Interesting extracts from round 1 data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Re: Ward 1 schools. Bancroft still feeds to Deal. As long as that is the case, it will remain desirable and therefore difficult to get into OOB. Tubman had a jump in test scores but most higher SES families in bounds for Tubman send their kids OOB somewhere else. The school has seemed pretty opaque to me for the last couple of years, and until this year, I didn't know anyone whose children attended personally. I did know a couple of kids professionally (at risk kids) who go to Tubman but they've left the area. My understanding from the older child was that most of the people she went to school with came from the public housing blocks in Columbia Heights or else they "did not speak English." There were no white kids in her class. Marie Reed has a dual language program and Cooke has a nice building, both of which set them apart from Tubman, despite similar IB demographics.

These schools were considered safety schools last year. This year, I was reasonably sure that those assumptions would not be reliable and unfortunately for the waitlisted families, I was right. We're at Cooke and we have 5 IB PK3 students on the waitlist. Last year, we had 5 OOB PK3 students.

I think a primary reason Tubman declined in applicant numbers is due to the fact that their boundary shrunk considerably (and HD Cooke received a large amount of that -- mostly housing projects, actually). I've also visited their PK classes a number of times and believe it is now about 1/3 to 1/2 white. And their test scores are still far ahead of HD Cooke.

I don't disagree that their scores are better, though I do think that test scores of 3rd-5th graders may not be the best measure of quality for the early childhood classrooms at any school. My anecdotal information about Tubman came from a girl who was in 2nd grade last year. She is not there this year so I cannot speak to what it looks like now. She was the only person I knew at that school. I actually wasn't commenting on one school being superior to another school. I used our waitlist as an example of the degree to which safety schools from years past cannot be counted on as safeties anymore. I remember when POWELL was a safety school!

PP here. I actually think HDCooke feels like a better choice due to the high parent involvement and rockstar principal. The parent involvement fosters a warmer environment. Tubman is really lacking in that it seems. Hopefully that will turn around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was interesting that Seaton had a huge jump in applicants, from something like 85 last year to 190 this year. Other schools in our neighborhood didn't see this jump (garrison, cleveland, etc, only jumped by 10 kids or so). I actually put seaton below cleveland and got into cleveland, but i'm wondering if Seaton was the way to go, as those numbers suggest it is going to see a huge demographic change this year. And unlike previous years, I guess there is no way to just show up at seaton on August 25 and get a spot....

The lemming mentality on this site is amazing. You are second guessing yourself because there was an increase in enrollment at a school and based on nothing else. Sheep.

Incredible. Why are people so cruel, insensitive and rude on this site? Are you like blowing the smoke off your finger pistols right now? Like "ya burnt!"?

I wouldn't have put it that way personally, but there are definitely times when schools get a ton of hype based on nothing. Seaton, last year, received a ton of hype, mostly because people "heard good things" though not one person I know who waxed poetic about the good things they heard actually sent their child there or knew anyone who did - they were all parents of 3 year olds who heard good things at an open house they attended. Cynically, I think that Seaton was also popular this year because last year, it was a solid safety bet for people who didn't get into schools they really wanted to go to. I would be willing to wager that a fair number of the ~100 more people on the Seaton list than last year heard that it was a place that they could definitely get into and put it on the list for that reason. Personally, I think a similar thing is happening with Van Ness this year. People pronouncing it the best thing that ever happened to the Hill, saying that it's going to be amazing and wonderful and the school hasn't even opened yet. Those opinions can't even be based on what they saw at an open house, because the school isn't even open yet.

Optimistically, I hope that some of this hype becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy where people hear that great things are happening, choose the school, and then work really hard to make great things happen. My worry is that when people's expectations are not met, they will burn out and look elsewhere. It's not a good way to sustain positive growth.

