Good schools EoTP

[Anonymous]

Agree with the post above. That sums it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've come to conclusion that school choice is mostly an illusion in the District. More like school chance without any first rate options after elementary school.

This. The funny thing about this thread is that there are a bunch of wealthy people on it (if you can afford to buy a row house IB for Brent or Maury or Deal or Hardy, you are wealthy, even if that was back in 2012 -- middle class people cannot afford to buy a 750k fixer upper IB for Brent) arguing about which of them made the best choice. I am actually middle class and could never afford a 750k house. My kid doesn't go to Brent or Maury, not because I'm too dumb to figure out those schools are good, but because I am not rich enough to afford to be able to send my kid there.

No amount of attending PTO meetings before I have kids, or "doing my research" will change that. All we can do is try our luck at the lottery, do our best with wherever we end up, and look at real estate in the suburbs and try to figure out if it would be worth the added costs of commuting (which in our case would involve buying two cars because one way we afford to live in the city is by not owning a car at all).

It's just funny. Y'all treat DC's public schools like you are private school parents choosing from among the best private, and bragging about which school you were clever enough to know to go to. You're a tiny slice of DC public school parents and to the rest of us, it doesn't work that way at all.

What's fascinating is spending $1M+ on a home than worrying and complaining about the quality of schools. There is no way I'd ever do that unless I was a staunch believer in private schools. Seems like personal choices won over long-term planning.

What's fascinating, and sobering, to this CH resident since the 1990s is that all the worrying and complaining about the quality of schools never seems to coalesce into a viable political movement to improve DCPS middle and high schools EotP. It just never happens. Seems like political inertia wins over a push for good long-term planning on DCPS' part. I don't follow city politics all that closely Maybe I'd get it if I did. If you do, care to explain why progress on neighborhood schools after elementary remains glacial EotP in a heavily gentrified area?

I think it is partly because there are too many choices in DC. It is hard for parents to act like one unified block.
If your kid lucks into a highly sought after charter, you will take it and then not have the energy to fight the system. Some folks have the money to go private. Some folks just move to MD or VA which is tempting as they have better college options as well.
And DC Govt doesn’t care as DC is ultra liberal and democrats never get voted out.

Right. If DC parents had *any* sway, TAG would close the gap between in state and out of state tuition. DC spends a tiny % of its revenue on higher ed compared to states. UDC is a joke so DC assumes kids will just go out of DC for college.

[Anonymous]

i have this observation re the newer brent/maury families: extremely risk adverse. people really just need to send their kids to the in-bound middle schools in large numbers and work for improvement from the inside. but thats a total non-starter for a lot of people on CH. who often dont even realize that the other feeder schools despite maybe being title 1 etc. are pretty good with smart kids.

[Anonymous]

DCPS is asking an awful lot for a bunch of Maury and Brent families to commit to IB middle schools without definite advanced in classes in any subject but math, and maybe English at SH.

If DCPS started offering advanced classes across the board, the place of change would accelerate. But the problem of HS would remain anyway, towering mountain to climb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i have this observation re the newer brent/maury families: extremely risk adverse. people really just need to send their kids to the in-bound middle schools in large numbers and work for improvement from the inside. but thats a total non-starter for a lot of people on CH. who often dont even realize that the other feeder schools despite maybe being title 1 etc. are pretty good with smart kids.

so your kid went to Eastern?

It’s not “risk averse” not to want to send your child to a failing school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is asking an awful lot for a bunch of Maury and Brent families to commit to IB middle schools without definite advanced in classes in any subject but math, and maybe English at SH.

If DCPS started offering advanced classes across the board, the place of change would accelerate. But the problem of HS would remain anyway, towering mountain to climb.

I don’t think it’s towering. Everyone just assumes the new Foxhall HS will offer an equivalent curriculum to Wilson/JR. Could do the same for Eastern. But no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is asking an awful lot for a bunch of Maury and Brent families to commit to IB middle schools without definite advanced in classes in any subject but math, and maybe English at SH.

If DCPS started offering advanced classes across the board, the place of change would accelerate. But the problem of HS would remain anyway, towering mountain to climb.

I don’t think it’s towering. Everyone just assumes the new Foxhall HS will offer an equivalent curriculum to Wilson/JR. Could do the same for Eastern. But no.

(to be clear I think it is asking too much without a similar cultural assumption of appropriate curriculum in W6.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i have this observation re the newer brent/maury families: extremely risk adverse. people really just need to send their kids to the in-bound middle schools in large numbers and work for improvement from the inside. but thats a total non-starter for a lot of people on CH. who often dont even realize that the other feeder schools despite maybe being title 1 etc. are pretty good with smart kids.

I don't this is quite right.

First, I don't think CH families are more risk averse, but I do think they are more susceptible to group think. The fear that people have about MS and HS has to do with a fear of their kids being left behind by peers. Academically, yes, but also literally. People start stressing out in 3rd grade or so as a few families from their own elementary school peel off for private, suburbs, a charter, or NW schools. Then in 5th people disappear for Latin and BASIS. There are families who stick around for SH, more every year -- they don't want to move, they didn't get into Latin or BASIS (or didn't want the commute), and they make a go of it. But then, even in MS, people leave. There is another group of families who leave after the first year of MS. And still others who move or head to private before HS. Plus you have the kids who get into application HSs.

