PK4 - what do you think of this list?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I also don't quite understand why you would list Peabody so low, except maybe for where you live. Unless you have some well thought out preferences for Montessori, I'd prefer Peabody over Logan Montessori for sure. If it's because you have some qualms about Watkins, I'd say take another look and keep in mind it'll be brand spanking new by the time your 1st grader gets there.

+1 Peabody would be first for me

OP here. The reason it is so low is because I have qualms about Watkins. It makes me nervous that the people in boundary for Watkins don't seem to be staying. And I would prefer a smaller school. If I'm going to send my kid to a borderline school I would prefer one that we can walk to. And if it's a hike I would prefer a school that might solve our middle school issue (eg MV).

But maybe I'm being irrational.

The only irrational things on your list is wasting spots with Maury and Brent. Fill those spots with DCI feeders and the fill in the middle with second tier charters such as inspired teaching and Lee Montessori. Delete CH montessori or put it at the bottom, above Van Ness and Miner.

DCI feeders (save YY) are second tier (or not tiered).

LAMB is first tier too, but not in the common lottery. Sorry I still think learning another language kicks you into another tier over just a plain Montessori school or whatever ITS is all about. They're all great schools, sorry if that's not coming across.

NP. It's debatable that kids are actually learning another language it's also unknown if some of these kids are lacking at other subjects. I wouldn't overlook the pains at MV just because it has Spanish but maybe that's just me.

Well that's Mundo verde, one of the DCI feeders. The same cannot be said about the others which are more established schools with proven track records. I think the fact that so many Capitol Hill families attend MV would be enough of a reason to overlook its present growing pains.

Lamb and YY are the only DCI feeders that I would consider. I'm not crazy about Chinese so I would have heavy preference for Lamb. I may consider Stokes. Just because hill families attend MV should not make it a "desired" school (especially considering to many hill families MV is "better" than their IB option).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
MV is on my list. I will look at ITS. -OP

You might want to test the commute to these schools. We live very close to ITS and determined that most of the schools on your list were too far for us to commute to every morning. But YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

Completely wrong. NOT a Watkins booster. My DC attended for a few years and we eventually had to leave for both social and educational reasons, YMMV. However, Peabody is good and Watkins is definitely improving. The LT test scores have been questionable and the upper grades still do not reflect the neighborhood. Also, smaller is not better with with DCPS -- less resources allocated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

Completely wrong. NOT a Watkins booster. My DC attended for a few years and we eventually had to leave for both social and educational reasons, YMMV. However, Peabody is good and Watkins is definitely improving. The LT test scores have been questionable and the upper grades still do not reflect the neighborhood. Also, smaller is not better with with DCPS -- less resources allocated.

Give me a break. Questionable test scores? How so? They've been better than Watkins for some time. I know three families with2nd and 3rd graders who plan to lottery for LT and out of Watkins precisely for the educational and social issues you cite. But you stay there, good for you if you're happy.

[Anonymous]

We have experience with IT and MV and are inbounds for Brent.

Would recommend any of the three for PK4.

Otherwise definite pros/cons to each.

[Anonymous]

Are you committed to immersion? It strikes me as odd that you only have one immersion school on your list. Also, since your kids are little, consider the playground situation at MV. The kids have to be walked offsite to play, which you may or may not be comfortable with once you walk it yourself. Recommend you do the commute and tour all of the schools yourself, if you haven't. dCUM opinions can be a bit "off," and it's worth the investment of your time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You will absolutely not get into Brent or Maury. You may get into Ludlow, but I'm not sure how much better Ludlow is compared to Watkins. Please go on a tour of Capitol Hill Montessori- it's a disaster. I've never met a parent who was truly happy. My friend is a special needs tutor who frequently works at CHML. She told me to run away far and fast. Mundo Verde is not a neighborhood school by any stretch, although I am guessing that you could take the Union Station Metro. If you're going that far i would consider other DCI feeders for a long term goal. What about Two Rivers Young? Too far?

Huh???!!! Please people, if you have no idea what you are talking about then just say nothing. I don't have a horse in this race but I cannot abide ignorance masquerading as wisdom. First of all, MV isn't close to a Metro. But the closes Metro stop isn't Union Station, it's NOMA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

Completely wrong. NOT a Watkins booster. My DC attended for a few years and we eventually had to leave for both social and educational reasons, YMMV. However, Peabody is good and Watkins is definitely improving. The LT test scores have been questionable and the upper grades still do not reflect the neighborhood. Also, smaller is not better with with DCPS -- less resources allocated.

