2009-10 Pre-K lotteries to be done by DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Being faced with a city-wide teachers' strike impacting 50,000 kids versus a few pissed off pre-k parents, which would you think Rhee will have to deal with more urgently ?

Can you elaborate please, PP?

Didn't mean to start any rumors. This is a very remote possibility but a serious issue should the contract conflict increase. Gloom and doom aside, we're still applying oob for pre-k. You never know. Somebody has to win the spot, right?

Assuming the slots listed actually exist. Which is a whole other topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pre-k 4 is not legally compulsory in DC. So don't hold your breath on anything OTHER than sibling preference. Off the top of my head, the numbers of oob students with siblings in a a popular school entering prek 4 likely vastly outnumber the in boundary pre-k4 kids seeking an early slot in a school they will attend by right a year later at age 5. When it is legally required.

DCPS can't give a direct answer to a question that is legally irrelevant for the time being. Hate to say it, and I've had to suck it up on oob sibling preference with my DC, but it's true. Siblings get preference.

Being faced with a city-wide teachers' strike impacting 50,000 kids versus a few pissed off pre-k parents, which would you think Rhee will have to deal with more urgently ?

I do hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't put any money on priorities changing before March 13. That said, it might be helpful if every parent applied to the schools they would like their kids to attend regardless of the odds. The principals have no way of knowing the potential non-sibling students are out there if you don't apply. Principals can be empowered to expand resources when they have the data. At least, that's the theory.

6 weeks from now, much of this will be moot. Scary, huh.

I think the frustration many of us are expressing here is the effort DCPS (under the allegedly straight-talking Michelle Rhee) is putting into not giving a direct answer. It would be fine (and direct) simply to say that priority is being judged on a case-by-case basis, so the school system is making no formal policy here. Instead, they're giving answers that seem intended to avoid pissing people off (e-mail asks whether OOB siblings get pref over in-boundary firstborns; answer says OOB and in-boundary siblings receive same preference, no reference to in-boundary firstborns); in fact, they're just pissing people off more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here, and I just sent an e-mail to Ms. Russell and Chancellor Rhee that gave two ranking lists and asked Ms. Russell to choose the one that reflected the new pre-K lottery preference system. I'll post the response.

Looks like in-boundary new students will have preference over OOB siblings. Here's Ms. Russell's response to my e-mail (printed below her response).

Thank you for your question. Option 1 (below) is the way that students will be given preference in the lottery. Please remember that this structure (the four rankings) only applies to Pre-School, Pre-K because all K-12 in-boundary students are guaranteed space in their grade at their in-boundary school. For older grades (K-12), the preference will be Out-of-boundary siblings followed by out-of-boundary new students.

Pre-School & Pre-K Applications

in-boundary siblings
in-boundary new students
out-of-boundary siblings
out-of-boundary new students

K-12 Out-of-boundary applications (in-boundary do not fill out OOOB applications)

out-of-boundary siblings
out-of-boundary new students

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Russell

Senior Associate

Critical Response Team

Office of the Chancellor

DC Public Schools

[phone]

[e-mail]
________________________

Ms. Russell,

I'm trying to understand the pre-K lottery preference system; a number of parents I've spoken with have the same question, and no one has gotten a response that clears up the confusion. Do out-of-boundary siblings of students already at a school get preference over in-boundary children without siblings at the school? Or, asked another way, how are preferences ranked? Is it:

Option 1
in-boundary siblings
in-boundary new students
out-of-boundary siblings
out-of-boundary new students

OR

Option 2
All siblings, in-boundary and out-of-boundary
in-boundary new students
out-of-boundary new students

I've spoken with a number of other parents who have asked this question, and no one has received a direct response about the issue of in-boundary new students vs. out-of-boundary siblings. Is it Option 1 or Option 2 above?

Thanks very much for your help.

[Anonymous]

for mann last year it was definitely done through the school directly as a lottery. this year is the first year for mann pre-k that they will be going through the dcps...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I guess I like the idea of all DC schoolchildren having a shot at a good education.

So if somebody from Ward 7 gets lucky with a Pre-K slot at Murch and that propels her through the system, and then her little brother gets sibling preference so that he too escapes the ghetto... I find this to be a good thing.

In the meantime, a parent in upper NW pays for an extra year at Aiden Montessori pre-school before she automatically gets her child in-bounds at Murch without even having so much as to investigate OOBs or charters or privates...

I guess my heart doesn't bleed like you think it should. I must be b*tchy that way.

Hello... has ANYONE on this forum ever been to Ward 7?! All of it is not "the ghetto..." Houses in Hillcrest, Penn Branch and Dupont Park are mostly single family brick colonials can cost as much as, if not more than, houses in many other parts of the city. Get your facts straight!!!!! I'm SO tired of the Ward 2/3 focus and elitism in this place... every time I think I'll give it another try I find this kind of bias.