Is DCI a good school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DCI were a great school dingbat parents wouldn’t come here to boast about how they don’t supplement on language!

Oh look! it's another dingbat parent who didn't send their kid to DCI!!

Hilarious, only the joke is on those who send their kids DCI and don't supplement (unless all family members are bilingual/biliterate and native speakers).

-Signed,
DCI parent who supplements like crazy but it never seems to be enough to meet IBD HL standards

Here is the thing. You don’t need to score 6 or 7 on languages to get a good IB score overall because it is just 1 test out of many.

Some families may have kids proficient in the language and are happy with that. Their kid can still score high on other subjects and maybe 4 on language

It’s not an either/or argument. Do what your kid wants or is best for your kid. Each families goal maybe different and that’s OK.

Right, it's just that IBD language exams don't resemble AP. Diploma assessments emphasize speaking and listening over reading and writing. We're pals with Stokes and YY grad DCI families who thought the kids' language skills rocked. These teens scored 3s on Standard Level IB languages. Shock. Buyer beware.

3 and 4 are like a 5 on AP. So what if they did not score a 6 or 7 which BTW is a very, very small percentage of kids. I mean lots of 1st generation native speaking kids don’t score 6 or 7.

These kids are proficient and their language skills are good. Get back to us when your kid scores a 6 or 7.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The average worldwide IB score is around 30-33.

The average DCI score is below the worldwide average but some DCI students do beat the average.

This. Ignore the people who want DCI to have averages of high 30’s to 40’s.

I would also add that worldwide, the majority of IB schools are private or accessed by select group.

Source? Fact is, the majority of IB schools are public schools here in the US, not abroad, not private, not exactly accessed by "select group." What happens is that public IBD programs in this country are generally school-within-a-school programs catering to self-selecting advanced students, vs. to average students like at DCI. If you doubt this, look around in the DC burbs. IBD programs in this Metro area, like the nearest one in, at Washington-Liberty in Arlington, require pre-IBD students to have earned high grades to qualify to take Diploma classes in 11th and 12th grades. DCI's seems to have no standards for entry to IBD classes. It's IB for All. That's the problem, not DCI is a public school, or a DC school, or fairly new.

You must have a reading comprehension issue. Worldwide, the majority of IBD schools are private as can be seen by the link below. I also said that it can only be assessed by a select few which means few who can afford it with private or few because it is test in. What don’t you understand by select few here??

Sure DCI can easily have higher averages if it was a test in. My point is that it is not. Yet you want to talk about how DCI’s averages are not in the the high 30’s and low 40’s when even most private schools don’t have that and no IB school in the DMV either. You clearly don’t have perspective with your argument and comparison.

The IB average is 32. DCI is close to that and for a school that takes all, is doing a really good job. That is why the kids are being noticed and getting into some top schools. They stand out with IB diploma, language, and going to a diverse school that takes all.

Getting into a top school now is a crapshot and luck. Too many overqualified kids. As someone pointed out earlier, you have a much better shot of standing out at DCI with IB because most kids do AP. You also stand out for going to a diverse public charter school and not some homogenous private or test in school.




https://ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/about-the-ib/pdfs/final-statistical-bulletin-dp-cp-may-2022.pdf

[Anonymous]

Not buying it, not for DCI's growing UMC student cohort. Most IBD students attend US public schools, vs. small private schools in this country or abroad.

I used to work as an administrator at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville. Most of RM's IBD students come in from MoCo's dual-immersion language programs. MoCo's immersion programs maintain lotteries for native speakers, like Oyster-Adams does, and high standards for speaking. RM maintains these standards partly by pushing families to enroll in summer immersion language programs, with generous subsidies for low SES families. RM's IBD points total has long been in the high 30s, the highest not only in this Metro area but the country. At RM, admins and counselors encourage IBD students to double up on AP and IB subject exams with significant content overlap, particularly language exams. They do this so that kids can apply to college senior year equipped with a number of standardized test subject scores, given that 4-6 IBD exams are taken at the end of senior year.

