EdFest reactions

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to go but the timing was horrible. Right before the holidays and only a 4 hour window.

Its 2+ weeks before the holidays and 4 hours is plenty

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to go but the timing was horrible. Right before the holidays and only a 4 hour window.

Its 2+ weeks before the holidays and 4 hours is plenty

You need to look at your priorities. If you're serious about looking into your school choices then EdFest is a great first stop to screen your options before attending however many open houses...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My first edoest, what an overwhelming experience!
Please please help! My twins are getting ready to enter pk3 and my husband and I are going nuts with research lol.

Well, back to EdFEST: I got a good vibe from the following booths (in no particular order):
1- DC Bilingual
2- Ingenuity Prep
3- Lees Montesano

On a side note, I ruled out onevery school due to the parent volunteer I spoke with. She said "why are you freaking out this is not college, who cares what elementary school your child goes to, they are basically the same, I don't get why they rank them in my opinion..." well that did it for me, like ma'am elementary education sets the tone for your child's academic journey, I can't just throw my twins at some bottom of the barrel school!

All in all, this was my first EdFEST and it wasn't a waste of time.

Twin parent, join the DC Twins yahoo group. [e-mail] (Try to ignore anyone who is not a parent of multiples who tells you to "calm down". )

I'm a twin parent and I would also tell her to calm down. Your children's "academic journey" isn't going to be ruined by a "bottom of the barrel school" PK experience. It's true that DCPS does PK pretty well across the board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to go but the timing was horrible. Right before the holidays and only a 4 hour window.

Its 2+ weeks before the holidays and 4 hours is plenty

You need to look at your priorities. If you're serious about looking into your school choices then EdFest is a great first stop to screen your options before attending however many open houses...

I'm the PP you quoted and I agree. I was saying being 15 days before Christmas is not "too close to the holidays."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to go but the timing was horrible. Right before the holidays and only a 4 hour window.

Its 2+ weeks before the holidays and 4 hours is plenty

You need to look at your priorities. If you're serious about looking into your school choices then EdFest is a great first stop to screen your options before attending however many open houses...

I'm the PP you quoted and I agree. I was saying being 15 days before Christmas is not "too close to the holidays."

Edfest is timed to take place right before the application. I started my list over the summer, narrowed it down, talked to some people at Edfest as a data point, and then started my app while it was all fresh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will start by saying that I was super into this last year, as were all our friends in the same situation. Our son was entering PK3 and we live EOTP with a neighborhood school that has not started to improve at all. So most of us were apprehensive about our in bounds. We were all hoping for charters or DCPS near us that were further along. We had about 10 that we would be happy with and hoped for the best. We ranked our in bounds last. We ended up getting into our #4 ranked charter over the summer. We are super happy and feel very lucky to have found a great place for our son. Here would be my tips:

1. Go to open houses: I ruled out some based on what I saw.

2. Rank your true preference: some friends got their #1 choice even with a waitlist of 500

3. Put your in bounds last if you are on the fence about it. You will likely get in there.

4. Don't bother with DCPS that only have spots for siblings if you are not in bounds

5. Be optimistic, I didn't think we would get in anywhere and we did.

Oh and we were originally matched with a DCPS that we would have been fine with, we were out of bounds for that school and were matched, so do your research.

6. Apply to schools not in the common lottery to keep options open.

7. Attend and engage with a school consultant so you don't get shut out entirely, they will help you even when you are ready to submit your list.

8. Have a back up plan if you don't want your in bounds: daycare or private

9. Give your in bounds a shot, lots of people end up happy with their in bounds school.

Good advice except for the consultant. No need for that unless you are entirely new to town and/or have no friends who are parents.

Agree. Snake oil for sale.