NP. You didn't have to tell us that your impressions were dated because your "advice" gave that away. The Hill schools look nothing like what you recall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have experience with IT and MV and are inbounds for Brent.

Would recommend any of the three for PK4.

Otherwise definite pros/cons to each.

So there are no cons to IT, MV or Brnet? Perfect are they? And if you don't have experience with the others how on earth do you have an opinion about the pros/cons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Save Brent for K lottery as they had a few OOB seats this past year and I would imagine Maury did as well.

WTF does that even mean. First off, there is no cost to having those schools on her list since she has fewer than 12 schools. Second, even if you overlook that point, the "wait for K" makes ZERO logical sense. They are filling up with IB kids for PK3/4 to the point that they are not accepting IB kids with sibs, and then in K all those IB kids have a right to attend. How does your advice make any sense?

Hey OP, get i=our your huge grain of salt and BS detector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

Completely wrong. NOT a Watkins booster. My DC attended for a few years and we eventually had to leave for both social and educational reasons, YMMV. However, Peabody is good and Watkins is definitely improving. The LT test scores have been questionable and the upper grades still do not reflect the neighborhood. Also, smaller is not better with with DCPS -- less resources allocated.

NP. You didn't have to tell us that your impressions were dated because your "advice" gave that away. The Hill schools look nothing like what you recall.

Hey Sherlock, the Hill is small and maybe I would rather put a few vague details in my post so as to be too recognizable since people really like to guard their territory/decisions.For many reasons, I am familiar with exactly what the elementary and middle school landscape currently looks like in Ward 6.

LT has had suspicious test scores in the last 10 years -- the new PARCC at least starts them afresh. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with LT, but it does discount the importance of the previous test scores.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP in your neighborhood with older kids -- is LT your inbound? If so, I would put Peabody above it.

Thinking longer term, many families are happy with Watkins (your eldest could take the bus back to Peabody when your younger children attend) and LT is still a work in progress in the upper grades. I am yet to meet one family who makes it to 4th grade at Logan or Two Rivers who isn't desperate to get out. Maury or Brent would be better as older grade transfers (and Maury is farther away than it seems). I have no opinion on MV.

x

This is funny...a Watkins booster claiming LT is a a work in progress in the upper grades. Jesus, get out much? I'd take LTd higher test scores and smaller class sizes any day -- especially if LT is close to my house. Just wow.

Completely wrong. NOT a Watkins booster. My DC attended for a few years and we eventually had to leave for both social and educational reasons, YMMV. However, Peabody is good and Watkins is definitely improving. The LT test scores have been questionable and the upper grades still do not reflect the neighborhood. Also, smaller is not better with with DCPS -- less resources allocated.

NP. You didn't have to tell us that your impressions were dated because your "advice" gave that away. The Hill schools look nothing like what you recall.

Hey Sherlock, the Hill is small and maybe I would rather put a few vague details in my post so as to be too recognizable since people really like to guard their territory/decisions.For many reasons, I am familiar with exactly what the elementary and middle school landscape currently looks like in Ward 6.

LT has had suspicious test scores in the last 10 years -- the new PARCC at least starts them afresh. Doesn't mean there's anything wrong with LT, but it does discount the importance of the previous test scores.

Exactly!!!! Seriously lady, now you are just embarrassing yourself by digging in. The Hill has lots of schools and unless your kid actually attends a school how would you know (and even then it's a single data point). Plus, if my kid is in PK3, what do I know about the current state of 5th? Or vice versa. But you are helping us to get a picture of you. You think that whatever you say or believe is "correct", not one person's opinion. And furthermore it appears that your opinions extend to everything; you don't have any specific knowledge about any one school since you are a know it all that who knows "exactly" what is going on.

Buyer beware to anyone soliciting advice on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Some people have more than one child and have moved mutiple children between schools. Just sayin. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have experience with IT and MV and are inbounds for Brent.

Would recommend any of the three for PK4.

Otherwise definite pros/cons to each.

So there are no cons to IT, MV or Brnet? Perfect are they? And if you don't have experience with the others how on earth do you have an opinion about the pros/cons?

Sorry- wasn't clear- these are the three we have experience directly with. Any would be fine for Pk4, although each has its pros/cons.

Can't speak to others.