Got of waitlist at SWS. Switch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You'll be glad you switched by day 1 of first grade at Watkins. Privately, look at the stunning difference in the FARMs rates for both schools.

Most PreS3 kids can adapt to this type of change surprisingly quickly and with little pain. You'll probably have around 2 weeks of ups and downs at the new school, then it's all a closed chapter for years to come. We switched from one DCPS to another in the fall of preschool, no big deal. We worried far too much about emotional and social fallout beforehand.

Take the kid to SWS a couple times before the switch, walk around, say hi to teachers and staff, talk about how excited you are about the new school, hang out on the playground with SWS families etc., arrange a play date with an SWS PreS3 family. She'll get there.

yuck PP.

for reference, I'll say that our low farms DCPS was really destructive to our DS.

[Anonymous]

Reality, PP. If the FARMs rate is greater than around 25%, it emerges as a detriment for learning for all the kids. A large corpus of academic literature bears this out. Yea, reality bites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reality, PP. If the FARMs rate is greater than around 25%, it emerges as a detriment for learning for all the kids. A large corpus of academic literature bears this out. Yea, reality bites.

Then move to MoCo. Don't contaminate a school that's supposed to be citywide (and thus should reflect city demographics) with your racism.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reality, PP. If the FARMs rate is greater than around 25%, it emerges as a detriment for learning for all the kids. A large corpus of academic literature bears this out. Yea, reality bites.

Could you point to some of that research? My impression had been that for kids from advantaged homes, the research consensus was that it didn't really matter that much, but that for poorer kids it did. But I'm no expert and I wasn't able to find anything (pointing one way or the other) with a quick Google search.

For what it's worth, my kids are at Watkins and we turned down a spot at SWS a few years ago, but that was in part because the transition would have been disruptive, which isn't an issue at PK 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We've experienced all three schools.

Peabody is special place. And Watkins is on the upswing. With a PS3 student you'll likely have a larger cohort stay through all of Watkins.

That said, switch.

I've had kids in both and agree, especially if you are IB for Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Definitely switch. Peabody is good, Watkins is OK through about 2nd or 3rd grade. Sure, the upper grades could improve by the time you get there, but SWS is good now. It's facility is good, it's playground is great. Switch, switch, switch and never look back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are the PK-3 teachers equally good at SWS? Is one preferred over the other?

I have two kids in SWS, one currently in pk3. We absolutely LOVE our teachers. You won't regret taking the spot. It's a great school.

[Anonymous]

Switch. And I'm not usually a fan of switching after school has started.

[Anonymous]

Wow - total DCUM consensus. I'll add a +1 to that. I have no direct SWS experience l, but I do have Watkins experience. Watkins is OK, a big step below Maury and Brent. Similar to LT. Watkins and LT will be great schools one day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reality, PP. If the FARMs rate is greater than around 25%, it emerges as a detriment for learning for all the kids. A large corpus of academic literature bears this out. Yea, reality bites.

Then move to MoCo. Don't contaminate a school that's supposed to be citywide (and thus should reflect city demographics) with your racism.

More than 2/3 of SWS students are white, the case for almost 20 years now. Right, the student population should reflect city demographics (40% white). Sounds like you've got your cut out for you in battling racists to make that happen. Get to it why don't you.

[Anonymous]

The PK-3 classes seem to be more diverse this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The PK-3 classes seem to be more diverse this year.

With same spaces offered as every other year. The sibling logjam eased up this year and PK3 reflects that. so much for the race baiting about the school's demographics being some nefarious plot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PK-3 classes seem to be more diverse this year.

With same spaces offered as every other year. The sibling logjam eased up this year and PK3 reflects that. so much for the race baiting about the school's demographics being some nefarious plot.

well, the race baiting started with someone touting the "low farms" as a benefit, so ....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The PK-3 classes seem to be more diverse this year.

With same spaces offered as every other year. The sibling logjam eased up this year and PK3 reflects that. so much for the race baiting about the school's demographics being some nefarious plot.

well, the race baiting started with someone touting the "low farms" as a benefit, so ....

The race baiting on SWS started probably as far back as DCUM existed, but in its current incarnation as a citywide school it's been more like the past 5 years.

And I genuinely doubt that statement came from an active family at SWS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reality, PP. If the FARMs rate is greater than around 25%, it emerges as a detriment for learning for all the kids. A large corpus of academic literature bears this out. Yea, reality bites.

Then move to MoCo. Don't contaminate a school that's supposed to be citywide (and thus should reflect city demographics) with your racism.

More than 2/3 of SWS students are white, the case for almost 20 years now. Right, the student population should reflect city demographics (40% white). Sounds like you've got your cut out for you in battling racists to make that happen. Get to it why don't you.

Women like you aren't worth arguing with but for anyone reading who doesn't realize most of the school was admitted before it was a city wide school. Even now that it is city wide the expectation is that it will trend towards the demographics of the city population that is willing to commute to the location (which is different from what's there today but also different from the overall city demographics). It's also DCUM sport for someone like her to tag most of these threads with the racist label.