Elementary School Recommendations for Family moving to DC from Australia

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure this has been mentioned yet: Considering your family configuration, and to keep you sane, I recommend you prioritize finding housing that works for your family, considering such aspects as affordability, access to transportation, grocery shopping, and leisure. That is going to be the most critical piece to your sanity. Unless you somehow have an unusual amount of disposable income (I suspect not if you plan on putting 4 children through college and retire comfortably), then let the school(s) fall into place. There are so many different paths to success in DC public & charter schools that driving yourself nuts over this going into your relocation is bananas. So is paying a huge premium for it. Not to mention, you may find your four children actually do need different options and before long they may be at different schools anyway, probably taking themselves there on public transit.

Here is why I'm saying this: What good is it for you to have it all lined up school-wise from Janey, to Deal, to Wilson, if the six of you will drive each other to the brink of destruction in a crammed apartment for the next ten years? Might you not prefer living sanely and happily, with room and income to spare in, say, Brookland, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, or Hillcrest? From any of these places, you have good to excellent options. Not to mention, by the time your babies hit middle and high school, the world (and most certainly DCPS) will be a different place.

Those things (especially grocery shopping) are certainly going to be MUCH better in Upper NWDC than in the places you mention. And I don't even want to think about commuting to Georgetown from those areas. Her budget is 1.25M, she doesn't need to look in PG or EOTR. Takoma Park is the only place to consider seriously on this list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure this has been mentioned yet: Considering your family configuration, and to keep you sane, I recommend you prioritize finding housing that works for your family, considering such aspects as affordability, access to transportation, grocery shopping, and leisure. That is going to be the most critical piece to your sanity. Unless you somehow have an unusual amount of disposable income (I suspect not if you plan on putting 4 children through college and retire comfortably), then let the school(s) fall into place. There are so many different paths to success in DC public & charter schools that driving yourself nuts over this going into your relocation is bananas. So is paying a huge premium for it. Not to mention, you may find your four children actually do need different options and before long they may be at different schools anyway, probably taking themselves there on public transit.

Here is why I'm saying this: What good is it for you to have it all lined up school-wise from Janey, to Deal, to Wilson, if the six of you will drive each other to the brink of destruction in a crammed apartment for the next ten years? Might you not prefer living sanely and happily, with room and income to spare in, say, Brookland, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, or Hillcrest? From any of these places, you have good to excellent options. Not to mention, by the time your babies hit middle and high school, the world (and most certainly DCPS) will be a different place.

Their budget is $1.25 million. They will not be living in a crammed apartment even if they choose to live in an area that feeds Wilson. And houses of the size they want/need in the other parts of the city you mention are equally expensive.

DP. No, they won't need to be in an apartment. But their budget won't get them a big home in a lot of the areas mentioned, such as AU Park and Tenley. It may be enough, but that depends on what they need and prioritize. And these areas absolutely are more expensive than the areas PP mentioned for a comparable size and quality of house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC High Schools:
Neighborhood Schools to consider: Wilson
Note - it is a large urban school. There are lots of things that break it into a smaller feel - but it is still a large urban school.

DC Public application schools: School without Walls, Ellington School of the Arts, Banneker (Math and Science Focus) All of these are smaller and depending on your child can be a fit.

DC Private Schools - many

DC Middle Schools:
Neighborhood Schools to consider: Most in demand are Hardy and Deal. They are both fine. Deal is larger than Hardy and has a longer track record for high performance. By the time you are considering Middle School they will be comparable.

Elementary Schools:
Any that feed into Deal and Hardy are solid. Most of the housing stock that feeds Hyde and Stoddert elementary school is smaller and probably not fit your family / budget. Housing that feeds Key, Mann and Shepherd elementary schools is not as easily accessible to metro / public transportation. Parts of Lafayette are also far for metro.

There are public charter schools and that is another conversation.

Given that your job will require you to drive around NE and SE, I would recommend staying away for Key Elementary boundaries.

Also - rarely talked about is that Bancroft elementary feeds Deal. In my opinion - if there is any restructuring of school feeder patterns, Bancroft might get moved since in is a dual language program (Spanish/English) and there is a new middle school that has a collection of students from dual language elementary schools. This is only my opinion, someone else will chime in to say it will never happen.

Of all the elementary schools that feed Hardy and Deal, Bancroft has the lowest standardized test scores. The student body has more social economic diversity than all of the other schools that feed Hardy and Deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure this has been mentioned yet: Considering your family configuration, and to keep you sane, I recommend you prioritize finding housing that works for your family, considering such aspects as affordability, access to transportation, grocery shopping, and leisure. That is going to be the most critical piece to your sanity. Unless you somehow have an unusual amount of disposable income (I suspect not if you plan on putting 4 children through college and retire comfortably), then let the school(s) fall into place. There are so many different paths to success in DC public & charter schools that driving yourself nuts over this going into your relocation is bananas. So is paying a huge premium for it. Not to mention, you may find your four children actually do need different options and before long they may be at different schools anyway, probably taking themselves there on public transit.

