Powell or DC Bilingual?

[Anonymous]

I think there are several things that are common once students reach 3rd-5th.

(I say this not knowing the technical teaching terms, just experience as a parent in these grades.) The difference in skills uptake/ability to learn starts to become obvious. up through 1st-2nd grade, kids are still learning to read. They are learning to add/subtract without fingers. In 3rd-5th, the difference between those still learning the entry techniques and those who are able to move forward with reading/math content becomes pretty easy to see. As well as that if your kid is one who is ready for content uptake, teachers getting stuck bringing kids along who can't hack it yet is slowing down the class and your child's progress. So people want to sort away from the students who can't make progress in the content.

There is a perception that getting your kids into other schools gets easier at late elementary, e.g., you can move from a gentrifying elementary that was fine until 2nd grade to a JKLM across RCP in 4th or whatever. And there is the concern about feeder rights - "getting into Deal" is only possible via feeder rights out of boundary now, basically - and the 5th grade entry years for the most-sought "diverse" (cough: whitest) middle grades charters make people want to move on or see staying in 4th at your DCPS irrelevant.

I'm not going to out us, but the leaving of upper elementary is real, and (I'm not gonna lie) it makes you second guess staying in your current school through 5th. We are probably the most hard-core committed white family headed toward our Title I DCPS middle school and we STILL do the lottery, see kids leave and wonder, are we missing something?

[Anonymous]

I think this thread is funny. No personal experience at Powell, but have several close friends abandon the school in the upper grades. Hysterical to me that i see so many positive posts. Go talk to your Spanish speaking neighbors. This thread isn’t really accurate.

[Anonymous]

wait, what would Spanish-speaking Powell families say, 11:42 PP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi, neighbor! We did PK3 at Powell and loved it. We switched to an immersion charter (not DCB) for PK4 solely because of the feeder pattern into DCI, and I have always regretted it a bit. If you do not need a path to middle school, Powell is a great option. Even if you do need a path to middle school, I still think Powell might be the better choice. Without a guaranteed slot at DCI due to feeder expansions, you are trading off a sure good thing (excellent neighborhood school) for 5+ years of guaranteed inconvenience for a modestly better chance at DCI.

NP. If you don't mind me asking, are you at MV? We're looking at a choice between MV and Powell likely and though MV is popular and hyped, I'm not getting the impression that it's actually any better than Powell.

PP here. Yes, we left Powell for MV. I do not think my kids got fundamentally better educational experiences at MV, and there were lots of annoyances for us as parents. If I had to do it again, I would stay at Powell.

Thanks for sharing, that’s helpful to know. The middle school situation is what’s really throwing us off, but I’m not totally sold on DCI and it’s not even a guarantee anymore.

PP again. DCI is why we switched to MV. At the time, MacFarland was not even re-opened and was a big unknown. I don't know how good an option MacFarland is at this point, as I have not followed it. But, even if you prefer DCI, from MV without a sibling preference you have about a 30-40% chance at a spot there. To my mind, that 30-40% chance is not worth it. So much can change with your life and DC schools in the 7 years between PK3 and middle school that it's really hard to know how to value that 30-40% chance. Don't get me wrong, MV is a good school. But, so is Powell. And, the upsides of being at your neighborhood school are huge.

If you want to post an email address, I would be happy to talk to you offline about our process and experience. We agonized over our choice, so I know how hard it is.

Thanks for sharing this - very helpful and not the typical DCUM narrative! This is really what I'm feeling in our decision between MV and our inbound SPanish Immersion school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCB was a kind of darling of dcum previously, and extremely hard to get into (like possibly the hardest of all Charters).

Interesting that DCB is down, Powell is up. I have no advice except that in general I do think DCB is a more stable long term choice. Powell still may deteriorate in upper grades. Have a close look at how parents feel about the two in say 3rd, 4th grade.

It has been a very hard year at DCB. No school has had an easy time but when both distance learning and re-opening are a mess and there is no sense that the administration appreciates things need to be improved, parents get frustrated.

I totally get it. It's been a rough year at our school too, although they finally reopened. I think it is fair to say charters overall haven't shown their best side this year.

And DCPS has?

[Anonymous]

10:56 great narrative.

We left Powell for Bancroft and see the difference in the academics and grading scale. I do however miss the school community and parents.

[Anonymous]

DCB has shown no serious inclination toward opening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCB was a kind of darling of dcum previously, and extremely hard to get into (like possibly the hardest of all Charters).

