Any schools Waitlist data shock you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Mundo. I remember one year my DD had a number greater than 150.

Yes, we never got close to getting in there. I guess bad word of mouth can take its toll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CapCity Lower School used to have a waitlist 100+ for PK3.

This year it was single digita.

CapCity is extremely close to my house and I toured it this year looking for PK3. After touring and looking at its performance data (especially its subgroup data!!), we chose not to include it on our list nothwithstanding its super convenient location. I was particularly concerned about how (whether?) CapCity is currently teaching math*, and it just didn't seem like a great environment to me... so I am not shocked at the short waitlist and think CC is going to have a really hard time filling their PK3 class this year with that short a waitlist to draw from when matched families opt out. We know a couple families in our neighborhood who matched with CC for PK3, but have decent waitlist numbers at other schools that they are much more interested in.

*Yes, I know that doesn't necessarily matter for PK3, but why start at a school you know you are not going to want your kid to continue in after PK if you have better options in the meantime? We had enough "safety" schools on our list that we were confident we were going to get something else we would be happier with for PK3 and beyond, even if we got a crappy lottery number, and we were right on all accounts. (We did get a crappy lottery number and still got into a school that we are much more excited about than CC.)

I have also heard their COVID response was bad. Not to get political or anything, not the point. That type of information spreading I am sure did not help them, though.

Where did you end up getting in for PK3 if you live by Cap? Sela? Whittier?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mundo. I remember one year my DD had a number greater than 150.

Yes, we never got close to getting in there. I guess bad word of mouth can take its toll.

It used to be 300+ for PK3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers middle. Seems like they're expecting a lot of kids to leave.

Two Rivers Middle is half empty. They've closed two classes already.

What do you mean by "closed two classes"?

They went down a classroom in two middle school grades this year relative to last year.

WOW. Is that a sustainable business model?? That's a big space for such minimal enrollment.

#blessed that we got out of TR before 5th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CapCity Lower School used to have a waitlist 100+ for PK3.

This year it was single digita.

CapCity is extremely close to my house and I toured it this year looking for PK3. After touring and looking at its performance data (especially its subgroup data!!), we chose not to include it on our list nothwithstanding its super convenient location. I was particularly concerned about how (whether?) CapCity is currently teaching math*, and it just didn't seem like a great environment to me... so I am not shocked at the short waitlist and think CC is going to have a really hard time filling their PK3 class this year with that short a waitlist to draw from when matched families opt out. We know a couple families in our neighborhood who matched with CC for PK3, but have decent waitlist numbers at other schools that they are much more interested in.

*Yes, I know that doesn't necessarily matter for PK3, but why start at a school you know you are not going to want your kid to continue in after PK if you have better options in the meantime? We had enough "safety" schools on our list that we were confident we were going to get something else we would be happier with for PK3 and beyond, even if we got a crappy lottery number, and we were right on all accounts. (We did get a crappy lottery number and still got into a school that we are much more excited about than CC.)

I have also heard their COVID response was bad. Not to get political or anything, not the point. That type of information spreading I am sure did not help them, though.

Where did you end up getting in for PK3 if you live by Cap? Sela? Whittier?

I think this is a major signifier of a school's decline. Poor COVID response, minimal in-person instruction appears to have had disastrous effects for many DC charters, even four years later (TR, looking at you).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mundo. I remember one year my DD had a number greater than 150.

Yes, we never got close to getting in there. I guess bad word of mouth can take its toll.

It used to be 300+ for PK3.

Looks like upper elementary at MVP seems to have ticked up slightly over last year, which is a shift from falling waitlist numbers year over year. Wondering if it was a middle school backup option for families after the Latins and Basis, and fewer kids in at those schools means more showing up on the waitlists at the backup schools they ranked lower. Hopefully they're heritage speakers or coming from another bilingual school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CapCity Lower School used to have a waitlist 100+ for PK3.

This year it was single digita.

CapCity is extremely close to my house and I toured it this year looking for PK3. After touring and looking at its performance data (especially its subgroup data!!), we chose not to include it on our list nothwithstanding its super convenient location. I was particularly concerned about how (whether?) CapCity is currently teaching math*, and it just didn't seem like a great environment to me... so I am not shocked at the short waitlist and think CC is going to have a really hard time filling their PK3 class this year with that short a waitlist to draw from when matched families opt out. We know a couple families in our neighborhood who matched with CC for PK3, but have decent waitlist numbers at other schools that they are much more interested in.

