Deciding whether to try for latin

[Anonymous]

Making this decision based on politics about charters is just truly dim.

[Anonymous]

Dcps is so much worse than you think the further you go down the road. I was also fine with elementary. Now it’s such a total nonstarter we pay for a private. No dcps middle and high school (including the top application ones) is worth it. And I agree that charter schools are probably making the dcps situation worse. However I don’t see any way they will improve in the near term. So as lottery losers it’s off to private we go. And you’d be a fool not to at least lottery for everything and make a decision later.

[Anonymous]

Why NOT lottery? I mean, some people get in.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

The parents who seem the healthiest and most functional around here are the ones who are honest with themselves that, no matter how progressive they feel they are generally, they have limits about what they will not accept for their children’s education. Some people get there eventually even having started out as anti school choice people, but other people remain insufferable. Let’s hope OP (if not a troll) is on step one of the journey to become more honest with themselves about this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

The parents who seem the healthiest and most functional around here are the ones who are honest with themselves that, no matter how progressive they feel they are generally, they have limits about what they will not accept for their children’s education. Some people get there eventually even having started out as anti school choice people, but other people remain insufferable. Let’s hope OP (if not a troll) is on step one of the journey to become more honest with themselves about this stuff.

I think some parents stuck in bad schools think if all the other white people in their neighborhood just sent their kids to that school, then it would suddenly be a good school, so they get mad when they see other people not going along with their plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

The parents who seem the healthiest and most functional around here are the ones who are honest with themselves that, no matter how progressive they feel they are generally, they have limits about what they will not accept for their children’s education. Some people get there eventually even having started out as anti school choice people, but other people remain insufferable. Let’s hope OP (if not a troll) is on step one of the journey to become more honest with themselves about this stuff.

I think some parents stuck in bad schools think if all the other white people in their neighborhood just sent their kids to that school, then it would suddenly be a good school, so they get mad when they see other people not going along with their plan.

This does seem to happen this way though. They aren’t totally wrong. It’s just that nobody wants to go first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In general I am not a fan of charter schools and want to avoid opting out of DCPS in the anticipation of issues like I see so many other families do. I think many schools are amazing individually but have issues with their cumulative impact on the larger system. I believe our local schools would be stronger if everyone was invested in the inbound schools. I would not keep my child at a school not meeting their needs but am not interested in stressing over optimizing their experience by finding the absolute best school.

All that said doing the lottery for 5th grade at Latin is tempting.

Please stick with DCPS. All of the "not a fan of charter schools" until it comes to your own child is ridiculous. Stay in DCPS and make it better. Or use your resources to send your child to private. Or move. Leave charters for the folks who understand their positive impact on the overall system and do not have other choices for safe, academically thriving public schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dcps is so much worse than you think the further you go down the road. I was also fine with elementary. Now it’s such a total nonstarter we pay for a private. No dcps middle and high school (including the top application ones) is worth it. And I agree that charter schools are probably making the dcps situation worse. However I don’t see any way they will improve in the near term. So as lottery losers it’s off to private we go. And you’d be a fool not to at least lottery for everything and make a decision later.

DCPS got better after charters started. Maybe not enough, maybe not fast. But get rid of all charters and DCPS won't improve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In general I am not a fan of charter schools and want to avoid opting out of DCPS in the anticipation of issues like I see so many other families do. I think many schools are amazing individually but have issues with their cumulative impact on the larger system. I believe our local schools would be stronger if everyone was invested in the inbound schools. I would not keep my child at a school not meeting their needs but am not interested in stressing over optimizing their experience by finding the absolute best school.

All that said doing the lottery for 5th grade at Latin is tempting.

Please stick with DCPS. All of the "not a fan of charter schools" until it comes to your own child is ridiculous. Stay in DCPS and make it better. Or use your resources to send your child to private. Or move. Leave charters for the folks who understand their positive impact on the overall system and do not have other choices for safe, academically thriving public schools.

Blaming charters for DCPS's ridiculous dysfunction is a bit rich. Charters were created because people got sick of dealing with DCPS's ridiculous dysfunction. If charters disappeared tomorrow, DCPS would get worse, not better. The competition between the two systems does everyone good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

The parents who seem the healthiest and most functional around here are the ones who are honest with themselves that, no matter how progressive they feel they are generally, they have limits about what they will not accept for their children’s education. Some people get there eventually even having started out as anti school choice people, but other people remain insufferable. Let’s hope OP (if not a troll) is on step one of the journey to become more honest with themselves about this stuff.

