If you didn't grow up in dc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP back: I guess I meant in terms of school resources, not student population. And I'm not comparing to "my school 20 years ago," I'm comparing to what my hometown's public school is like now. I hope that clarifies. Right now we're zoned for brightwood, and you're right, I don't know much about the school, but from what I see online (in terms of resources), there is a huuuuge difference vs. where I grew up.

EOTP poster here. That's the thing, OP. Living in Brightwood is a lot different than living where you lived 20 years ago. I grew up in small towns. There were no charter schools. There was one private school at that time in the school where I went to elementary and middle school. In the town where I went to high school, there were 4 high schools and a handful of private schools. Still no charter schools. The neighborhood schools were stronger because they were really the only option. Everyone went there. There was neighborhood unity. It's harder in DC because that doesn't really exist. There are options, even if you can't have everything you want. We had school buses. DC doesn't.

I don't know exactly where you grew up, obviously, but my experience growing up in non-urban Midwest is going to be totally different than my daughter's experience growing up in DC in pretty much every way imaginable. Work with the reality you have, not the reality you experienced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back: I guess I meant in terms of school resources, not student population. And I'm not comparing to "my school 20 years ago," I'm comparing to what my hometown's public school is like now. I hope that clarifies. Right now we're zoned for brightwood, and you're right, I don't know much about the school, but from what I see online (in terms of resources), there is a huuuuge difference vs. where I grew up.

EOTP poster here. That's the thing, OP. Living in Brightwood is a lot different than living where you lived 20 years ago. I grew up in small towns. There were no charter schools. There was one private school at that time in the school where I went to elementary and middle school. In the town where I went to high school, there were 4 high schools and a handful of private schools. Still no charter schools. The neighborhood schools were stronger because they were really the only option. Everyone went there. There was neighborhood unity. It's harder in DC because that doesn't really exist. There are options, even if you can't have everything you want. We had school buses. DC doesn't.

I don't know exactly where you grew up, obviously, but my experience growing up in non-urban Midwest is going to be totally different than my daughter's experience growing up in DC in pretty much every way imaginable. Work with the reality you have, not the reality you experienced.

Actually, that's just what I'm trying to figure out. No need to work with the reality we have if there's an overall better option elsewhere. There are obviously big trade offs, but at what point does diversity make up for potential [insert brightwood school issue here]? That's part of what I'm trying to figure out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP back: I guess I meant in terms of school resources, not student population. And I'm not comparing to "my school 20 years ago," I'm comparing to what my hometown's public school is like now. I hope that clarifies. Right now we're zoned for brightwood, and you're right, I don't know much about the school, but from what I see online (in terms of resources), there is a huuuuge difference vs. where I grew up.

EOTP poster here. That's the thing, OP. Living in Brightwood is a lot different than living where you lived 20 years ago. I grew up in small towns. There were no charter schools. There was one private school at that time in the school where I went to elementary and middle school. In the town where I went to high school, there were 4 high schools and a handful of private schools. Still no charter schools. The neighborhood schools were stronger because they were really the only option. Everyone went there. There was neighborhood unity. It's harder in DC because that doesn't really exist. There are options, even if you can't have everything you want. We had school buses. DC doesn't.

I don't know exactly where you grew up, obviously, but my experience growing up in non-urban Midwest is going to be totally different than my daughter's experience growing up in DC in pretty much every way imaginable. Work with the reality you have, not the reality you experienced.

Actually, that's just what I'm trying to figure out. No need to work with the reality we have if there's an overall better option elsewhere. There are obviously big trade offs, but at what point does diversity make up for potential [insert brightwood school issue here]? That's part of what I'm trying to figure out.

There are big trade offs. For a lot of people, money is the trade off. I can't afford to live IB for Janney or whatever on the other side of the park, so that's not an option for our family. I could move to the suburbs, but the meaningful trade off in terms of commute for DH and me would be pretty huge. We'd need to totally restructure our lives, and given that my daughter has been thriving in school so far, I don't see the need to do that. I would strongly encourage you to look at the school. Attend an open house. Talk to people at the playground and see where their kids go to school. Also, your neighborhood school isn't the only option. You can stay in Brightwood and potentially attend a charter school. There are other elementary schools that people attend out of bounds (not Janney or schools in Janney's class WOTP - I'd love to hear the last time a 4 year old got into Janney OOB). There are private schools. But definitely look at your neighborhood school.

I can't comment on it as it's way too far north for us to have considered, but I know people who moved to Brightwood when they had kids because of the family environment in the neighbhorhood. They are planning on sending their kids to Brightwood, but their kids are also <1 year old, so they may change their mind/have an out of state opportunity come up/etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EOTP poster, do you get the feeling that your neighbors will be staying in the neighborhood long term?

