most successful dc public schools?

[Anonymous]

Help a harried mom out who has to move in the next 3 months. We are going to rent in NW DC a small house or apartment so can choose between some of the schools for our little gal entering kindergarten. She is super bright 99.9 across the board on the WPPSI and pretty shy. The big classes are going to overwhelm her I think. (we took the WPPSI after her preschool teacher encouraged it and we were considering the private route because I feel like the larger classes are going to be intense for her. But then we had a reality check and are opting for financial reasons for the public schools.

I am hearing many of them are good but wanted to see if I could discern which would be best for my kid - and be able to offer a challenging curriculum & maybe smaller classes. We have found some possibilities in Oyster, Laffayette, Key and Janney.
Which ones get the best ratings?

thanks!

[Anonymous]

hyde

[Anonymous]

Hyde was great. We had a visit. The scores are lower then the others though. Not sure why?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hyde was great. We had a visit. The scores are lower then the others though. Not sure why?

The school shows well, but it has a bullying problem and the kids are frequently unfocused, particularly on field trips.

[Anonymous]

If big classes overwhelm your child, Janney and Lafayette are likely not for her.

Lafayette, currently, is also an open-classroom model with few walls. It works for most, but not all.

Consider also Hearst.

[Anonymous]

Key or Murch.

[Anonymous]

Classes at Oyster are large; 24-26. Any popular school with large waiting lists is going to have the largest classes they can get away with.

[Anonymous]

How is Mann doing these days. How big is their k classes?
Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

Murch gets lower scores. Anyone know why? Their school is shabby but - parents seem to LOVE it!

[Anonymous]

There was a whole thead about it you can search. Boils down to parents not worried about scores only. School is great.

[Anonymous]

Lafayette will be renovated 2015 and walls will go up. Also Lafayette PK-3rd grade keeps most classes under 20. Also PK and K has an aide in addition to a teacher in each class.

[Anonymous]

Lafayette sounds wonderful. Plus the neighborhood seems very sweet with the corner store and near the park. And the scores are good. Is there any area that is up for boundary changes?

[Anonymous]

Hearst has small classes and new facilities under construction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hearst has small classes and new facilities under construction.

It is also the smallest school in Upper NW (Mann is only a touch larger). That small size means that kids and staff get to know each other. The principal knew my daughter's name on the first day of PK, and in two years we've gotten to know most of the staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hyde was great. We had a visit. The scores are lower then the others though. Not sure why?

The school shows well, but it has a bullying problem and the kids are frequently unfocused, particularly on field trips.

This is the weirdest comment. I am a Hyde parent. The school actually does not show well at all, IMO. While there are some kids with poor behavior, I would not say there is a bullying problem at all. And field trips seem pretty run of the mill.