Why is SWS so white?

[Anonymous]

It’s all a sham. The academics are terrible. Took 2 years to catch up at a new school.

[Anonymous]

For years I’ve tried to engage other parents on matter like reading and math curriculum only to have their eyes glaze over.

[Anonymous]

What math curriculum do they use? I thought all DCPS schools use Eureka?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

[Anonymous]

I’m wondering why there has been so little discussion about Reggio-Emilia in this thread. Isn’t that what makes SWS special? How does it impact the academics, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

I get this. I am someone who mentioned community upthread but I think I should clarify what I mean.

I don't necessarily want a ton of parent community at a school. Great if it's there, though I probably won't be super engaged with it because I just don't have the bandwidth to make a bunch of new parent/family friends at my kid's elementary school. Between work, family, and existing social obligations, I don't have a ton leftover.

But I do want my kid to have community at school, and I'm of course ready to support that as I need to. I want a school where my child feels very welcome and knows they have a place. That's not something we feel at our current school, and it's hard. It's not that there are no events or efforts, it's just that it all feels disjointed. I often feel like the only way to navigate the school properly is to have already had an older child there (or to have attended pre-Covid). Having no other experience with this, I don't know what the magic sauce is that would change that, but I know from talking to other families that there is more of what we are looking for at SWS and other schools on the Hill.

It's good to hear that transferring to a school with a lot of community in the middle grades doesn't result in being an outsider. I think one reason I probably assumed we would feel like outsiders is that's how we feel at our current school even though we've been there since PK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

I get this. I am someone who mentioned community upthread but I think I should clarify what I mean.

I don't necessarily want a ton of parent community at a school. Great if it's there, though I probably won't be super engaged with it because I just don't have the bandwidth to make a bunch of new parent/family friends at my kid's elementary school. Between work, family, and existing social obligations, I don't have a ton leftover.

But I do want my kid to have community at school, and I'm of course ready to support that as I need to. I want a school where my child feels very welcome and knows they have a place. That's not something we feel at our current school, and it's hard. It's not that there are no events or efforts, it's just that it all feels disjointed. I often feel like the only way to navigate the school properly is to have already had an older child there (or to have attended pre-Covid). Having no other experience with this, I don't know what the magic sauce is that would change that, but I know from talking to other families that there is more of what we are looking for at SWS and other schools on the Hill.

It's good to hear that transferring to a school with a lot of community in the middle grades doesn't result in being an outsider. I think one reason I probably assumed we would feel like outsiders is that's how we feel at our current school even though we've been there since PK.

I honestly don’t understand what you’re talking about. Assuming your kids are NT, they will make friends at school. They don’t need some kind of notion of “community” beyond that. The main way you can help friendships is by going to an IB school where kids can easily get back and forth to each other’s houses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

I get this. I am someone who mentioned community upthread but I think I should clarify what I mean.

I don't necessarily want a ton of parent community at a school. Great if it's there, though I probably won't be super engaged with it because I just don't have the bandwidth to make a bunch of new parent/family friends at my kid's elementary school. Between work, family, and existing social obligations, I don't have a ton leftover.

But I do want my kid to have community at school, and I'm of course ready to support that as I need to. I want a school where my child feels very welcome and knows they have a place. That's not something we feel at our current school, and it's hard. It's not that there are no events or efforts, it's just that it all feels disjointed. I often feel like the only way to navigate the school properly is to have already had an older child there (or to have attended pre-Covid). Having no other experience with this, I don't know what the magic sauce is that would change that, but I know from talking to other families that there is more of what we are looking for at SWS and other schools on the Hill.

It's good to hear that transferring to a school with a lot of community in the middle grades doesn't result in being an outsider. I think one reason I probably assumed we would feel like outsiders is that's how we feel at our current school even though we've been there since PK.

I honestly don’t understand what you’re talking about. Assuming your kids are NT, they will make friends at school. They don’t need some kind of notion of “community” beyond that. The main way you can help friendships is by going to an IB school where kids can easily get back and forth to each other’s houses.

You don't understand what I'm talking about because your kids have not attended a DCPS where, even if you are IB, most of the other families are not, so it's hard to make friends because most students don't live walking distance. You've never had your child make friends at school and request playdates, and then been simply unable to track down the child's parents to request a playdate because they are very disengaged with the school and not that interested.

This is the reality for people who are IB for struggling schools sometimes. Count your blessings that you have not experienced it.

[Anonymous]

When making decisions about kids’ education it’s better to think five or more years out — as in, is this the sort of thing that will matter in 5-10 years? If not, probably better not to index on it too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

I get this. I am someone who mentioned community upthread but I think I should clarify what I mean.

I don't necessarily want a ton of parent community at a school. Great if it's there, though I probably won't be super engaged with it because I just don't have the bandwidth to make a bunch of new parent/family friends at my kid's elementary school. Between work, family, and existing social obligations, I don't have a ton leftover.

But I do want my kid to have community at school, and I'm of course ready to support that as I need to. I want a school where my child feels very welcome and knows they have a place. That's not something we feel at our current school, and it's hard. It's not that there are no events or efforts, it's just that it all feels disjointed. I often feel like the only way to navigate the school properly is to have already had an older child there (or to have attended pre-Covid). Having no other experience with this, I don't know what the magic sauce is that would change that, but I know from talking to other families that there is more of what we are looking for at SWS and other schools on the Hill.

