Just keep playing the lottery and eventually it will work out...

[Anonymous]

OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

The lack of a DCI guarantee is one of the reasons you're able to get in to the schools more easily now. It cuts both ways.

The thing about DCI is, you have to remember that siblings of DCI students go first. They'll tell you that they expect an admissions rate of 60% or whatever number, of course that's pretty hard to predict. But that's an aggregate rate. If you're a DCI sibling you're golden, 100% chance of admission. Non-siblings will lottery for the remaining spots, and probably have an admissions rate of 40% or something-- it'll have to be less than the aggregate rate to make the numbers work out. Yes, not everyone who graduates from a feeder wants to go to DCI, but still, always remember this about the siblings. And if your number is not good enough to get into DCI, it's probably not good enough for most other schools you would be willing to attend. In elementary it works out for most people but that just isn't true of middle school because there aren't enough good schools.

If you want a long guarantee try EL Haynes or Cap City. Both respected schools that fly somewhat under the radar so you might get in, and they go through 12th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

That's a good point about middle school, I don't know enough about middle school. But if you get in to a school in 1st or 2nd grade, that's 4-6 years before you have to play again or move. Seems fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

That's a good point about middle school, I don't know enough about middle school. But if you get in to a school in 1st or 2nd grade, that's 4-6 years before you have to play again or move. Seems fine.

Middle school starts in 5th for most charters, so if OP doesn’t get in somewhere until 2nd, she’s playing the lottery for 5 years, then has 3 years before she has to play again for much more competitive seats. If DCI doesn’t expand before the first cohorts that lost the guarantee matriculate, I can see people like her getting disillusioned quickly. Especially if playing the elementary lottery means moving her child multiple times. That’s not a great situation for parent or child.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

The lack of a DCI guarantee is one of the reasons you're able to get in to the schools more easily now. It cuts both ways.

The thing about DCI is, you have to remember that siblings of DCI students go first. They'll tell you that they expect an admissions rate of 60% or whatever number, of course that's pretty hard to predict. But that's an aggregate rate. If you're a DCI sibling you're golden, 100% chance of admission. Non-siblings will lottery for the remaining spots, and probably have an admissions rate of 40% or something-- it'll have to be less than the aggregate rate to make the numbers work out. Yes, not everyone who graduates from a feeder wants to go to DCI, but still, always remember this about the siblings. And if your number is not good enough to get into DCI, it's probably not good enough for most other schools you would be willing to attend. In elementary it works out for most people but that just isn't true of middle school because there aren't enough good schools.

If you want a long guarantee try EL Haynes or Cap City. Both respected schools that fly somewhat under the radar so you might get in, and they go through 12th.

Even a 40% chance or whatever based on ALL students wanting to go to DCI (which will not be the case) is great compared to 0% chance for DC to go to his IB middle school. It’s all relative. Plus easy for DCI to expand if they can find the space since they are already approved for more seats than what they currently have.

We wanted immersion and are very happy at our charter independent of the middle school feed. We will take those numbers and worst case scenario, it doesn’t work out will go private or move to close in burbs. Not a big deal for us. The potential for a middle school feed was a bonus but not the big criteria why we chose immersion. I’m sure we are not the only ones like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in middle school now. Here in Brookland, everyone I know who wanted to stay in DC schools found a place that they like by first or second grade. Yes, there some horse trading in the early years for a few families, but we have so many options in the area. When my kids were little, people were using L-T as a placeholder until they lotteried for something better or their kids were old enough to start YY in PK4. Ironically the families we know who left for the Virginia suburbs left SWS, ITS and YY, so they were hardly lottery losers. One family we know lotteried into Stokes but opted to move WOTP. A few families left CMI for ITS, a bunch more left various DCI feeders for Latin and Basis. It helps to have multiple kids.

Good luck. It's not for the faint of heart, but there are many good options.

Why would someone leave CMI for ITS? I thought they were pretty similar to each other.

