lessons learned for next year's PK3 lottery?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the love of all things, include your IB school! That seems like a no-brainer, but everyone who got shut out failed to do that.

Of course, if you have a super-popular IB school, you might not get in for PK3 or PK4, but you will not be shut out forever as you are guaranteed admission at K.

For the vast majority of IB schools though, this isn't very helpful. Many families would only consider their IB school for the free PS/PK. By K, it's likely time to move on. You don't want to be the last family left, slowly waving good-bye to friends who are moving on to greener pastures.

Sure it's helpful! At least you have something to fall back on for PK3/PK4/K while you sort out your options and play the lottery again. It's better than having your only option be to sack up for more daycare or whine incessantly on DCUM about how the lottery is unfair because you were shut out!

And there are many success stories coming out of schools where parents have taken a chance, and I think we will hear more and more of them as we get into the next school year.

+1 I have learned from personal experience that the early ed grades at many struggling DCPS are great and really, genuinely teach those children a ton and really prepare them for what is to come. A 15 to 2 ratio is pretty fantastic. And your IB schools means you'll likely be close to home. I think it's foolhardy to be so dismissive about your local school...it is often a viable option. Then again, it's your kid, your decision. It just seems foolish to me to not at least lottery for your local school with the #12 slot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
+1 I have learned from personal experience that the early ed grades at many struggling DCPS are great and really, genuinely teach those children a ton and really prepare them for what is to come. A 15 to 2 ratio is pretty fantastic. And your IB schools means you'll likely be close to home. I think it's foolhardy to be so dismissive about your local school...it is often a viable option. Then again, it's your kid, your decision. It just seems foolish to me to not at least lottery for your local school with the #12 slot.

Don't forget that the high truancy rates in ECE mean push that ratio even higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1 I have learned from personal experience that the early ed grades at many struggling DCPS are great and really, genuinely teach those children a ton and really prepare them for what is to come. A 15 to 2 ratio is pretty fantastic. And your IB schools means you'll likely be close to home. I think it's foolhardy to be so dismissive about your local school...it is often a viable option. Then again, it's your kid, your decision. It just seems foolish to me to not at least lottery for your local school with the #12 slot.

Don't forget that the high truancy rates in ECE mean push that ratio even higher.

Truancy? That's a strong word. You aren't considered truant for missing days at most schools until K. Yes, lots of little kids are out a lot. At our school they seemed to get sick a LOT.

[Anonymous]

Visit your in school now! Talk to your neighbors now! I wish I had started that earlier since there were a lot of us looking for similar things and could have found many of them at our local school.

Also visiting the school now, before summer vacation, gives you some perspective on the change that can happen between fall and the spring.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thanks for the responses. I guess we'll see whether there are any significant changes to the lottery process itself, or whether people make significantly different decisions about where to apply, or whether there are significantly more PK3 applicants next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the love of all things, include your IB school! That seems like a no-brainer, but everyone who got shut out failed to do that.

Of course, if you have a super-popular IB school, you might not get in for PK3 or PK4, but you will not be shut out forever as you are guaranteed admission at K.

For the vast majority of IB schools though, this isn't very helpful. Many families would only consider their IB school for the free PS/PK. By K, it's likely time to move on. You don't want to be the last family left, slowly waving good-bye to friends who are moving on to greener pastures.

This is really bad for the schools.

I hear this argument a lot, and it resonates with me. But as a parent, do you really think your #1 interest should be in improving a failing school? Or should it be in getting your kid into the best school you possibly can? If it's the former...more power to you, you are truly an asset to the community. If it's the latter...well, I'm right there with you, looking out for number one.

[Anonymous]

Just logging the option of working to improve your local school EVEN if your kid isn't going there. (Not saying you need to be saintly here, but especially if you establish a connection with the ECE teachers while your kid's attending, there will probably always be space for neighborhood non-parents to pitch in.)

If you want to do a little of both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the love of all things, include your IB school! That seems like a no-brainer, but everyone who got shut out failed to do that.

Of course, if you have a super-popular IB school, you might not get in for PK3 or PK4, but you will not be shut out forever as you are guaranteed admission at K.

For the vast majority of IB schools though, this isn't very helpful. Many families would only consider their IB school for the free PS/PK. By K, it's likely time to move on. You don't want to be the last family left, slowly waving good-bye to friends who are moving on to greener pastures.

This is really bad for the schools.

I hear this argument a lot, and it resonates with me. But as a parent, do you really think your #1 interest should be in improving a failing school? Or should it be in getting your kid into the best school you possibly can? If it's the former...more power to you, you are truly an asset to the community. If it's the latter...well, I'm right there with you, looking out for number one.

