Short Waitlists August data is up

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Only three WL offers at BASIS after June 1, and only 53 total….

That’s the lowest they’ve ever gone on the waitlist.

It was a very competitive year to get into Walls and private High Schools this year.
As more kids stick for the high school, it trickles down as they flex to the cap for the entire school - not just 5th grade.

I agree that the WL #s for BASIS can't be viewed in a vacuum without regard to the # of seats, but your analysis of the data is flawed. The 5th grade is the same size it has been for 4 of the last 5 years; it was not smaller than normal this year. Their ratio of seats to WL, offers to WL and every other measure is directionally favorable.

I am shocked that Cooper didn't siphon off more kids from BASIS. My hope is that results in more kids who know what they are in for and are more likely to stick it out. My thesis is that more kids had options with the Latin II seats being offered and still chose BASIS, not settled for it because it was better than the ES with behavioral issues and no MS/HS feeder path. Hopefully this translates to more kids staying (and fewer parents who will populate DCUM for several years because they were simply shocked that BASIS is a small building downtown that is a test heavy, rigorous academic environment that cares much more about science and English than recess or a football team.)

We ranked Cooper lower than BASIS because the swing space for Cooper was no better than BASIS and we were unsure where the permanent location would be. Had we known that Cooper would be at the former Kirov site we would have ranked it above BASIS. We are happy with BASIS thus far but I wouldn’t be surprised if more families rank Cooper above BASIS in the years to come.

I was actually thinking about the people who declined a spot at Cooper due to facilities and the unknown permanent location the day before the Kirov announcement came out - I feel bad for them.

Your point about people having ranked BASIS higher because of facilities issues is a valid one.

Don’t feel bad for us. We knew about the Kirov site and still declined a spot for 6th grade at Cooper this summer. We are happy to stay at BASIS.

There are many reasons other than facilities that people think about when making school decisions.

I'd actually be surprised to see any BASIS 6th grade families switching from BASIS to Latin Cooper. Every 6th grade family we know at BASIS stayed from 5th to 6th. The pool of 6th graders was mostly rising DCPS students.

I personally know one who switched from BASIS to Latin Cooper. And the pool of 6th graders has some ITS kids in it too, for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

I continue to be stunned by the waitlist movement at both MV campuses.

Looks like DCI made a bunch of non-feeder Spanish and Chinese offers, not so many for French.

What else?

MV waitlist did not have a lot of movement this year - so different from last year! But there seems to have been a lot of movement last year overall. Covid changed everything, IMO.

Not all siblings got into MV Calle Ocho for PK3 this year!

Are you talking about just PK3?

When you're looking at the Mundo waitlists, don't forget to note the number of seats offered. Cook offered 90 seats for K this year, far more than they have offered in the past. Why?

Looks like an outlier to me. Did they open a new classroom?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lafayette pretty much cleared their 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th grade waiting lists. We need to end feeder access for deal and wilson, or they are going to be huge and majority OOB

Where are you seeing that? Looks like they made 8/66 offers for 1st, 12/70 for 2nd, and 11/58 for 4th. Yes, 29/30 for 5th, but that's the only grade that looks like they cleared the waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lafayette pretty much cleared their 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th grade waiting lists. We need to end feeder access for deal and wilson, or they are going to be huge and majority OOB

Where are you seeing that? Looks like they made 8/66 offers for 1st, 12/70 for 2nd, and 11/58 for 4th. Yes, 29/30 for 5th, but that's the only grade that looks like they cleared the waitlist.

Also, the WLs are likely longer now... Our school looks like it cleaned out it's 2nd grade WL (offers only one less than initial length), but doesn't even appear on the short waitlists list... which means it now has more than 1- people on the WL. People add themselves post-lottery and this data doesn't reflect that in terms of absolute WL length.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, now it has *10+ people on the WL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lafayette pretty much cleared their 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th grade waiting lists. We need to end feeder access for deal and wilson, or they are going to be huge and majority OOB

Where are you seeing that? Looks like they made 8/66 offers for 1st, 12/70 for 2nd, and 11/58 for 4th. Yes, 29/30 for 5th, but that's the only grade that looks like they cleared the waitlist.

I think PP just wanted to be a jerk about OOB kids at Deal/JR. As a family that benefited from the greater WOTP waitlist movement this year, this attitude is disheartening. I hope it doesn’t trickle down to my kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

I continue to be stunned by the waitlist movement at both MV campuses.

