SY25-26 Short Waitlists tool is up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ouch Seaton is on the list. Too bad.

Roots and Sela are in trouble. Rocketship is very much in trouble.

Sigh. I know there is a non-trivial number of humans on this board rooting hard for Sela to collapse, but: sorry...it's not "in trouble" - it just has the obvious, chronic retention challenges any school located outside NW and the Capitol Hill area without a junior high feeder would have, but is managing to do far better on any objective metric (test scores and re-enrollment in the lower grades not affected by feeder panic, parent survey satisfaction, measured student progress, etc) than any other school in the city facing the same hurdles. If they could get a decent feeder, their biggest headaches would more or less evaporate tomorrow.

Now, could politics and bigotry prevent that from ever happening? Sure! It may not be worth it to any junior high to invite the avalanche of haterade associating with (gasp!) Hebrew speakers would invite in this world, which is why I'd be shocked if Sela ever nabs any feeder at all. But all that does - along with, yes, the location and the relatively niche language appeal - is artificially suppress what could otherwise be one of the top-performing charters in the city. The bottom line is that Sela will always have a core group of parents - some small but enduring percentage of an educated, progressive and motivated demographic that disproportionately supports public schools - who have a cultural connection, and are prepared to endure the commute to enroll their kids for at least a few years... and another group of smart, engaged local parents happy to send their kids to a well-run school to learn and practice language acquisition of any kind alongside the first group, even if they don't have the same exact connection to the culture.

So - apologies again to people rooting hard for its demise - it's not in imminent danger of collapse - it's actually doing remarkably well under the circumstances. (ha...I guess in that way it IS kind of like Israel, after all! Go figure)

This is literal nonsense. The growth scores are AWFUL by any measure. Definitely not "the best."

[Anonymous]

Sela has the same "feeder" problem Whittier and Takoma have (assuming most live in Ward 4)? Those schools are thriving (or so it seems) so why do people keep using this argument?

Sela is a great school from parents we know there. They love it. But -0- waitlist on all grades is a little wild to see.

The principal is out EOY (friends did not share if he was fired or quit).

It seems like the community is getting smaller and smaller.

Nobody wants it to fail. But it seems like the interest is dropping quickly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sela has the same "feeder" problem Whittier and Takoma have (assuming most live in Ward 4)? Those schools are thriving (or so it seems) so why do people keep using this argument?

Sela is a great school from parents we know there. They love it. But -0- waitlist on all grades is a little wild to see.

The principal is out EOY (friends did not share if he was fired or quit).

It seems like the community is getting smaller and smaller.

Nobody wants it to fail. But it seems like the interest is dropping quickly.

I think it's just that a decline kid population (or slower population growth) is putting a lot of pressure on the smaller schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can pretty much get into any DCPS elementary school past ECE except Hill schools.

Burroughs, Seaton, Garrison, Langley, Langdon, Miner, JOW, etc…and all the bilingual DCPS schools also.

Or J-R feeders. Though I noticed Bancroft on the list for 1st (which I wouldn't expect a lot of movement from anyways) and some other schools not (Whittier for instance isn't on the short waitlist for 1st or 2nd).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ouch Seaton is on the list. Too bad.

Roots and Sela are in trouble. Rocketship is very much in trouble.

Sigh. I know there is a non-trivial number of humans on this board rooting hard for Sela to collapse, but: sorry...it's not "in trouble" - it just has the obvious, chronic retention challenges any school located outside NW and the Capitol Hill area without a junior high feeder would have, but is managing to do far better on any objective metric (test scores and re-enrollment in the lower grades not affected by feeder panic, parent survey satisfaction, measured student progress, etc) than any other school in the city facing the same hurdles. If they could get a decent feeder, their biggest headaches would more or less evaporate tomorrow.

