Moving to DC - what would be your ideal location based on DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd live IB for Ross. Great little school, great fun city neighborhood, feeds into SWW at Francis Stevens for middle school, which is solid, then you figure out high school when you get there.

My kids are at Ross and it’s a great school. From what we have heard from former Ross kids, Francis Stevens is definitely not “solid.”

Can you say more about this?

It's not bougie the way that Ross + upper NW schools are. However, it does seem solid!

[Anonymous]

We are a Cap Hill family that started in public and then moved mid- elementary for upper NW privates. If you are prioritizing school, would not move here. We love the Hill for many many reasons but the schools are a mess. Even the best schools are in flux and have serious downsides (Brent feeds to an undesirable middle, Maury is getting combined with another school, Ludlow is ok and on the rise but the boundary is more H street than Cap Hill, and Peabody Watkins continues to suffer under poor leadership). They all culminate in Eastern which isn’t performing at all. I do not regret moving to the Hill because we’ve otherwise loved it and have amazing friends but we have commuted to school (first in Gtown and then to our children’s middle and upper campus). Talk to actual parents, not just DCUM people. Look at the school budgets and PTA notes of the schools you are considering.

[Anonymous]

My DD, who went to lots of name-brand schools subsequently, still considers her time at John Eaton to be the most formative. It may not have the top test scores, but there is something really special about that school and community. The jury is definitely out on Macarthur, but it's new. Walls is the best bet for high school.

[Anonymous]

Uhm, based on schools the ideal location is NOT DC. Anywhere but. I guess if you technically have to live in the district and participate in the disappointment that is DCPS then I’d choose anywhere for elementary in NW DC.
For middle school and HS you need to find an alternative. There are quite a few disruptive and unmotivated students even at the MS with the highest test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uhm, based on schools the ideal location is NOT DC. Anywhere but. I guess if you technically have to live in the district and participate in the disappointment that is DCPS then I’d choose anywhere for elementary in NW DC.
For middle school and HS you need to find an alternative. There are quite a few disruptive and unmotivated students even at the MS with the highest test scores.

This is true if your kid needs small classes and who know what else. Not true for a kid who needs nothing but a school.
My kid goes to school with kids who all will do fine regardless where to go after elementary. The peers are the best part of school.
I was in K class almost for a year with those kids in NWDC. The smarts, the get-go, the support those kids get is so much more important than any school they go to. So, there's no need to move anywhere from DCPS for middle school or high school.
Even if they chill in J-R with less homework, they have the ability to shift into gear #2 in college and catch up in no time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are a Cap Hill family that started in public and then moved mid- elementary for upper NW privates. If you are prioritizing school, would not move here. We love the Hill for many many reasons but the schools are a mess. Even the best schools are in flux and have serious downsides (Brent feeds to an undesirable middle, Maury is getting combined with another school, Ludlow is ok and on the rise but the boundary is more H street than Cap Hill, and Peabody Watkins continues to suffer under poor leadership). They all culminate in Eastern which isn’t performing at all. I do not regret moving to the Hill because we’ve otherwise loved it and have amazing friends but we have commuted to school (first in Gtown and then to our children’s middle and upper campus). Talk to actual parents, not just DCUM people. Look at the school budgets and PTA notes of the schools you are considering.

+100 Great community, awful schools beyond ECE (even the charters). We live in Brookland--no good options here. Would not move here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Uhm, based on schools the ideal location is NOT DC. Anywhere but. I guess if you technically have to live in the district and participate in the disappointment that is DCPS then I’d choose anywhere for elementary in NW DC.
For middle school and HS you need to find an alternative. There are quite a few disruptive and unmotivated students even at the MS with the highest test scores.

True as far as this goes. Our kids had a blissful elementary school experience (JKLM) and are...managing at Hardy. MacArthur is an unknown, but the odds are it becomes a miniature version of Jackson Reed. You won't get the academic experience of a w school, but you also won't get the feverish and frenzied competition of one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a Cap Hill family that started in public and then moved mid- elementary for upper NW privates. If you are prioritizing school, would not move here. We love the Hill for many many reasons but the schools are a mess. Even the best schools are in flux and have serious downsides (Brent feeds to an undesirable middle, Maury is getting combined with another school, Ludlow is ok and on the rise but the boundary is more H street than Cap Hill, and Peabody Watkins continues to suffer under poor leadership). They all culminate in Eastern which isn’t performing at all. I do not regret moving to the Hill because we’ve otherwise loved it and have amazing friends but we have commuted to school (first in Gtown and then to our children’s middle and upper campus). Talk to actual parents, not just DCUM people. Look at the school budgets and PTA notes of the schools you are considering.

