MS Families that Did Not Succeed in the Lottery

[Anonymous]

And I am more interested in them than Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the Hill families who moved to NW to attend Deal for MS-- How did your kids handle the transition? I'm asking because this is our back-up plan too. How was the social transition? Were there other Hill families that did the same? How was the academic transition? Did you find that your child's Hill DCPS elementary prepared them as well as the WOTP DCPS elementary schools?

The social scene was the easy transition. My kids played in their old Hill sports teams for the first year after we moved. But at they made friends in the neighborhood and at school they moved away from that and now do everything in NW. There were a few other Hill kids there but I think that going to 6th is "new" for all kids. A lot of mixing goes on. My kids are friends with kids from all over NW now.

Academically they were behind especially in math but really bad in English. Deal is very demanding writing wise. Now having a 5th grader (for the first time) in a WOTP school I see how much more they work on writing in prep for Deal.

I have one at Wilson now and plenty of the kids we knew from the Hill are there too via Hardy. They don't even hang out in the same groups. I thought for sure they would drift back together but they all have their own friends now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids adjust, don't worry.

True. They also adjust to schools which on face value we may not meet our expectations. I know several families who've been pleasantly surprised with both Hardy and Stuart Hobson

And I know families who haven't been pleasantly surprised by PARCC scores for white kids at both Hardy and Stuart Hobson when compared to those of white kids at both Latin and BASIS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the Hill families who moved to NW to attend Deal for MS-- How did your kids handle the transition? I'm asking because this is our back-up plan too. How was the social transition? Were there other Hill families that did the same? How was the academic transition? Did you find that your child's Hill DCPS elementary prepared them as well as the WOTP DCPS elementary schools?

The social scene was the easy transition. My kids played in their old Hill sports teams for the first year after we moved. But at they made friends in the neighborhood and at school they moved away from that and now do everything in NW. There were a few other Hill kids there but I think that going to 6th is "new" for all kids. A lot of mixing goes on. My kids are friends with kids from all over NW now.

Academically they were behind especially in math but really bad in English. Deal is very demanding writing wise. Now having a 5th grader (for the first time) in a WOTP school I see how much more they work on writing in prep for Deal.

I have one at Wilson now and plenty of the kids we knew from the Hill are there too via Hardy. They don't even hang out in the same groups. I thought for sure they would drift back together but they all have their own friends now.

Thank you for this extremely helpful response. Would you be able to share the name of the Hill you were at previously?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the Hill families who moved to NW to attend Deal for MS-- How did your kids handle the transition? I'm asking because this is our back-up plan too. How was the social transition? Were there other Hill families that did the same? How was the academic transition? Did you find that your child's Hill DCPS elementary prepared them as well as the WOTP DCPS elementary schools?

The social scene was the easy transition. My kids played in their old Hill sports teams for the first year after we moved. But at they made friends in the neighborhood and at school they moved away from that and now do everything in NW. There were a few other Hill kids there but I think that going to 6th is "new" for all kids. A lot of mixing goes on. My kids are friends with kids from all over NW now.

Academically they were behind especially in math but really bad in English. Deal is very demanding writing wise. Now having a 5th grader (for the first time) in a WOTP school I see how much more they work on writing in prep for Deal.

I have one at Wilson now and plenty of the kids we knew from the Hill are there too via Hardy. They don't even hang out in the same groups. I thought for sure they would drift back together but they all have their own friends now.

Thank you for this extremely helpful response. Would you be able to share the name of the Hill you were at previously?

Hill elementary i meant...

[Anonymous]

13:10-- that was very helpful. Thank you! Curious at what point in elementary you think the level of instruction starts to diverge, if one were to plan a move to nw before 5th (but would like to delay as long as possible!).

[Anonymous]

We were at Brent, but remember this was 5-6 years ago. I know it has changed a lot since then. I don't know what the prep is like now. Now having one who has attended WOTP for years there was a huge gap between Brent and where we are now academically. I can't qualify it exactly but I felt like at Brent everything took a lot of effort but at our WOTP school it is sort of like a well oiled machine if that makes any sense. I would say the community feel of the schools were very similar though. I think that is is really 4th and 5th grade that are a lot different. Not only the math but again, the writing. My 5th grader does a lot of writing of rough drafts that are thoroughly torn apart and rewritten many times. I can't remember by other ones at Brent doing much writing-- or they did typical 5th grade writing. I think a big driver is they know the kids are going to Deal and what Deal expects.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were at Brent, but remember this was 5-6 years ago. I know it has changed a lot since then. I don't know what the prep is like now. Now having one who has attended WOTP for years there was a huge gap between Brent and where we are now academically. I can't qualify it exactly but I felt like at Brent everything took a lot of effort but at our WOTP school it is sort of like a well oiled machine if that makes any sense. I would say the community feel of the schools were very similar though. I think that is is really 4th and 5th grade that are a lot different. Not only the math but again, the writing. My 5th grader does a lot of writing of rough drafts that are thoroughly torn apart and rewritten many times. I can't remember by other ones at Brent doing much writing-- or they did typical 5th grade writing. I think a big driver is they know the kids are going to Deal and what Deal expects.

I think that alignment between feeder elementary and feeder middle schools is so great, and I wish all of DC could benefit from that.

That's one of the downsides of all this choice - when you've got kids headed to a variety of MS or HS, the previous school can't prep them because there's no way to prep kids for 5-10 different schools when all of them have their own particular 'niche.'

Growing up, it was clear that my elementary, middle and high schools were all on the same page because they were able to track kids across different ES into MS and then across different MS into HS. How great would that be for DC kids, but it would require standardizing across schools - maybe this is something the cross sector task force could address.

