When to go private from DCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a bright kid. He is in class with even brighter kids in DCPS. The ones who needed help, peeled off to privates for 5th or even before.
Mine will stay in public. I cannot get myself to spend any money on k-12. It will be millions by the time they are 30 if it stays in the market.

Then why do you troll the private school forums if you think your very bright kid is perfect with other very bright kids in dcps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a bright kid. He is in class with even brighter kids in DCPS. The ones who needed help, peeled off to privates for 5th or even before.
Mine will stay in public. I cannot get myself to spend any money on k-12. It will be millions by the time they are 30 if it stays in the market.

Spoken as someone who hasn’t met kids in private

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Relief from daycare costs and lack of a tuition payment is great. Full stop. But if you accept the notion that DCPS, at some point in a kid's academic career, becomes a less-than-ideal learning environment for bright kids, when do you make the change? We can't afford the Beauvoirs of the world for grade school, which is fine because STA/NCS and that ilk are probably not feasible for us financially anyway.

I won't say what age my kids are other than to say that they cannot yet read or write and still bring nap mats to school. In other words, I know that it's probably way too early to be worrying about this stuff. But, we are already seeing peer families start to jockey for spots at "better" schools in the DCPS system, talking about feeder schools, and starting to lay out a plan for their kids' academic futures. I worry about getting too comfortable in public school because it's free and it's "fine for now" and then next thing we know, they're not academically ready for a more challenging academic environment in a private middle/high school.

I'm looking for actual input on what grade to be targeting for a move to a private school from DCPS that would maximize relief from education costs while preparing my kids to be successful when the quality of the school matters more. Also if you read this and are inclined to call me poor or a shitty parent for enjoying free school, feel free to move along.

We moved for 4th. Kids are calmer, happier, excited to go to school again. Dcps is fine in k and 1st and gets progressively worse in upper grades. Make the transition earlier if it makes sense financially so your kids can transition more easily and make friends. It is really a night and day in terms of the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Relief from daycare costs and lack of a tuition payment is great. Full stop. But if you accept the notion that DCPS, at some point in a kid's academic career, becomes a less-than-ideal learning environment for bright kids, when do you make the change? We can't afford the Beauvoirs of the world for grade school, which is fine because STA/NCS and that ilk are probably not feasible for us financially anyway.

I won't say what age my kids are other than to say that they cannot yet read or write and still bring nap mats to school. In other words, I know that it's probably way too early to be worrying about this stuff. But, we are already seeing peer families start to jockey for spots at "better" schools in the DCPS system, talking about feeder schools, and starting to lay out a plan for their kids' academic futures. I worry about getting too comfortable in public school because it's free and it's "fine for now" and then next thing we know, they're not academically ready for a more challenging academic environment in a private middle/high school.

I'm looking for actual input on what grade to be targeting for a move to a private school from DCPS that would maximize relief from education costs while preparing my kids to be successful when the quality of the school matters more. Also if you read this and are inclined to call me poor or a shitty parent for enjoying free school, feel free to move along.

We moved for 4th. Kids are calmer, happier, excited to go to school again. Dcps is fine in k and 1st and gets progressively worse in upper grades. Make the transition earlier if it makes sense financially so your kids can transition more easily and make friends. It is really a night and day in terms of the experience.

+1

[Anonymous]

Move at 6th grade

[Anonymous]

Our move out of DCPS had nothing to do with whether or not our kids were bright and everything to do with the chaos that middle school in DCPS brought to our lives. We left after 6th grade for our oldest and 3rd for our younger to be able to pull the younger one in while the older was still able to confer sibling preference.

[Anonymous]

I moved mine from a very chaotic charter school for fourth and although I feel mixed about their interacting only with a narrow slice of the socioeconomic spectrum and same cultural outlook, whatever the families’ national or ethnic origin, I am glad about this choice.

I know from experience how much public schools focus on testing starting around this time and I think so much teaching focuses on how to have kids answer and narrow set of questions, to the detriment of their general education.

Switching for fourth grade meant my kid got exposure to robust extracurriculars and arts and PE more than they would have at their previous school. Also, some really smart kids came in seventh that my kid is equal to, but honestly, that is just the luck of the draw and good work ethic and, if I had known then what I know now, I would’ve doubled down harder on fourth grade entry, when I think the superstars haven’t fully differentiated themselves from the stars and my kid might’ve gotten a lucky break.

That said, I really believe kids can find great teachers and their own compass anywhere, and there are benefits of every situation as well as drawbacks. One of my kids is grossed out by a lot of their private school classmates’ exclusiveness and privilege. The other kid wouldn’t have gotten the special Ed help they needed at private school where they have less/no experience serving kids with learning disabilities. All situations have assets and drawbacks. You just don’t know what they are at the time!

[Anonymous]

I would 1) move them as soon is financially do-able for your family without it being a hardship, or 2) move to a better public school district, or 3) stay public and heavily supplement.

We have seen a huge difference in our private and public experience, but I would have stayed public and supplemented academics if I was impacting our retirement or college funds. Plenty of people make public work well for their families.

We moved in 4th and in hindsight I would have moved earlier (either to a different district or private) or supplemented math and writing more. We were at a top DCPS school and my kid was in the top of their class... we are behind in math and writing at our private.

[Anonymous]

I wanted to echo chaos was part of our decision to move as well. The level of chaos intensifies each year.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like you can’t afford private and are leery of the unpredictability around a secure path through DCPS schools, so you should probably move to MD or VA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So to understand correctly, you think that at some point all DCPS, and the public charters (BASIS, Latin), and the special admissions schools (Walls), will not be good enough/your kids will be too bright for them? But they’re still in pre-k? Or you want a backup?

I’m not trying to be snarky. I just don’t understand.

OP here. I don't really know. Very overwhelmed by the whole education ecosystem. How do those charters and special admission schools compare to private schools? Admission at those is by chance, right? At the risk of revealing too much, my kids are twins and the DCPS lottery does not give any advantage to multiples when it comes to keeping them together. I would consider splitting them up for high school but they need each other right now and we've already had to decline an offer to a preferred public school because one got in and the other did not.

I don't think my kids are/will be better than anyone else, it's just that both parents are reasonably smart and we had the privilege of going to private school where we grew up and want to make that available to them if it makes sense for our family and they're cut out for it academically and socially. I am worried that they'll get to a certain grade and certain paths will be closed to them because we stayed in DCPS too long.

This is incorrect. You get two shots each lottery season for a public/charter. First twin pulls the second twin in (sibling match puts second twin at top of waitlist).

[Anonymous]

I would do private in younger grades and move to public when they have the soft skills - note taking, self advocacy, etc. Private usually is better at that type of prep. And basics in learning writing.

[Anonymous]

DCPS is not a monolith. Many of the answers to your questions depend on where you live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to echo chaos was part of our decision to move as well. The level of chaos intensifies each year.

What do you mean by “chaos”? What’s an example?

[Anonymous]

A point that is being missed is you can always apply for financial aid too. It sounds like private school would be a hardship -- apply for aid.

FWIW, we’re in the same boat and starting applications for K, but we have an advanced DC by our local public schools’ K standards. DC is operating two grades above in reading and math. We don’t want to squander it.