It was roughly 50/50 in terms of UMC v not when my child attended a few years ago. |
At the Miner ECE open house last week I only saw families that looked white (obviously don't know they were all white definitively). |
Thank you. I am zoned for Miner and find a lot to like about the ECE there, as far as being able to walk to school and send my kid to a brand new building, but I have been worried about how the ECE looks compared to the 64% at-risk total (understanding the dynamics that make the upper grades different). |
I was at the open house before that and, yeah…100% white parents. I didn’t want to read into that much by itself since I know parents at Azeeze-Bates and Pentacle and so on may not go to open houses but they will surely send their kids there in the fall. I’ve been trying to decide whether to list TRY over Miner for the lottery, which I why I asked. Starting to think it makes more sense to stay close to home rather than potentially make the trek to Carver-Langston for a minimal upgrade at the ECE level (if that). |
For reasons I don’t totally understand, ECE seems to be underutilized by black families. Possibly because it’s not actually FT childcare. |
How is it not FT childcare? Miner is title 1 and I believe their aftercare is free, or was a few years ago when friends had a kid there. |
| Years and years ago, due to poor lottery luck, my kids ended up at different schools that were roughly .75 of a mile apart. Pick up was a challenge (they had short legs) but it was possible. The other thing that was helpful is that the schools understood the challenge and we kind and helpful in making pick ups possible. |
50/50 UMC vs. not (MC and at-risk)? I sort of wonder how one would know that. I raise this only because I feel like a lot of the discussion about this proposal has made it sound like there are only two types of people at schools: the very rich and the very poor. Which is obviously not the case. |
Of course it's possible. Anything is possible. What I have heard people saying is that it will meaningfully cut into (a) work time or (b) family time, and potentially (c) classroom/school events time, which will be a significant burden, and in exchange does not seem likely to have any discernible positive impact on academic outcomes. The juice isn't worth the squeeze. |
FT meaning breaks and summer vacation. Daycares go through the prek years and offer school year round. |
Honestly the random days off in the DCPS calendar are killer even for me, who has a fairly flexible white-collar job. |
Also, you acknowledge that it was due to poor lottery luck - not your preferred choice. We work in a lottery system and people will vote with their feet, as they already do at Peabody-Watkins. |
My DC is currently in prek3 at Miner, we are inbounds for Maury. We chose Miner exactly for the reason you are considering, convenience of commute. It is also really nice to have classmates who live so close by for ease of playdates, etc. That said, I know several people at TRY prek who also are very happy. The ECE programs, as far as I can tell, are all pretty much the same. I'd choose whatever is most convenient. |
I would rank Miner higher because the teaching quality in DCPS ECE is simply better than what they offer at TR (we did TR 4th for PK3, it was fine). The teachers in the DCPS programs are so good. Especially if you are just look for something for ECE, I would absolutely preference DCPS higher. If you are looking for an elementary school through 5th that's tougher. But I suspect you would not be happy with either option past K, in which case I would do Miner both for quality and convenience. There is nothing about TRY's PK program that is better than Miner's, and as a general rule I'd place any DCPS program above either TR campus for ECE because of teaching staff (DCPS ECE teachers have masters in early childhood education and on average more years of experience than at TR). |
Thanks for the input - that is what my gut is telling me too. I'm probably going to take a flyer on SWS and CHML, since I think we could stay at those a little longer and they both have beautiful campuses and are easily reached from Miner's zone, but otherwise, yeah, I'm increasingly comfortable with the idea of Miner for ECE. A lot to be said for being able to walk to school to a new building. |