Bancroft Elementary open house January 20 9:30 am

[Anonymous]

I was very impressed. So impressed that I am putting it on my list of schools. So far it will be #1 on my list. The other bilingual open house I attend moved down.

[Anonymous]

OP again. That's great to hear. I hope people will consider Bancroft for pre-K as well as preschool. I'm guessing quite a few spots will open up as some of the current preschool parents who only planned to stay a year move on to other public schools or charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was very impressed. So impressed that I am putting it on my list of schools. So far it will be #1 on my list. The other bilingual open house I attend moved down.

If bilingual programs are very important to you, you should be sure to check out LAMB, Stokes, and Yu Ying. They have a lot more specialization and autonomy.

[Anonymous]

I went, too, and was very impressed. I can definitely see sending my kids there for PS and PK. After that, I still think we'd move on for K and up, just because of the overall academic performance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went, too, and was very impressed. I can definitely see sending my kids there for PS and PK. After that, I still think we'd move on for K and up, just because of the overall academic performance.

OP again. I understand why you feel this way, but it's very frustrating to hear! I feel like saying: If you won't at least consider staying for K and on, please send your child to one of the other schools mentioned above. How are those of us who want to improve Bancroft partly by making it more diverse (income and language-wise) ever going to achieve that if families like yours snap up the lottery preschool and pre-K spots, then abandon the school? Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was very impressed. So impressed that I am putting it on my list of schools. So far it will be #1 on my list. The other bilingual open house I attend moved down.

If bilingual programs are very important to you, you should be sure to check out LAMB, Stokes, and Yu Ying. They have a lot more specialization and autonomy.

Bancroft is the backup plan if I don't get Stokes (my #1 choice or LAMB). I figured I could do Bancroft for a year or 2 until I can get into Stokes. Yu Ying is not accepting PreK3 ths year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

IS this true? One of the main reasons I'm going into lotteries for my rising preschooler is because I've been told that I need to get into a decent school on the ground level (the first grade offered. Can I wait until K to go into DCPS? Are there more spots available then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

IS this true? One of the main reasons I'm going into lotteries for my rising preschooler is because I've been told that I need to get into a decent school on the ground level (the first grade offered. Can I wait until K to go into DCPS? Are there more spots available then?

I don't know about more spots, but I'm sure a lot of pre-K spots open up because only some DCPS schools offer preschool, and many families seem to use those slots for "free daycare," as some put it, then apply for preK spots through the lottery in more desirable schools. Not completely sure about K, but a previous poster said that's her plan (Bancroft for preschool and preK, then move on).

But if anyone has direct experience with this, I hope they'll chime in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

IS this true? One of the main reasons I'm going into lotteries for my rising preschooler is because I've been told that I need to get into a decent school on the ground level (the first grade offered. Can I wait until K to go into DCPS? Are there more spots available then?

I don't know about more spots, but I'm sure a lot of pre-K spots open up because only some DCPS schools offer preschool, and many families seem to use those slots for "free daycare," as some put it, then apply for preK spots through the lottery in more desirable schools. Not completely sure about K, but a previous poster said that's her plan (Bancroft for preschool and preK, then move on).

But if anyone has direct experience with this, I hope they'll chime in.

...

Preschool/PreK has a max limit of 16/20. K- has a max limit of @26

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

IS this true? One of the main reasons I'm going into lotteries for my rising preschooler is because I've been told that I need to get into a decent school on the ground level (the first grade offered. Can I wait until K to go into DCPS? Are there more spots available then?

I don't know about more spots, but I'm sure a lot of pre-K spots open up because only some DCPS schools offer preschool, and many families seem to use those slots for "free daycare," as some put it, then apply for preK spots through the lottery in more desirable schools. Not completely sure about K, but a previous poster said that's her plan (Bancroft for preschool and preK, then move on).

But if anyone has direct experience with this, I hope they'll chime in.

This pattern does happen at a lot of schools, even the JKLMs. There are a lot of families who use them for the lower grades, but it's just to save money. They pull their children out to put them in the Cathedral schools or GDS or Sidwell when they can. So the trickle down is that OOB slots become more available for those schools in later grades, and thus families who don't like their inbounds school have a better chance to escape.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a link so that I can look at these figures (and others) too?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If you look at the breakdown of DC-CAS scores for Bancroft (admittedly a time-consuming exercise), you might find some surprises*. Overall 40% of the kids met or exceeded reading standards in 2010. But for non-English learners, it was 67%; for non-economically disadvantaged, 77%. This compares to 75% overall for the vaunted Oyster-Adams.