Always a personal choice, but no, ITS is a tier ahead of CMI. CMI is on the same level as Raymond that OP puts down. In fact, Raymond has a higher report card grade (64) than CMI (56). But I bet you OP would be thrilled with CMI. And that’s after CMI finally had a decent year in test scores gear before. Before that, their lower school was a 2 star school. I know plenty of families that have left CMI for ITS, CHML, Lee, Barnard, and even Takoma.

[Anonymous]

/\ but when did you get in to your immersion charter, PP? Doing all of elementary is fundamentally different from moving your kid 2-3 times and uprooting them once they’re older and more established socially.

[Anonymous]

Remember, an enormous percentage of the parents airily announcing that they'll "just go private" for MS or HS will not, in fact, "go private."

As parents of 36 month-old kids who still occasionally poop their pants, they really have no clue how difficult admissions actually are for independent middle and high schools. Nor do they know what it feels like to cough up $92,000 a year after-tax dollars (2 kids in 2020) for 4 or 6 years.

[Anonymous]

AU Park, CCDC, Bethesda and Fairfax are full of former Petworth/Brookland/fringe Capitol Hill residents who once said, "Oh, we'll just find a good charter or go private."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again, thanks all, this is reassuring. Still not sure if we'll have the patience to stick it out indefinitely, but it's heartening to read these reassurances. Though with DCI not being guaranteed anymore, the prospect of playing until first or second, then starting all over again in fifth or sixth is REALLY unappealing. One thing if you get into your DCI feeder in PK then have 6-7 years before thinking of the lottery again, another if you are playing the lottery more years than not...

The lack of a DCI guarantee is one of the reasons you're able to get in to the schools more easily now. It cuts both ways.

The thing about DCI is, you have to remember that siblings of DCI students go first. They'll tell you that they expect an admissions rate of 60% or whatever number, of course that's pretty hard to predict. But that's an aggregate rate. If you're a DCI sibling you're golden, 100% chance of admission. Non-siblings will lottery for the remaining spots, and probably have an admissions rate of 40% or something-- it'll have to be less than the aggregate rate to make the numbers work out. Yes, not everyone who graduates from a feeder wants to go to DCI, but still, always remember this about the siblings. And if your number is not good enough to get into DCI, it's probably not good enough for most other schools you would be willing to attend. In elementary it works out for most people but that just isn't true of middle school because there aren't enough good schools.

If you want a long guarantee try EL Haynes or Cap City. Both respected schools that fly somewhat under the radar so you might get in, and they go through 12th.

Even a 40% chance or whatever based on ALL students wanting to go to DCI (which will not be the case) is great compared to 0% chance for DC to go to his IB middle school. It’s all relative. Plus easy for DCI to expand if they can find the space since they are already approved for more seats than what they currently have.

We wanted immersion and are very happy at our charter independent of the middle school feed. We will take those numbers and worst case scenario, it doesn’t work out will go private or move to close in burbs. Not a big deal for us. The potential for a middle school feed was a bonus but not the big criteria why we chose immersion. I’m sure we are not the only ones like this.

Ah yes, that easy peasy finding of space, which is never a problem for DC charters. Especially large ones.

BTW, Yu Ying wants to replicate, so a lot of spaces at any new campus would be in the Chinese track. And there's a ton of pressure to locate EOTR, especially with the new Stokes being there already, so any new campus may well be EOTR or close to the river. Hope that works for you!

[Anonymous]

OP here again. Ha, we in fact have made the airy "we'll just go private" comment ourselves. Though we have the benefit of just one kid and can afford it, thought that's not to say we'd be smart to spend our money that way (versus moving).

The lack of DCI guarantee makes me MUCH less inclined to keep playing through the elementary school years. It's not anyone's first choice, but it would be much less disruptive to move to MoCo in early elementary rather than move multiple times in elementary then play the lottery for middle and potentially have to move then anyways.

Or hey, maybe next year we'll be lottery winners, who's to say.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Ha, we in fact have made the airy "we'll just go private" comment ourselves. Though we have the benefit of just one kid and can afford it, thought that's not to say we'd be smart to spend our money that way (versus moving).

