Where are the PK3 programs in west NW neighborhoods?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s beyond stupid to include PK3 not reaching the students it is intended to in any discussion involving WOTP PK3.

I don't think OP meant WOTP students were the intended target group for the program - she wrote "this program might not be reaching the students it originally intended to reach now that these neighborhoods have gentrified". To me, that clearly means that the program is now serving a lot of gentrifiers who aren't any less affluent than people WOTP, which is true. Although I disagree with her idea that free Pre-K is the primary reason that lures gentrifiers into those neighborhoods, it has certainly helped lure affluent families into DCPS.

Maybe you should actually read before you call someone "beyond stupid".

I think people's problem with that quote is that the program *is* still reaching the students it was originally intended for -- there are spots for them. housing gentrification is another issue, if families are being pushed out of DC, but all the 3 year olds do have the opportunity to go to PreK.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s beyond stupid to include PK3 not reaching the students it is intended to in any discussion involving WOTP PK3.

I don't think OP meant WOTP students were the intended target group for the program - she wrote "this program might not be reaching the students it originally intended to reach now that these neighborhoods have gentrified". To me, that clearly means that the program is now serving a lot of gentrifiers who aren't any less affluent than people WOTP, which is true. Although I disagree with her idea that free Pre-K is the primary reason that lures gentrifiers into those neighborhoods, it has certainly helped lure affluent families into DCPS.

Maybe you should actually read before you call someone "beyond stupid".

I didn’t think OP meant that either. Still dumb to lump the two topics together just because you’re mad online that your neighborhood school doesn’t have PK3, since no EOTP students are being deprived of PK3 just because new residents have moved in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is not enough room in those schools for PK3.

When DCPS tried to redistrict so there would be more room, families objected because they didn't want to be zoned out of high-performing elementary schools.

Most families who live in upper NW west of the park would rather be in a high-scoring elementary for 6 years (K-5, plus a chance at PK4) than be in a low-scoring school for 8 years (PK3-5). If they felt otherwise, they would live in-bound for schools that offered PK3; there are plenty of them where any IB kid can get a seat for PK.

No. Adding PK3 was never an option and had nothing to do with the boundary review.

[Anonymous]

Thompson is a really good school! I would try to stay IB there.
Out of all DCPS schools, it's best suited to become Chinese dual language program one day, due to relatively high population of heritage cantonese/mandarin speakers.

[Anonymous]

When 90% of DC public schools have it and less than 5 dont that's super messed up and dsicriminatory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When 90% of DC public schools have it and less than 5 dont that's super messed up and dsicriminatory.

Not really. You can still enroll at a school that does have it. There's no requirement that you attend Pk3 or Pk4, and no guaranteed right to it except at schools with a high percentage of at-risk students.

But practically speaking, to offer PK3 at those schools you would have to make space for the class by reducing space for upper grades and re-drawing their boundaries. Your neighbors would probably have some opinions on that solution.

[Anonymous]

Housing prices in SE/NE are now just as high (maybe higher depending on area- you now see $1 million places in Trinidad) as upper NW and yet they have a lot more DCPS pk and charters to choose from, or at least lottery into and cut commute times. It's NE/SE affluent families who are freaking out about their lottery ranks on this message board and hiring consultants to navigate the system and then jumping ship to private or moving when it doesn't magically work out for them. These families who moved to these neighborhoods for affordability as young couples 5-10 years ago may have moved out sooner when they had kids, opening up more housing supply, but for these school options. So while the program was meant to help lower income families and neighborhoods- the schools are now serving a higher socioeconomic demographic. Maybe it has helped the system overall improve by keeping higher income families in DC, there are many facets to the gentrification debate. But these areas have already or are currently gentrifying and lower income families can no longer afford to live in many of these neighborhoods. Facts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Housing prices in SE/NE are now just as high (maybe higher depending on area- you now see $1 million places in Trinidad) as upper NW and yet they have a lot more DCPS pk and charters to choose from, or at least lottery into and cut commute times. It's NE/SE affluent families who are freaking out about their lottery ranks on this message board and hiring consultants to navigate the system and then jumping ship to private or moving when it doesn't magically work out for them. These families who moved to these neighborhoods for affordability as young couples 5-10 years ago may have moved out sooner when they had kids, opening up more housing supply, but for these school options. So while the program was meant to help lower income families and neighborhoods- the schools are now serving a higher socioeconomic demographic. Maybe it has helped the system overall improve by keeping higher income families in DC, there are many facets to the gentrification debate. But these areas have already or are currently gentrifying and lower income families can no longer afford to live in many of these neighborhoods. Facts.

Expansion of PK3 in DC had two goals.

1) Help close the gap between poor kids and well-prepared kids. Research from Pew and others consistently shows that a dollar invested in high-quality preschool has a greater educational benefit ROI than a dollar invested at any other point in the education system.

2) Get parents of all income levels to enroll in under-enrolled DCPS schools so DCPS would stop losing so much 'market share' to charters and private schools.