Interesting that DCB is down, Powell is up. I have no advice except that in general I do think DCB is a more stable long term choice. Powell still may deteriorate in upper grades. Have a close look at how parents feel about the two in say 3rd, 4th grade.

It has been a very hard year at DCB. No school has had an easy time but when both distance learning and re-opening are a mess and there is no sense that the administration appreciates things need to be improved, parents get frustrated.

I totally get it. It's been a rough year at our school too, although they finally reopened. I think it is fair to say charters overall haven't shown their best side this year.

And DCPS has?

Not to get sidetracked, but the point of charters (or one of them) is that they are meant to be nimble, and unencumbered by the bureaucracy (or standards) of DCPS, so you would have expected them to at least try to get kids in class more. Instead you have DCPS bringing more kids back than the charters, and before the charters. This is particularly relevant when you are talking about the younger grades and kids doing bilingual education. That said, no, DCPS has not done a great job of bringing kids back, and it only looks passable when compared to some of the charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The 30-40% choice assumes MV kids don’t go to other schools instead, but all try for DCI.

Of course, the percent chance only goes up if DCI doesn’t get better or gets worse, while if DCI is in more demand yes your chance is lower. Currently at our feeder probably only 50-60% of kids even opt for DCI.

THIS Not all kids will be going to DCI. Families move to burbs, to WOTP for Deal/Wilson, go private, play the lottery and get into Latin, Basis, etc...

BTW it’s not 30-40% chance from MV. Have no idea how PP above pulls that number. It’s 60% chance if all kids go DCI route. We started at MV at the new campus last year and they were transparent and 60% was the number leadership calculated if all kids went to DCI. Now throw in out of all those kids, maybe 60% actually want to go and your odds are 80% plus.

Compare that to your IB middle school feeder which for us is 0% chance.

McFarland isn’t happening anytime soon for those naive enough to think so. Families are not staying for the upper grade elementary to even track to McFarland. I don’t blame them when 3 out of 4 kids are below grade level in ELA and 9 out of 10 kids are below grade level in math. I suspect competency in foreign languages is pretty poor if you are not even on grade level in English.

Lastly, DCI has already been approved to increase their enrollment numbers. No talks of this happening currently but they have some flexibility to increase enrollment with future demand,

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCB was a kind of darling of dcum previously, and extremely hard to get into (like possibly the hardest of all Charters).

Interesting that DCB is down, Powell is up. I have no advice except that in general I do think DCB is a more stable long term choice. Powell still may deteriorate in upper grades. Have a close look at how parents feel about the two in say 3rd, 4th grade.

It has been a very hard year at DCB. No school has had an easy time but when both distance learning and re-opening are a mess and there is no sense that the administration appreciates things need to be improved, parents get frustrated.

I totally get it. It's been a rough year at our school too, although they finally reopened. I think it is fair to say charters overall haven't shown their best side this year.

And DCPS has?

Not to get sidetracked, but the point of charters (or one of them) is that they are meant to be nimble, and unencumbered by the bureaucracy (or standards) of DCPS, so you would have expected them to at least try to get kids in class more. Instead you have DCPS bringing more kids back than the charters, and before the charters. This is particularly relevant when you are talking about the younger grades and kids doing bilingual education. That said, no, DCPS has not done a great job of bringing kids back, and it only looks passable when compared to some of the charters.

You are generalizing too much. You are using DCPS as a general blanket when we know that a good number of schools are not really bringing kids back for real instruction. Also some schools may have some kids back but it’s far from the number of families who want to go back. Typical of DCPS is they say kids are back but when you look into the details and how, it’s really not true. Lots of DCPS families are not happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 30-40% choice assumes MV kids don’t go to other schools instead, but all try for DCI.

Of course, the percent chance only goes up if DCI doesn’t get better or gets worse, while if DCI is in more demand yes your chance is lower. Currently at our feeder probably only 50-60% of kids even opt for DCI.

THIS Not all kids will be going to DCI. Families move to burbs, to WOTP for Deal/Wilson, go private, play the lottery and get into Latin, Basis, etc...

BTW it’s not 30-40% chance from MV. Have no idea how PP above pulls that number. It’s 60% chance if all kids go DCI route. We started at MV at the new campus last year and they were transparent and 60% was the number leadership calculated if all kids went to DCI. Now throw in out of all those kids, maybe 60% actually want to go and your odds are 80% plus.

Compare that to your IB middle school feeder which for us is 0% chance.

McFarland isn’t happening anytime soon for those naive enough to think so. Families are not staying for the upper grade elementary to even track to McFarland. I don’t blame them when 3 out of 4 kids are below grade level in ELA and 9 out of 10 kids are below grade level in math. I suspect competency in foreign languages is pretty poor if you are not even on grade level in English.

