Anonymous wrote:+1
Also, GDS HS takes the best of other schools for 9th grade. We have one child at GDS MS and another at a PK-8, and GDS has consistently taken 3-4 kids of the top 5 from the other school. There is a cohort of very bright kids in HS, and yes, if your child is doing well in MS, now they have a stronger cohort in HS, may not be the smartest kid in class like in MS. And this story will continue in college.
Anonymous wrote:GDS MS family. We have been very happy there. The academics are strong and most teachers have been great. I think at any school not every teacher is perfect. We looked at many private schools and it's pretty common that the level of academic expectations is lower than in HS - and lower still in elementary/lower schools. But they are learning a lot. They have some homework, not excessively so but enough to be building executive function skills. There are some opportunities for math acceleration for those for whom it's warranted as well.
It's a "progressive school" meaning students do more projects, group work, discussions, and so on rather than cranking through a lot of facts and textbooks. You have to decide what's right for your kid. To what end do you want "rigor" - is the kid someone who learns best memorizing facts? Or they just want to not be bored like they were at their ES? Or you want them to get into a top college?
Also, the social-emotional journey in MS is really significant. Kids are changing a lot and feel really insecure about themselves, their bodies, etc. Often there is bullying in MS at many schools. GDS does a great job of teaching kids values and addressing dangerous TikTok trends if they are cropping up in the school. I think this is really important.
Most of all GDS has a parent community who is interested in being at the first integrated school in DC. That stuff isn't being hammered into the kids all the time but they do have assemblies where they talk about values and the parents lean a certain way. The 7th graders learn about the Haitian Revolution which I didn't learn about in my public school many years ago.
There is less of a focus on country clubs and so forth than we hear there is from some other school communities. If you would like to be at a potluck with parents who are this kind of people then GDS could be the right school. If you want a more traditional private school parent base then you may prefer the parent community at a different school.
I do know someone who went to open houses or tours (years ago) and said "they talked a lot about diversity and not a lot about math." I can assure you the kids learn math and can go on to take more advanced math in HS and really advanced math in college if that's the direction they want to go in life.
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