Shepherd vs. ITS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should talk to your neighbors about Shepherd since you’ve never attended. Talk to families who’ve attended past Prek and through 5th. Because walking to school doesn’t trump a good academic experience.

This is true but I don't think there is much to make one think ITS has stronger academics/more to offer compared to Shepherd.

Also, I do think an easy commute is not just better for parents but also for kids. You're talking not just about a congested drive every morning but then also dealing with parking, etc. The school would have be be unquestionably better for me to make that choice.

FYI ITS has a good/fast carpool option and there’s never an issue with parking within 1 block if needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should talk to your neighbors about Shepherd since you’ve never attended. Talk to families who’ve attended past Prek and through 5th. Because walking to school doesn’t trump a good academic experience.

This is true but I don't think there is much to make one think ITS has stronger academics/more to offer compared to Shepherd.

Also, I do think an easy commute is not just better for parents but also for kids. You're talking not just about a congested drive every morning but then also dealing with parking, etc. The school would have be be unquestionably better for me to make that choice.

What makes you think ITS academics are stronger? We are an ITS family and have applied to Shepherd a few times. I love ITS don’t get me wrong, but curious why you have that opinion.

[Anonymous]

Last year K waitlist movement was an anomaly. It went crazy far because they didn't even start to make offers till near or after when school started. Shepherd is a great school.

[Anonymous]

Another IB Shepherd parent. We also liked ITS when touring. But, just adding to the other recs for neighborhood school. Also much easier to be engaged as a parent, and schlep to a PTA meeting when it’s down the street and not 20 min away from home.

I know ITS parents who weren’t happy in upper grades a few years ago, and pulled their kids out. We also know of Shepherd parents who pulled their kids out of upper grades more recently. I think neither experience will necessarily apply for your kid entering K. Definitely ask around and more heavily weigh opinions from families with recent K experience.

Also I’ll just add that IB PYP is also inquiry-based.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd. No question even if commutes were similar. And 20 min. to ITS is not happening.

I have commutes from lower Shepherd Park to ITS for 3 years. It takes no more than 18 minutes each day. We have it down to the minute.

This is the commute after trial and error and 3 years of experience. I am sure year one it was a lot longer as you did not have the history of traffic patterns and parking patterns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd. No question even if commutes were similar. And 20 min. to ITS is not happening.

I have commutes from lower Shepherd Park to ITS for 3 years. It takes no more than 18 minutes each day. We have it down to the minute.

This is the commute after trial and error and 3 years of experience. I am sure year one it was a lot longer as you did not have the history of traffic patterns and parking patterns.

Yes, it took an entire year to get the traffic patterns down and not two days, lol.

The commute from the school to my office has always ended up being more important than from the school to home.

[Anonymous]

I am kind of in the same situation between Shepherd and Stokes but I will just go to Shepherd. Stokes is on my way to work but I work from home a lot, and I usually prefer taking the metro, so yeah the commute wins for me also because Shepherd is a decent school.

[Anonymous]

+1 for short commute. It is not that big a deal for preschool, but for K and 1st when you have more playdates it really helps to be close. Also, a commute will make difficult anything you want to do on a weeknight. If we had a long commute, it would be really hard to find time for piano practice or sight words or picking up her toys or any of the other things I make her do. It just is not how I want to spend my and my children's time. And on a bad traffic day, everyone is late, or family dinner doesn't happen. ITS is a lovely school but it isn't so much more wonderful than Shepherd.

[Anonymous]

I recently made a really similar decision (I'm the Seaton vs ITS OP). We went with ITS and are very excited about it (mostly after talking to current parents of older kids and teachers there about specifics in regards to academics.)

However, if we were IB for Shepherd instead of Seaton, I would have stayed at Shepherd.

Some reasons:

- commute. For us, the distances are similar enough -- both schools are walkable.

- neighborhood school feel: While it feels wonderful to be a part of a rising neighborhood school, Seaton does not have a critical mass of neighborhood kids in our grade yet. There are a few wonderful families, but we honestly will probably have the same number in our neighborhood at ITS.

