Is DCI a good school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a feeder school for DCI (Spanish track). Is it considered a good solid school that provides a good education to prepare kids for college, or should we be looking at other options for next year in 5th grade?

it is better than most DC middle schools. but thats all relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The kids at DCI who get into the top universities would be getting into those schools regardless of their high school. I would attribute it more to the student and their personality/determination/academic excellence than DCI’s instruction.

DCI is a mediocre school, but for DC purposes, it is unfortunately one of the better public options.[/quo

Its very likely a lot of these kids getting into top schools woudl NOT be getting in if they attended a different school. Top schools are looking for diversity in race, ethnicity,language and experience. I would argue a kid as a better shot at getting into a top school from a DC charter or DC public than they would at a private (assuming kid isnt a legacy). yale is only going to take so many kids from Sidwell each year, those kids are competing against each other.
A top kid at DCI applying to Yale actually stands out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm new to all this, and my kid is little so bear with me.

How does getting into DCI work?

I know there are feeder elementaries that are all immersion schools, which to me means most/all of those kids are fluent or nearly fluent. From my understanding, the feeder rights are a preference, not a guarantee. But then DCI also takes some kids from the lottery for both middle and high school. If that's the case, 1) wouldn't the preference essentially be a guarantee? They're not going to take any kids without a preference until all the kids with a preference have a seat, right? Are there some years where there hasn't been enough space. 2) The lottery is random. Wouldn't that mean kids coming in who have zero experience with the target language? How does that work? You can't teach 6th or 9th grade math in Chinese to a kid that doesn't know any Chinese, that's ludicrous. And you certainly can't have classes taught in Chinese where some of the kids are essentially fluent and some kids are just learning "hello, how are you?"

Is there some kind of proficiency test?

I feel like I'm missing something here.

I believe that each feeder school gets x number of seats. Often, they have x number of students, and if 10% of them decline, then those become lottery seats for that language track. In future years, the x is actually lower than the number of feeder students, so a few of the feeder kids will be turned away, and there will be no lottery for that language track.

The new students don't need to have any prior familiarity with the language and will start from scratch. This is not ideal, especially for Chinese (but if the kid has been learning Chinese outside of school setting, they will take a placement test and be placed into whatever level they qualify for). The Spanish program takes very few kids this way. The French program is probably best bet.

DCI isn't a true immersion school. Once you are in a level 4 language class (presumably if you went to a feeder and are a decent student, that's where you should be), you can take one or two electives (or subjects like social studies) in the foreign language. Until then, you are only taking the language class, and there is no additional language support (though you may get assigned another language support elective, if you ask).

TLDR: if you are in a feeder and doing well with language, DCI will work better than if you're coming in without a language. (And as more and more YuYing kids do enroll at DCI, number of Chinese spots will decrease, so learning Chinese on your own in hopes of getting in is not a rational choice, unless kid was planning to learn it either way.) French is probably easier, especially if your kid is good in languages and/or has had exposure to another Romance language.

Just to add that the preference from the feeder schools has been a guarantee for every year so far, but several of the feeder schools have expanded since the numbers were set. This means that families at a few of the schools if middle-elementary-aged kids are dealing with the very real possibility that their kid may not get a seat at DCI, even though they came up through a feeder school.

[Anonymous]

What about the extracurriculars at DCI? Are the comparable to what is offered at Deal/J-R?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

Oh look! it's another dingbat parent who didn't send their kid to DCI!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about the extracurriculars at DCI? Are the comparable to what is offered at Deal/J-R?

Far superior. Take a look at all the lunch and after school clubs, sports, and other extra curriculars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

Oh look! it's another dingbat parent who didn't send their kid to DCI!!

Hilarious, only the joke is on those who send their kids DCI and don't supplement (unless all family members are bilingual/biliterate and native speakers).

-Signed,
DCI parent who supplements like crazy but it never seems to be enough to meet IBD HL standards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

Oh look! it's another dingbat parent who didn't send their kid to DCI!!

Hilarious, only the joke is on those who send their kids DCI and don't supplement (unless all family members are bilingual/biliterate and native speakers).

-Signed,
DCI parent who supplements like crazy but it never seems to be enough to meet IBD HL standards

Here is the thing. You don’t need to score 6 or 7 on languages to get a good IB score overall because it is just 1 test out of many.

Some families may have kids proficient in the language and are happy with that. Their kid can still score high on other subjects and maybe 4 on language

It’s not an either/or argument. Do what your kid wants or is best for your kid. Each families goal maybe different and that’s OK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

Oh look! it's another dingbat parent who didn't send their kid to DCI!!

Hilarious, only the joke is on those who send their kids DCI and don't supplement (unless all family members are bilingual/biliterate and native speakers).

-Signed,
DCI parent who supplements like crazy but it never seems to be enough to meet IBD HL standards

Here is the thing. You don’t need to score 6 or 7 on languages to get a good IB score overall because it is just 1 test out of many.

Some families may have kids proficient in the language and are happy with that. Their kid can still score high on other subjects and maybe 4 on language

It’s not an either/or argument. Do what your kid wants or is best for your kid. Each families goal maybe different and that’s OK.

Right, it's just that IBD language exams don't resemble AP. Diploma assessments emphasize speaking and listening over reading and writing. We're pals with Stokes and YY grad DCI families who thought the kids' language skills rocked. These teens scored 3s on Standard Level IB languages. Shock. Buyer beware.

[Anonymous]

I've encountered a number of DCI middle and high school students through my work and found them to be impressive interpersonally and to have strong research and writing skills. This has been true for students of diverse racial and economic backgrounds. I can't speak to their math, science, or language experiences, but I would consider myself lucky if my child were in line for a spot there.

[Anonymous]

Maybe you'd rethink your enthusiasm if your child were as bored as mine's been in DCI's middle school, other than in language classes. Nothing is hard enough, not the English, the math, the science or the social studies. Not even close. Kid never got off the BASIS WL. We'll leave for HS is we have an option offering more STEM rigor.

[Anonymous]

As someone who has had teaching experience at DCI, I would like to share my perspective on the school. DCI is a school that appears to place more emphasis on marketing themselves than on ensuring effective school governance. While I was working there I noticed that the school has a high teacher turnover rate. I cannot recommend this school to parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has had teaching experience at DCI, I would like to share my perspective on the school. DCI is a school that appears to place more emphasis on marketing themselves than on ensuring effective school governance. While I was working there I noticed that the school has a high teacher turnover rate. I cannot recommend this school to parents.

When did you teach there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe you'd rethink your enthusiasm if your child were as bored as mine's been in DCI's middle school, other than in language classes. Nothing is hard enough, not the English, the math, the science or the social studies. Not even close. Kid never got off the BASIS WL. We'll leave for HS is we have an option offering more STEM rigor.

Sorry to hear that. BASIS is getting harder to get into, even though a lot of people select out given the rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As someone who has had teaching experience at DCI, I would like to share my perspective on the school. DCI is a school that appears to place more emphasis on marketing themselves than on ensuring effective school governance. While I was working there I noticed that the school has a high teacher turnover rate. I cannot recommend this school to parents.

What are some other problems you found at DCI?