Increase in IB lottery activity (and IB families on waitlists!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think this data will be more revealing next year and beyond. It is hard to really understand the change in IB school applications because this is the first year with the new boundaries, so IB populations around certain schools changed a lot (some boudnaries got a lot bigger, some a lot smaller), so comparing it to last year applications isn't really apples to apples at each school. But still great to see that overall more and more people want to stay in DC and go to DCPS.

Good point about the boundary changes affecting waitlists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For SY 13-14 Janney left a lot more IB families off the wait list. I think they added a new PK class this year (SY 14-15) and are doing the same for next year (SY 15-16) which results in more IB families getting in. It also results in taking up more class space for PK, which is not required. Stoddert isn't adding additional PK, so they are leaving lots more families out for that year.

As a Janney parent, I think that Janney should reconsider offering so many PK4 spots. Give that room to K or 1st grade classes, and reduce the class size in those grades.

They should also stop letting in OOB kids (I'm not referring to disadvantaged kids, I'm talking about affluent kids who live just outside of the boundaries).

Maybe you know anecdotally of a few, but if this were happening in large numbers, Janney's IB percentage would reflect it, which it does not.

Why does it matter if it is happening in large numbers or just a few? It shouldn't be happening at all. There is no reason that they should be letting in kids in neighboring communities with a perfectly good school option when they claim to be overcrowded and in constant need of expansion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For SY 13-14 Janney left a lot more IB families off the wait list. I think they added a new PK class this year (SY 14-15) and are doing the same for next year (SY 15-16) which results in more IB families getting in. It also results in taking up more class space for PK, which is not required. Stoddert isn't adding additional PK, so they are leaving lots more families out for that year.

As a Janney parent, I think that Janney should reconsider offering so many PK4 spots. Give that room to K or 1st grade classes, and reduce the class size in those grades.

They should also stop letting in OOB kids (I'm not referring to disadvantaged kids, I'm talking about affluent kids who live just outside of the boundaries).

Maybe you know anecdotally of a few, but if this were happening in large numbers, Janney's IB percentage would reflect it, which it does not.

Why does it matter if it is happening in large numbers or just a few? It shouldn't be happening at all. There is no reason that they should be letting in kids in neighboring communities with a perfectly good school option when they claim to be overcrowded and in constant need of expansion.

I agree with you, but I was basically calling BS on the previous poster.

[Anonymous]

Wow, look at the growth in Hearst and West. Is this a trend of more DCPS becoming broadly popular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, look at the growth in Hearst and West. Is this a trend of more DCPS becoming broadly popular?

Just move people moving to DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, look at the growth in Hearst and West. Is this a trend of more DCPS becoming broadly popular?

I think so, yes. You have to also factor in the baby boom that happened a couple years ago and realize that those kids are all entering PK now. Also, families are not moving to the suburbs as their children age. When I first moved here, people were moving to the suburbs as soon as they got pregnant, at least partially because of schools. I actually don't know one family with PK/lower elementary aged kids who is leaving the city because of schools. The families I know who are moving are mostly upgrading from 1 bedroom to 2+ bedrooms. Not everyone can afford to move WOTP (though I do know 2 families who did that when their kids were 2/3 years old, 100% because of schools) and if you can't afford to move WOTP, chances are you can't afford private school either. Those kids have to go somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, look at the growth in Hearst and West. Is this a trend of more DCPS becoming broadly popular?

Hearst in particular has a very strong and active PTA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, look at the growth in Hearst and West. Is this a trend of more DCPS becoming broadly popular?

I think we'd geta better idea of this if we filtered the data for elementaries to just consider K-5. That's where parents start to get pickier.