| ^1 year old |
I agree, this is a fantastic post and does a beautiful job capturing how our family feels. We live up in Petworth and our oldest is at DCI and our younger kids are at a DCI feeder. We always thought we would move to the suburbs once we hit middle school and in fact took a long, careful look at the suburbs a few years ago. For us, the trade-offs just didn't make sense to our family. Yes, the academics and extracurricular offerings were better, for sure. But there were so many things that living in DC offered my kids that the suburbs couldn't offer. For us, the thing that stood out most prominently was the number of mental health concerns that we heard in talking to parents of teenage girls (in particular) in the suburbs. Not that mental health concerns don't exist for teenage girls in DC and not that every teenage girl in the suburb faces mental health challenges. But it is top of mind for our family and our three daughters. For our family, minimizing the pressure cooker environment (while also making sure our girls are appropriately challenged) is worth the trade-off......But I totally recognize that is not the trade-off every family makes, and that's totally fine. It is all about what it right for your family and your kids. You will make it work. |
You made it work because you literally won a lottery. Those who don’t face different choices. I am making it work but absolutely wish we had thought harder about chosing a neighborhood with established IB schools through HS. |
I literally said that my kids have many peers **at the school**, so I expect them to have peers in the magical land known as Suburbia. They are bright and they are just fine where they are. |
WTF. She literally said her kids weren’t outliers at the school. Also, they absolutely would not be middle of the pack at a suburban school; that’s absurd. In an AAP program? Perhaps. But OP has a 15 month old who has absolutely no idea whether her kids will be AAP types or not. |
This is a TOTALLY fair! Not every DC situation is created equal. I might feel different about our current situation if we only had our inbound high school as an option. Still, our DCI feeder (and DCI itself) is very different than most of the suburb offerings. At any rate, I’m not pretending to have all the answers here for every family or situation. Just sharing how we thought about it, and why. I don’t think that what we’ve done is right for every family. |
DP. PP above has a valid point. It’s all relative isn’t it? Her kids would probably be more middle to higher middle of the pack in AAP and the top public schools in the area such as Langley, W schools etc…. They would not be top of the class. They for sure, if at these schools would be more challenged with more rigorous classes and much higher performing peer group. We are in DC and plan to stay in DC with a higher performing kid like PP above. But we also acknowledge the reality that academically, our kid would be more challenged and more likely to reach his highest potential at a much better performing school with a higher performing peer group. So we do what most families with high performing kids do and that is to supplement and fill in the gaps that we can. Above is the reality of choosing to stay in DC and PP above is correct in what she stated. |
This can’t be true though. You can have kids that are “well above grade level” at a school like L-T and then say that they don’t stand out at all and that they have many peers doing as well. Statistically, this doesn’t work. About half of L-T students test below grade level. About half are at or above grade level. If the PP’s kids are WELL above grade level, they are doing better than the vast majority of their classmates. Based on PARCC scores. So either the PP is overestimating her kid’s abilities (which is ok, lots of people view their children through rose-colored glasses) or she is overestimating the percentage of the rest of the class who is at the same level. Either way, it’s not that useful if a data point. |
Let's see through your "statistics". I claimed that my kids test about in the top 5-10% in tests in which nation-wide data are indicated. There are about 60 kids per grade. I am claiming that about 10% of them (6) test about in the top 10% nation-wide. (I'm also happy to include among their peers students who test in the top 20%.) I'll leave it as an exercise to you to figure out how this is compatible with a majority of students testing below grade level. Second exercise, look at the PARCC scores for L-T and acknowledge how this actually fits the school's data.
So having refuted your first claim, let's talk about the idea that I would come here on an anonymous forum boasting about my kids performance. What's not useful is your pathetic contributions. |
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OP, this board will be overwhelmingly skewed toward people who have made the decision to stay in a school with a majority of below grade level peers and now want to convince themselves and others it was the right call. Perhaps it was, at least in some cases.
But you’ll also want to consult with people who moved on and found the grass really is greener. |
| In this area many more than 10% of a class will test above 90% on national testing, that was the PP point. |
Wow people in the other thread talking about the vibe at L-T should come check out this condescending and weirdly angry poster (whose kids are both top 10% in the nation, obviously, despite only one of them having taken the PARCC). This might be the reason some people find the parent community clique-y and not very welcoming. Apparently if your kid is not also top 10% (again, based on nothing for the younger child except the PP’s assertions) you can’t be part of their kids friend group. |
^ oh sorry, I see she will also include kids in the top 20%. Phew. Again, what this is based on for her kid below 3rd, unclear. The tests at Mathnasium and Kumon? Anyway you seem like a delight, no doubt anyone would enjoy going to school with your children where I’m sure you are definitely not weirdly intense and competitive! |
Probably MAP or iReady testing administered by the school. |
But... you ARE boasting about your kids performance, as well as boasting about your school. I mean, I'm not saying you don't have reason to be proud or that L-T isn't a good school. But your tone absolutely is boastful/bragging. If you aren't aware of that, maybe take this as a lesson and consider how you talk about academic performance generally, because your posts are very off-putting. |