Switching schools at 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had a terrible experience with 5th grade at CHML (a lot behavioral issues, class disruption, fights, penalizing the entire class for the misbehavior of few students etc).

Grades 1-5 are out of control at CHML as far as behavioral issues. Administration does absolutely nothing to enforce consequences for fighting or disruptive students. They end up getting rewarded instead. I'd stay far away.

[Anonymous]

Do what's best for you and know your kid. If your kid is pretty adaptable then you may consider moving in 5th to secure a spot in the middle school feeder -- if you are want to stay on the Hill. That being said (if you are at Brent), I know a lot of kids from Brent who got into SH for 6th grade (initially or off the wait list) from 5th. More Brent families are going to SH, which is great for the school.

As a Brent family we know a handful of kids who got into a charter for 5th and ended up leaving (to avoid the dreaded Upper School model). I think this trend will continue until Brent stops the Upper School model -- more Brent families want to stay for 5th but feel pushed out due to the poor social and academic factors for the students. Regardless, the families that left just for 5th grade overall (this school year and last) have mixed feelings if they would do it again or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So OP, you are going to move your kid to 5th to a new school. Then majority of those kids won’t go to the feeder SH or EH or whatever.

You send your kid to the feeder then fund out that it’s not a good fit for various reasons and then what? Switch where? Move? So now your kid has had 3-4 major disruptive moves.

Lots of risks and variable that you can’t control and won’t know. You should have been planning your move as back up 2 years ago since you are not in a good feeder.

So, looking at that dashboard (which is 1 year out of date), 62% of L-T’s 5th graders went to SH and, if you look at the other schools that folks went to, it seems like that the high achievers are at least proportionally represented among the 62%. That’s a solid cohort.

Maury is almost identical with 63%. The question is whether you’d be as happy at EH as SH and whether your kid would be as happy at an ES with very few new 5th graders. Only you can answer those questions.

I would not personally send my kid to Watkins, which is like 10% IB by that point and does not have great scores as a result (though the scores are good for demographics). That said, 73% of kids go on to SH, so there will be a cohort.

Brent, on the other hand, is only 10 kids or 30% headed to Jefferson, and if you look at the other schools, it’s likely high achievers are underrepresented among the 10. Very different experience.

I personally would make the switch and I don’t think you’d need to worry that there wouldn’t be a cohort at any of the 3 schools mentioned. SWS is different. Fewer than 10 kids head to EH (and I think it’s actually a lot fewer); that switch isn’t worth it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So OP, you are going to move your kid to 5th to a new school. Then majority of those kids won’t go to the feeder SH or EH or whatever.

You send your kid to the feeder then fund out that it’s not a good fit for various reasons and then what? Switch where? Move? So now your kid has had 3-4 major disruptive moves.

Lots of risks and variable that you can’t control and won’t know. You should have been planning your move as back up 2 years ago since you are not in a good feeder.

So, looking at that dashboard (which is 1 year out of date), 62% of L-T’s 5th graders went to SH and, if you look at the other schools that folks went to, it seems like that the high achievers are at least proportionally represented among the 62%. That’s a solid cohort.

Maury is almost identical with 63%. The question is whether you’d be as happy at EH as SH and whether your kid would be as happy at an ES with very few new 5th graders. Only you can answer those questions.

I would not personally send my kid to Watkins, which is like 10% IB by that point and does not have great scores as a result (though the scores are good for demographics). That said, 73% of kids go on to SH, so there will be a cohort.

Brent, on the other hand, is only 10 kids or 30% headed to Jefferson, and if you look at the other schools, it’s likely high achievers are underrepresented among the 10. Very different experience.

I personally would make the switch and I don’t think you’d need to worry that there wouldn’t be a cohort at any of the 3 schools mentioned. SWS is different. Fewer than 10 kids head to EH (and I think it’s actually a lot fewer); that switch isn’t worth it.

Oh and if you’re at Brent, aren’t you headed into swing space next year? Swing space + upper school model and I’d switch without even the middle school issue!

[Anonymous]

There were 50 SH and 55 EH initial lottery matches this year. (Also, if you like Basis, it went 98 spots into the waitlist last summer. It is maybe easier to get into than 5th at Ludlow). But if you are specifically at Brent where lots of families leave after 4th, not a huge fan of the upper school model, looking at swing space, switching now for 5th does make some sense. I might add Payne to your list of possible schools - it is now the largest EH feeder school.

[Anonymous]

Move to a SH feeder in 5th. They can make friends before the jump to middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There were 50 SH and 55 EH initial lottery matches this year. (Also, if you like Basis, it went 98 spots into the waitlist last summer. It is maybe easier to get into than 5th at Ludlow). But if you are specifically at Brent where lots of families leave after 4th, not a huge fan of the upper school model, looking at swing space, switching now for 5th does make some sense. I might add Payne to your list of possible schools - it is now the largest EH feeder school.

SH and EH matched a bunch of students, but the waitlists were long too: 103 for SH and 34 for EH on results day.

[Anonymous]

Think of it this way. If your kid moves to EH or SH in 6th they'll be new anyway. I think knowing no one in 6th is WAY harder than starting in 5th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Think of it this way. If your kid moves to EH or SH in 6th they'll be new anyway. I think knowing no one in 6th is WAY harder than starting in 5th.

Yeah this. They'll have a set of friends to navigate 6th grade with, and I think SH feeders do some events in 5th to get everyone familiarized?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Think of it this way. If your kid moves to EH or SH in 6th they'll be new anyway. I think knowing no one in 6th is WAY harder than starting in 5th.

