Moving to D.C. Looking for good Public Middle and High Schools

[hsembhi]

We will be moving to Washington D.C. for 2009-2010 school year. We would prefer to live in a diverse neighborhood with good schools and available sports activities. Our children are 10 and 12 where the younger one will enter 6th grade and older will enter 8th grade. They are involved with various sports such as soccer, basketball, and football but also do very well in school. Our eldest also attended a music oriented magnet school in the Philadelphia School District.

We would like to know what is the best areas to focus on regarding a good school district. We specifically like the Georgetown area (if we can afford it) but would like input on those schools as well. Are there others neighborhoods in Washington D.C. that are safe, diverse, family oriented, walkable, with good schools.

Thank you,

TSS

[Anonymous]

Ellington in Georgetown/Glover Park is the music magnet for DC. Both of those neighborhoods are good walkable family communities.

The best public schools are generally considered to be Wilson in upper NW (Tenleytown) and School Without Walls in Foggy Bottom (George Washington U).

[Anonymous]

Hardy Middle School in Georgetown also has an emphasis on the arts.

Generally, in terms of public middle schools, Hardy and Deal are usually considered the best. In addition to the schools pp mentioned, Banneker is also a top magnet high school, located over near Howard University.

DD attended Ellington. The arts programs are generally quite good and they are taught by professionals. The academics tend to be not as strong as you would find in the magnet programs at Wilson, and at Walls and Banneker. Ellington was rather weak in math and science whereas dd's preparation at Hardy in math and science was pretty good. But if you want to focus on the arts, you can always supplement the academics with tutoring and other things.

[Anonymous]

You want the Walt Whitman school district in Bethesda -- it's less walkable than Georgetown, but no less diverse (LOL) and Whitman is light years better than any DC public high school, especially in the arts; the gap at the middle school level is narrower, but still pretty huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:light years better than any DC public high school....

Oh, brother - are you trying to unload a house in Rockthesda? Is that it? Don't lie to the OP like that, it's not helpful.

OP, you should really check out School Without Walls - it's amazing! (If you're serious about the suburbs, you want NoVa anyway, for TJ.)

[Anonymous]

The "walkable" part of Bethesda is in the BCC district anyhow.

[Anonymous]

OP - Deal MS has a good athletics program and feeds into Wilson HS, also a good school. Hardy and Ellington are both good, but if you're looking at athletics, Ellington has none. As far as neighborhoods, also look at Glover Park, AU Park, Tenleytown, Cathedral Heights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP - Deal MS has a good athletics program and feeds into Wilson HS, also a good school. Hardy and Ellington are both good, but if you're looking at athletics, Ellington has none. As far as neighborhoods, also look at Glover Park, AU Park, Tenleytown, Cathedral Heights.

Earlier pp here -- The info on athletics at Ellington is true. Hardy has some sports teams but I can't imagine that it is as developed as Deal (though I don't know for sure). I do know that phys ed at both Hardy and Ellington was pretty dismal when dd went there. At any rate sounds like your older child will come in during 8th grade and if you decide to go the magnet school route you will have some time to look around.

One thing to note is at any DCPS if there is no sports team in the area you want at your school, you can join an existing sports team at another high school. Not that you want to go to that trouble but, say, if you really liked Banneker or Ellington, you could still go there and do sports elsewhere. I believe Walls has a couple of sports teams, too, but I don't know how extensive it is (I remember reading about a Walls student who played football at Anacostia) and I'm sure Wilson must have the most to offer in sports generally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:light years better than any DC public high school....

Oh, brother - are you trying to unload a house in Rockthesda? Is that it? [snip!]

Yeah, just like Newsweek, USN&WR, and every other unbiased evaluator of schools across jurisdictional lines -- we're all trying to dump houses in the 'burbs.

Waving the home flag is all well and good (and I actually do live in DC; just won't be sending my kids to public HS here), but someone coming in from out of town should be disabused of misperceptions before choosing where to live. And anyone who claims that there are public high schools in DC anywhere near Whitman's league (or BCC's, for that matter) is just smoking crack. Are the public high schools here just as strong as Sidwell, too?

[Anonymous]

It sounds like the OP is set on a public school in DC, so why not give her advice about that instead of trying to justify your own (different) choices? Plus, given that the OP is from Philly, she probably understands the differences between a city school and a suburban school. I know people who have been very happy with their children's experiences at Ellington and School without Walls (child who went to school without walls is now at an Ivy).

[Anonymous]

Where are the diverse, walkable neighborhoods in the Whitman district? Oh wait. Yes, the OP specified diverse and walkable.

OP, you've been given the right advice so far. Will you still be and Eagles fan while you're here??

[Anonymous]

You might look in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase district in Montgomery County. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where are the diverse, walkable neighborhoods in the Whitman district? Oh wait. Yes, the OP specified diverse and walkable.

[snip!]

OP thinks that Georgetown is diverse and that s/he can find good public high schools in DC -- OP hasn't a clue and is better served by a reality-check than by the shinola that's covering most of this particular board. For academics, sports and arts, Whitman is the best public option in the immediate DC area. Yeah, it's rich, white, and car-centric. Bummer; compromises are inevitable. If walkable is really key, BCC offers it at a small cost on academics and a larger one on arts. If OP is truly set on DC, fine, but at least that should be an informed decision: the downsides are significant and s/he's not well-served to have them obscured until s/he must endure them personally.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I see no problem with offering OP other options. Anyone whose initial preferences are limited to Georgetown probably does not know very much about DC, and I say that as someone who was equally clueless and intent on settling on Georgetown just a few years back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For academics, sports and arts, Whitman is the best public option in the immediate DC area.

No, it isn't.

The best public option is TJ. You MoCo types are such wannabes.