The effect of this is this feeling of people constantly leaving. It's tough. This is why people wind up falling into three camps. People REALLY committed to sticking with SH/E-H/Jefferson and then Eastern (and incredibly small group), those who want nothing to do with any of those schools (a larger group, but not that much larger), and the vast middle -- the people who would absolutely commit to these schools... if they knew that most of the other people in this group would do the same.

It's a prisoners dilemma. All it takes is for 2-3 families you know to leave the triangle, and the incentive to stay lessens (if your kid's best friend is headed to the feeder middle, that's a strong incentive to stay, if they aren't, well...) and the pressure to bail for academic or social reasons increase. It's not surprising that so many of these families bail. You have to be a true believer not to, and very, very few people are true believers in any school pyramid.

[Anonymous]

Congrats to BASIS DC!!!


BASIS DC high school was just ranked #12 in the entire United States, and the top high school in DC by a huge margin!!!


https://jaymathewschallengeindex.com

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to BASIS DC!!!


BASIS DC high school was just ranked #12 in the entire United States, and the top high school in DC by a huge margin!!!


https://jaymathewschallengeindex.com

Wow. It wasn't even close....

In comparison, Walls was #102, Banneker was #226, and Wilson #280.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i have this observation re the newer brent/maury families: extremely risk adverse. people really just need to send their kids to the in-bound middle schools in large numbers and work for improvement from the inside. but thats a total non-starter for a lot of people on CH. who often dont even realize that the other feeder schools despite maybe being title 1 etc. are pretty good with smart kids.

I don't this is quite right.

First, I don't think CH families are more risk averse, but I do think they are more susceptible to group think. The fear that people have about MS and HS has to do with a fear of their kids being left behind by peers. Academically, yes, but also literally. People start stressing out in 3rd grade or so as a few families from their own elementary school peel off for private, suburbs, a charter, or NW schools. Then in 5th people disappear for Latin and BASIS. There are families who stick around for SH, more every year -- they don't want to move, they didn't get into Latin or BASIS (or didn't want the commute), and they make a go of it. But then, even in MS, people leave. There is another group of families who leave after the first year of MS. And still others who move or head to private before HS. Plus you have the kids who get into application HSs.

The effect of this is this feeling of people constantly leaving. It's tough. This is why people wind up falling into three camps. People REALLY committed to sticking with SH/E-H/Jefferson and then Eastern (and incredibly small group), those who want nothing to do with any of those schools (a larger group, but not that much larger), and the vast middle -- the people who would absolutely commit to these schools... if they knew that most of the other people in this group would do the same.

It's a prisoners dilemma. All it takes is for 2-3 families you know to leave the triangle, and the incentive to stay lessens (if your kid's best friend is headed to the feeder middle, that's a strong incentive to stay, if they aren't, well...) and the pressure to bail for academic or social reasons increase. It's not surprising that so many of these families bail. You have to be a true believer not to, and very, very few people are true believers in any school pyramid.

All of this. Look, the problem with the "if people would just enroll" theory is that some people *do* enroll, and they find it so unsatisfactory that they leave. It's not like they haven't given it a chance. If the MS were truly good, if the teaching were strong and the administration on point, then you'd have retention of 6th graders into 7th and a gradual increase in 6th grade high-SES entrants. But you don't. Because people give it a year's chance and then, knowing what it's like, they leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to BASIS DC!!!


BASIS DC high school was just ranked #12 in the entire United States, and the top high school in DC by a huge margin!!!


https://jaymathewschallengeindex.com

Oh FFS. Jay Mathews is practically on their payroll at this point. Why is BASIS burning through its waitlist so fast, if it's so great?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to BASIS DC!!!


BASIS DC high school was just ranked #12 in the entire United States, and the top high school in DC by a huge margin!!!


https://jaymathewschallengeindex.com

Oh FFS. Jay Mathews is practically on their payroll at this point. Why is BASIS burning through its waitlist so fast, if it's so great?

Self-selection. Not every kid can handle Basis.

Wait list is moving slower each year.

[Anonymous]

This. It’s not so great for everyone. Lots of people rank BASIS in the lottery given the few great middle school options in DC, but when it comes time to decide whether to send their kid there, they aren’t sure it’s actually a good fit. It’s fascinating how so many folks still rank BASIS for high school given that BASIS never accepts new students at that point. Perfect example of how lots of people rank schools they don’t know much about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats to BASIS DC!!!


BASIS DC high school was just ranked #12 in the entire United States, and the top high school in DC by a huge margin!!!


https://jaymathewschallengeindex.com

Oh FFS. Jay Mathews is practically on their payroll at this point. Why is BASIS burning through its waitlist so fast, if it's so great?

There are a TON of legitimate issues one could take with the ranking's methodology. And you decided the best response was to ignore the academic rigor and instead argue that how quickly they go through the WL is an indication of...what exactly? I just bet you are one of those people who religiously follow IG influencers.