It's good to hear that transferring to a school with a lot of community in the middle grades doesn't result in being an outsider. I think one reason I probably assumed we would feel like outsiders is that's how we feel at our current school even though we've been there since PK.

I honestly don’t understand what you’re talking about. Assuming your kids are NT, they will make friends at school. They don’t need some kind of notion of “community” beyond that. The main way you can help friendships is by going to an IB school where kids can easily get back and forth to each other’s houses.

You don't understand what I'm talking about because your kids have not attended a DCPS where, even if you are IB, most of the other families are not, so it's hard to make friends because most students don't live walking distance. You've never had your child make friends at school and request playdates, and then been simply unable to track down the child's parents to request a playdate because they are very disengaged with the school and not that interested.

This is the reality for people who are IB for struggling schools sometimes. Count your blessings that you have not experienced it.

Ok that makes sense. I’d probably move if I were you because MS/HS opportunities are probably not there either. You don’t have to stay in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My primary resentment towards SWS is not that it's not black enough, too black, or doesn't teach kids.

It's that it's impossible to get into and you basically have to luck into it, and then looks down on us for sending our kid to our IB DCPS (which isn't Maury/Brent/L-T, we cannot afford to live IB for one of those schools). I get tired of hearing about the "SWS approach" because it's not something available to me as a family because we could not lottery in. I feel the same way about the Montessori schools and the immersion schools and the "good" DCPS schools. My kid goes to an okay DCPS that serves a large population of at risk kids, and we deal with all the challenges that come along with that. We've struck out in the lottery repeatedly.

I wish people at SWS and these other schools would just learn to SHUT UP about how great their school is, and that we could focus on doing something about the many people in this city with kids attending schools that can't raise a ton of money via the PTO, have to deal with DCPS stupidity every day, have no leeway in curriculum, and generally just kind of limp along.

Congrats, you won the lottery. Go away now.

If you are willing to switch schools (and want to, which is obviously not necessarily the case), you have overwhelmingly good odds of getting into L-T for 3rd+. You also have decent odds of getting Brent (e.g., they offered 50%+ of their K waitlist last year). I totally get not wanting to play the lottery year after year and switch late in your kid's ES years, but it's just not true that most people are "stuck" at their IBs. Lotterying into schools gets much easier as kids get older. Not sure if you consider Watkins an upgrade from where you are, but FYI, they currently have empty space in every single grade. They did fill their seats in the lottery for any grade except 2nd, which had zero kids on the waitlist initially.

I appreciate this. We have lotteried each year with no luck, entering 1st next year. I get we’ll probably get in somewhere else eventually. But it also sucks to have to move your kid in the middle of elementary. And the reason schools like Brent have spaces in 3-5 is because people leave for privates and charters. The real community building happens in ECE and early grades, and moving at that point is not the same as going all the way through.

Which, again, is why this whole conversation is annoying as hell. A bunch of people who either lucked out with the lottery early or can afford to buy IB for well-resources schools with strong communities, bickering about whether SWS’s Reggio approach is significantly academic enough. It’s obnoxious. Just be happy with what you have, it’s much more than most.

I disagree with this. My kids started at L-T in middle grades and we had no trouble becoming part of the community. There is so much aggressive community building via school events that it is very easy to meet people and find your place if you're willing to volunteer at them. For my kids, it was even easier. Both were immediately accepted into loosely established friend groups where some prior members had left the school for various reasons and some other new kids joined too. DC is transient from top to bottom, so everyone is used to the churn. My experience is that these elementary schools are really not cliquey and kids are always looking for new friends at those ages. It's really not like middle school in that respect.

Anyway, that's just to say that I understand the pain of moving your kids. We moved from another less well regarded Hill elementary that we loved in many respects but which basically fell apart during COVID. I was honestly surprised by how seamless the transition was.

+1. We joined Maury in a middle grade and got into the community immediately.

I wouldn't stay at SWS just for "community". It's fleeting--by the time kids get into later ES, MS--they are navigating their own friendships. We attended another Hill-adjacent charter school with a relentless focus on "community"; it felt oppressive after a few years. I just want to drop my kids off to learn how to read, write, multiplication, division, etc.

I get this. I am someone who mentioned community upthread but I think I should clarify what I mean.

I don't necessarily want a ton of parent community at a school. Great if it's there, though I probably won't be super engaged with it because I just don't have the bandwidth to make a bunch of new parent/family friends at my kid's elementary school. Between work, family, and existing social obligations, I don't have a ton leftover.

But I do want my kid to have community at school, and I'm of course ready to support that as I need to. I want a school where my child feels very welcome and knows they have a place. That's not something we feel at our current school, and it's hard. It's not that there are no events or efforts, it's just that it all feels disjointed. I often feel like the only way to navigate the school properly is to have already had an older child there (or to have attended pre-Covid). Having no other experience with this, I don't know what the magic sauce is that would change that, but I know from talking to other families that there is more of what we are looking for at SWS and other schools on the Hill.

It's good to hear that transferring to a school with a lot of community in the middle grades doesn't result in being an outsider. I think one reason I probably assumed we would feel like outsiders is that's how we feel at our current school even though we've been there since PK.

Thanks for sharing this perspective--that's really hard. There should be a balance.

[Anonymous]

Your kids will not have that issue at Brent/Maury/LT. All are majority IB and heavy majority Hill. Birthday parties and play dates galore. Almost everyone does afterschool clubs at LT too; assume the same is true about the others too, but I don’t know.