- middle school: we don't have a viable middle school, so the ITS middle school (which i learned about IRL, including details like which high schools the graduating 8th graders got into) and feel is a real option, and maybe a wonderful one. You, however, have an amazing middle school and high school option!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I recently made a really similar decision (I'm the Seaton vs ITS OP). We went with ITS and are very excited about it (mostly after talking to current parents of older kids and teachers there about specifics in regards to academics.)

However, if we were IB for Shepherd instead of Seaton, I would have stayed at Shepherd.

Some reasons:

- commute. For us, the distances are similar enough -- both schools are walkable.

- neighborhood school feel: While it feels wonderful to be a part of a rising neighborhood school, Seaton does not have a critical mass of neighborhood kids in our grade yet. There are a few wonderful families, but we honestly will probably have the same number in our neighborhood at ITS.

- middle school: we don't have a viable middle school, so the ITS middle school (which i learned about IRL, including details like which high schools the graduating 8th graders got into) and feel is a real option, and maybe a wonderful one. You, however, have an amazing middle school and high school option!

I'm the PP -- let me edit this to say that while we have a bunch of neighborhood families in PreK 4, enough are leaving for other options next year or moving out of the neighborhood to make a bit of a dent. Though there are many wonderful people left! Don't want this to knock Seaton and the wonderful trajectory it is on, just saying ITS has a similar number of neighbors attending. life in Ward 5 is quite scattered bc of all these proximate charters.

[Anonymous]

OP here — thank you all so much for these responses. This has been an incredibly helpful set of perspectives. This is leaving me feeling much more settled about the decision, should we be faced with one in the fall. Guess I’ll start hunting down good deals on white shirts and blue bottoms! Go Mustangs!

[Anonymous]

Lastly, check out the achievement gap at ITS. I think Shepherd may have the highest DCPS scores for AA kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here — thank you all so much for these responses. This has been an incredibly helpful set of perspectives. This is leaving me feeling much more settled about the decision, should we be faced with one in the fall. Guess I’ll start hunting down good deals on white shirts and blue bottoms! Go Mustangs!

Please don’t just rely on this list. There are plenty of boosters on this thread who talk and talk about how great Shepherd is and maybe it really IS for their children. But there are plenty of us who live here and didn’t continue past a year. There are teachers who are great and others who will never leave no matter how many parents find their poor demeanor the antithesis of what teachers are supposed to be. And sure, you might get that at another neighborhood school too. But not at a place like ITS. Excellence in teaching is their core focus. Again, talk to your neighbors....please! Ask them their experience. And don’t discount what they say, or DON’T say, like I did. Looking back, there were signs I shouldn’t have sent my child there and I wish I would have listened. Walking to school is my more important than having a welcoming and loving school environment, each and every day.

[Anonymous]

*NOT more important...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here — thank you all so much for these responses. This has been an incredibly helpful set of perspectives. This is leaving me feeling much more settled about the decision, should we be faced with one in the fall. Guess I’ll start hunting down good deals on white shirts and blue bottoms! Go Mustangs!

Please don’t just rely on this list. There are plenty of boosters on this thread who talk and talk about how great Shepherd is and maybe it really IS for their children. But there are plenty of us who live here and didn’t continue past a year. There are teachers who are great and others who will never leave no matter how many parents find their poor demeanor the antithesis of what teachers are supposed to be. And sure, you might get that at another neighborhood school too. But not at a place like ITS. Excellence in teaching is their core focus. Again, talk to your neighbors....please! Ask them their experience. And don’t discount what they say, or DON’T say, like I did. Looking back, there were signs I shouldn’t have sent my child there and I wish I would have listened. Walking to school is my more important than having a welcoming and loving school environment, each and every day.

I really know nothing about Shepherd, but I can tell you ITS is not perfect either. To be fair though, I think the achievement gap is more an issue in the middle school at ITS, so comparing with Shepherd is not really apples-to-apples.