Powell or Bridges?

[Anonymous]

Which would you choose for your K child and why?

[Anonymous]

Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

[Anonymous]

Is Powell K dual language? If so I would do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" [/b]Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. [b][By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

This is what we fear. If we are left behind, no biggie we will just go private for middle as planned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Powell K dual language? If so I would do that.

Yes, it's 50/50.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is Powell K dual language? If so I would do that.

Beware of "Bilingual by default, not by design." It's the reason Powell, Bruce Monroe, Marie Reed, etc. have such poor academic scores. You're taking the bait to bring up the stats for schools with high FARMS, high ESL, low scores.

Schools with legitimately high performance for Spanish Immersion: LAMB, Oyster, Cleveland, Stokes, and probably Mundo Verde.

Be very, very, very cautious about the rest. Just designating a Spanish Immersion program doesn't make it a worthwhile learning experience. Visit Bruce Monroe if you don't believe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" [/b]Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. [b][By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

This is what we fear. If we are left behind, no biggie we will just go private for middle as planned.

Just be advised that your child's peers may come from households that could be illiterate in both English and Spanish. It will improve your child's Spanish, certainly; but at what cost?

[Anonymous]

Bridges it will be for us, if we get off the waiting list. Both schools are within walking distance so our commute is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" [/b]Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. [b][By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

This is what we fear. If we are left behind, no biggie we will just go private for middle as planned.

Just be advised that your child's peers may come from households that could be illiterate in both English and Spanish. It will improve your child's Spanish, certainly; but at what cost?

No snark here, but do you have firsthand experience?

[Anonymous]

Is Cleveland really on the high-achieving list?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Powell K dual language? If so I would do that.

Beware of "Bilingual by default, not by design." It's the reason Powell, Bruce Monroe, Marie Reed, etc. have such poor academic scores. You're taking the bait to bring up the stats for schools with high FARMS, high ESL, low scores.

Schools with legitimately high performance for Spanish Immersion: LAMB, Oyster, Cleveland, Stokes, and probably Mundo Verde.

Be very, very, very cautious about the rest. Just designating a Spanish Immersion program doesn't make it a worthwhile learning experience. Visit Bruce Monroe if you don't believe.

Have you visited Bruce Monroe? I actually felt like it was a school moving in the right direction although I did sense some behavior issues.

Also DC Bilingual serves those children of the illiterate of which you speak and it reached Tier 1 this year. I'm just saying both Bridges and Powell are Title 1 schools in the same neighborhood so in not sure the populations are all that different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is Powell K dual language? If so I would do that.

Beware of "Bilingual by default, not by design." It's the reason Powell, Bruce Monroe, Marie Reed, etc. have such poor academic scores. You're taking the bait to bring up the stats for schools with high FARMS, high ESL, low scores.

Schools with legitimately high performance for Spanish Immersion: LAMB, Oyster, Cleveland, Stokes, and probably Mundo Verde.

Be very, very, very cautious about the rest. Just designating a Spanish Immersion program doesn't make it a worthwhile learning experience. Visit Bruce Monroe if you don't believe.

Have you visited Bruce Monroe? I actually felt like it was a school moving in the right direction although I did sense some behavior issues.

Also DC Bilingual serves those children of the illiterate of which you speak and it reached Tier 1 this year. I'm just saying both Bridges and Powell are Title 1 schools in the same neighborhood so in not sure the populations are all that different.

The IB/neighborhood populations are probably quite similar. The academic results seem to be very different. Bridges seems to know what they're doing in ways that other Title I schools don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" [/b]Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. [b][By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

This is what we fear. If we are left behind, no biggie we will just go private for middle as planned.

Do you have $45,000 a year x 3 (middle) or x 7 (ms+HS) ready to "go private" ?


Because that's what it will cost you in 5 years, based on urgent private school tuition and the certain. 4% increase every single year.

I'm always amazed on these dcps threads how cavalier posters are about just "going private" if things aren't going swimmingly. Especially considering that the posters almost always live in lower cost, emerging neighborhoods to begin with (hence the inquiries about "eh" local schools). If you have so much money that $140,000 - $280,000 cash after taxes is really truly no biggie ... why the curious housing choice in the first place? Why not spend a little more for the house in the better neighborhood in the first place?

[Anonymous]

Current tuition, not urgent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell gets neighborhood "buy in" kind of love. "We're all in this together!" [/b]Like a few dozen other DCPSs in neighborhoods which are considerably more gentrified, you'll find this starts to peter out very, very fast starting at Kindergarten. [b][By winter break in 1st grade you are going to be very stressed because you've been left behind by your more aspirational or upwardly mobile neighbors.

Bridges seems to get endless streams of love here, which is interesting for a school which doesn't seem to have a permanent home. The school must be wonderful considering how shaky the facilities are. Probably go visit each, and do so with a jaundiced eye.

This is what we fear. If we are left behind, no biggie we will just go private for middle as planned.

Do you have $45,000 a year x 3 (middle) or x 7 (ms+HS) ready to "go private" ?


Because that's what it will cost you in 5 years, based on urgent private school tuition and the certain. 4% increase every single year.


I'm always amazed on these dcps threads how cavalier posters are about just "going private" if things aren't going swimmingly. Especially considering that the posters almost always live in lower cost, emerging neighborhoods to begin with (hence the inquiries about "eh" local schools). If you have so much money that $140,000 - $280,000 cash after taxes is really truly no biggie ... why the curious housing choice in the first place? Why not spend a little more for the house in the better neighborhood in the first place?

For us we love the diversity of our neighborhood and prefer it over WOTP. However, maybe we will opt to move there for middle and not go private.