Whittier vs. Catholic School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My children go to Whittier and I echo the previous posts. It’s a wonderful school, wonderful school community and the leadership is strong. It has a low teacher turnover rate (which is a good indicator in DCPS of a well run school and a good professional setting for teachers). My kids are in lower grades. While we love Whittier, I can’t imagine sending my kids to Wells.

Any particular reasons why you can't imagine Wells? It's pretty new and continues improving each year with more students. The principals works pretty closely and I imagine it will continue to improve especially with more buy in. Kids from Wells get into SWW, Banneker, McKinley, Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are moving to D.C. - We are an African American family. We are trying to decide between our son, who will be in 3rd grade, attending a Catholic school he has been admitted to or Whittier (which it looks like we would be zoned for). If your kids attend this school, do you like it? Do you find it challenging and how is behavior, etc. and the administration? Our son has primarily been in private school since Pre-K but we tried our public school this year and there are things, of course, that we liked and haven’t liked. Main issues in the public have been some persistent behavior issues and lack of diversity (son is only black boy in entire grade) and no Black staff vs. his previous private school which was extremely diverse (all races).

Thanks.

Most Catholic schools I know of are, well, mostly African EOTP. My son is in one. It’s a great experience but it’s very selected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My children go to Whittier and I echo the previous posts. It’s a wonderful school, wonderful school community and the leadership is strong. It has a low teacher turnover rate (which is a good indicator in DCPS of a well run school and a good professional setting for teachers). My kids are in lower grades. While we love Whittier, I can’t imagine sending my kids to Wells.

Any particular reasons why you can't imagine Wells? It's pretty new and continues improving each year with more students. The principals works pretty closely and I imagine it will continue to improve especially with more buy in. Kids from Wells get into SWW, Banneker, McKinley, Ellington.

I don’t think the course offerings are enough for my children and worry about having a cohort of high achieving peers to push the need for advanced classes. I also think, in general, that DCPS middle schools with higher test scores get more freedom in the way they teach and assignments they give. So it’s just Wells in particular. And getting into walls and Banneker, given the admission criteria, is not the same as being fully prepared for those schools.

[Anonymous]

PP I meant to say “it’s not just Wells in particular”.

[Anonymous]

No brainer. Your child is coming into 3rd grade. Catholic school all the way to 8th.

No way would I put him in Whittier in the upper grades for 2 years and then what?? Get screwed and lose out in the lottery?

[Anonymous]

Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

This is an underrated piece. While it thins a little more in later grades, if you are entirely unfamiliar with a neighborhood a neighborhood school is a great way to meet parents and kids. Most of the Whittier boundary is pretty friendly and social (4th Street block party and Halloween, Takoma Rec Center playground, events and farmers market in TKPK) but it will be easier to meet people with a built in excuse.

I get the HS concerns, but MS has a growing cohort moving with it, with the ability for Whittier to offer MS classes (think it's math for some 5th graders now) and Wells to offer HS classes because of the proximity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

This is an underrated piece. While it thins a little more in later grades, if you are entirely unfamiliar with a neighborhood a neighborhood school is a great way to meet parents and kids. Most of the Whittier boundary is pretty friendly and social (4th Street block party and Halloween, Takoma Rec Center playground, events and farmers market in TKPK) but it will be easier to meet people with a built in excuse.

I get the HS concerns, but MS has a growing cohort moving with it, with the ability for Whittier to offer MS classes (think it's math for some 5th graders now) and Wells to offer HS classes because of the proximity.

Wells offering higher classes for math has always happened since the school started because of the proximity (quasi-shared building) with Coolidge. It has nothing to do with the number of kids who need it. (Unlike at some other middle schools who need a certain amount of students to run those classes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

This is an underrated piece. While it thins a little more in later grades, if you are entirely unfamiliar with a neighborhood a neighborhood school is a great way to meet parents and kids. Most of the Whittier boundary is pretty friendly and social (4th Street block party and Halloween, Takoma Rec Center playground, events and farmers market in TKPK) but it will be easier to meet people with a built in excuse.

