New to DC. If your child is zoned for Deal....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people want to live in the Deal/Wilson zone because it's arguably the best public option DC has to offer right now. That doesn't make it someplace I want to send my child. Only 68 percent of Deal kids are proficient in reading and 55 percent in math. And it's huge. I haven't been impressed with anything I've seen or heard. Middle school is 6 years away for us. If things are significantly better by then, great. If not, we will either move or go private.

Comments like this make me so glad I don’t live WOTP.

This comment hits a nerve not because Deal is a perfect place or the best middle school in the city, but because (1) a lot of people don’t have the option to “move or go private;” (2) you’re completely discounting the many things Deal has done well over the years and that other middle schools admire and are trying to emulate; and (3) you’re basing your opinion on PARCC scores, the easiest and laziest thing to focus on. Doing 5 minutes of research will tell you that test scores aren’t a good indicator of whether a school is successful. Go shit on our imperfect but hard-working school system (which a school like Deal is evidence of) somewhere else. And if you’re going to give feedback or criticism, at the very least base it off of more than looking up test scores and talking to your neighbors.

Don't look at test scores? Don't listen to what parents sending their kids to the school actually say? Maybe you can just waive your hands frantically in front of peoples faces saying "nothing to see here! Just believe the hype!"

The word that seems to come up the most from parents on this thread who actually send their kids to the school is "fantastic." What was your point again?

As in "fantasy"?

I have talked with plenty of parents about Deal (my child is in 6th grade there). He went to private school for K-5. Deal has a great MS program. Most parents IRL didn’t like MS at the privates. It is a difficult age and hard to get right. Unsure why the mother of a 1st grader needs to tear down a school she has no first hand experience with or experience with the upper grades at a private school to accurately assess opinions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people want to live in the Deal/Wilson zone because it's arguably the best public option DC has to offer right now. That doesn't make it someplace I want to send my child. Only 68 percent of Deal kids are proficient in reading and 55 percent in math. And it's huge. I haven't been impressed with anything I've seen or heard. Middle school is 6 years away for us. If things are significantly better by then, great. If not, we will either move or go private.

Parent of small child, you may pipe up when you have actual parenting experience of middle school children. Presently, you sound foolish.

[Anonymous]

Deal is the best public middle school in DC. which is partly why is massively over crowded. Folks spend million on a crappy house to be IB for deal. You send your kid to deal or pay for private.