For math in 2010, overall 45%. Non-English learners, 66%. Non-economically disadvantaged, 68%. Oyster has 72% overall.

From what I've learned from some of the incredibly sharp and dedicated middle-class parents at Bancroft, the biggest problem that their kids in higher grades face is a lack of peers at the same reading or math level. That problem would be solved if a critical mass of middle class families stayed. At the same time, obviously the school has some big challenges (largely kids from Latino, low-income families). I don't think any middle class family who stays would do so if they didn't also care about those kids and helping the school figure out how to meet their academic needs.

*I didn't double check these figures.

[Anonymous]

Yes.

http://www.nclb.osse.dc.gov/

I don't completely understand some of the info (eg AYP Report vs. Report Card), but I made sure I was looking at the right data by comparing the data in the Bancroft profile on the DCPS site: http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Bancroft+Elementary+School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was very impressed. So impressed that I am putting it on my list of schools. So far it will be #1 on my list. The other bilingual open house I attend moved down.

If bilingual programs are very important to you, you should be sure to check out LAMB, Stokes, and Yu Ying. They have a lot more specialization and autonomy.

Bancroft is the backup plan if I don't get Stokes (my #1 choice or LAMB). I figured I could do Bancroft for a year or 2 until I can get into Stokes. Yu Ying is not accepting PreK3 ths year.

Curious PK parent here. Why is Stokes your first choice? I don't hear much about it (unlike Yu Ying, LAMB etc). Maybe this should be on another thread, but I don't know how to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went, too, and was very impressed. I can definitely see sending my kids there for PS and PK. After that, I still think we'd move on for K and up, just because of the overall academic performance.

OP again. I understand why you feel this way, but it's very frustrating to hear! I feel like saying: If you won't at least consider staying for K and on, please send your child to one of the other schools mentioned above. How are those of us who want to improve Bancroft partly by making it more diverse (income and language-wise) ever going to achieve that if families like yours snap up the lottery preschool and pre-K spots, then abandon the school? Middle class families are probably much less likely to start out in K.

I'm sure this is a problem all over the city for public schools in transition, eg on the Hill...

14:23 here. OP: I can definitely understand your reaction to my post. In my ideal word, I would send my children to my local public school. And, I definitely understand that recruiting more middle-class families to enroll their kids--and have them stay through elementary--would likely improve the overall academic performance of the school. (Just in case anyone's ready to pick a fight, I'm not ignoring the multitude of historical/societal reasons for this, just stating an unfortunate data-based fact about the achievement gap.)

That said, I'm just not willing to gamble my kids' education in name of an ideal. Maybe I'm chicken shit. Maybe I'm not as committed to social justice as I'd like to think. Maybe I'm an educational elitist. In my heart of hearts, I just want my kids to be in a school where the overwhelming majority of kids are performing at grade level, where my kids will be stimulated by their peers as well as their teachers. (I don't expect my kids to be geniuses, but I do think they'll perform at or above grade level, barring any yet-undiagnosed learning disabilities.) I know that all but the most skilled teachers find it challenging to differentiate instruction for all levels in a class. I also know that the level of the majority of students in the class will determine how quickly the class can go with its direct (full-class) instruction.

I also need to say that think there's way too much emphasis put on high-stakes testing, and that standardized tests don't necessarily provide an accurate, detailed picture of what's going on in the classroom, especially when teachers are busting their asses to work with individual students who are below grade level. However, they do provide some kind of snapshot of how the school's doing academically, and a way of comparing different schools.

I respect parents who are willing to be in the vanguard, who are committed to improving their local schools. We're just not comfortable participating in that "social experiment" when it comes to our own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I respect parents who are willing to be in the vanguard, who are committed to improving their local schools. We're just not comfortable participating in that "social experiment" when it comes to our own kids.

OP here. I understand your thinking. However, I'm the bleeding heart optimist who's willing to take a chance on my local school in hopes of helping it improve. And if you go there for PS/PK, then move on, and a low income kid takes your kid's place, it's going to be so much harder. Don't you feel a little guilty about doing that? All I'm asking is that you start out in the kind of school you want in the first place.