+100 Great community, awful schools beyond ECE (even the charters). We live in Brookland--no good options here. Would not move here.

Another Capitol Hill family and totally agree. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought in upper NW or the burbs. We've been troubleshooting our school situation since our kids first entered PK because the schools here are so uneven (including MANY genuinely bad schools). We are now planning to move between elementary and MS (out of DC, and actually out of the area entirely) because we found an elementary school situation that is okay but we have no real path here other than playing the lottery and hoping it works out, which would also require us to commute far to school.

We bought here before kids and then were persuaded by friends and neighbors who told us the schools were good and "getting better" and there are so many other great things about living on the Hill with kids. Like 90% of those friends and neighbors have moved away when their kids hit MS. Not kidding. Only the die hards, or people who luck into charter spots and are willing to do the commute, stick around. It's all a big lie! It's my biggest parenting regret.

[Anonymous]

Yeah if I were to do it again, I would not have moved to DC, period. I would have bought in the near burbs.

[Anonymous]

Another Capitol Hill family and totally agree. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought in upper NW or the burbs. We've been troubleshooting our school situation since our kids first entered PK because the schools here are so uneven (including MANY genuinely bad schools). We are now planning to move between elementary and MS (out of DC, and actually out of the area entirely) because we found an elementary school situation that is okay but we have no real path here other than playing the lottery and hoping it works out, which would also require us to commute far to school.

We bought here before kids and then were persuaded by friends and neighbors who told us the schools were good and "getting better" and there are so many other great things about living on the Hill with kids. Like 90% of those friends and neighbors have moved away when their kids hit MS. Not kidding. Only the die hards, or people who luck into charter spots and are willing to do the commute, stick around. It's all a big lie! It's my biggest parenting regret.

1st Cap Hill poster here. So many people have moved and there's definitely stress from those who have stayed so you're dealing with uncertainty with the middle and high school lotteries. Our crosstown commute isn't great and I have a feeling we'll call it this year - either sell or rent in NW and keep our house (we can't afford to buy near the kids private school with interest rates and inventory right now). The Hill is awesome in so many ways but DCPS leadership and Charles Allen seem to think they'll solve the school problems by ignoring them. It's not working.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a Cap Hill family that started in public and then moved mid- elementary for upper NW privates. If you are prioritizing school, would not move here. We love the Hill for many many reasons but the schools are a mess. Even the best schools are in flux and have serious downsides (Brent feeds to an undesirable middle, Maury is getting combined with another school, Ludlow is ok and on the rise but the boundary is more H street than Cap Hill, and Peabody Watkins continues to suffer under poor leadership). They all culminate in Eastern which isn’t performing at all. I do not regret moving to the Hill because we’ve otherwise loved it and have amazing friends but we have commuted to school (first in Gtown and then to our children’s middle and upper campus). Talk to actual parents, not just DCUM people. Look at the school budgets and PTA notes of the schools you are considering.

+100 Great community, awful schools beyond ECE (even the charters). We live in Brookland--no good options here. Would not move here.

Another Capitol Hill family and totally agree. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought in upper NW or the burbs. We've been troubleshooting our school situation since our kids first entered PK because the schools here are so uneven (including MANY genuinely bad schools). We are now planning to move between elementary and MS (out of DC, and actually out of the area entirely) because we found an elementary school situation that is okay but we have no real path here other than playing the lottery and hoping it works out, which would also require us to commute far to school.

We bought here before kids and then were persuaded by friends and neighbors who told us the schools were good and "getting better" and there are so many other great things about living on the Hill with kids. Like 90% of those friends and neighbors have moved away when their kids hit MS. Not kidding. Only the die hards, or people who luck into charter spots and are willing to do the commute, stick around. It's all a big lie! It's my biggest parenting regret.