By contrast, DCI doesn't encourage HS students to take AP exams, or even to have kids take 1-2 IBD exams junior year (permitted by Geneva IBD HQ for more than a decade). These practices hurt UMC applicants aiming high in college admissions. DCI also doesn't bother to support summer immersion and won't permit the most advanced STEM students to study math more than one year ahead of grade level. I learned all this when considering taking a spot at DCI for my 6th grader.

DCI could still "take all" while providing far more challenge and support for top performers. Fact is, they've already got the cohort of high-performing students to see IBD points totals in the high 30s and 40s. RM HS also takes all, but doesn't run its IBD program as IB for all. You can stay mired in relativism in your thinking about how DCI operates, or you can see the potential for far more ambition on the part of the DC ed powers backing the program, DCI admins and, indeed, families of UMC high performers.

[Anonymous]

DCI's leadership is content with the status quo and their college counselors don't seem to be IBD experts.

Some of the umc families hire the help they need to ensure rigor and bilingualism.

It's frustrating when good teachers leave, sometimes during the school year. We miss the great 7th grade English teacher for our younger kid, who ran off in March.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCI's leadership is content with the status quo and their college counselors don't seem to be IBD experts.

Some of the umc families hire the help they need to ensure rigor and bilingualism.

It's frustrating when good teachers leave, sometimes during the school year. We miss the great 7th grade English teacher for our younger kid, who ran off in March.

The issue of staff retention is the biggest indicator of the overall issues at DCI that so many people tend to gloss over. And no, this is not just like every other school now post-COVID because this problem existed at DCI before the pandemic.

Leadership has always said that exposure to IB curriculum is the goal, not actual IB diplomas. I’m also not sure if this ended up being the case or not, but they at one point said they wouldn’t pay for IB exams for students - is this the case right now? If so, that can really skew the numbers since the exams are very expensive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it, not for DCI's growing UMC student cohort. Most IBD students attend US public schools, vs. small private schools in this country or abroad.

I used to work as an administrator at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville. Most of RM's IBD students come in from MoCo's dual-immersion language programs. MoCo's immersion programs maintain lotteries for native speakers, like Oyster-Adams does, and high standards for speaking. RM maintains these standards partly by pushing families to enroll in summer immersion language programs, with generous subsidies for low SES families. RM's IBD points total has long been in the high 30s, the highest not only in this Metro area but the country. At RM, admins and counselors encourage IBD students to double up on AP and IB subject exams with significant content overlap, particularly language exams. They do this so that kids can apply to college senior year equipped with a number of standardized test subject scores, given that 4-6 IBD exams are taken at the end of senior year.

By contrast, DCI doesn't encourage HS students to take AP exams, or even to have kids take 1-2 IBD exams junior year (permitted by Geneva IBD HQ for more than a decade). These practices hurt UMC applicants aiming high in college admissions. DCI also doesn't bother to support summer immersion and won't permit the most advanced STEM students to study math more than one year ahead of grade level. I learned all this when considering taking a spot at DCI for my 6th grader.

DCI could still "take all" while providing far more challenge and support for top performers. Fact is, they've already got the cohort of high-performing students to see IBD points totals in the high 30s and 40s. RM HS also takes all, but doesn't run its IBD program as IB for all. You can stay mired in relativism in your thinking about how DCI operates, or you can see the potential for far more ambition on the part of the DC ed powers backing the program, DCI admins and, indeed, families of UMC high performers.

My children attend DCI and I know for a fact that this is not true. There aren't many students that are studying math more than one year above grade level, but it is allowed and does happen. Perhaps it has been a number of years that you considered applying and the school continues to evolve as it matures.