Yeah this. They'll have a set of friends to navigate 6th grade with, and I think SH feeders do some events in 5th to get everyone familiarized?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So OP, you are going to move your kid to 5th to a new school. Then majority of those kids won’t go to the feeder SH or EH or whatever.

You send your kid to the feeder then fund out that it’s not a good fit for various reasons and then what? Switch where? Move? So now your kid has had 3-4 major disruptive moves.

Lots of risks and variable that you can’t control and won’t know. You should have been planning your move as back up 2 years ago since you are not in a good feeder.

So, looking at that dashboard (which is 1 year out of date), 62% of L-T’s 5th graders went to SH and, if you look at the other schools that folks went to, it seems like that the high achievers are at least proportionally represented among the 62%. That’s a solid cohort.

Maury is almost identical with 63%. The question is whether you’d be as happy at EH as SH and whether your kid would be as happy at an ES with very few new 5th graders. Only you can answer those questions.

I would not personally send my kid to Watkins, which is like 10% IB by that point and does not have great scores as a result (though the scores are good for demographics). That said, 73% of kids go on to SH, so there will be a cohort.

Brent, on the other hand, is only 10 kids or 30% headed to Jefferson, and if you look at the other schools, it’s likely high achievers are underrepresented among the 10. Very different experience.

I personally would make the switch and I don’t think you’d need to worry that there wouldn’t be a cohort at any of the 3 schools mentioned. SWS is different. Fewer than 10 kids head to EH (and I think it’s actually a lot fewer); that switch isn’t worth it.

Patent of current Maury 4th grader here. We also struck out on lottery for Latin (didn’t try for BASIS). Glad to see the percentage going on to EH from Maury. FWIW, we really like Maury and find test data suggests kids who go from Maury to EH do really well. And that elusive anecdotal evidence you mentioned is very positive as to EH. People without kids there seem to look down on it but those who choose it seem happy. It’s a smaller school with apparently a strong admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So OP, you are going to move your kid to 5th to a new school. Then majority of those kids won’t go to the feeder SH or EH or whatever.

You send your kid to the feeder then fund out that it’s not a good fit for various reasons and then what? Switch where? Move? So now your kid has had 3-4 major disruptive moves.

Lots of risks and variable that you can’t control and won’t know. You should have been planning your move as back up 2 years ago since you are not in a good feeder.

So, looking at that dashboard (which is 1 year out of date), 62% of L-T’s 5th graders went to SH and, if you look at the other schools that folks went to, it seems like that the high achievers are at least proportionally represented among the 62%. That’s a solid cohort.

Maury is almost identical with 63%. The question is whether you’d be as happy at EH as SH and whether your kid would be as happy at an ES with very few new 5th graders. Only you can answer those questions.

I would not personally send my kid to Watkins, which is like 10% IB by that point and does not have great scores as a result (though the scores are good for demographics). That said, 73% of kids go on to SH, so there will be a cohort.

Brent, on the other hand, is only 10 kids or 30% headed to Jefferson, and if you look at the other schools, it’s likely high achievers are underrepresented among the 10. Very different experience.

I personally would make the switch and I don’t think you’d need to worry that there wouldn’t be a cohort at any of the 3 schools mentioned. SWS is different. Fewer than 10 kids head to EH (and I think it’s actually a lot fewer); that switch isn’t worth it.

Patent of current Maury 4th grader here. We also struck out on lottery for Latin (didn’t try for BASIS). Glad to see the percentage going on to EH from Maury. FWIW, we really like Maury and find test data suggests kids who go from Maury to EH do really well. And that elusive anecdotal evidence you mentioned is very positive as to EH. People without kids there seem to look down on it but those who choose it seem happy. It’s a smaller school with apparently a strong admin.

The percentages are not representative of the high performing kids. Just because 50 or 60% of the kids at LT went to SH does not mean those 50-60% of kids are all above grade level, even on grade level. It also doesn’t mean that your kids friends are going on to the feeder either.

Look at the CAPE scores 5 of the middle schools and you can easily see percentages total of high performing kids at the school.

Of course if your kid is on grade level, they are going to do pretty well if overwhelming majority on below grade level. It’s all relative.

[Anonymous]

the earlier poster said the % staying on for the feeder middle school is reflective of the overall mix of abilities at the elementary school. i think once you have over 1/2 the kids staying thats mostly right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:the earlier poster said the % staying on for the feeder middle school is reflective of the overall mix of abilities at the elementary school. i think once you have over 1/2 the kids staying thats mostly right.

No it’s not an overall mix. It’s the kids who are lower performing mixing in with lower performing kids from other schools.

Just look at math scores. Almost 1 in 5 kids at Maury above grade level in math. EH 1 in 50 kids. That is a huge difference of 10 fold.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:the earlier poster said the % staying on for the feeder middle school is reflective of the overall mix of abilities at the elementary school. i think once you have over 1/2 the kids staying thats mostly right.

No it’s not an overall mix. It’s the kids who are lower performing mixing in with lower performing kids from other schools.

Just look at math scores. Almost 1 in 5 kids at Maury above grade level in math. EH 1 in 50 kids. That is a huge difference of 10 fold.

This isn’t true at LT. It’s true that the out flux to Basis/Latin is disproportionately kids who are at least on grade level. However, once the kids are in 5th, the kids going to SH are representative, if not slightly above the 5th grade average. A few kids go private, and a handful of kids go to “good” middle schools, but most of the other kids are heading to schools UMC families don’t use.