City Center: How soon to make the jump for feeders?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know others have posted this question before...but here goes...Have child in early elementary school. We live in center city and are having a great experience so far at our in-boundary, a well-run, Title I DCPS which gets praise on DCUM (when it is mentioned here, which is rare). School has iffy test scores and a high-poverty population, but strong leadership and teaching staff. For my child's year, it will feed John Francis Education Campus Middle, which I toured for elementary and really liked, though I wonder how the transition with the new middle opening will work.

My question: You only get so many chances in the lottery, especially with an only child. Should we lottery as often as possible to get into a Ward 3 school or H-A so that we can get into a better feeder pattern, even knowing that it would mean a long, annoying commute for many years, for not neccesarily a better elementary and middle experience?

Are those Ward 3 elementary schools and H-A - and Hardy and Deal - so much better than the city center title I's/Francis middle that making the transfer is worth it for its own sake? The test scores would say yes, though it's hard to separate out how much of that is just demographics.

Our other option: Stay at our Title I through 5, then do Francis, and cross our fingers for an application high school while saving for private as a back-up. Obviously, we can take that plan year by year. If our school - or later on, Francis - stops working for our kid, we will lottery. But wondering how proactive we should be when all is currently well, but we know that we can't stay in this pyrimad forever - the high school is a no-go.

I'm inclined to stick where we are, but curious for your thoughts.

Hardy and Deal are much better than Francis. I did a ton of research before making our middle school choice, and it's incredible how different these schools are -- what classes are offered, how the classes are taught, how much screentime the students have, etc, is very very different. Seems like you have been to Francis -- Go to an open house at Hardy. The kids are actually learning more, and in more engaging classrooms.

Elementary --H-A is almost certainly offering more than your current elementary, but it's really debatable how much it matters at the elementary stage. Kids can catch up very quickly once they move to a challenging middle school. So I don't know if elementary needs to be optimized.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I were you, my plan would be Francis Stephen’s then an application high school. And I would be keeping a careful eye out for the following things:

1) Signs that your elementary won’t meet your need through 5th.

2) Signs of issues at Francis Stephen’s.

3) Signs that your child (for whatever reason) wouldn’t get into McKinley Tech for HS. Sure, everyone is shooting for Walls or Banneker or Ellington, but McKinley is a solid safety school right now, IMHO.

In your case, I would only lottery before 5th if one of those things changes.

Additionally - I’d probably spend some time in 4th grade looking at other middle school choices and potentially lottery for 5th and/or 6th. It’s possible Basis or DCI or something might be a good fit for your kid and you might want to give it a shot - but with a solid middle school feeder option, I wouldn’t be upending your life in elementary school with lottery stress every year and a potential long commute. Not worth it.

New poster. Examples of such signs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:John Francis is in my view an okay/viable option. Stay. Lottery for Latins for 5th (do not have to go), not a huge fan of Basis but it goes deep into its waitlist for 5th grade, lottery for Hardy for 6th (you would need a good number there are usually some spots). There are also some other options you can open house and add to your lottery bingo card for 6th that are not clearly any better but different in some respects than John Francis that you could also compare as an alternative choice to your as of right access to John Francis. Are you sure you wont be sent to the new Euclid Middle School - that will probably also be decent but its an unknown.

Given my kid's age, fairly certain on Euclid. But a little worried about how the coming transition will impact Francis.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were you, my plan would be Francis Stephen’s then an application high school. And I would be keeping a careful eye out for the following things:

1) Signs that your elementary won’t meet your need through 5th.

2) Signs of issues at Francis Stephen’s.

3) Signs that your child (for whatever reason) wouldn’t get into McKinley Tech for HS. Sure, everyone is shooting for Walls or Banneker or Ellington, but McKinley is a solid safety school right now, IMHO.

In your case, I would only lottery before 5th if one of those things changes.

Additionally - I’d probably spend some time in 4th grade looking at other middle school choices and potentially lottery for 5th and/or 6th. It’s possible Basis or DCI or something might be a good fit for your kid and you might want to give it a shot - but with a solid middle school feeder option, I wouldn’t be upending your life in elementary school with lottery stress every year and a potential long commute. Not worth it.

New poster. Examples of such signs?

Bad grades. Dislike of math and science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I were you, my plan would be Francis Stephen’s then an application high school. And I would be keeping a careful eye out for the following things:

1) Signs that your elementary won’t meet your need through 5th.

2) Signs of issues at Francis Stephen’s.

3) Signs that your child (for whatever reason) wouldn’t get into McKinley Tech for HS. Sure, everyone is shooting for Walls or Banneker or Ellington, but McKinley is a solid safety school right now, IMHO.

In your case, I would only lottery before 5th if one of those things changes.