[Anonymous]

Not our experience. Middle school students who can handle high school math aren't always allowed to take it. Parents are often told that scheduling problems are the issue. We fought for our 7th grader to take 9th grade math (not remotely challenged in 8th grade math). Denied. We're unusual but not alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI's leadership is content with the status quo and their college counselors don't seem to be IBD experts.

Some of the umc families hire the help they need to ensure rigor and bilingualism.

It's frustrating when good teachers leave, sometimes during the school year. We miss the great 7th grade English teacher for our younger kid, who ran off in March.

The issue of staff retention is the biggest indicator of the overall issues at DCI that so many people tend to gloss over. And no, this is not just like every other school now post-COVID because this problem existed at DCI before the pandemic.

Leadership has always said that exposure to IB curriculum is the goal, not actual IB diplomas. I’m also not sure if this ended up being the case or not, but they at one point said they wouldn’t pay for IB exams for students - is this the case right now? If so, that can really skew the numbers since the exams are very expensive.

They pay for exams now, but only for students with certain grades in certain classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it, not for DCI's growing UMC student cohort. Most IBD students attend US public schools, vs. small private schools in this country or abroad.

I used to work as an administrator at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville. Most of RM's IBD students come in from MoCo's dual-immersion language programs. MoCo's immersion programs maintain lotteries for native speakers, like Oyster-Adams does, and high standards for speaking. RM maintains these standards partly by pushing families to enroll in summer immersion language programs, with generous subsidies for low SES families. RM's IBD points total has long been in the high 30s, the highest not only in this Metro area but the country. At RM, admins and counselors encourage IBD students to double up on AP and IB subject exams with significant content overlap, particularly language exams. They do this so that kids can apply to college senior year equipped with a number of standardized test subject scores, given that 4-6 IBD exams are taken at the end of senior year.

By contrast, DCI doesn't encourage HS students to take AP exams, or even to have kids take 1-2 IBD exams junior year (permitted by Geneva IBD HQ for more than a decade). These practices hurt UMC applicants aiming high in college admissions. DCI also doesn't bother to support summer immersion and won't permit the most advanced STEM students to study math more than one year ahead of grade level. I learned all this when considering taking a spot at DCI for my 6th grader.

DCI could still "take all" while providing far more challenge and support for top performers. Fact is, they've already got the cohort of high-performing students to see IBD points totals in the high 30s and 40s. RM HS also takes all, but doesn't run its IBD program as IB for all. You can stay mired in relativism in your thinking about how DCI operates, or you can see the potential for far more ambition on the part of the DC ed powers backing the program, DCI admins and, indeed, families of UMC high performers.

Yes, no real ambition for the best and brightest, at least if they're high SES students. This explains why top 8th graders often don't return for 9th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not buying it, not for DCI's growing UMC student cohort. Most IBD students attend US public schools, vs. small private schools in this country or abroad.

I used to work as an administrator at Richard Montgomery HS in Rockville. Most of RM's IBD students come in from MoCo's dual-immersion language programs. MoCo's immersion programs maintain lotteries for native speakers, like Oyster-Adams does, and high standards for speaking. RM maintains these standards partly by pushing families to enroll in summer immersion language programs, with generous subsidies for low SES families. RM's IBD points total has long been in the high 30s, the highest not only in this Metro area but the country. At RM, admins and counselors encourage IBD students to double up on AP and IB subject exams with significant content overlap, particularly language exams. They do this so that kids can apply to college senior year equipped with a number of standardized test subject scores, given that 4-6 IBD exams are taken at the end of senior year.

By contrast, DCI doesn't encourage HS students to take AP exams, or even to have kids take 1-2 IBD exams junior year (permitted by Geneva IBD HQ for more than a decade). These practices hurt UMC applicants aiming high in college admissions. DCI also doesn't bother to support summer immersion and won't permit the most advanced STEM students to study math more than one year ahead of grade level. I learned all this when considering taking a spot at DCI for my 6th grader.