[Anonymous]

It has fizzled out... The Chancellor-select was a no show, the Mayor was a no-show and the crowd was extremely small. Considering many of the schools have open-house scheduled this becomes a redundant production. The many teachers/principals I spoke with said that considering the people that they did see, they could have done better having those people set-up appointments. I strongly suggest that DCPS move it to the first weekend in December or the first weekend in November. Also, if we encourage parents to come to after-school events then why not try holding it during the evening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has fizzled out... The Chancellor-select was a no show, the Mayor was a no-show and the crowd was extremely small. Considering many of the schools have open-house scheduled this becomes a redundant production. The many teachers/principals I spoke with said that considering the people that they did see, they could have done better having those people set-up appointments. I strongly suggest that DCPS move it to the first weekend in December or the first weekend in November. Also, if we encourage parents to come to after-school events then why not try holding it during the evening.

EdFest is for people who need help selecting schools. Some years there'll be more, some years less. Maybe more people are staying put or following their feeders.

I also think this year was the first time in awhile that DC School Reform did not recruit busloads of families to attend from just inside DC side of the PGC border.

[Anonymous]

Every email from our DCPS had a footer imploring us to go to EdFest to "check out our choices". So weird. We're happy in 2nd grade and think most of the families at our school currently are, too.

Maybe it's just a low churn year outside of PK and 5/6 and 8/9 transitions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every email from our DCPS had a footer imploring us to go to EdFest to "check out our choices". So weird. We're happy in 2nd grade and think most of the families at our school currently are, too.

Maybe it's just a low churn year outside of PK and 5/6 and 8/9 transitions.

That is a citywide email footer and not specific to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has fizzled out... The Chancellor-select was a no show, the Mayor was a no-show and the crowd was extremely small. Considering many of the schools have open-house scheduled this becomes a redundant production. The many teachers/principals I spoke with said that considering the people that they did see, they could have done better having those people set-up appointments. I strongly suggest that DCPS move it to the first weekend in December or the first weekend in November. Also, if we encourage parents to come to after-school events then why not try holding it during the evening.

Your quibble is that they had it the second weekend in December instead of the first? The event is scheduled to be right before the lottery opens. Which is now. I don't think that having it in November is a good idea. Why prolong the anxiety any longer than you need to? As for having it in the evening, I think that would be a logistical nightmare, not to mention that it would be difficult for a lot of parents to get there. A weekend morning means less traffic and fewer time constraints and obligations. If it was on a Tuesday evening at 5:30, I wouldn't be able to go as I'd need to pick up my child first (gotta be there by 6) and then we'd have to actually get over to the Armory, which takes about 30 minutes from home in minimal traffic and would probably take at least 45 minutes if not an hour in rush hour traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every email from our DCPS had a footer imploring us to go to EdFest to "check out our choices". So weird. We're happy in 2nd grade and think most of the families at our school currently are, too.

Maybe it's just a low churn year outside of PK and 5/6 and 8/9 transitions.

That is a citywide email footer and not specific to DCPS.

Also not specific to any one grade, 2nd grade parent PP.

[Anonymous]

EdFest might make more sense if there were separate ones focused on more specific needs. One for general pre-K, one for specialized programs like immersion, inclusion, STEM, etc., and one for secondary.

Does the one-stop shop make sense with combined lottery? How many schools did folks actually look at?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:EdFest might make more sense if there were separate ones focused on more specific needs. One for general pre-K, one for specialized programs like immersion, inclusion, STEM, etc., and one for secondary.

Does the one-stop shop make sense with combined lottery? How many schools did folks actually look at?

The point of EdFest is to be a one stop shop! If you're only interested in language immersion or another specialization, you use website or directory to make list of schools that match interest and only visit those tables at EdFest. Then you have individual schools' open houses and the geographically-oriented, third-party organized school fairs (e.g., parents in Brookland or schools in a particular ward).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:EdFest might make more sense if there were separate ones focused on more specific needs. One for general pre-K, one for specialized programs like immersion, inclusion, STEM, etc., and one for secondary.

Does the one-stop shop make sense with combined lottery? How many schools did folks actually look at?

The point of EdFest is to be a one stop shop! If you're only interested in language immersion or another specialization, you use website or directory to make list of schools that match interest and only visit those tables at EdFest. Then you have individual schools' open houses and the geographically-oriented, third-party organized school fairs (e.g., parents in Brookland or schools in a particular ward).

If you have more than one kid - say an elementary school kid and a middle schooler, one stop makes perfect sense.