Why is Washington Latin MS now a Tier 2 school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a Latin parent, I have to say that this has also concerned me for a while. I watched the scores drop and didn't quite understand why. My DC continued to do well, her friends did well, and most of the students in our "circle" continued to improve and thrive. It seems at one time they had a problem with retaining teachers. I think this has goten better now. Also, we can't dismiss the fact that BASIS really did take a good chunk of the higher achieving MS student away from Latin. Yes, Latin still had a waitlist and was still able to fill all of their seats, but the student pool were of lesser quality academically. I think now Latin has to work harder to catch those students up and it has really proven to be a challenge. Overall, Latin is still a great school and has been a perfect fit for our family, but I can see how a potential parent looking in would be concerned if they are only looking at DC CAS scores. But luckily for the parents that are concerned, there are now other great options for your kids. No need to beat up on Latin. Just send your child somewhere else.

I honestly don't think there was much of a brain drain from Latin to Basis - except for really math and science oriented kids, whose parents might not have put them in Latin in the first place. Not all that many (maybe 15 max) kids from Latin left for Basis the first year it opened. They are very different schools.

Latin's decline in the percent of students scoring advanced and its decline in individual scores year over year started in 2011 and continued in 2012 - both years when Basis was not even open, so I don't think Basis can really be the explanation for a four year downward trend when they did not exist for the first two years. I also think Basis for its first two years (not this year) had very few white kids and a lot of FARMS kids while Latin has been moving in the other direction for a long time, which if you go by DCUM cw should have made all the scores rise not just the raw DC CAS scores..... The demographics at Basis year 3 are starting to look more like Latin but Basis has the improvement scores to satisfy the Charter Board and the number of kids scoring advanced went up in the two years they took the DC CAS.

I am glad you noticed the decline as a Latin parent though, because their letter seems on the verge of an outright lie to parents about what has been going on at the school and why they got dropped to Tier 2. And now they can just ignore it all because DC is moving on to the PARCC and it will take time to figure out accurate measurements there............ So unless parents say "hey, we are concerned about what was going on here...... what happened?" They will never have to explain themselves and I think they need to be required to because this was a serious decline at what is widely recognized as one of the best if not the best charter school in Washington DC - so to let their explanation stand is unfair to the kids and doesn't really make the administration respect you as parents who know what has actually been going on - who can see behind the "proficient plus advanced" scores and know that the explanation that it is hard to improve when you have been scoring so highly is false, especially because in their case they still had a long way to go in terms of how many kids could have become advanced............... and if Deal can do it, so should Latin.......

But I honestly don't see the Basis brain drain except for those few kids who know that what they want to do is math and science. It does give kids who don't get into Latin a place to go - and that is good............

Please compare the number of students taking the CAS (now PARCC) to the number of students at the beginning of the school year. At Latin, it's almost everyone -- definitely not so with BASIS. That also makes a difference.

[Anonymous]

I don't think there was a brain drain, but I also don't think that families go to BASIS solely on math and science interests. At least on Cap Hill, the people who go to BASIS are often the ones who are left on the wait list for Latin, due to the large amount of siblings. Anyone think that the younger siblings at Latin may be bringing the scores down? My third kid is not nearly as brainy as my first. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So you got into BASIS and had a high waitlist number for Latin and when you go the call from Latin (because someone that got in to Latin decided to do something else-- or moved away, etc.), you took it and told BASIS you didn't want your BASIS spot anymore. Do I have that right?

No, we had to turn Basis down first, but our numbers at Latin were good enough that we hoped to get in. If our child hadn't moved up the list, we would have stayed at the current school.

so you listed BASIS before Latin on your common charter application? Even though you wanted Latin more than BASIS?

Or was this before the common charter application?

[Anonymous]

Prior to the MSDC common lottery Latin and Basis each had their own lottery which operated independently. With the advent of the common lottery, if you ranked Basis above Latin, and then matched at Basis, you wouldn't be waitlisted for Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Prior to the MSDC common lottery Latin and Basis each had their own lottery which operated independently. With the advent of the common lottery, if you ranked Basis above Latin, and then matched at Basis, you wouldn't be waitlisted for Latin.

But here's the post that started this side thread:

"As a parent of a child who is high achieving and had a choice between Basis and Latin, we chose Latin! So there to the folks who say the bright kids aren't going to Latin. We are thrilled to have our child starting at Latin! "

The "starting at Latin" bit implied to me that the applications happened this year, not back when the schools had independent lotteries.

Something just isn't adding up here . . .

[Anonymous]

for the parents disappointed by the Washington Latin College Admissions, THESE are the numbers that you should be paying attention too despite the demographic shift. All is not entirely well at Washington Latin and only some parents appear to care and the administration appears to be offering an explanation that is ...... not telling the all of the story.