My goal is not to get my child into the fanciest school around. I will provide many challenges for my child, including strong educational opportunities. Sending them to my IB public school isn't a matter of compromising one goal for the other. And yes, I also feel strongly about helping my less fortunate neighbors. You never know where some of the will go given the right opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Having come away with a poor lottery draw, I would recommend spending more time researching "safety" schools. I spent a lot of time going to open houses of the most sought-after charter schools, and spent less time researching schools that were less popular but traditionally have more slots available. In retrospect, I think I could have spent more time visiting those schools to get a sense of each of them individually and done more online research for the schools that everyone seems to vie for but have very low odds of getting in to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having come away with a poor lottery draw, I would recommend spending more time researching "safety" schools. I spent a lot of time going to open houses of the most sought-after charter schools, and spent less time researching schools that were less popular but traditionally have more slots available. In retrospect, I think I could have spent more time visiting those schools to get a sense of each of them individually and done more online research for the schools that everyone seems to vie for but have very low odds of getting in to.

There are no safety schools. It doesn't make a difference if you ranked those schools first over a HRCS, you will still get the same result (ie pray you get a high lottery number). We ranked Lee 5 this go around and would have had the same number on the wait list if we ranked it #1. Our lesson learned was don't spend so much time at open houses, rank the schools that you would like to send your DC to and in that order w/o thinking how you can game the system by ranking a "safety" higher up, have 12 choices and make your IB school #12 (unless that is really your #1)...because your only advantage and regardless of of your ranking.

[Anonymous]

My advice:

1. Know the stats about waitlists and admissions. Knowing how many out of boundary with sibling preference were admitted at each school was a key factor.

2. Visit schools and meet with principals.


3. Do the homework before submitting your picks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
There are no safety schools. It doesn't make a difference if you ranked those schools first over a HRCS, you will still get the same result (ie pray you get a high lottery number). We ranked Lee 5 this go around and would have had the same number on the wait list if we ranked it #1. Our lesson learned was don't spend so much time at open houses, rank the schools that you would like to send your DC to and in that order w/o thinking how you can game the system by ranking a "safety" higher up, have 12 choices and make your IB school #12 (unless that is really your #1)...because your only advantage and regardless of of your ranking.

I think that by safety schools, people just mean listing 2 - 3 acceptable (to you, as a last resort) schools that don't traditionally have high demand or high waitlists, including of course your IB school. You don't necessarily have to rank them high -- indeed you should rank all your schools in order of interest (so your safety and inbounds schools can be 10 - 12), but at the end of the day, you should include them in your top 12 -- just like if your child is only applying to Ivy League Schools, they should apply to a "safety" State school, just in case.

[Anonymous]

I would have spent much (MUCH, MUCH) less time stressing about the whole thing. Worried less about the ranking of the top charters, since any of them would have been great had we gotten in (glad we opted for commute as a priority anyway.)

I'm also glad that, in the end, I spent some time running around to nearby public schools to make sure I was ranking the ones that were best for us. In the end, I decided only to list one ahead of our IB school, and we're probably not going to get in, but I feel good knowing that I didn't leave stones unturned there. (I know, I said I would have worried less, but I'm also glad I did that bit of last-minute worry.)

Finally, start going to the open houses in December! Do them all as early as you can. You never know what insanity will crop up near the end (multiple snow days, nights you can't make it, the sudden need to go visit other public schools, etc.)

Oh, and one final thought: try to limit your time on this forum! I definitely learned some useful information, but I should have spent the time on more productive things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
+1 I have learned from personal experience that the early ed grades at many struggling DCPS are great and really, genuinely teach those children a ton and really prepare them for what is to come. A 15 to 2 ratio is pretty fantastic. And your IB schools means you'll likely be close to home. I think it's foolhardy to be so dismissive about your local school...it is often a viable option. Then again, it's your kid, your decision. It just seems foolish to me to not at least lottery for your local school with the #12 slot.

Don't forget that the high truancy rates in ECE mean push that ratio even higher.

Truancy? That's a strong word. You aren't considered truant for missing days at most schools until K. Yes, lots of little kids are out a lot. At our school they seemed to get sick a LOT.

PP here Agreed that absenteeism would have been the better word choice. And yes, 3-4 years olds do get sick. But that aside, the rates of kids with unexcused absense is surprisingly high. It's not compulsory, but some families treat it like routine attendance is optional. Unfair to the school which has to allocate finite resources. Maybe a boon to other families with children who consistently attend and get more individual attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Oh, and one final thought: try to limit your time on this forum! I definitely learned some useful information, but I should have spent the time on more productive things.

Heathen! Burn him at the stake!