*Yes, I know that doesn't necessarily matter for PK3, but why start at a school you know you are not going to want your kid to continue in after PK if you have better options in the meantime? We had enough "safety" schools on our list that we were confident we were going to get something else we would be happier with for PK3 and beyond, even if we got a crappy lottery number, and we were right on all accounts. (We did get a crappy lottery number and still got into a school that we are much more excited about than CC.)

I have also heard their COVID response was bad. Not to get political or anything, not the point. That type of information spreading I am sure did not help them, though.

Where did you end up getting in for PK3 if you live by Cap? Sela? Whittier?

We didn’t put Sela on our list. We toured it, but didn’t love it for our kid (it seems like a decent school, just not a good fit for my specific child). We liked Dorothy Height more than Whittier *for PK*, so we ranked it higher and that ended up being our match.

We may switch over to Whittier (IB for us) for K and beyond though…we’ll see how things are going for my kid academically at Height. Whittier seems to have better academics overall, but the swing space situation was undetermined on the lottery due date and we like Height’s Reggio Emilia PK focus. Tbh, we felt like we had a bunch of really excellent options for PK and it was hard to choose between Height, Whittier, and a couple other schools we thought we’d have a good shot at getting into (even without a great lottery number)… but CapCity was off the table for us as soon as we toured and I feel zero regret about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers middle. Seems like they're expecting a lot of kids to leave.

Two Rivers Middle is half empty. They've closed two classes already.

Yes, this surprised me also, but not really. TR is general appears to be in free fall--the Young ES campus will likely clear their wait lists for all their grades.
I understand that there's new leadership in place--but it will take strong leadership a few years to turn the corner and course correct after years of mismanagement.

It's going to get worse for TR4th. JO Wilson has waitlists for every grade (albeit short ones for elementary grades, but waitlists nonetheless) for the first time ever, despite the fact that they are moving into a swing space next year. That new campus will be ready by fall 2026 and people are enthusiastic. I actually know several people currently at JOW who looked at TR for the lottery because they are nonplussed about bussing kids to the swing space for a year and a half (understandable) and only one of them is actually enthusiastic about it as an option -- the other two were hoping for Ludlow spots (good luck) and will stay at JOW if they don't get them. And the one family who will likely switch to TR has an upper grade kid (who won't benefit from the new campus).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CapCity Lower School used to have a waitlist 100+ for PK3.

This year it was single digita.

CapCity is extremely close to my house and I toured it this year looking for PK3. After touring and looking at its performance data (especially its subgroup data!!), we chose not to include it on our list nothwithstanding its super convenient location. I was particularly concerned about how (whether?) CapCity is currently teaching math*, and it just didn't seem like a great environment to me... so I am not shocked at the short waitlist and think CC is going to have a really hard time filling their PK3 class this year with that short a waitlist to draw from when matched families opt out. We know a couple families in our neighborhood who matched with CC for PK3, but have decent waitlist numbers at other schools that they are much more interested in.

*Yes, I know that doesn't necessarily matter for PK3, but why start at a school you know you are not going to want your kid to continue in after PK if you have better options in the meantime? We had enough "safety" schools on our list that we were confident we were going to get something else we would be happier with for PK3 and beyond, even if we got a crappy lottery number, and we were right on all accounts. (We did get a crappy lottery number and still got into a school that we are much more excited about than CC.)

I have also heard their COVID response was bad. Not to get political or anything, not the point. That type of information spreading I am sure did not help them, though.

Where did you end up getting in for PK3 if you live by Cap? Sela? Whittier?

We didn’t put Sela on our list. We toured it, but didn’t love it for our kid (it seems like a decent school, just not a good fit for my specific child). We liked Dorothy Height more than Whittier *for PK*, so we ranked it higher and that ended up being our match.

We may switch over to Whittier (IB for us) for K and beyond though…we’ll see how things are going for my kid academically at Height. Whittier seems to have better academics overall, but the swing space situation was undetermined on the lottery due date and we like Height’s Reggio Emilia PK focus. Tbh, we felt like we had a bunch of really excellent options for PK and it was hard to choose between Height, Whittier, and a couple other schools we thought we’d have a good shot at getting into (even without a great lottery number)… but CapCity was off the table for us as soon as we toured and I feel zero regret about that.