[Anonymous]

^^ That's what the standards are for. They all need to achieve the same skills but diff schools can take different paths to get there. I do NOT want to give that up in some quest for uniformity and will fight it tooth and nail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I don't think I've ever read a middle school case here that did not involve lottery success, private or moving. I'm sure it happens, but it doesn't seem to fit the demo that posts here.

We are home schooling a high schooler (who turned down school without walls) and a middle schooler, and not for religious reasons. We try not to tell anyone because people look at us as if we have grown two heads. We both went to great colleges, one JD and one PhD, have self motivated bright kids and their response has been amazing. Friends not so much. You would think our education would reassure them that we know what we can teach and what we have to outsource.

In the age of Khan Academy, Duo Linguo, Crash Courses, PSAT, SAT, and AP prep books, plus online courses at CTY and EPGY (run by Stanford), and flexible work schedules and the ability to work from home, some parents can actually do this. Maybe not many. But our kids are happy and I really am dumbfounded by the responses we get from friends and family who think we are "otherwise" such sensible people, and are somehow going to put our children at a severe academic and social disadvantage.

So much of school is a waste of time, our kids have friends from other activities, much more time to pursue their passions, and have moved more quickly in some areas than they would at any school. Plus we can teach subjects that they would not learn until college that are important to us or interesting to them, like the history of the country they come from, whatever current events they are interested in, sufficient basic concepts to conduct an anthropological analysis of the world around us.... Already have confirmation that we are not flailing completely - oldest has gotten 5s on 3 AP exams, including AP Calculus AB, doing BC and Physics C now. And these days kids who are home schooled actually can even get into the Ivies, although I have to say we don't care much about that.

Both went to a wonderful WOTP ES. We still have kids there. Once they are done at some point we may move to VA eventually for the in-state options. We have a few years yet. Unfortunately tied down here because of work, otherwise we would pick up and become residents of California for colleges.

Just wanted to offer a different option from the same demo (which is why I guess everyone we know thinks we are raving lunatics). Why quarrel with happy kids, especially teens?

[Anonymous]

I think most people couldn't handle the amount of planning needed to teach middle and high school, plus work full time and run a family. If you can, more power to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think most people couldn't handle the amount of planning needed to teach middle and high school, plus work full time and run a family. If you can, more power to you.

Spoken like a teacher, or SAHM. Lots of us have demanding jobs and still manage to run a family. Oh, and I don't get three months off a years and spring breaks. While teachers are off, I have to juggle even more balls and work extra hours to catch up for covering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I don't think I've ever read a middle school case here that did not involve lottery success, private or moving. I'm sure it happens, but it doesn't seem to fit the demo that posts here.

We are home schooling a high schooler (who turned down school without walls) and a middle schooler, and not for religious reasons. We try not to tell anyone because people look at us as if we have grown two heads. We both went to great colleges, one JD and one PhD, have self motivated bright kids and their response has been amazing. Friends not so much. You would think our education would reassure them that we know what we can teach and what we have to outsource.

In the age of Khan Academy, Duo Linguo, Crash Courses, PSAT, SAT, and AP prep books, plus online courses at CTY and EPGY (run by Stanford), and flexible work schedules and the ability to work from home, some parents can actually do this. Maybe not many. But our kids are happy and I really am dumbfounded by the responses we get from friends and family who think we are "otherwise" such sensible people, and are somehow going to put our children at a severe academic and social disadvantage.

So much of school is a waste of time, our kids have friends from other activities, much more time to pursue their passions, and have moved more quickly in some areas than they would at any school. Plus we can teach subjects that they would not learn until college that are important to us or interesting to them, like the history of the country they come from, whatever current events they are interested in, sufficient basic concepts to conduct an anthropological analysis of the world around us.... Already have confirmation that we are not flailing completely - oldest has gotten 5s on 3 AP exams, including AP Calculus AB, doing BC and Physics C now. And these days kids who are home schooled actually can even get into the Ivies, although I have to say we don't care much about that.

Both went to a wonderful WOTP ES. We still have kids there. Once they are done at some point we may move to VA eventually for the in-state options. We have a few years yet. Unfortunately tied down here because of work, otherwise we would pick up and become residents of California for colleges.

*Very impressed, pp. Stick to your guns. Am seriously considering home school for MS from Cap Hill because I don't like any of my options, including those with lottery luck. We also have a JD and PhD. Thanks for the inspiration.

Just wanted to offer a different option from the same demo (which is why I guess everyone we know thinks we are raving lunatics). Why quarrel with happy kids, especially teens?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most people couldn't handle the amount of planning needed to teach middle and high school, plus work full time and run a family. If you can, more power to you.

Spoken like a teacher, or SAHM. Lots of us have demanding jobs and still manage to run a family. Oh, and I don't get three months off a years and spring breaks. While teachers are off, I have to juggle even more balls and work extra hours to catch up for covering.

And when do you take the time to teach Calculus BC and AP Physics, along with all the other high school requirements, such that your kid is ready for the AP exams in the spring? Get real. I believe that one poster when she says she does it, but to say that everyone can do it is laughable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were at Brent, but remember this was 5-6 years ago. I know it has changed a lot since then. I don't know what the prep is like now. Now having one who has attended WOTP for years there was a huge gap between Brent and where we are now academically. I can't qualify it exactly but I felt like at Brent everything took a lot of effort but at our WOTP school it is sort of like a well oiled machine if that makes any sense. I would say the community feel of the schools were very similar though. I think that is is really 4th and 5th grade that are a lot different. Not only the math but again, the writing. My 5th grader does a lot of writing of rough drafts that are thoroughly torn apart and rewritten many times. I can't remember by other ones at Brent doing much writing-- or they did typical 5th grade writing. I think a big driver is they know the kids are going to Deal and what Deal expects.

Thank you very much for taking the time to post and answer our questions! It has been extremely helpful.