High school shutouts-- what's the plan?

[Anonymous]

We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The main problem is that JR lets all comers into its AP classes. Most suburban schools don't. The kids either meet a cut off in a prerequisite, generally at B+, or they don't qualify to take the AP class up the chain. Same with pre-IB work and IB Diploma. Also, suburban schools generally offer far more APs than JR, which only teaches around 20 subjects. Good suburban high schools teach more than 30 (there are 39 subjects). JR teaches 4 languages. Some suburban schools in the DMV teach a dozen. ECs tend to be far more serious in the burbs as well.

Out of curiosity I went to JR High school website and to McLean High school website and counted. JR has 26 AP classes, and McLean 24 AP classes.

Bethesda Chevy Chase has 34. Oakton HS has 35.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're staying at DCI if our kid, who really wanted to move on to Walls, doesn't go off the rails in high school. That said, we're planning to pay for tougher STEM and better writing instruction to the tune of thousands a year in the next several years. Still better than moving.

Interesting. My strong impression is that DCI is a rising high school, while Walls is a falling one and Banneker and J-R are static. Sounds like you could do worse than hitch your star to DCI while planning to bump up their academics in the summers, breaks, with tutors etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

[Anonymous]

If I could do it all over again, I would have moved out of this area a while ago, into a better school system far from DMV area. Alas, I can't uproot my family now that we have some roots in DC. We are paying for private for the rest of our kids' education (probably private for college at this trajectory). We're very happy with our private option, but I still can't believe all the angst about schools we've put up with to live in DC and the money we will be spending for a decent education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our family is not shut out, but we may well could have been as we are zoned for Coolidge (not an option) and our son got a terrible lottery number.

He will be attending McKinley Tech. He is someone who does extremely well on standardized tests and, previous to the change in admissions requirements, would have had a great chance at getting into Walls which was our plan.

My takeaway is that I'm very grateful that we put ALL of the schools we would be willing for our son to attend on the application. All of them. It's a true lottery now as it always was.

I also wonder if we should have applied for private schools, but my son's strong preference was that the money that would go to Private school instead go to Graduate School or a down payment on a home. For us, this is an actual pot of money that is for our kids, so it's not conceptual and we left this choice up to our son. Because, ultimately it's his choice which school he attends.

Now, we did not have our son apply for the early college program at Coolidge, and in retrospect, I wish we had. Things turned out fine, but our safety schools were McArthur and Sojourner Truth and they had many, many applications this year so I doubt our son would have lotteried in.

Our son is interested in Engineering, we loved the open house and this truly is a happy ending for us, but if it had been a different year (or a different interview day where he had been in a bad mood and not gotten in?) then we could have been shut out. In that case, I would have called around to all the high schools we would consider to see if anyone happened to have any spaces open up.

My point is, please don't count on getting into anywhere other than your zoned school, because things change. Apply to all schools you would consider, and, probably, at least a couple of private schools even if paying the tuition would be a stretch.

McKinley Tech is an excellent school for engineering, and your son sounds like a wise kid! Congratulations!

Nonsense. McKinley Tech is where your white or Asian kid gets a 3 on AP Bio or Chem or Calc and teachers shout congratulations, you passed. Ridiculous. Problem is, 3s are useless in elite college admissions for high SES kids.

Well, not everyone considers Elite colleges to be the only acceptable option. If your thinking is this rigid I’m not sure you’re cut out for sending your kid to elementary school much less high school in DC. But then, you probably don’t.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We're staying at DCI if our kid, who really wanted to move on to Walls, doesn't go off the rails in high school. That said, we're planning to pay for tougher STEM and better writing instruction to the tune of thousands a year in the next several years. Still better than moving.

Mind sharing where you go for that tougher STEM and writing instruction? Thanks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

Not that it matters to me, but have you looked at college acceptances for Arlington? Walls, JR, and Banneker perform at or above APS.

[Anonymous]

we're a family that is "making do" with a good charter and while we're very happy, I often think about the alternative of moving. Most of the good public high schools in Arlington, FFX, and MoCo are 2K+ students, and are expected to get bigger. That affects getting the classes you want (35 APs means nothing if you can only get in your senior year), making the cut for sports teams, running for school government. Unless these districts are budgeting for building additional high schools soonish, not sure I see the advantage of my kid being 1 of 500+ competing for these "high octane" programs compared to what we have currently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're staying at DCI if our kid, who really wanted to move on to Walls, doesn't go off the rails in high school. That said, we're planning to pay for tougher STEM and better writing instruction to the tune of thousands a year in the next several years. Still better than moving.