The lack of DCI guarantee makes me MUCH less inclined to keep playing through the elementary school years. It's not anyone's first choice, but it would be much less disruptive to move to MoCo in early elementary rather than move multiple times in elementary then play the lottery for middle and potentially have to move then anyways.

Or hey, maybe next year we'll be lottery winners, who's to say.

Us too. I mean, we *can* afford it. It wouldn't be that easy but it's totally doable. We'd just use the college 529 money and then up our savings rate to cover college.

The thing about private middle schools is if you live in our area (lower Ward 5), there isn't a whole lot that's appealing. We're not into Catholic schools. Lowell is kind of far away. I'd consider Templeton but it's only for high school. If I'm going to have to pay a ton of money and also take on a long commute, I'd rather just move to a good public.

[Anonymous]

If your kid is a kid who needs a crop of high achievers around to do well, and you want a guarantee of that k-12, just move now. If your kid will sink to the lowest common denominator (and even Deal or Churchill are going to have slackers/addicts/cutters/etc.) then you're probably going to need to go private eventually so you might as well save on housing.

If you have a 4 year old, you probably don't know how he will be 5-10 years from now so it may make sense to stay where you are as long as your kid is happy and learning (and if he isn't because of distance learning, it's not going to be much better in other districts in the DMV) and figure things out once you have a better sense of your kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Ha, we in fact have made the airy "we'll just go private" comment ourselves. Though we have the benefit of just one kid and can afford it, thought that's not to say we'd be smart to spend our money that way (versus moving).

The lack of DCI guarantee makes me MUCH less inclined to keep playing through the elementary school years. It's not anyone's first choice, but it would be much less disruptive to move to MoCo in early elementary rather than move multiple times in elementary then play the lottery for middle and potentially have to move then anyways.

Or hey, maybe next year we'll be lottery winners, who's to say.

Us too. I mean, we *can* afford it. It wouldn't be that easy but it's totally doable. We'd just use the college 529 money and then up our savings rate to cover college.

The thing about private middle schools is if you live in our area (lower Ward 5), there isn't a whole lot that's appealing. We're not into Catholic schools. Lowell is kind of far away. I'd consider Templeton but it's only for high school. If I'm going to have to pay a ton of money and also take on a long commute, I'd rather just move to a good public.

OP again. Same here. I've researched the private options and nothing stands out to me that's not $40k+ a year. And the more I look closely at DC schools, especially middle and high schools, the more I don't see anything that is really any better than close in Montgomery County. If we won the lottery and could avoid moving, then why not stick it out. But to play and play and disrupt our child multiple times versus moving 2 miles down the road to MD for an equal quality school? I just don't know....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here again. Ha, we in fact have made the airy "we'll just go private" comment ourselves. Though we have the benefit of just one kid and can afford it, thought that's not to say we'd be smart to spend our money that way (versus moving).

The lack of DCI guarantee makes me MUCH less inclined to keep playing through the elementary school years. It's not anyone's first choice, but it would be much less disruptive to move to MoCo in early elementary rather than move multiple times in elementary then play the lottery for middle and potentially have to move then anyways.

Or hey, maybe next year we'll be lottery winners, who's to say.

Us too. I mean, we *can* afford it. It wouldn't be that easy but it's totally doable. We'd just use the college 529 money and then up our savings rate to cover college.

The thing about private middle schools is if you live in our area (lower Ward 5), there isn't a whole lot that's appealing. We're not into Catholic schools. Lowell is kind of far away. I'd consider Templeton but it's only for high school. If I'm going to have to pay a ton of money and also take on a long commute, I'd rather just move to a good public.

OP again. Same here. I've researched the private options and nothing stands out to me that's not $40k+ a year. And the more I look closely at DC schools, especially middle and high schools, the more I don't see anything that is really any better than close in Montgomery County. If we won the lottery and could avoid moving, then why not stick it out. But to play and play and disrupt our child multiple times versus moving 2 miles down the road to MD for an equal quality school? I just don't know....

You don't *need* to disrupt your child multiple times. Leave him or her where they are until you get a better option. Although it's not THAT big a deal to have a little kid change schools when they are small.