Eaton vs. Stoddert vs. H. Mann vs. Hearst Elementary Schools
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Anonymous
We are in PK at Hearst. Here is what I would say. Education: We have been really happy with the quality of education, though we obviously don't have experience in the upper grades. Hearst uses Creative Curriculum, which used 6-week themes to find creative and fun ways to teach. My chick loves it. This past week's NW current has a snippet on the balls theme that PK just finished up at Hearst if you want to see the kinds of things they do. PTA: Hearst's PTA is terrific and there is a huge amount of parental involvement. The PTA provides a fun for each teacher to use for supplies and field trips. It also arranged for enrichment classes after school (including free options) and hosts a lot of community-building events. Really extraordinarily relative to outer last school. After care: Hearst has both after-school enrichment (for an house after school) and two aftercare options (run by DC parks & rec and Innis). We do Both enrichment classes and Innis. The enrichment is fantastic. Innis has been pretty good, with a focus on open free play, but some teachers are more engaged than others, and there is not great communication from the administrative office. The good thing is that the program accepts anyone who applies (not true of all the aftercare programs in the schools you listed). And you can go part1tjmenif you need that. They do separate the PK and K kids from the older kids, which had been helpful. Happy to answer other questions about Hearst. We are very happy there. |
Anonymous
| We love Stoddert - though, as previous posters have noted, you will have a hard time getting into PK. |
Anonymous
Janney is way too big now. I say this a parent. It's a zoo. |
Anonymous
Of the schools listed, Mann has the highest academically-achieving student body. The school's diversity comes largely from students whose parents hold senior foreign embassy positions. This may come at the expense of the racial/SES diversity one sees in some other DCPS elementaries, but many feel that the better overall educational preparation, focus and attainment of students outweighs what some may consider as a drawback. |
Anonymous
The best thing would be to split Janney's boundary and move students on the eastern side to Hearst. It would quickly transform newly renovated Hearst into a hot, neighborhood school like Janney. A win-win. |
Anonymous
Definitely not going to happen. They tried to move people from Janney to Hearst in the last round and decided not to do so after the protests that came. |
Anonymous
Now parents like a PP are concerned at how big Janney has become. If people were convinced that Hearst could quickly be at Janney's level, they would move more readily. |
Anonymous
| Many of us at Hearst are happy with the school population as it is now. The racial and socioeconomic diversity if one of the reasons we purposely moved there as opposed to Janney or Lafayette. |
Anonymous
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OP, if what you value is high test scores and a student body of mostly high SES families, then Mann is your best bet.
The three other schools are excellent with great afterschool offerings and an active PTAs, but have lower test scores and a more economically diverse population. It really just depends what you are looking for. |
Anonymous
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Janney was great about 4 years ago when it was at 550 students. Now it's close to 800 and it really feels like a huge school.
The grades are 5 classes each. It's far more difficult to make family friends or feel connected because the kids are switched around each year and the cohort for each grade is so large so each kid is only forwarded with 1-3 from the previous year. School-wide events (Halloween, etc) are just a zoo. I could go on and on. Things have changed (and not for the better) since the school doubled in size. |
Anonymous
They're going to have to adjust Janney boundaries. The good news will be that Hearst will become much more of a neighborhood school, which is important if you believe in a system of strong neighborhood elementary schools as DCPS purports to be. |
Anonymous
Us too. The PP's "win-win" situation may be one to outsiders but not those of us actually at Hearst. |
Anonymous
Your kids will probably be through Hearst by then anyway. But ultimately parents should be strengthening and embracing their neighborhood schools, rather than the very "un-green" east to west school daily school commute. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
Agree. And really the schools should serve their neighborhoods if they are neighborhood schools. Charters have a lottery for those who want that option. |