Mind sharing where you go for that tougher STEM and writing instruction? Thanks

+1 Would love to know how parents are supplementing. Private tutors or additional classes somewhere? TIA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

Not that it matters to me, but have you looked at college acceptances for Arlington? Walls, JR, and Banneker perform at or above APS.

Yes, perform better than APS overall, but not the top tier in APS. The top tier includes IB Diploma grads from Washington-Liberty with points totals in the high 30s-40s (dozens of kids kids annually) or the top 5% of the AP track crop at Yorktown and W-L.

DCPS just doesn't accelerate like NoVa. APS middle schools have bumped up their curriculum to include "intensified" 8th grade classes for all core subjects this year, with intensified classes for 7th grade rolling out next year. They're doing this to keep up with Fairfax acceleration, having lost ground in the last decade in admissions to UVA and College of William and Mary.

I'd kill to have those options at our DCPS middle school EotP. My kid is bored at school. We're looking at Arlington if our eldest, 7th grader, doesn't crack Walls or Banneker next year. That seems likely. We didn't get in to BASIS, the Latins, DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:we're a family that is "making do" with a good charter and while we're very happy, I often think about the alternative of moving. Most of the good public high schools in Arlington, FFX, and MoCo are 2K+ students, and are expected to get bigger. That affects getting the classes you want (35 APs means nothing if you can only get in your senior year), making the cut for sports teams, running for school government. Unless these districts are budgeting for building additional high schools soonish, not sure I see the advantage of my kid being 1 of 500+ competing for these "high octane" programs compared to what we have currently.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

Not necessarily. Suburban high schools aren't known for shutting out high fliers from their most challenging classes, particularly not in IB Diploma programs. We've been shut out of too many classes at J-R enrolling too many students who can't handle the workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have close friends and relatives with teens in schools in Fairfax, Arlington and MoCo. The friends became our pals in our DCPS ES. It's clear to me that there really isn't any comparison between dysfunctional, low-capacity, ambition challenged DCPS and the high-capacity school systems in the burbs. For starters, those counties support advanced programs for ES and MS. They track academically in middle school in all core subjects by 7th grade. They also run serious test-in HS programs, mostly the school-within-a-school type. Parents in those school systems grumble on these threads because it's all relative - they haven't experienced DCPS middle or high school chaos and ad hocery.

Cool anecdote. You're wildly incorrect, but cool anecdote.

NP. Wildly incorrect? Dream on.

In MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax, advanced middle school students can take honors (aka "intensified" or above-grade-level) classes in 7th and 8th grades in science, social studies, English and math. In DCPS, the best you can do are grade level middle school classes in core subjects, with advanced math at Deal, Hardy and maybe Hobson

Correct, no serious test-in HS programs in the DC public system. We don't have high octane high school programs because we don't have advanced elementary school or middle school programs. Can you make do with Walls, or J-R, or Latin, or DCI, or Banneker? Yes. Can these programs compete with what's offered at the better suburban high school programs? Definitely not.

Not that it matters to me, but have you looked at college acceptances for Arlington? Walls, JR, and Banneker perform at or above APS.

Yes, perform better than APS overall, but not the top tier in APS. The top tier includes IB Diploma grads from Washington-Liberty with points totals in the high 30s-40s (dozens of kids kids annually) or the top 5% of the AP track crop at Yorktown and W-L.

DCPS just doesn't accelerate like NoVa. APS middle schools have bumped up their curriculum to include "intensified" 8th grade classes for all core subjects this year, with intensified classes for 7th grade rolling out next year. They're doing this to keep up with Fairfax acceleration, having lost ground in the last decade in admissions to UVA and College of William and Mary.

I'd kill to have those options at our DCPS middle school EotP. My kid is bored at school. We're looking at Arlington if our eldest, 7th grader, doesn't crack Walls or Banneker next year. That seems likely. We didn't get in to BASIS, the Latins, DCI.

I was referencing college acceptances and top DCPS students are outperforming top APS students. 38s and 41s are largely attending state schools that are already acceptable to DCPS students.

[Anonymous]

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