New to DCI-Anything we should know?

[Anonymous]

PP above, you must be White, with ancestors who immigrated to this country long ago. Asians immigrant parents like us, from working class backgrounds, don't think like you do. We're not convinced that our kids will be "fine" coming out of high schools that haven't prioritize challenging high achievers. We could care less if a school's demographics mirror those of the District overall. We won't stay for high school at DCI. We may not even stay for the rest of middle school. DCI doesn't push our kid one bit. She essentially doesn't have homework - she gets her homework done at school. OP, don't be surprised if that's how DCI goes for you guys.

[Anonymous]

Which bright kid wouldn’t have been incredibly happy in a friendly middle school where they didn’t have to break a sweat to get all As? You sound daffy, lady.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP specifically asked for feedback from parents with kids at the school currently and the overwhelming responses on this thread are not from families with kids at the school.

Reading this thread there is 1 or 2 families with kids at the school currently who are not happy. Rest no kids at the school at all. Very telling and all the DCI thread devolves like this, because these people with absolutely no kids at the school overtake it. And it’s the same posters every time.

I’m sure there are more than 1 or 2 families not happy at DCI and are not on here. I would also argue that if families are happy at their school, they usually are not on this board. DCI has a very high retention rate so data doesn’t support lots of unhappy families who could leave if they want. Data also shows lots more feeder families are tracking to the school.

Lastly, the posters on here who are needing and advocating tracking in all subjects, you need to move to the burbs and get off the DC school site completely. It’s not happening in DC at any school. But if you look at the middle school options in the city, charter and DCPS, DCI is one of the best options especially if you factor in extracurriculars and facilities.

That’s the bottom line folks.

You seem to be making a lot of assumptions here about this thread.

You don't know how many people are posting or who is posting or if they are representative of others at the school. Plus, not everyone with kids in the school will note that in a post.

That is why it is helpful to have data about the school's performance, so there is at least some objective information.

Unfortunately, DCI provides very little information about how kids are performing (information that lots of other schools freely make available). Moreover, the information that is public about DCI (for example, PARCC scores) is not particularly good.

[Anonymous]

New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

Improve instruction, so that all the kids are engaged. Sounds fabulous.

So why is my rising 8th grader going to be in social studies, English and science classes with many classmates who work far behind grade level? Why was her 6th and 7th grade math work far too easy? Why are so many of the "advanced" French track students hardly able to speak French after coming up through Stokes?

The rigor needs to start in the feeders, particularly for English, math and speaking target languages. It doesn't. The rigor needs to come from honors middle school social studies, English and science classes. It doesn't. The rigor needs to come from a big push for language immersion studies in the middle school and high school summers, like the Concordia camps. It doesn't. The rigor needs to come from the high school students clearing reasonable prerequisite hurdles to access IB Diploma classes junior and senior year. It doesn't. The rigor needs to come from DCI aiming for average IBD scores in the high 30s. It doesn't.

Please tell us something we didn't know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP specifically asked for feedback from parents with kids at the school currently and the overwhelming responses on this thread are not from families with kids at the school.

Reading this thread there is 1 or 2 families with kids at the school currently who are not happy. Rest no kids at the school at all. Very telling and all the DCI thread devolves like this, because these people with absolutely no kids at the school overtake it. And it’s the same posters every time.

I’m sure there are more than 1 or 2 families not happy at DCI and are not on here. I would also argue that if families are happy at their school, they usually are not on this board. DCI has a very high retention rate so data doesn’t support lots of unhappy families who could leave if they want. Data also shows lots more feeder families are tracking to the school.

Lastly, the posters on here who are needing and advocating tracking in all subjects, you need to move to the burbs and get off the DC school site completely. It’s not happening in DC at any school. But if you look at the middle school options in the city, charter and DCPS, DCI is one of the best options especially if you factor in extracurriculars and facilities.

That’s the bottom line folks.

You seem to be making a lot of assumptions here about this thread.

You don't know how many people are posting or who is posting or if they are representative of others at the school. Plus, not everyone with kids in the school will note that in a post.

That is why it is helpful to have data about the school's performance, so there is at least some objective information.

Unfortunately, DCI provides very little information about how kids are performing (information that lots of other schools freely make available). Moreover, the information that is public about DCI (for example, PARCC scores) is not particularly good.

+1000. Data.

[Anonymous]

Actually, new ED is clueless and doesn’t prioritize language or IB. You can thank Mr. Nace and the core of IB teachers who truly get the mission and focus of the school for keeping it in the forefront.

[Anonymous]

Agree with the statement above. Problem is that the IB language teachers can't do the heavy lifting alone. As long as the feeders stick to immersion light and DCI families aren't helped, encouraged or required to pursue immersion studies by the school, IBD language studies at DCI can only be so serious.

My DCI kid's spoken language skills are good mainly because we've been taking her to weekend heritage classes in MoCo on weekends and summer immersion camps for years. We've found that standards for reading and writing in DCI language classes are reasonably high but standards for speaking and understanding are low. DCI students are allowed to coast on speaking, which works for AP exams but not IBD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this thread could give you the impression that nobody at DCI cares about students scoring high on IBD or being admitted to highly competitive colleges. That's not true. There's a group of us that does care and has since the feeder and middle school years. We support one another. It's just that we're low-key about our ambitions and extra prep to avoid becoming lightning rods for accusations of elitism and tiger parenting.