Now, could politics and bigotry prevent that from ever happening? Sure! It may not be worth it to any junior high to invite the avalanche of haterade associating with (gasp!) Hebrew speakers would invite in this world, which is why I'd be shocked if Sela ever nabs any feeder at all. But all that does - along with, yes, the location and the relatively niche language appeal - is artificially suppress what could otherwise be one of the top-performing charters in the city. The bottom line is that Sela will always have a core group of parents - some small but enduring percentage of an educated, progressive and motivated demographic that disproportionately supports public schools - who have a cultural connection, and are prepared to endure the commute to enroll their kids for at least a few years... and another group of smart, engaged local parents happy to send their kids to a well-run school to learn and practice language acquisition of any kind alongside the first group, even if they don't have the same exact connection to the culture.

So - apologies again to people rooting hard for its demise - it's not in imminent danger of collapse - it's actually doing remarkably well under the circumstances. (ha...I guess in that way it IS kind of like Israel, after all! Go figure)

There is nobody on the waitlist for any grade including PK. That's not politics. That's a fact. They aren't even drawing kids from one of the largest growing areas of the city nearby.

I'm not going to get into the rest of your bait but that's a big concern and I'm not sure how anyone could hand waive it away and just haters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sela has the same "feeder" problem Whittier and Takoma have (assuming most live in Ward 4)? Those schools are thriving (or so it seems) so why do people keep using this argument?

Sela is a great school from parents we know there. They love it. But -0- waitlist on all grades is a little wild to see.

The principal is out EOY (friends did not share if he was fired or quit).

It seems like the community is getting smaller and smaller.

Nobody wants it to fail. But it seems like the interest is dropping quickly.

I think it's just that a decline kid population (or slower population growth) is putting a lot of pressure on the smaller schools.

It's literally not in the cases of Whittier and Takoma. The Whittier building is falling apart and based on that list either a large number of families are staying for 1/2 or a large number of families enrolled locally or already were in the lottery.

Ward 4 is booming with families. That particular location is slightly inconvenient but families will drive all over the city if the school is good.

I have no idea if Sela is really in trouble but the fact that schools nearby are growing and not struggling despite the same feeders for local students and worse buildings is not a great sign.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ouch Seaton is on the list. Too bad.

Roots and Sela are in trouble. Rocketship is very much in trouble.

Sigh. I know there is a non-trivial number of humans on this board rooting hard for Sela to collapse, but: sorry...it's not "in trouble" - it just has the obvious, chronic retention challenges any school located outside NW and the Capitol Hill area without a junior high feeder would have, but is managing to do far better on any objective metric (test scores and re-enrollment in the lower grades not affected by feeder panic, parent survey satisfaction, measured student progress, etc) than any other school in the city facing the same hurdles. If they could get a decent feeder, their biggest headaches would more or less evaporate tomorrow.

Now, could politics and bigotry prevent that from ever happening? Sure! It may not be worth it to any junior high to invite the avalanche of haterade associating with (gasp!) Hebrew speakers would invite in this world, which is why I'd be shocked if Sela ever nabs any feeder at all. But all that does - along with, yes, the location and the relatively niche language appeal - is artificially suppress what could otherwise be one of the top-performing charters in the city. The bottom line is that Sela will always have a core group of parents - some small but enduring percentage of an educated, progressive and motivated demographic that disproportionately supports public schools - who have a cultural connection, and are prepared to endure the commute to enroll their kids for at least a few years... and another group of smart, engaged local parents happy to send their kids to a well-run school to learn and practice language acquisition of any kind alongside the first group, even if they don't have the same exact connection to the culture.

So - apologies again to people rooting hard for its demise - it's not in imminent danger of collapse - it's actually doing remarkably well under the circumstances. (ha...I guess in that way it IS kind of like Israel, after all! Go figure)

There is nobody on the waitlist for any grade including PK. That's not politics. That's a fact. They aren't even drawing kids from one of the largest growing areas of the city nearby.

I'm not going to get into the rest of your bait but that's a big concern and I'm not sure how anyone could hand waive it away and just haters.

This year Sela matched less PK3 students than ever before. Consistent with citywide trends? Yes. Good news? No.