Hi. I know someone who sends their child to Seaton. I also know a PTA member. I've heard good things. Lots of people have kids at Seaton, is it unimaginable to you that they post on DCUM? Or do you imagine that only white families from Ward 3 and capital hill post here. [/quote

Not quite sure how you got from the PPs to your point. Race was never brought up in any earlier post. Also, Seaton got a lot of hype last year when Garrison was going to be closed and it was going to absorb the students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rosedale isn't exactly synonymous with the Hill in the minds of many. The school needs IB high-SES families to commit beyond PK, and to back this up with time and resources, which is what happened at Maury and Brent. Indeed, LT hasn't been able to take the final step to where a majority of the school is from the Hill, even with virtually be entire community surrounding the school having been gentrified, albeit the proximity of SWS complicates the situation somewhat.

There are parts of "real" Hill IB for Miner. I don't think anyone thinks, e.g., 13th and F NE isn't the Hill.

[Anonymous]

Ross

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what's interesting is the clear drop from HA 175 to Shepherd 108 (though apparently a few were left off).

As a Ward 1 resident, I'm also interested in the relative rankings of Ward 1 schools that are relatively close to each other - Bancroft, Tubman, Marie Reed, and Cooke. Bancroft has far and away jumped a tier, but the other three remain a step below - though a few years ago the wait lists were even smaller. I'm also interested in Tubman as a case study - when their test scores went sky high it was surprising they didn't jump too much in perception (as measured by waitlist), and now Tubman falls behind Marie Reed and Cooke.

Lots of interesting stuff here.

Are you the OP? Either way next time OP say what you mean and what you're trying to talk about. Nobody knows what the hell is being brought up by simply showing 20 schools and saying "interesting""...waste of 2 minutes.

Wow, rude. No, not the OP. I do appreciate the OP posted the information (after people said it was useless), and I was conveying the things I found interesting in looking at the raw data. There's a lot to tease out here, and at 4 pages on the forum, there's a lot to tease out from multiple perspectives. The first two pages were dominated by Hill perspectives so I was putting in my Ward1 perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think what's interesting is the clear drop from HA 175 to Shepherd 108 (though apparently a few were left off).

As a Ward 1 resident, I'm also interested in the relative rankings of Ward 1 schools that are relatively close to each other - Bancroft, Tubman, Marie Reed, and Cooke. Bancroft has far and away jumped a tier, but the other three remain a step below - though a few years ago the wait lists were even smaller. I'm also interested in Tubman as a case study - when their test scores went sky high it was surprising they didn't jump too much in perception (as measured by waitlist), and now Tubman falls behind Marie Reed and Cooke.

Lots of interesting stuff here.

What do you mean drop off? Are you saying that you're interested why more people picked HA than Shepherd for a lott pick? My guess is that Shepherd already opened PK3 and most people know that it will be one class of 15 and ALL kids will be IB with IB being waitlisted.

No, I"m saying that we often talk about schools from a tier perspective, and popularity of schools in lottery may be one proxy for how well regarded the school is. If that is true, there are clear tiers in this raw, simplistic data where breakpoints occur. The biggest red dividing line is the huge jump from schools with more than 175 kids on the wait list and less than 110 kids on the waitlist. Obviously, there are other factors - like how many seats are available, known sibling #s, strong inbound, not to mention commute, etc, as well as the charter school list which isn't broken down the same way. I didn't mean anything particular about HA or Shepherd. Just noticing a strong delineation from the group above and the group below.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought it was interesting that Seaton had a huge jump in applicants, from something like 85 last year to 190 this year. Other schools in our neighborhood didn't see this jump (garrison, cleveland, etc, only jumped by 10 kids or so). I actually put seaton below cleveland and got into cleveland, but i'm wondering if Seaton was the way to go, as those numbers suggest it is going to see a huge demographic change this year. And unlike previous years, I guess there is no way to just show up at seaton on August 25 and get a spot....

The lemming mentality on this site is amazing. You are second guessing yourself because there was an increase in enrollment at a school and based on nothing else. Sheep.

Incredible. Why are people so cruel, insensitive and rude on this site? Are you like blowing the smoke off your finger pistols right now? Like "ya burnt!"?