Petworth parent here and the answer is no. I don't think most parents will be here much past middle school and thats being very optimistic. As it is now, the kids on our block scatter to 4 or 5 charter schools every day. There is no sense of community based on going to school together. I think a bunch of us will all have the kids in prek together but there is no middle school option so we know we will all have to bail by 4 th grade most likely. No idea where we will go.
And I grew up in the south and you knew from K on what schools you would go to and it was fine. Some years were better than others but your parents didn't go crazy worrying or even thinking about it. I miss that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EOTP poster, do you get the feeling that your neighbors will be staying in the neighborhood long term?

Petworth parent here and the answer is no. I don't think most parents will be here much past middle school and thats being very optimistic. As it is now, the kids on our block scatter to 4 or 5 charter schools every day. There is no sense of community based on going to school together. I think a bunch of us will all have the kids in prek together but there is no middle school option so we know we will all have to bail by 4 th grade most likely. No idea where we will go.
And I grew up in the south and you knew from K on what schools you would go to and it was fine. Some years were better than others but your parents didn't go crazy worrying or even thinking about it. I miss that.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EOTP poster, do you get the feeling that your neighbors will be staying in the neighborhood long term?

Petworth parent here and the answer is no. I don't think most parents will be here much past middle school and thats being very optimistic. As it is now, the kids on our block scatter to 4 or 5 charter schools every day. There is no sense of community based on going to school together. I think a bunch of us will all have the kids in prek together but there is no middle school option so we know we will all have to bail by 4 th grade most likely. No idea where we will go.
And I grew up in the south and you knew from K on what schools you would go to and it was fine. Some years were better than others but your parents didn't go crazy worrying or even thinking about it. I miss that.

Well that's disappointing to hear. Thanks pp

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EOTP poster, do you get the feeling that your neighbors will be staying in the neighborhood long term?

Depends on the neighbors. Many of them have already been in the neighborhood long term, so yes. If the middle and high school situation in mid-city doesn't improve, I have the impression that many of the higher SES/white families will leave. I would really rather not do that myself, and I suspect that my standards for what is "acceptable" might be slightly lower/different than the higher SES/white families I'm thinking of, but truthfully, if nothing changes in the next 6 years, I will probably try to find another middle school option.

Why do you ask?

We're looking to move from our condo in an area where families tend to move once their kids reach pre-schoolish age or they have a 2nd child (we fit both criteria). I feel like I've stopped making an effort because people come and go so much in my neighborhood. I really want to move to a community where we can plant roots and other families are planning to stay as their children become tweens and teens, but we can't afford the WOTP neighborhoods. Also, DH grew up in another large city, so it doesn't phase him that neighborhood children go to many different schools, but it still kind of bothers me (once again, doesn't seem to be an issue WOTP, but we can't afford it there). Maybe I'm just not cut out for raising a family in the city, time will tell.

I guess it depends on the area you're talking about. We live in Columbia Heights and DD is going to Cooke in Adams Morgan next year. There are a lot of families who stay in the neighborhoods right around the school and me long term, but by and large they are not DCUM readers. I have observed that young families are staying longer than they used to, but that hasn't translated to meaningful diversity (racial OR socioeconomic) in all the EOTP neighborhoods that are diverse yet - because there are charters, because kids go private, because they get in OOB (we are OOB for Cooke but prefer it over Tubman because of the international bacc curriculum).

I am excited to see what happens.

We are going to H.D. Cooke next year too and could not be more excited about it, especially given the fantastic new principal who has done so much already in just a few weeks on the job. I will say that we weren't planning on checking out Cooke initially based on what we read here and on test scores. But I'm glad that we did. First, we would have gotten in nowhere if we had not applied--we are IB for Cooke and our waitlist numbers are into the 400s for some of the more popular schools and very high (over 100) for schools that people said were "safeties." Second, the early childhood program at Cooke is top-notch. And third, now that there is a new principal, the school is going to turn around. The new principal has a clear plan for increasing the quality of teaching, test scores, parent engagement, etc. I feel like families like yours, PP, and mine are going to be a part of that.

OP, my advice to you is to check out your neighborhood school. DCPS does early childhood education very well pretty universally. If you can get into your neighborhood school early, your child can get an excellent education AND you can be a part of making the school into one that will meet the long-term needs of your family. You can also check out OOB options and charters, but there is such a benefit of being able to walk next door to school with your three-year-old and have a core group of families that live nearby who go to the school.

If you share what your IB school is, those of us who live EOTP and checked out a bunch of DCPS can let you know our impressions. Best of luck.

[Anonymous]

Why not consider MoCo or NoVA? Sounds like this might give you the kind of experience you are looking for with more consistency. Sounds like your concern is about up and coming urban inner-city schools.