Additionally - I’d probably spend some time in 4th grade looking at other middle school choices and potentially lottery for 5th and/or 6th. It’s possible Basis or DCI or something might be a good fit for your kid and you might want to give it a shot - but with a solid middle school feeder option, I wouldn’t be upending your life in elementary school with lottery stress every year and a potential long commute. Not worth it.

New poster. Examples of such signs?

Talk to parents of kids in older grades. For us, once we hit 4th grade, the chaos in the classroom grew and the studious kids started spending a tremendous amount of time reading their own books while the teacher tried to manage the chaos. They also tried to make the smarter kids tutor the kids not doing well.

I don't agree with the "bad grades and dislike of math and science" person bc that wasn't true for us, but also the school didn't actually prioritize teaching science and hardly ever did.

[Anonymous]

OP, I live nearby with two teens. On the school front, I think you'll be fine - especially if there's a world in which you might be able to do private as a backup. But the person who commutes to H-A and is really happy also makes good points - in your shoes, I might lottery for H-A each year to preserve the flexibility to move if you decide it makes sense. And consider BASIS when the time comes.

The other thing I'd think really carefully about is 1) what it will mean for your kids to get older and have VERY FEW peers/friends in the neighborhood and 2) tradeoffs you are making in terms of availability of extracurricular sports and activities. I have ended up spending a bunch of time hauling to Silver Spring and upper NW and Capitol Hill for kid stuff and my kids still are way, way behind their peers in terms of engaging in regular sports/activities.

My kid is taking geometry as a 9th grader at a DC selective high school this year and is bored and bummed that they didn't have the same opportunity as the Deal/Hardy kids to advance faster/aim higher.

[Anonymous]

6th grade at John Francis is going to be a lot larger next year. Few lottery spots. It should with the size increase be a somewhat larger number of high achieving kids in the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6th grade at John Francis is going to be a lot larger next year. Few lottery spots. It should with the size increase be a somewhat larger number of high achieving kids in the grade.

I've also heard from friends at Francis middle that there is a bigger push from parents to ask for more challenging work. Not sure the status of that mission.

[Anonymous]

I stayed, and Basis worked for us. In retrospect, I should have moved to the hill once we got in as that is where all the friends are.

[Anonymous]

You are within walking distance (and 2 bus options) for P St Mundo Verde, which has a feeder track to DC International middle and high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are within walking distance (and 2 bus options) for P St Mundo Verde, which has a feeder track to DC International middle and high school

OP here. Appreciate this and all the other suggestions. Have a few friends who left MV midway through ES cause of poor school leadership but maybe it’s gotten better? That was awhile back. Like the idea of DCI but worry it’s too far for us.

[Anonymous]

You are centrally located, which gives you lots of commute options. My advice is to play the lottery liberally while your kid is young and give yourself more chances to “win.” You can always turn down the spot if you feel better about staying with your inbounds school.

A commute to Georgetown (for H-A and Hardy as you mention) isn’t all that far from downtown and plenty of public transportation options. Of course the DC traffic is no fun, but you could try cargo bike or luck into a good carpool situation.

When your kid gets to be middle school aged they’ll be able to do the commute themselves. The 33 bus sounds like a good option as someone else mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are within walking distance (and 2 bus options) for P St Mundo Verde, which has a feeder track to DC International middle and high school

OP here. Appreciate this and all the other suggestions. Have a few friends who left MV midway through ES cause of poor school leadership but maybe it’s gotten better? That was awhile back. Like the idea of DCI but worry it’s too far for us.

Read all the threads on recent behavior issues at Mundo. Leadership has not gotten better. Also the DCI feeder path is no longer guaranteed for all Mundo students.

[Anonymous]

Not really what you’re asking about, but we are a longtime Latin family and live on the Hill. Once your kid can ride Metro, the commute won’t be bad at all. Our kids did the bus for the first two years (the private Latin bus) which would be a bit of a hassle for you. But after that, most of the kids commute via Metro to Fort Totten and then walk to school in groups.

Also not what you’re asking, but Latin has been such a great option for our kids. Probably the best thing about raising our kids in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not really what you’re asking about, but we are a longtime Latin family and live on the Hill. Once your kid can ride Metro, the commute won’t be bad at all. Our kids did the bus for the first two years (the private Latin bus) which would be a bit of a hassle for you. But after that, most of the kids commute via Metro to Fort Totten and then walk to school in groups.

Also not what you’re asking, but Latin has been such a great option for our kids. Probably the best thing about raising our kids in DC.

OP here. Yes, I have a friend whose kids went to Latin and a friend whose partner teaches there and they would say exactly the same. It seems like a great school for many kids. We'd likely try to lottery for it, even if we move on from our feeder pattern, but I think the chances of getting in as an only child are slim.

For now, I am weighing the relatively easy commute to our strong in-bound elementary and seemingly fairly good middle against putting every lottery chance toward finding a better feeder pattern.