moving to DC: Kalorama public schools?

[Anonymous]

we are moving to DC this summer and would like our first grader to attend DCPS. We are looking at Georgetown, which seems to have a fine school in Hyde. We were also thinking about "lower" Kalorama, on or near Mass, close to Dupont Metro. The DCPS site says that the schools for that area are Francis-Stevens and Reed. These schools don't have web sites. Does anybody have any opinions or recommendations for either school?
My other question: it looks like Oyster, which this forum talks about A LOT, is actually closer than Reed. It doesn't seem to make sense. Is Oyster a magnet school or something?
Many thanks.

[Anonymous]

Oyster is not a magnet school, but boundaries are drawn for all kinds of reasons, of course. If you refocus your search closer to Woodley Park Metro, on either side of the Ellington Bridge, Oyster will be an option. I have noticed a few large row houses for sale w/in Oyster's boundary in Kalorama Triangle/ Adams Morgan, if that helps. Those would be 10- 15 min. walk from Woodley Park station and 15-20 min. from Dupont Circle station.

Marie Reed has a poor reputation.

[Anonymous]

Oyster is a good school-- we bought our Woodley Park house because of the school. The boundary for Oyster is on its website (google Oyster Bilingual). It includes parts of the Kalorama neighborhoods and a smidge up Mass Ave.

Reed has a bad reputation including violent incidents.

I don't know about Francis-Stevens.

[Anonymous]

Francis is NOT a good school.

Most of Kalorama is in Oyster.
Look closer to Connecticut - it seems you would have the budget if you're looking over near mass

[Anonymous]

Glad to welcome new families to DC! At the risk of over-posting this, check out the school chooser document. http://fightforchildren.org/pdf/SchoolChooser.pdf It has data like scores, student-teacher ratios, etc. I don't work for this non-profit or endorse it as 100% accurate, but it seems to have one of the few comprehensive school references out there at the moment.

FWIW, I love living in Kalorama, but it is a very, very small geographic area with sometimes fluid boundaries. So beware real estate agents who vaunt it as the be-all-end-all, you must pay a premium, etc. etc. (After 20+ years in DC including G'town and Dupont, I've never heard reference to a "lower" Kalorama. Interesting.)

Close to Dupont Metro is Ross elementary as well. Like Francis, there have been lots of changes recently that seem positive, but you'll have to judge for yourself.

Oyster gets play since the head of DC schools now sends her kids there. But that aside, seriously evaluate if a 50/50 bilingual immersion program is right for your family before finding a place within the boundary.

As you probably saw on DCPS site, you can enter an exact address to see what schools are assigned. Not all of Kalorama is Oyster.

HTH!

And again, welcome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad to welcome new families to DC! At the risk of over-posting this, check out the school chooser document. http://fightforchildren.org/pdf/SchoolChooser.pdf It has data like scores, student-teacher ratios, etc. I don't work for this non-profit or endorse it as 100% accurate, but it seems to have one of the few comprehensive school references out there at the moment.

FWIW, I love living in Kalorama, but it is a very, very small geographic area with sometimes fluid boundaries. So beware real estate agents who vaunt it as the be-all-end-all, you must pay a premium, etc. etc. (After 20+ years in DC including G'town and Dupont, I've never heard reference to a "lower" Kalorama. Interesting.)

Close to Dupont Metro is Ross elementary as well. Like Francis, there have been lots of changes recently that seem positive, but you'll have to judge for yourself.

Oyster gets play since the head of DC schools now sends her kids there. But that aside, seriously evaluate if a 50/50 bilingual immersion program is right for your family before finding a place within the boundary.

As you probably saw on DCPS site, you can enter an exact address to see what schools are assigned. Not all of Kalorama is Oyster.

HTH!

Please tell me: What are the downsides of a 50/50 bilingual school for our family?? We are not bilingual, but it seems like a great opportunity for our kids. Hmmmm.

And again, welcome!

[Anonymous]

Oops, really screwed that last post up. Just want to know what are the drawbacks for a family putting kids into a bilingual immersion program. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oops, really screwed that last post up. Just want to know what are the drawbacks for a family putting kids into a bilingual immersion program. Thanks.

Well, let's say your child would be entering 2nd grade from an English-primary household. Then you would need to be aware that all of the other children in the class either A) come from Spanish-primary households or B) have at least been speaking Spanish in the school since Pre-K/K. So your child would be at an academic disadvantage and have a lot of catching up to do - some of which you may not be able to help with. Spanish isn't the toughest language for an English-speaker to learn and young brains are designed to learn languages, so these are points in your child's favor. You know your child best. Is he academically inclined? Some children would find it a challenge and become engaged. Others would find it frustrating and it might turn them off of school completely. That would be really unfortunate for someone so young. That's an example of a potential drawback. Again, you know your child best. Do you think he(she) would be challenged and engaged by the additional complexity of a bilingual education? Are you prepared to support it? Or will he(she) be frustrated in way that leads to depression and acting out and disliking school. Think about it carefully. That's all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oops, really screwed that last post up. Just want to know what are the drawbacks for a family putting kids into a bilingual immersion program. Thanks.

