
- Stoddert
- Are there any charter schools I should add on here? Maybe some Montessori schools? I saw the other methods but unsure of the pros/cons of them in actuality. On the website, they all seem nice.
- We are interested in immersion schools, but only in Japanese or Korean, which it appears are not offered in DC. I thought about adding the chinese schools to the list since the language is somewhat loosely related, but I think it'd probably be better just to have my kids in after school language classes for our preferred language.
- My main focus is for them to learn reading and writing english by the science of reading. I understand VA passed some law that mandates this statewide, but I don't know how DC teaches kids how to read. High literacy/reading assessment scores is important for the schools we're looking at.

I can't get a good sense about Capital Hill vs. NW schools vs. Arlington Schools. It seems NW schools are on par with Arlington Schools, but are Capital Hill schools, too? This is all public, we cannot afford private.

I understand Amidon Bowen and Van Ness are closer, but the test scores just seem really low to list them at all, it seems like going to Arlington schools would be better, although we'd have to trade off city living. I have nothing else to go off of so please tell me if I'm wrong here.

Is your plan to apply as though you're IB? You need to list an address, so while you can change it after-the-fact as long as your new address at enrollment is still IB, you can only apply as IB for one school. None of the schools on your list have PK3 at all; the good Hill schools do, but you only have any chance at the one you apply as IB for, since none of them (Maury/Brent/Ludlow-Taylor) take OOB PK3ers. So, ultimately, if you're set on PK3, you can pick one of those 3 Hill schools, add any charters or citywide DCPSes you're interested in, and then add the schools you like most that take any OOB PK3ers at all. You may decide not to let PK3 drive everything...

This is very wise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
No, you won't get lucky, at schools that have a boundary. The PK3 class will fill with in-boundary students who are siblings of current students and have good lottery numbers. The in-boundary siblings with bad lottery numbers will be placed on the wait-list. Your child, even with the best lottery number ever, will be placed on the wait-list behind all the in-boundary siblings, even those with bad lottery numbers, and most of them will not get in. There is no amount of luck that can change that. Some of the schools also offer a preference for low-income kids. Really try to understand it ain't gonna happen. At a school with no boundary, that's where you can get lucky.

Good to know the order of preferences. School with no boundary - are these charter schools? What's the best way to find a list of these? Seems like they're all mixed together on the DC boundary site.

Charter schools have no boundary. There are a few DCPS schools with no boundary, but the only one you would like is School Within School.

Actually there is also Military Road Early Learning Center and Francis Stevens Early Learning Center, those are DCPS preschools with no boundary.

Yes but these don't allow all three kids to go to the same school. And it's Stevens Early Learning Center. Francis Stevens is a different school. It's a nice school, but if OP only wants schools that feed to Jackson Reed and offer PK3, she's going to have to do Hyde-Addison or Shepherd and would be best served by signing a lease in-bounds for one of them that starts by May 1. It's probably the same price to do that as it would be to pay for a year of PreK in Arlington though, so she might just want to move there this summer and save herself some hassle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is guaranteed a spot for K and up at their in-boundary school. It's not a special rule for military. It's how the city fulfills its obligation to educate all kids who live here.

Applying for the lottery without living there is a special rule for the military. We are fortunate because we can participate and if we happen to get a spot, we can move to the area and become IB for my older 2, guaranteeing them a spot.

I don't get what's special about this. Anyone can lottery and then move IB for a school. Even if they don't get a spot in the lottery, anyone can move here at any time. Are you sure you fully understand this special rule? Do you mean it's an extension of the enrollment deadline?

As far as I understand, if you do not live in DC during the lottery, you cannot participate in the lottery. If that were the case, everyone from VA, MD, and anywhere could apply and move if they got a spot. The exception to this is active duty military families with official orders to the area can participate in the lottery without living IN DC. We currently live in Japan, and will until after the lottery closes. Normally we would not be eligible, except that we are active duty with orders to the area. But this obviously doesn't apply to you, and at this point and probably 3 posts ago, continuing this isn't helpful to either one of us. If you're interested in learning more, check out the DC military resources, which defines this better and more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's literally zero benefit to filing the application early. And you can revise your application as many times as you want. Between December and March, something could happen to change your opinions.

There's a benefit to me, personally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's literally zero benefit to filing the application early. And you can revise your application as many times as you want. Between December and March, something could happen to change your opinions.

There's a benefit to me, personally.

Ok, but DCPS is engaged in its every-10-years boundary and feeder pattern review and may make some big changes to schools on your list. Some JR feeders might be sent to other high schools. Maury could also be affected in a big way. So you really might want to pay attention through the winter if having a JR feed is important to you.

[Anonymous]

I’m the Amidon-Bowen parent who posted on your other thread. While I see you’ve determined it’s not “good” enough I will say I’ve found it to be a good school for PK — kids get the same quality of education they do in other parts of the city — and that parents I know with mid-elementary kids show no interest in leaving. I would be more concerned with school quality if we were staying in DC through middle/high school but for elementary I’m personally less worried about the cumulative test scores and more concerned about engaged teachers and solid community and I’ve found that at Amidon-Bowen. Just throwing that out there for you to consider. There are other families from the fort there I know so you might also be able to get an opinion from someone more trustworthy than an internet rando by asking around that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone is guaranteed a spot for K and up at their in-boundary school. It's not a special rule for military. It's how the city fulfills its obligation to educate all kids who live here.

Applying for the lottery without living there is a special rule for the military. We are fortunate because we can participate and if we happen to get a spot, we can move to the area and become IB for my older 2, guaranteeing them a spot.

I don't get what's special about this. Anyone can lottery and then move IB for a school. Even if they don't get a spot in the lottery, anyone can move here at any time. Are you sure you fully understand this special rule? Do you mean it's an extension of the enrollment deadline?

As far as I understand, if you do not live in DC during the lottery, you cannot participate in the lottery. If that were the case, everyone from VA, MD, and anywhere could apply and move if they got a spot. The exception to this is active duty military families with official orders to the area can participate in the lottery without living IN DC. We currently live in Japan, and will until after the lottery closes. Normally we would not be eligible, except that we are active duty with orders to the area. But this obviously doesn't apply to you, and at this point and probably 3 posts ago, continuing this isn't helpful to either one of us. If you're interested in learning more, check out the DC military resources, which defines this better and more

I think anyone can apply to the lottery and move if they get a spot. It's even legal to lottery and attend a DC school and pay tuition for it if you live outside DC, under certain circumstances. https://dcps.dc.gov/page/non-resident-school-enrollment

I think what you have is an extension of time to prove residency in DC and enroll. You're right that it doesn't apply to me-- I'm bringing this up to you because it's important for your lottery strategy that you accurately understand your rights as a military family.