Looking for lottery recommendations and also best ways to research schools?

[Anonymous]

Get into an immersion charter and then you have a very good chance to get into DCI. Bonus is your kid will learn another language.

I agree with poster above that it is a big mistake not to consider middle and high school feeders. If you don’t, plan to move in middle. DCPS is not going to get any better, in fact worst, with the new ELA and science curriculum.

[Superiorwitt]

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Thank you much for the Payne suggestion and perspectives! It appears to fit alot of our criteria when researching. It also, as of now, seems to feed into a fairly solid Middle school as well. Much appreciated!

[Superiorwitt]

Anonymous wrote:Get into an immersion charter and then you have a very good chance to get into DCI. Bonus is your kid will learn another language.

I agree with poster above that it is a big mistake not to consider middle and high school feeders. If you don’t, plan to move in middle. DCPS is not going to get any better, in fact worst, with the new ELA and science curriculum.

Thats another angle we've been trying to incorporate as well.. We know quite a few people who have gone the Charter route with no consideration for DCPS, including one family who raves about DCB and DCI, and another who adores E.L. Haynes; so wanting to gather info on the differing options.

[Anonymous]

Superiorwitt wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Thank you much for the Payne suggestion and perspectives! It appears to fit alot of our criteria when researching. It also, as of now, seems to feed into a fairly solid Middle school as well. Much appreciated!

FWIW, Payne didn't accept some students who had proximity preference with sibling attending this year for PK3. Based on neighborhood trends, it's near 0 they'll take an OOB PK3 student with no sibling preference next year.

[Superiorwitt]

Anonymous wrote:

Superiorwitt wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Thank you much for the Payne suggestion and perspectives! It appears to fit alot of our criteria when researching. It also, as of now, seems to feed into a fairly solid Middle school as well. Much appreciated!

FWIW, Payne didn't accept some students who had proximity preference with sibling attending this year for PK3. Based on neighborhood trends, it's near 0 they'll take an OOB PK3 student with no sibling preference next year.

Appreciate the datapoint

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Superiorwitt wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Thank you much for the Payne suggestion and perspectives! It appears to fit alot of our criteria when researching. It also, as of now, seems to feed into a fairly solid Middle school as well. Much appreciated!

FWIW, Payne didn't accept some students who had proximity preference with sibling attending this year for PK3. Based on neighborhood trends, it's near 0 they'll take an OOB PK3 student with no sibling preference next year.

I was going to come on here to say something similar - Payne has been in increasing in enrollment over the last 10 years, and it has spiked significantly in the last year or two with an additional uptick of in bounds families returning to DCPS from charters, as well as Chisolm families having rights to attend Payne if they do not wish their student to be in the immersion program. Previously there was a non Spanish track at Chisolm (formerly Tyler), but since they transitioned (I think it is up to 2nd grade now that is full Spanish?) families have 'sister school' rights to Payne as well.

[Anonymous]

I would recommend for now, picking an ES that you like. I've been on the Hill over a decade and the MS/HS options have change dramatically since my HS kid was entering the prek lottery. For example, at that time every avoided E-H and SH and Jefferson fed into Wilson! My how things have changed and it's hard to know exactly how the landscape will look when your 2yr old is looking at MS and HS in the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would recommend for now, picking an ES that you like. I've been on the Hill over a decade and the MS/HS options have change dramatically since my HS kid was entering the prek lottery. For example, at that time every avoided E-H and SH and Jefferson fed into Wilson! My how things have changed and it's hard to know exactly how the landscape will look when your 2yr old is looking at MS and HS in the future.

Agree with this. As long as you can handle some uncertainty, I'd actually mostly not consider the MS feed for PK3 placement except as a tie-breaker. We're also on the Hill and assumed we'd never send our kid to SH when they were in PK3 and that BASIS would be our first choice. Fast-forward to now and our kid will be off to SH next year and we're pretty comfortable with the decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There isn't a STEM-focused elementary school here. Beware of Harmony-- it markets itself as such, but its math performance is really low and it was nearly closed down a few years ago.

I would suggest you look at Langley, Seaton, Burroughs, Langdon, and Inspired Teaching. Stokes is a French and Spanish school so consider whether you want language, if you do, consider Mundo Verde and Yu Ying as well. Avoid Shining Stars Montessori, it seems to be in some sort of slow-motion collapse. Lee Montessori is okay.

You can use this resource to see if any out-of-boundary PK3s were accepted in recent years. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61 This helps you to avoid wasting a spot where you have zero chance. Look up Ludlow-Taylor and you'll see what I mean-- they waitlisted in-boundary students so out-of-boundary students don't stand a chance.

The best thing you can do for yourself is 1) understand the difference between boundary and non-boundary schools (which isn't the same thing as charter vs non-charter) and watch the video on MySchoolDC to see how the lottery works and make sure you do truly understand it.

I would not recommend Langdon past K. That school also has a high staff turnover.