Stuart or Hines?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:No experience with EH. However, if your daughter is interested at all in theater and/or debate, the SH drama players and debate club are both terrific!

Our child is starting 8th grade at EH this year and we have been happy with the experience. Don't think you can go wrong either way. EH facilities/outdoor space is a bit bigger, but otherwise they offer similar courses, clubs, sports, etc.

SH and EH do not offer equivalent theater or debate experiences. EH is starting to get those things off the ground, but particular with respect to drama (also also marching band) there is truly no comparison.

This. I am usually a go to the closer one/your IB for these two schools, but if your kid is specific into theater or marching band, do whatever you can to get into SH.

Are there moves at Eliot Hine to develop an equivalently awesome theatre program? I am so impressed with the SH program but am unfortunately not in boundary.

They do have a theater program like most DCPS middle schools. I saw a show they did and it was fun and fine, but unless they decided to specifically focus on drama, luck into a great teacher and other specials teachers interested in supporting it, it’s not going to be the same as SH’s.

Also, literally anyone could get their kid into SH recently by lotterying for JOW or Watkins in 5th (or earlier). Only LT isn’t functionally open enrollment in upper ES, though that may eventually change post JOW reno.

It's actually been pretty tough to lottery into SH feeders in 5th over the last two years.

2024 lottery:

JO Wilson - 5 lottery seats, 3 on waitlist on results day, 1 waitlist offer

Ludlow-Taylor - 6 lottery seats, 18 on waitlist on results day, 4 waitlist offers

Watkins - 0 lottery seats, 18 on waitlist on results day, 2 waitlist offers


2025 lottery:

JO Wilson - 5 lottery seats, 7 on waitlist on results day, 3 waitlist offers

Ludlow-Taylor - 6 lottery seats, 22 on waitlist on results day, 0 waitlist offers

Watkins - 0 lottery seats, 21 on waitlist on results day, 4 waitlist offers

I stand corrected. You have to move earlier. They've clearly given up on being only SH feeders.

Watkins 24-25:

1st: 45 seats; 44 matches = didn't even fill initially
2nd: 32 seats; 20 matches = didn't come close to filling
3rd: 35 seats; 35 matches + 4 more WL offers (of 27 on WL)
4th: 27 seats; 27 offers + 3 more WL offers (of 4 on WL)

Basically, only 3rd & 5th weren't open enrollment last year.

This year, 1st didn't fill, every other grade had 20+ spots and the longest other non-5th WL is single digits.

JOW this year didn't fill in PK4, K, 1st or 3rd. Single digit WLs across the board. Last year it filled except K, but it grabbed every person off its WL except for 1 PK3er and 2 5th graders.

Basically, open enrollment until 5th.

I have to think that some of these open seats in elementary school have to do with a larger percentage of older kids on the Hill. I look at my fairly large block and there are only a couple elementary kids and they are in the upper grades. There are lots of middle school aged kids and a couple high school kids. I just wonder if the demand for elementary has changed over the past 5ish years.

[Anonymous]

that is interesting. might be parts of the hill like the watkins zone are now undesirably expensive for lots of younger families with current mortgage rates and childcare expenses and/or maybe just the pandemic and increased telework changed housing patterns for a particular time segment of families.

[Anonymous]

100% the lack of interest in JOW lottery spaces is influenced by the swing space

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt JOW's issues filling are related to the swing space and even noted that their quasi-open enrollment in upper grades might change post-reno... but, for now, both Watkins and JOW are nearly sure bets prior to 5th grade.

JOW is a T1 that has never gentrified. Nearby charter schools and citywide lottery schools (2R4 most of all) have a lot to do with that. It's IB probably has more young families than it used to.

As for Watkins, for a variety of reasons, it's IB participation rate has decreased over time. I do think the demographics are also shifting (Hill preschools are so much easier to get into than they used to be), but I think there are a lot of school specific factors too. There are lots of schools on the Hill that are very difficult to get into and some (like L-T) are far more difficult than they used to be.

[Anonymous]

I would not switch from Maury or Payne just for feeder rights to SH. Things may have been different several years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:We just finished up at Stuart-Hobson. The 8th grade team there is top notch. 70% of students who took Algebra scored a 4 or 5 on the Algebra 1 DC CAPE. 63% of all 8th graders scored a 4 or 5 on the ELA test. The theater program is incredible. Eliot-Hine is really growing and doing great things as well, I just have personal knowledge of SHMS.

Where did your kid end up for HS?

Not PP, but the SH alums I know ended up at Walls, Ellington, and McKinley Tech.

Banneker

[Anonymous]

BASIS DC

[Anonymous]

OP did your DC get into EH? And how is it going?

[Anonymous]

Im a different poster with this same question. We are at SWS and inbounds for SH (inbound to JOW) we could do EH or SH, SH is much closer, but my DD knows more kids at EH. We are having a hard time deciding where to send her.

[Anonymous]

they are pretty similar. i would visit both. let your child weigh in on the decision.