Well, let's say your child would be entering 2nd grade from an English-primary household. Then you would need to be aware that all of the other children in the class either A) come from Spanish-primary households or B) have at least been speaking Spanish in the school since Pre-K/K. So your child would be at an academic disadvantage and have a lot of catching up to do - some of which you may not be able to help with. Spanish isn't the toughest language for an English-speaker to learn and young brains are designed to learn languages, so these are points in your child's favor. You know your child best. Is he academically inclined? Some children would find it a challenge and become engaged. Others would find it frustrating and it might turn them off of school completely. That would be really unfortunate for someone so young. That's an example of a potential drawback. Again, you know your child best. Do you think he(she) would be challenged and engaged by the additional complexity of a bilingual education? Are you prepared to support it? Or will he(she) be frustrated in way that leads to depression and acting out and disliking school. Think about it carefully. That's all.

This is probably sound advice, but I'll point out that at least half of the instruction is in English. They also switch languages for each subject every day or so, so no one gets lost if one lang. is weaker than the other. I predict that any generally sharp kid will have an adjustment period, but come out fine in the end.

[Anonymous]

How difficult is it to get into Ross and what is the school's reputation?

[Anonymous]

Ross is just OK, though up and coming. Oyster is more established, and it now goes through middle school (at two campuses). Stevens is terrible, and they have the very little kids in with middle schoolers. I live in the neighborhood and cringe when packs of these foul mouthed kids walk by. That said, moving from Stevens district to Oyster this summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oops, really screwed that last post up. Just want to know what are the drawbacks for a family putting kids into a bilingual immersion program. Thanks.

Well, let's say your child would be entering 2nd grade from an English-primary household. Then you would need to be aware that all of the other children in the class either A) come from Spanish-primary households or B) have at least been speaking Spanish in the school since Pre-K/K. So your child would be at an academic disadvantage and have a lot of catching up to do - some of which you may not be able to help with. Spanish isn't the toughest language for an English-speaker to learn and young brains are designed to learn languages, so these are points in your child's favor. You know your child best. Is he academically inclined? Some children would find it a challenge and become engaged. Others would find it frustrating and it might turn them off of school completely. That would be really unfortunate for someone so young. That's an example of a potential drawback. Again, you know your child best. Do you think he(she) would be challenged and engaged by the additional complexity of a bilingual education? Are you prepared to support it? Or will he(she) be frustrated in way that leads to depression and acting out and disliking school. Think about it carefully. That's all.

This is probably sound advice, but I'll point out that at least half of the instruction is in English. They also switch languages for each subject every day or so, so no one gets lost if one lang. is weaker than the other. I predict that any generally sharp kid will have an adjustment period, but come out fine in the end.

Right, absolutely! I'm the PP and by no means do I wish to discourage bilingual education. My own DC is at Washington Yu Ying doing Chinese Immersion so I'm really putting my money where my mouth is here. Oyster is a great school with a solid reputation and I'm sure they've got the resources in place to support catching up in the language. I'm just suggesting that as the parent you know your child best so you'll want to consider the challenges and drawbacks in advance, and assess those against your child's personality and strengths as well as your own commitment to supporting the language acquisition. If you've got a bright and engaged child then I think there's a great upside.

[Anonymous]

A) come from Spanish-primary households or B) have at least been speaking Spanish in the school since Pre-K/K.

OR C.) come from bilingual households, either one parent or a babysitter or nanny who speaks native Spanish.

My DC attended for years without benefit of having a native Spanish speaker at home and the immersion experience was rather stressful for DC in that DC knew h/she would never be able to speak like classmates who spoke Spanish w/adults at home.

That said, I hear they're moving to a more SSL approach for students like my DC. In general there is much ignorance about second-language acquisition and Oyster-Adams, while strong, does not produce genuinely bilingual students. Students may be conversant in Spanish or fluent in Spanish. But bilingual? That's a term that exceeds both those categories. And some students resent the Spanish in the upper grades and want to go to other schools by Sixth Grade.

That said, I'm really, really glad we did it. So is DC.

Every child is different. You child might take to Spanish. Parents of two or more students in the program often remarked on the differences between their children's affinity for Spanish.

Finally, I hear the boundaries might change or the school might go charter (though the charter chatter's been going on for years). I'd call the school and get a commitment in writing for the 2009-2010 school year. Even if it's an email.

[Anonymous]

I'm an Oyster parent and have heard of no plans to make the school a charter. The proposal to make it a magnet school used to come up in parent meetings occasionally as a way of maintaining the 50/50 language split. I think the old principal was more sympathetic to that argument than the new one is.

My child is also surrounded by English speakers, is in her 3rd year at Oyster, and has made excellent progress in Spanish. She's more fluent than bilingual, as a PP suggested. This hasn't troubled her or us.

[Anonymous]

I heard directly from a current (and long-time) Oyster parent with several children at the school that the charter talk at Oyster continues. The principal before Marta (Arturo) was actively trying to make it charter. It seems to be an issue that never gets enough traction to go anywhere but it never entirely goes away. I think it's something prospective families should know about (the fact that it arises as an issue, as a possibility, even a remote one).