I get the HS concerns, but MS has a growing cohort moving with it, with the ability for Whittier to offer MS classes (think it's math for some 5th graders now) and Wells to offer HS classes because of the proximity.

With all due respect the math profficiency numbers at Coolidge are incredibly low. So even if you MS at Wells can take Geometry at Coolidge, are they actually learning Geometry? I am not taking that risk with my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

+1. You can offer any course and name it whatever you want. But is it rigorous? Do you actually have a high performing cohort so you can actually teach the necessary content and depth?


This is an underrated piece. While it thins a little more in later grades, if you are entirely unfamiliar with a neighborhood a neighborhood school is a great way to meet parents and kids. Most of the Whittier boundary is pretty friendly and social (4th Street block party and Halloween, Takoma Rec Center playground, events and farmers market in TKPK) but it will be easier to meet people with a built in excuse.

I get the HS concerns, but MS has a growing cohort moving with it, with the ability for Whittier to offer MS classes (think it's math for some 5th graders now) and Wells to offer HS classes because of the proximity.

With all due respect the math profficiency numbers at Coolidge are incredibly low. So even if you MS at Wells can take Geometry at Coolidge, are they actually learning Geometry? I am not taking that risk with my child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Third grade at Whittier here. It's awesome. Our daughter is in chess club and garden club. Chess club is taught by an international chess master (Nigerian champion). Free aftercare, breakfast and lunch are free. Warm loving teachers. Great community of kids. Going to the neighborhood school means we get to walk to school with friends and spend lots of time at each other's houses.

This is an underrated piece. While it thins a little more in later grades, if you are entirely unfamiliar with a neighborhood a neighborhood school is a great way to meet parents and kids. Most of the Whittier boundary is pretty friendly and social (4th Street block party and Halloween, Takoma Rec Center playground, events and farmers market in TKPK) but it will be easier to meet people with a built in excuse.

I get the HS concerns, but MS has a growing cohort moving with it, with the ability for Whittier to offer MS classes (think it's math for some 5th graders now) and Wells to offer HS classes because of the proximity.

With all due respect the math profficiency numbers at Coolidge are incredibly low. So even if you MS at Wells can take Geometry at Coolidge, are they actually learning Geometry? I am not taking that risk with my child.

+1 You can name it take any course you want. But is it rigorous? Do you have enough of a high performing cohort to be able to teach the content well?

[Anonymous]

St Anthony’s in brookland and sacred heart in mt pleasant are incredibly diverse. Both go through 8th and have good matriculation to Catholic high schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:St Anthony’s in brookland and sacred heart in mt pleasant are incredibly diverse. Both go through 8th and have good matriculation to Catholic high schools.

Sorry me again. But to be clear, he couldn’t start at scared heart as it’s bilingual and I assume his current school isn’t. But please look at st Anthony’s. It’s a really lovely school and super diverse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Anthony’s in brookland and sacred heart in mt pleasant are incredibly diverse. Both go through 8th and have good matriculation to Catholic high schools.

Sorry me again. But to be clear, he couldn’t start at scared heart as it’s bilingual and I assume his current school isn’t. But please look at st Anthony’s. It’s a really lovely school and super diverse.

Thirding a vote for at Anthony’s. Some friends did it as a stop gap and never left. They love it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:St Anthony’s in brookland and sacred heart in mt pleasant are incredibly diverse. Both go through 8th and have good matriculation to Catholic high schools.

Sorry me again. But to be clear, he couldn’t start at scared heart as it’s bilingual and I assume his current school isn’t. But please look at st Anthony’s. It’s a really lovely school and super diverse.

Thirding a vote for at Anthony’s. Some friends did it as a stop gap and never left. They love it.

The recent reviews for St. Anthony are pretty bad.