I think it's a disservice to everyone to overlook these kinds of early indicators.

[Anonymous]

School has always been small - you can actually see that from the data - chose tabs. But it’s not under enrolled because they chose a smaller building. Whitter and Takoma are fine, but you see the in-bound enrollment decline at Wells fall off a cliff for Coolidge. Those are also facts. Return to work and Trump are not helping a lot of schools. Sela is not in trouble but the middle school issue is real. They seem to be taking it seriously. Good for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School has always been small - you can actually see that from the data - chose tabs. But it’s not under enrolled because they chose a smaller building. Whitter and Takoma are fine, but you see the in-bound enrollment decline at Wells fall off a cliff for Coolidge. Those are also facts. Return to work and Trump are not helping a lot of schools. Sela is not in trouble but the middle school issue is real. They seem to be taking it seriously. Good for them.

What are they actually doing about the middle school issue?

I don't think Sela is actually in danger of closure or failure as long as it maintains its enrollment of 280-ish kids, and I definitely do understand that the attrition and its impact on performance stem at least partially from the middle school problem. However, I still think the CAPE stats are not very impressive in light of having only 23.5% economically disadvantaged students. And it's not clear to me why the attendance stats are so low. https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/174/school/197/report#measure-107

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School has always been small - you can actually see that from the data - chose tabs. But it’s not under enrolled because they chose a smaller building. Whitter and Takoma are fine, but you see the in-bound enrollment decline at Wells fall off a cliff for Coolidge. Those are also facts. Return to work and Trump are not helping a lot of schools. Sela is not in trouble but the middle school issue is real. They seem to be taking it seriously. Good for them.

What are they actually doing about the middle school issue?

I don't think Sela is actually in danger of closure or failure as long as it maintains its enrollment of 280-ish kids, and I definitely do understand that the attrition and its impact on performance stem at least partially from the middle school problem. However, I still think the CAPE stats are not very impressive in light of having only 23.5% economically disadvantaged students. And it's not clear to me why the attendance stats are so low. https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/174/school/197/report#measure-107

I don't know what's going on with attendance, but the demographics in the CAPE grades are different from overall.

[Anonymous]

Sela is such a unique school, it's hard to find reasonable points of comparison. But I ran a comparison on School Report Card with Houston (dual language Spanish, no desirable feeder) and Cleveland (same). It was interesting because Sela's CAPE stats are higher, but Sela's growth stats are lower. It's similar if you look at Marie Reed and Chisholm.

The other thing that jumps out at me is Sela's Pre-K Chronic Absenteeism is really high-- 53.1%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can pretty much get into any DCPS elementary school past ECE except Hill schools.

Burroughs, Seaton, Garrison, Langley, Langdon, Miner, JOW, etc…and all the bilingual DCPS schools also.

Or J-R feeders. Though I noticed Bancroft on the list for 1st (which I wouldn't expect a lot of movement from anyways) and some other schools not (Whittier for instance isn't on the short waitlist for 1st or 2nd).

Whittier is has what I would argue is the best principal in DCPS. She’s fantastic and it draws teachers and families to thr school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You can pretty much get into any DCPS elementary school past ECE except Hill schools.

Burroughs, Seaton, Garrison, Langley, Langdon, Miner, JOW, etc…and all the bilingual DCPS schools also.

Or J-R feeders. Though I noticed Bancroft on the list for 1st (which I wouldn't expect a lot of movement from anyways) and some other schools not (Whittier for instance isn't on the short waitlist for 1st or 2nd).

Whittier is has what I would argue is the best principal in DCPS. She’s fantastic and it draws teachers and families to thr school.

Principal Johnson is amazing. It's an incredible testament to her and the staff that they're growing significantly, and keeping staff, despite the impending renovation.

[Anonymous]

I’ve been hearing Sela is doomed and on a death spiral since the day it opened. I’ll believe it when I see it.

[Anonymous]

How is Truth? Lots of hype when it first opened about it being another middle school option in DC. No waitlist at all this year.