Lastly, DCI has already been approved to increase their enrollment numbers. No talks of this happening currently but they have some flexibility to increase enrollment with future demand,

60% includes siblings. For those without sibling preference, the odds are much lower (like the odds of getting into any of the feeders are currently). And I think you can project how many kids take DCI seats based on how many are doing so now. Most families we know are in those feeders largely because of the DCI pathway. I don’t think that’s going to change, even without the guarantee.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 30-40% choice assumes MV kids don’t go to other schools instead, but all try for DCI.

Of course, the percent chance only goes up if DCI doesn’t get better or gets worse, while if DCI is in more demand yes your chance is lower. Currently at our feeder probably only 50-60% of kids even opt for DCI.

THIS Not all kids will be going to DCI. Families move to burbs, to WOTP for Deal/Wilson, go private, play the lottery and get into Latin, Basis, etc...

BTW it’s not 30-40% chance from MV. Have no idea how PP above pulls that number. It’s 60% chance if all kids go DCI route. We started at MV at the new campus last year and they were transparent and 60% was the number leadership calculated if all kids went to DCI. Now throw in out of all those kids, maybe 60% actually want to go and your odds are 80% plus.

Compare that to your IB middle school feeder which for us is 0% chance.

McFarland isn’t happening anytime soon for those naive enough to think so. Families are not staying for the upper grade elementary to even track to McFarland. I don’t blame them when 3 out of 4 kids are below grade level in ELA and 9 out of 10 kids are below grade level in math. I suspect competency in foreign languages is pretty poor if you are not even on grade level in English.

Lastly, DCI has already been approved to increase their enrollment numbers. No talks of this happening currently but they have some flexibility to increase enrollment with future demand,

60% includes siblings. For those without sibling preference, the odds are much lower (like the odds of getting into any of the feeders are currently). And I think you can project how many kids take DCI seats based on how many are doing so now. Most families we know are in those feeders largely because of the DCI pathway. I don’t think that’s going to change, even without the guarantee.

About 60% sounds right at our school too for the percentage of kids that continue onto DCI. It’s definitely not anywhere close to 100%.

So I would say for siblings 100% get in and non-siblings good bet around 60%. Don’t know the numbers but Stokes and LAMB are all in the same boat in that it’s not guaranteed due to expansion.

[Anonymous]

So do they divide the spots up between the language immmersion charters and no one else has a chance of getting in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The 30-40% choice assumes MV kids don’t go to other schools instead, but all try for DCI.

Of course, the percent chance only goes up if DCI doesn’t get better or gets worse, while if DCI is in more demand yes your chance is lower. Currently at our feeder probably only 50-60% of kids even opt for DCI.

THIS Not all kids will be going to DCI. Families move to burbs, to WOTP for Deal/Wilson, go private, play the lottery and get into Latin, Basis, etc...

BTW it’s not 30-40% chance from MV. Have no idea how PP above pulls that number. It’s 60% chance if all kids go DCI route. We started at MV at the new campus last year and they were transparent and 60% was the number leadership calculated if all kids went to DCI. Now throw in out of all those kids, maybe 60% actually want to go and your odds are 80% plus.

Compare that to your IB middle school feeder which for us is 0% chance.

McFarland isn’t happening anytime soon for those naive enough to think so. Families are not staying for the upper grade elementary to even track to McFarland. I don’t blame them when 3 out of 4 kids are below grade level in ELA and 9 out of 10 kids are below grade level in math. I suspect competency in foreign languages is pretty poor if you are not even on grade level in English.

Lastly, DCI has already been approved to increase their enrollment numbers. No talks of this happening currently but they have some flexibility to increase enrollment with future demand,

60% includes siblings. For those without sibling preference, the odds are much lower (like the odds of getting into any of the feeders are currently). And I think you can project how many kids take DCI seats based on how many are doing so now. Most families we know are in those feeders largely because of the DCI pathway. I don’t think that’s going to change, even without the guarantee.

About 60% sounds right at our school too for the percentage of kids that continue onto DCI. It’s definitely not anywhere close to 100%.

So I would say for siblings 100% get in and non-siblings good bet around 60%. Don’t know the numbers but Stokes and LAMB are all in the same boat in that it’s not guaranteed due to expansion.

If 40% of kids are not going to DCI, non-sibling chances are definitely higher than 60%.

[Anonymous]

Where are the other 40% of kids going? Are they mostly in bounds for Deal or going to MD/private?