That's it. The schools without Pk3 were not, and are NOT under-enrolled. They truly do NOT have space for PK3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's because PK3 was initially introduced in Title I schools in DC, but wasn't phased out when those schools lose their Title I status. The Hill was all Title I a decade ago; WOTP not so much. If PK3 were being introduced now, Brent and Maury would 100% not have it. They'd have extra PK4 classes so that more IB could get in. In fact, there is some momentum at Brent for making this change now. (There was a bigger uproar a few years ago when there was a class where a few IB kids with siblings enrolled were WLed; things seem to have died down a bit as the PK population of Brent has stopped expanding, probably because Brent has gotten so expensive.)

We've heard that before. Then along comes another record breaking application year. DC doesn't seem to be short on families who can afford million dollar houses.

There is no evidence at all that the PK population IB for Brent has stopped expanding, fwiw.

I admittedly haven't done an exhaustive survey, but the last few years the number of IB applications for PK3/4 don't seem to be increasing the way they did in the years prior. I certainly didn't mean to suggest that IB pop of Brent was shrinking, just that it didn't seem to be growing at the crazily fast pace it had for the few years prior. Could obviously be an anomaly too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP --- NO ONE is moving to EOTP for the free Pre-K 3 (and I say this as the parent of a Pre-K 3 kid in a eotp school), and everyone here is agonizing about what to do beyond elementary. One year of school does not compare to a having a decent public option for middle school and high school.

+1

No one is moving just for PK3. No one is choosing to live EOTP rather than IB for a good WOTP school because of one year of preschool. No one. The people who live IB for schools with PK3 programs have preference for those programs, which is why many of them are impossible to get into OOB. I would say those schools might not have enough spots for all the families who live IB and would like to send their kids, but that's a different issue from whether PK3 WOTP is necessary or should be a priority.

The only place where WOTP families are competing with EOTP families is at DCPS schools that have OOB PK3 spots available (although EOTP families might also have proximity preference for a school other than their IB, so they would still beat out WOTP families for those spots) or charters. And most charters are going to be EOTP because that's where they can afford to lease a suitable building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Expansion of PK3 in DC had two goals.

1) Help close the gap between poor kids and well-prepared kids. Research from Pew and others consistently shows that a dollar invested in high-quality preschool has a greater educational benefit ROI than a dollar invested at any other point in the education system.

2) Get parents of all income levels to enroll in under-enrolled DCPS schools so DCPS would stop losing so much 'market share' to charters and private schools.

That's it. The schools without Pk3 were not, and are NOT under-enrolled. They truly do NOT have space for PK3.

That's all and good but when 104 of the 111 schools have it and only 7 don't it becomes problematic, especially when it's paid for out of tax dollars

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Expansion of PK3 in DC had two goals.

1) Help close the gap between poor kids and well-prepared kids. Research from Pew and others consistently shows that a dollar invested in high-quality preschool has a greater educational benefit ROI than a dollar invested at any other point in the education system.

2) Get parents of all income levels to enroll in under-enrolled DCPS schools so DCPS would stop losing so much 'market share' to charters and private schools.

That's it. The schools without Pk3 were not, and are NOT under-enrolled. They truly do NOT have space for PK3.

That's all and good but when 104 of the 111 schools have it and only 7 don't it becomes problematic, especially when it's paid for out of tax dollars

Oh cry me a river. It is not happening because parents at those schools were against it. There is no right to free preschool even if most other people have it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Expansion of PK3 in DC had two goals.

1) Help close the gap between poor kids and well-prepared kids. Research from Pew and others consistently shows that a dollar invested in high-quality preschool has a greater educational benefit ROI than a dollar invested at any other point in the education system.

2) Get parents of all income levels to enroll in under-enrolled DCPS schools so DCPS would stop losing so much 'market share' to charters and private schools.

That's it. The schools without Pk3 were not, and are NOT under-enrolled. They truly do NOT have space for PK3.

That's all and good but when 104 of the 111 schools have it and only 7 don't it becomes problematic, especially when it's paid for out of tax dollars

Oh cry me a river. It is not happening because parents at those schools were against it. There is no right to free preschool even if most other people have it.

+1. Please feel free to attend a Title I if you don't like how Upper NW is run.

[Anonymous]

You can do one of the free childcare options for PK3 and PK4 like communikids in upper NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Expansion of PK3 in DC had two goals.

1) Help close the gap between poor kids and well-prepared kids. Research from Pew and others consistently shows that a dollar invested in high-quality preschool has a greater educational benefit ROI than a dollar invested at any other point in the education system.

2) Get parents of all income levels to enroll in under-enrolled DCPS schools so DCPS would stop losing so much 'market share' to charters and private schools.

That's it. The schools without Pk3 were not, and are NOT under-enrolled. They truly do NOT have space for PK3.

That's all and good but when 104 of the 111 schools have it and only 7 don't it becomes problematic, especially when it's paid for out of tax dollars

Oh cry me a river. It is not happening because parents at those schools were against it. There is no right to free preschool even if most other people have it.

"Problematic." I hate that word. What, *exactly* is the problem? And what's your solution? Yes, it would be nice if every elementary school in DC had PK3. But they don't, and the schools that don't have it are already crowded. People who live IB for, say, Janney would scream bloody murder if they got rezoned because Janney had to reduce PK4-5 enrollment in order to make space for PK3 at the school. And they'd be pissed if more kids were in trailers because they needed to make space for PK3. And frankly, they'd be right to, because if you did a real cost-benefit analysis for kids who live IB for one of the good upper NW schools, the value of PK3 is pretty small.