I think some parents stuck in bad schools think if all the other white people in their neighborhood just sent their kids to that school, then it would suddenly be a good school, so they get mad when they see other people not going along with their plan.

This does seem to happen this way though. They aren’t totally wrong. It’s just that nobody wants to go first.

Because it doesn't work if someone "goes first." You have to go as a group. If you can create a group willing to do it together, that can work. That's basically how Maury became a sought after school with a lot of IB buy in and good test scores -- a group of parents IB for the school decided, prior to a major renovation, to just commit to the school. But they did it together so their kids instantly had at least a small peer group.

Another thing that helps is not being super picky about the families in this group being IB -- look for like-minded families in surrounding boundaries who might be willing to join you in building the school up, especially if their IB isn't offering that kind of community and buy in. This can help build that group a lot so it's not just 3 or 4 families. You need like 10-20 (or more) families with kids in a fairly tight band of grades in order to create that momentum.

What doesn't work is just independently sending your kid to your IB, *expecting* your neighbors to do the same (and judging them harshly if they don't, which tends to only drive them away), while also looking down on families from nearby boundaries who might be willing to give your IB a try, and then being surprised/frustrated when the school doesn't magically start attracting more families, or when people leave the school in early or middle elementary because it's not meeting their kids' needs.

What you have to remember is that no one who really cares about education is willing to sacrifice their kids to help someone else's kids have a good school many years down the line. The only people willing to do this tend to be social justice types who think they are doing charity. But that's different (and doesn't work).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like OP is against school choice for others, but ok with it the minute it would benefit her kid.

lol so true. It’s an extremely aggravating dynamic I have seen over and over. And it’s really dispiriting when the person had a lot of persuasive power.

The parents who seem the healthiest and most functional around here are the ones who are honest with themselves that, no matter how progressive they feel they are generally, they have limits about what they will not accept for their children’s education. Some people get there eventually even having started out as anti school choice people, but other people remain insufferable. Let’s hope OP (if not a troll) is on step one of the journey to become more honest with themselves about this stuff.

I think some parents stuck in bad schools think if all the other white people in their neighborhood just sent their kids to that school, then it would suddenly be a good school, so they get mad when they see other people not going along with their plan.

This does seem to happen this way though. They aren’t totally wrong. It’s just that nobody wants to go first.

Because it doesn't work if someone "goes first." You have to go as a group. If you can create a group willing to do it together, that can work. That's basically how Maury became a sought after school with a lot of IB buy in and good test scores -- a group of parents IB for the school decided, prior to a major renovation, to just commit to the school. But they did it together so their kids instantly had at least a small peer group.

Another thing that helps is not being super picky about the families in this group being IB -- look for like-minded families in surrounding boundaries who might be willing to join you in building the school up, especially if their IB isn't offering that kind of community and buy in. This can help build that group a lot so it's not just 3 or 4 families. You need like 10-20 (or more) families with kids in a fairly tight band of grades in order to create that momentum.

What doesn't work is just independently sending your kid to your IB, *expecting* your neighbors to do the same (and judging them harshly if they don't, which tends to only drive them away), while also looking down on families from nearby boundaries who might be willing to give your IB a try, and then being surprised/frustrated when the school doesn't magically start attracting more families, or when people leave the school in early or middle elementary because it's not meeting their kids' needs.

What you have to remember is that no one who really cares about education is willing to sacrifice their kids to help someone else's kids have a good school many years down the line. The only people willing to do this tend to be social justice types who think they are doing charity. But that's different (and doesn't work).

Or DCPS could just decide to have high standards, and flunk kids who don't do the work. The secret sauce at schools like Latin and BASIS is that they will flunk your kids all day long if they don't get the job done.

[Anonymous]

Sorry but people are just naive if you think just sending your kid to failing school will make it better. It doesn’t and why families start leaving DCPS.

The education gap is too wide. All focus and resources are directed to the bottom. The your kid will be fine attitude is prevalent even if they are bored in school and not learning much.

Everything is about equity and lowering standards. Just look at honors for all at JR and the change in admissions standards at Walls. That is the direction it is going and has been for a long time. Now the ELA curriculum has kids just reading excerpts and the amplify curriculum is terrible and kids will gain less skills and knowledge.

[Anonymous]

It's amusing to see what people like OP really think.

OP, it's time to be honest with yourself, then act accordingly. On a pragmatic note, read this board, keep your ears open in conversations about middle school, get lottery results, then do your best to make an informed choice. I recommend getting the kid actually going to middle school on board, as well.