Yep. We are actually here for the long haul (through HS) because of lottery luck and DS is settled into school/friends/etc, but the schools local to Capitol Hill have not and will not get better. Families went the private school route and are happy but also can well afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are a Cap Hill family that started in public and then moved mid- elementary for upper NW privates. If you are prioritizing school, would not move here. We love the Hill for many many reasons but the schools are a mess. Even the best schools are in flux and have serious downsides (Brent feeds to an undesirable middle, Maury is getting combined with another school, Ludlow is ok and on the rise but the boundary is more H street than Cap Hill, and Peabody Watkins continues to suffer under poor leadership). They all culminate in Eastern which isn’t performing at all. I do not regret moving to the Hill because we’ve otherwise loved it and have amazing friends but we have commuted to school (first in Gtown and then to our children’s middle and upper campus). Talk to actual parents, not just DCUM people. Look at the school budgets and PTA notes of the schools you are considering.

+100 Great community, awful schools beyond ECE (even the charters). We live in Brookland--no good options here. Would not move here.

Another Capitol Hill family and totally agree. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought in upper NW or the burbs. We've been troubleshooting our school situation since our kids first entered PK because the schools here are so uneven (including MANY genuinely bad schools). We are now planning to move between elementary and MS (out of DC, and actually out of the area entirely) because we found an elementary school situation that is okay but we have no real path here other than playing the lottery and hoping it works out, which would also require us to commute far to school.

We bought here before kids and then were persuaded by friends and neighbors who told us the schools were good and "getting better" and there are so many other great things about living on the Hill with kids. Like 90% of those friends and neighbors have moved away when their kids hit MS. Not kidding. Only the die hards, or people who luck into charter spots and are willing to do the commute, stick around. It's all a big lie! It's my biggest parenting regret.

Yep. We are actually here for the long haul (through HS) because of lottery luck and DS is settled into school/friends/etc, but the schools local to Capitol Hill have not and will not get better. Families went the private school route and are happy but also can well afford it.

Another Cap Hill family that also agrees. DCPS policies make it next to impossible to improve the school situation. They don’t want another Ward 3 here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another Capitol Hill family and totally agree. If I knew then what I knew now, I would have bought in upper NW or the burbs. We've been troubleshooting our school situation since our kids first entered PK because the schools here are so uneven (including MANY genuinely bad schools). We are now planning to move between elementary and MS (out of DC, and actually out of the area entirely) because we found an elementary school situation that is okay but we have no real path here other than playing the lottery and hoping it works out, which would also require us to commute far to school.

We bought here before kids and then were persuaded by friends and neighbors who told us the schools were good and "getting better" and there are so many other great things about living on the Hill with kids. Like 90% of those friends and neighbors have moved away when their kids hit MS. Not kidding. Only the die hards, or people who luck into charter spots and are willing to do the commute, stick around. It's all a big lie! It's my biggest parenting regret.

1st Cap Hill poster here. So many people have moved and there's definitely stress from those who have stayed so you're dealing with uncertainty with the middle and high school lotteries. Our crosstown commute isn't great and I have a feeling we'll call it this year - either sell or rent in NW and keep our house (we can't afford to buy near the kids private school with interest rates and inventory right now). The Hill is awesome in so many ways but DCPS leadership and Charles Allen seem to think they'll solve the school problems by ignoring them. It's not working.

New Poster. Another Cap Hill parent and I echo the sentiments above. We still don't know whether we will move and just deal with the commute to NW, or move (and hope interest rates go down soon!). Knowing what I know now, I would have moved to NW when the kids were in early elementary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD, who went to lots of name-brand schools subsequently, still considers her time at John Eaton to be the most formative. It may not have the top test scores, but there is something really special about that school and community. The jury is definitely out on Macarthur, but it's new. Walls is the best bet for high school.

We have wondered about this: why does John Eaton lag in test scores? It makes Eaton a definite outlier among elementary schools in Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

If I personally had a 2 year old and wanted a walkable, urban lifestyle, I would still despite the school situation look in the Capitol Hill area. The elementary schools are mostly really good. In the Capitol Hill area, it is really middle school that causes a lot of angst. But Stuart-Hobson (neighborhood DCPS) is overall okay and the Washington Latin charter schools (which require some lottery luck) both run buses to and from the Hill. People for high school go to a mix of the DCPS application high schools, the Latin and Basis charter schools, and many different private school options.