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Anonymous
| I wonder why it was scheduled in December before the holidays. Because of inauguration in January? Do you think it impacted attendance? |
Anonymous
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I will start by saying that I was super into this last year, as were all our friends in the same situation. Our son was entering PK3 and we live EOTP with a neighborhood school that has not started to improve at all. So most of us were apprehensive about our in bounds. We were all hoping for charters or DCPS near us that were further along. We had about 10 that we would be happy with and hoped for the best. We ranked our in bounds last. We ended up getting into our #4 ranked charter over the summer. We are super happy and feel very lucky to have found a great place for our son. Here would be my tips:
1. Go to open houses: I ruled out some based on what I saw. 2. Rank your true preference: some friends got their #1 choice even with a waitlist of 500 3. Put your in bounds last if you are on the fence about it. You will likely get in there. 4. Don't bother with DCPS that only have spots for siblings if you are not in bounds 5. Be optimistic, I didn't think we would get in anywhere and we did. Oh and we were originally matched with a DCPS that we would have been fine with, we were out of bounds for that school and were matched, so do your research. 6. Apply to schools not in the common lottery to keep options open. 7. Attend and engage with a school consultant so you don't get shut out entirely, they will help you even when you are ready to submit your list. 8. Have a back up plan if you don't want your in bounds: daycare or private 9. Give your in bounds a shot, lots of people end up happy with their in bounds school. |
Anonymous
It is always before the holidays -- more specifically before the lottery opens. In 2014 it was in November. It 2015 it was Dec 12. |
Anonymous
Good advice except for the consultant. No need for that unless you are entirely new to town and/or have no friends who are parents. |
Anonymous
| As a parent volunteer - what feedback could you give us that was helpful/not for us to improve for future years? Especially at the PS3 level? |
Anonymous
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This year's crowds did feel smaller, but I chalked it up to being a volunteer at a booth way in the back; when I wandered around the rest of it, it still felt crowded.
It may not be a must-attend event for everyone but plenty of people can't make it to a long list of open houses, so having different tactics for how parents can engage with prospective schools can only help. I also got to have some great conversations with staff at my son's school, as we figured out the best ways to talk about the school. |
Anonymous
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I was looking at an upper elementary grade and was disappointed with the Deal/Hardy feeders. I get that you don't have to try hard because you'll have a huge waitlist no matter what, but people couldn't answer very basic questions ("how does aftercare work?" "do you have a school nurse?") and weren't super friendly. We've considered moving IB for Deal or Hardy and are now pretty much resolved that it would be better to just move the summer before 6th grade rather than going to ES there (we like our ES but would switch for a school that goes to a higher grade than 5th).
Capital City was our surprise favorite. I liked that Latin and Two Rivers had students there to talk and I really liked both kids (who were very different, but each very engaging). Thank you to the schools that handed out chocolate! And no thank you to the parent who let their toddler keep blowing a whistle while the fire alarm was going off and it was already hard to hear the announcements (was there a school giving out green whistles? If so, bad choice; if the parent decided to bring it, bad choice too!) |
Anonymous
| I really enjoyed speaking with a parent and teacher at the Inspired Teaching and the one right next to them (Ingenuity Prep I think). |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
Twin parent, join the DC Twins yahoo group. dctwins-subscribe@yahoogroups.com (Try to ignore anyone who is not a parent of multiples who tells you to "calm down".  )
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Anonymous
Yes because getting into a good school matters so much more if you're a twin. |
Anonymous
Well the statistics are different. |
Anonymous
| your odds are much better if you have twins, since you get two draws and then one can bring the other one in (or to the top of the waitlist) via sibling preference. It's the singletons who need to worry! |
Anonymous
| The booths who remained sitting behind a table didn't work. A few dumped the tables or had one for flyers etc were my favorite to navigate. It felt more open. Lee Montesorri gave out little plants. My kid is currently tossing around his football from Garfield. We are far from hugh school but the young people i met who were roaming from Dunbar and Washington Leadershup Academy were impressive. I like schools that had a mix of teachers or administrators and parents. Myschooldc folks in the middle of the floor did a good job explaining the proxess. |
Anonymous
So, you pick a school by what freebies they give you? |