One thing some of us do is collect and share Oxford IB subject study guides and have kids get together to work with tutors with IB exam prep experience.

My eldest just returned from the UK where they attended a 10-day mid-IBD subject review program (post 11th grade) with Oxford Study Courses. We know a DCI family who did the same thing in Vienna with IBWise in conjunction w/a vacation. A few of the families are considering sending younger sibs to Sevenoaks school in Kent, England next summer for a couple weeks of intensive prep for Higher Level subjects. The program isn't all that expensive if the kids stay off campus w/a parent chaperone.

Just because we can't afford WIS and won't move to MoCo for IBD doesn't mean that we're not investing in aiming high. There will be more of us at DCI in the future. Good luck, OP.

Based on your post, I know a bunch of middle school parents, incoming and current, who would be interested in connecting with you to learn more.

[Anonymous]

PP above, our group has taken some flak in the DCI high school community for our willingness/ability to pay for IB summer exam prep abroad. So we're keeping a low profile, not offering in-person advice to families down the chain.

But here's a list of sources of IBD prep/revision courses in the UK Europe to search up to get you started. Friends Across the Pond with teens in IB World Schools recommended IBWise and Oxford Study Courses UK. These programs prep one subject at a time for several days in small groups, up to two subjects per week over Jan break, April break and/or during June-August. In a nutshell, they review to the tests, teach the formats, the type of questions to expect. Oxford Study Courses have been around for decades. Good luck.

Summer Academy Vienna: IBD Exam Revision Courses, Teen Boarding Program, July

IBWise Vienna: Mid IBD and IBD Exam Revision, Day Programs, June-July

Oxford Study Courses, Oxford, England: Mid-IBD and IB Exam Revision Courses, Day Programs, July-August
Munich International School Option, Boston MIT Campus Option some years

IB Academy Utrecht, Netherlands; IBD Exam Revision, Day Programs, January Breaks

Tutors Plus, Geneva Switzerland, IBD Exam Revision, Day Programs, June-August

Sevenoaks (Boarding) School Kent, England; Teen Boarding Option, Day Program Option, July
Mid IBD and IBD Exam Revision

[Anonymous]

For anybody at DCI who's considering IBD exam revision courses down the road, this chat on a reputable UK higher ed info sharing site, the Student Room, is informative. Those posting mention a few of the courses listed in the previous post, particularly Oxford Study Courses (OSC), also Lanterna.

https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=769291

FYI, OSC offers live stream IBD revision courses, a cheaper option than in-person in the UK, but time differences can be tricky from DC. OSC live stream courses are taught on London or Syndey Australia time. My kid did a seriously good OSC course to prep for IBD Chem over the summer for about $700 (live streamed as an afternoon class London time, early morning course DC time).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, new ED is clueless and doesn’t prioritize language or IB. You can thank Mr. Nace and the core of IB teachers who truly get the mission and focus of the school for keeping it in the forefront.

Research pre-IB (post 10th grade), mid-IBD (post 11th grade) and IBD exam subject revision (April) course options and weep. None of the DCI admins would know or care about any of it, the new ED least of all. He doesn't prioritize anything IBD related. His main interest seems to be beefing up DCI sports.

[Anonymous]

Must be nice to be able to afford to send your child to Europe for a IB educational program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New executive director last year and new middle school principal this year. There has been lots of staff turnover. The new leadership is focused on making it more rigorous and working to improved instruction so that all kids are engaged.

If you step back far enough DCUM threads provide a pretty clear illustration of why public education is so hard and why DC does it so poorly. Here we have a number of families clamoring for more rigor and more true immersion. They want their kids challenged and in classes with other kids at or above grade level. On any BASIS thread (or any thread where it ultimately becomes about BASIS) people lob unfounded complaints about the school forcing kids out or failing to provide IEP supports. There's also the usual suspects chiming in to argue that BASIS and DCI and Latin should have to have demographics that match DC - a recipe for failing schools across the board. SH threads usually boil down to complaints about refusal to track, or some super secret tracking that exists but that SH doesn't openly talk about. Deal and JR threads seem at bottom to be wealthy folks who use public school as a social core and have means and desire to supplement and rise to their "real" station in life when college comes. The common thread throughout is the usual suspects who seem more interested in virtue signaling than educating children, or people who have come to grips with the fact that DC schools are not there to fully educate their kids.

I remain convinced that the majority of DC residents (black, white, brown, etc.) at all socioeconomic levels want their kids to receive a quality education. The challenge in DC is that the virtue signaling, SJW, apologists for bad parenting and bad behaviors consume a disproportionate amount of oxygen and use social media and access to uneducated Councilmembers (Trayon) to perpetuate the current system and win the day with dumb arguments about how social promotion and "graduating" kids with 6th grade educations is less harmful than alternatives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Must be nice to be able to afford to send your child to Europe for a IB educational program.

Where does envy get you? Why not explore the Oxford Study Course live streaming IB subject review courses? How about teaming up with other DCI parents to push the school to offer their own high quality intensive review courses during breaks supported by means tested tuition?