We toured all of those as well as Takoma and Breakthrough. We liked them all for each specific reason. We matched with Sela and have Whittier, Takoma, BT, and DH above them. If we get into one of them we may switch. I’ve heard great things about Sela so we are excited.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CapCity Lower School used to have a waitlist 100+ for PK3.

This year it was single digita.

CapCity is extremely close to my house and I toured it this year looking for PK3. After touring and looking at its performance data (especially its subgroup data!!), we chose not to include it on our list nothwithstanding its super convenient location. I was particularly concerned about how (whether?) CapCity is currently teaching math*, and it just didn't seem like a great environment to me... so I am not shocked at the short waitlist and think CC is going to have a really hard time filling their PK3 class this year with that short a waitlist to draw from when matched families opt out. We know a couple families in our neighborhood who matched with CC for PK3, but have decent waitlist numbers at other schools that they are much more interested in.

*Yes, I know that doesn't necessarily matter for PK3, but why start at a school you know you are not going to want your kid to continue in after PK if you have better options in the meantime? We had enough "safety" schools on our list that we were confident we were going to get something else we would be happier with for PK3 and beyond, even if we got a crappy lottery number, and we were right on all accounts. (We did get a crappy lottery number and still got into a school that we are much more excited about than CC.)

I have also heard their COVID response was bad. Not to get political or anything, not the point. That type of information spreading I am sure did not help them, though.

Where did you end up getting in for PK3 if you live by Cap? Sela? Whittier?

We didn’t put Sela on our list. We toured it, but didn’t love it for our kid (it seems like a decent school, just not a good fit for my specific child). We liked Dorothy Height more than Whittier *for PK*, so we ranked it higher and that ended up being our match.

We may switch over to Whittier (IB for us) for K and beyond though…we’ll see how things are going for my kid academically at Height. Whittier seems to have better academics overall, but the swing space situation was undetermined on the lottery due date and we like Height’s Reggio Emilia PK focus. Tbh, we felt like we had a bunch of really excellent options for PK and it was hard to choose between Height, Whittier, and a couple other schools we thought we’d have a good shot at getting into (even without a great lottery number)… but CapCity was off the table for us as soon as we toured and I feel zero regret about that.

We toured all of those as well as Takoma and Breakthrough. We liked them all for each specific reason. We matched with Sela and have Whittier, Takoma, BT, and DH above them. If we get into one of them we may switch. I’ve heard great things about Sela so we are excited.

I wrote the post you're responding to and Takoma and Breakthrough were the other two schools we had a hard time deciding between--so funny. I'm not a betting gal, but I would still put money on you getting an offer from DH. I also heard from Breakthrough that they often get through most of their waitlist, but the higher waitlist numbers often get calls in September, after school has already started. That said, I also have heard great things about Sela and I did like it when we toured (also, it sounds like the renovated facility is going to be nice!)... if my kid had a completely different personality, it would have been on our list, but alas...... (Just in case anyone misinterprets what I'm saying, I adore my kid, but some of my kid's quirks made us cross off some schools that otherwise seemed great.)

[Anonymous]

Latin Cooper. Shock is a strong word. The school is still relatively new and next year still in a transitional temporary warehouse building. The waitlist for 5th grade is something like 360 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Latin Cooper. Shock is a strong word. The school is still relatively new and next year still in a transitional temporary warehouse building. The waitlist for 5th grade is something like 360 kids.

The facilities are terrible and with limited offerings curriculum and extracurriculars.

Families are desperate. Middle school seats are the most competitive in the city and it’s just going to get worst with each passing year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Latin Cooper. Shock is a strong word. The school is still relatively new and next year still in a transitional temporary warehouse building. The waitlist for 5th grade is something like 360 kids.

Capitol Hill families like the Latin brand.
Brand is a thing.
Classical = what it is.
They didn't even fill their ask risk slots.
Latin smartly bet on the come that the charter board feels more strongly about having new filled schools than having new filled schools that fit the demographics of their neighborhoods. They'll add two more Hill buses next year.

[Anonymous]

YY's wait list is half as long as 10 years go, now that most of the families haven't stuck with Chinese through middle or high school at DCI. Realistic thinking has clearly crept in.

[Anonymous]

It’s strange that Yu Ying and Munro Verde would be in less demand even as DCI seems to be in greater demand.