I wouldn't have put it that way personally, but there are definitely times when schools get a ton of hype based on nothing. Seaton, last year, received a ton of hype, mostly because people "heard good things" though not one person I know who waxed poetic about the good things they heard actually sent their child there or knew anyone who did - they were all parents of 3 year olds who heard good things at an open house they attended. Cynically, I think that Seaton was also popular this year because last year, it was a solid safety bet for people who didn't get into schools they really wanted to go to. I would be willing to wager that a fair number of the ~100 more people on the Seaton list than last year heard that it was a place that they could definitely get into and put it on the list for that reason. Personally, I think a similar thing is happening with Van Ness this year. People pronouncing it the best thing that ever happened to the Hill, saying that it's going to be amazing and wonderful and the school hasn't even opened yet. Those opinions can't even be based on what they saw at an open house, because the school isn't even open yet.

Optimistically, I hope that some of this hype becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy where people hear that great things are happening, choose the school, and then work really hard to make great things happen. My worry is that when people's expectations are not met, they will burn out and look elsewhere. It's not a good way to sustain positive growth.

Hi. I know someone who sends their child to Seaton. I also know a PTA member. I've heard good things. Lots of people have kids at Seaton, is it unimaginable to you that they post on DCUM? Or do you imagine that only white families from Ward 3 and capital hill post here.

My DD currently goes to Seaton for PK3 and plan to come back for PK4. I admit last year, we did not even consider Seaton for Rd 1. When we "heard good things" about it, we checked it out for ourselves, did a tour, met with principal, talked to PK teachers, went to school fair. After that, we confirmed for ourselves that it is a good school and felt comfortable sending our child in there. We know a few families in our neighborhood who did the same. True enough, we've had a great experience so far. Most of the PK3 families I know, plan to come back for PK4 which is a good indicator that people are happy with the school. Not all of them post here (i don't even frequent this site very much) but that does not mean we do not have educated, middle-class familes who are committed to make our school better. That said, Seaton's demographics is definitely changing and I personally am excited to see the good changes that are happening to Seaton.

I wouldn't have put it that way personally, but there are definitely times when schools get a ton of hype based on nothing.
Seaton's improving scores (though still not where we want to be) speak for itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rosedale isn't exactly synonymous with the Hill in the minds of many. The school needs IB high-SES families to commit beyond PK, and to back this up with time and resources, which is what happened at Maury and Brent. Indeed, LT hasn't been able to take the final step to where a majority of the school is from the Hill, even with virtually be entire community surrounding the school having been gentrified, albeit the proximity of SWS complicates the situation somewhat.

True up until a couple of years ago. The transition at LT is occurring as we type. Also, not to forget that LT's test scores for their "non-gentrified" kids are equal to those of high SES Brent/Maury kids'. It's a matter of LT having high-quality teachers and the huge number of kids on the Hill and occupying every other conceivable IB slot at every other desirable school option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rosedale isn't exactly synonymous with the Hill in the minds of many. The school needs IB high-SES families to commit beyond PK, and to back this up with time and resources, which is what happened at Maury and Brent. Indeed, LT hasn't been able to take the final step to where a majority of the school is from the Hill, even with virtually be entire community surrounding the school having been gentrified, albeit the proximity of SWS complicates the situation somewhat.

True up until a couple of years ago. The transition at LT is occurring as we type. Also, not to forget that LT's test scores for their "non-gentrified" kids are equal to those of high SES Brent/Maury kids'. It's a matter of LT having high-quality teachers and the huge number of kids on the Hill and occupying every other conceivable IB slot at every other desirable school option.

True about LT. Already a good school, and I can say from my kid's cohort in PK that most of them are staying for K, and on and on up the grades. We (IB, high SES family) have not played the lottery in two years. The fantastic educators are keeping us at the school. We are not the only ones who like and appreciate the school, I'm glad to see. And I'm liking my kids' feeder pattern into Stuart Hobson more and more.