Looks like DCI made a bunch of non-feeder Spanish and Chinese offers, not so many for French.

What else?

MV waitlist did not have a lot of movement this year - so different from last year! But there seems to have been a lot of movement last year overall. Covid changed everything, IMO.

Not all siblings got into MV Calle Ocho for PK3 this year!

Are you talking about just PK3?

When you're looking at the Mundo waitlists, don't forget to note the number of seats offered. Cook offered 90 seats for K this year, far more than they have offered in the past. Why?

Looks like an outlier to me. Did they open a new classroom?

I don't think so. K is an expansion year at MV, right? It's that plus the increase in available seats across the board. They've historically not offered any seats for 1st-5th, but this year offered what looks like a full classroom or two per grade. That's looks like a third to half of the grade (assuming 90 kids per grade) at Cook.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

I continue to be stunned by the waitlist movement at both MV campuses.

Looks like DCI made a bunch of non-feeder Spanish and Chinese offers, not so many for French.

What else?

MV waitlist did not have a lot of movement this year - so different from last year! But there seems to have been a lot of movement last year overall. Covid changed everything, IMO.

Not all siblings got into MV Calle Ocho for PK3 this year!

Are you talking about just PK3?

When you're looking at the Mundo waitlists, don't forget to note the number of seats offered. Cook offered 90 seats for K this year, far more than they have offered in the past. Why?

Looks like an outlier to me. Did they open a new classroom?

I don't think so. K is an expansion year at MV, right? It's that plus the increase in available seats across the board. They've historically not offered any seats for 1st-5th, but this year offered what looks like a full classroom or two per grade. That's looks like a third to half of the grade (assuming 90 kids per grade) at Cook.

They open two classrooms at K, so they have historically offered about 40 to 45 seats-- enough for two classes and to cover some attrition. Now, all of a sudden, NINETY seats-- and only 80 matches! Last year they offered 40 seats, had 40 matches, and waitlisted 146.

Last year they didn't offer any seats for grades 1-4, although they had waitlists and made many offers-- maybe exhausting their lists. But this year, they offered 20 to 40 seats in each grade 1-4, and by August have made offers to basically all applicants. How is this not a red flag? Either they're significantly expanding the total enrollment, which would require PCSB approval, or they're backfilling massive attrition.

[Anonymous]

It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the Mundo.

[Anonymous]

K seems to be a weird grade across the city. Yes, it's an expansion year at many places, but there just don't seem to be enough kids. I wonder if it's a small class for pandemic-related reasons? For instance, on the Hill, Brent made 58 offers!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K seems to be a weird grade across the city. Yes, it's an expansion year at many places, but there just don't seem to be enough kids. I wonder if it's a small class for pandemic-related reasons? For instance, on the Hill, Brent made 58 offers!

I know, last two years have been so weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the Mundo.

I've wondered whether there is less attrition at some of the nearby schools that Mundo may have relied on previously. Langley poet, where art thou?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s the latter. Backfilling massive attrition. Notably, they took a record number of 5th graders from the waitlisf. Clearly, those 5th graders want the path to DCI but who knows how much Spanish knowledge they have. There is no proficiency test upon entry so the large numbers of new students in that grade and other older grades could significantly impact the Spanish instruction.

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the Mundo.

I've wondered whether there is less attrition at some of the nearby schools that Mundo may have relied on previously. Langley poet, where art thou?

I don't know, but looking at the class lists I can say Langley does seem to have more kids than it had a few years ago. There used to be only one classroom for some grades, but now there are almost always two classrooms. Anyone who wants to go to MV for K can get a seat by midsummer, so if people are at Langley it's because they're choosing to be there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:K seems to be a weird grade across the city. Yes, it's an expansion year at many places, but there just don't seem to be enough kids. I wonder if it's a small class for pandemic-related reasons? For instance, on the Hill, Brent made 58 offers!

We have a K kid and it really varies. Anecdotally, I think a lot of families on the Hill moved and that impacted K lists at Brent and L-T (not sure about Maury). Like we just know a ton of families with K kids who left altogether. Lots of reasons, some related to the pandemic but some not. Honestly, some of it was just related to real estate decisions and people realizing that it was a make or break year for that (better to move before K than wait, plus lots of different pressures to sell or buy depending on your situation).

But we also sat on waitlists for several charters who expand their rosters a lot in K but just didn't move at all. We thought for sure we'd get a spot at ITS but after some movement in early August it's ground to a halt and now we probably won't. It really just depends.