DCI could still "take all" while providing far more challenge and support for top performers. Fact is, they've already got the cohort of high-performing students to see IBD points totals in the high 30s and 40s. RM HS also takes all, but doesn't run its IBD program as IB for all. You can stay mired in relativism in your thinking about how DCI operates, or you can see the potential for far more ambition on the part of the DC ed powers backing the program, DCI admins and, indeed, families of UMC high performers.

Good luck getting your kid into RM. If you used to work at RM, then you know it’s a self select program that top 1-2% kids in all of MCPS apply. Even top 1-2%, only about 100 kids out of a pool of 8000 get in.

Even with above, RM’s IBD averages are currently not anywhere near the high 30’s. Latest from 2022 from RMIB parent, it was low 30’s.

[Anonymous]

Different person posting. Apparently, untrue that RM takes 1-2% for IB, or that their annual average points total is in the low 30s like at DCI. I have a sister who's sent two of her kids to RM IBD - one's a graduating senior, the other graduated a couple years ago.

IB Geneva doesn't make admissions info or average IB points totals public, but she says more like 10% of applicants are admitted and average IB points totals hover around 36-37 points, with more than a dozen students scoring 40+ annually. I'm told that my older nephew scored 41 on IBD. He attends an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Back to OP's question. In a nutshell, DC is a pretty good school, better in the HS than MS. It's just not a great school.

But if you're looking for serious STEM challenge, a strong music, sports or performing arts program, or great humanities rigor, I'd look elsewhere. I'd even move.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to OP's question. In a nutshell, DC is a pretty good school, better in the HS than MS. It's just not a great school.

But if you're looking for serious STEM challenge, a strong music, sports or performing arts program, or great humanities rigor, I'd look elsewhere. I'd even move.

This. If you live outside of the JR boundary in DC, it is one of the best choices. That does not mean it is a great school or equal to JR or suburban options. If you want to stay in the city and don't get into Latin/Basis, value immersion, or otherwise prefer DCI, then it's the best option available. With all of these options, whether it's good, great, or insufficient for your particular child is a personal decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI's leadership is content with the status quo and their college counselors don't seem to be IBD experts.

Some of the umc families hire the help they need to ensure rigor and bilingualism.

It's frustrating when good teachers leave, sometimes during the school year. We miss the great 7th grade English teacher for our younger kid, who ran off in March.

The issue of staff retention is the biggest indicator of the overall issues at DCI that so many people tend to gloss over. And no, this is not just like every other school now post-COVID because this problem existed at DCI before the pandemic.

Leadership has always said that exposure to IB curriculum is the goal, not actual IB diplomas. I’m also not sure if this ended up being the case or not, but they at one point said they wouldn’t pay for IB exams for students - is this the case right now? If so, that can really skew the numbers since the exams are very expensive.

As a former employee you are entitled to your opinion of the school based on your limited personal experience and perspective, but you obviously are not familiar with the actual data (check PCSB and OSSE report cards) because DCI staff retention rates are better than most. And DCI does pay for IB exams for all, and encourage everyone to take them, That has always been the case so far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI's leadership is content with the status quo and their college counselors don't seem to be IBD experts.

Some of the umc families hire the help they need to ensure rigor and bilingualism.

It's frustrating when good teachers leave, sometimes during the school year. We miss the great 7th grade English teacher for our younger kid, who ran off in March.

The issue of staff retention is the biggest indicator of the overall issues at DCI that so many people tend to gloss over. And no, this is not just like every other school now post-COVID because this problem existed at DCI before the pandemic.

Leadership has always said that exposure to IB curriculum is the goal, not actual IB diplomas. I’m also not sure if this ended up being the case or not, but they at one point said they wouldn’t pay for IB exams for students - is this the case right now? If so, that can really skew the numbers since the exams are very expensive.

They pay for exams now, but only for students with certain grades in certain classes.

Untrue, they pay for EVERYONE.