Here is why I'm saying this: What good is it for you to have it all lined up school-wise from Janey, to Deal, to Wilson, if the six of you will drive each other to the brink of destruction in a crammed apartment for the next ten years? Might you not prefer living sanely and happily, with room and income to spare in, say, Brookland, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, or Hillcrest? From any of these places, you have good to excellent options. Not to mention, by the time your babies hit middle and high school, the world (and most certainly DCPS) will be a different place.

Their budget is $1.25 million. They will not be living in a crammed apartment even if they choose to live in an area that feeds Wilson. And houses of the size they want/need in the other parts of the city you mention are equally expensive.

DP. No, they won't need to be in an apartment. But their budget won't get them a big home in a lot of the areas mentioned, such as AU Park and Tenley. It may be enough, but that depends on what they need and prioritize. And these areas absolutely are more expensive than the areas PP mentioned for a comparable size and quality of house.

DP. Yeah, I don't know what the PP meant by prices being comparable between AU Park and Hillcrest or even Brookland. But aside from that, all of these areas will have serious disadvantages with regard to quality of life (schools, commute, infrastructure, safety), which is why they are less expensive. Not to mention that OP would not find nearly the same concentration of international families to connect with. For 1.25M, she can get a pretty nice house in AU Park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure this has been mentioned yet: Considering your family configuration, and to keep you sane, I recommend you prioritize finding housing that works for your family, considering such aspects as affordability, access to transportation, grocery shopping, and leisure. That is going to be the most critical piece to your sanity. Unless you somehow have an unusual amount of disposable income (I suspect not if you plan on putting 4 children through college and retire comfortably), then let the school(s) fall into place. There are so many different paths to success in DC public & charter schools that driving yourself nuts over this going into your relocation is bananas. So is paying a huge premium for it. Not to mention, you may find your four children actually do need different options and before long they may be at different schools anyway, probably taking themselves there on public transit.

Here is why I'm saying this: What good is it for you to have it all lined up school-wise from Janey, to Deal, to Wilson, if the six of you will drive each other to the brink of destruction in a crammed apartment for the next ten years? Might you not prefer living sanely and happily, with room and income to spare in, say, Brookland, Hyattsville, Takoma Park, or Hillcrest? From any of these places, you have good to excellent options. Not to mention, by the time your babies hit middle and high school, the world (and most certainly DCPS) will be a different place.

Their budget is $1.25 million. They will not be living in a crammed apartment even if they choose to live in an area that feeds Wilson. And houses of the size they want/need in the other parts of the city you mention are equally expensive.

DP. No, they won't need to be in an apartment. But their budget won't get them a big home in a lot of the areas mentioned, such as AU Park and Tenley. It may be enough, but that depends on what they need and prioritize. And these areas absolutely are more expensive than the areas PP mentioned for a comparable size and quality of house.

DP. Yeah, I don't know what the PP meant by prices being comparable between AU Park and Hillcrest or even Brookland. But aside from that, all of these areas will have serious disadvantages with regard to quality of life (schools, commute, infrastructure, safety), which is why they are less expensive. Not to mention that OP would not find nearly the same concentration of international families to connect with. For 1.25M, she can get a pretty nice house in AU Park.

Even if the housing is smaller than ideal, I’d go with NW and a clear answer on schools. Education first. And what is the point of having a big house if you spend your days in sub-par schools and a rough commute. After all, she won’t have the options Chantwan had...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.

In what way? Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that. Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive. Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary. Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.

In what way? Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that. Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive. Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary. Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.

Unlike the schools west of Rock Creek Park, Shepherd is always going to lose a fair number of students to private schools in 4th or 5th grade, and replace them with OOB students. Many of the Shepherd IB families have no intention of sending their children, many of whom are black or AA, to Deal and Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.

In what way? Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that. Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive. Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary. Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.

Unlike the schools west of Rock Creek Park, Shepherd is always going to lose a fair number of students to private schools in 4th or 5th grade, and replace them with OOB students. Many of the Shepherd IB families have no intention of sending their children, many of whom are black or AA, to Deal and Wilson.

PP here. That is certainly true historically, as many of the (mostly AA) high school kids in the neighborhood do not attend Wilson, instead opting for private, Walls, etc. However, that seems to be changing. In my kid's cohort (current 2nd graders), virtually all parents I know with kids currently at Shepherd have said they intend to send their kids on to Deal and Wilson. Of course, only time will tell, and certainly some will peel off to private etc. But there does seem to be more buy-in for Wilson now than there has been in the past.

Also, many families at schools west of the park also historically have done private after elementary. This is not something that is unique to Shepherd by any stretch. And I expect this will happen less and less across schools as privates get more expensive--not every family has 30-40K per kid to spare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.

In what way? Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that. Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive. Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary. Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.

Unlike the schools west of Rock Creek Park, Shepherd is always going to lose a fair number of students to private schools in 4th or 5th grade, and replace them with OOB students. Many of the Shepherd IB families have no intention of sending their children, many of whom are black or AA, to Deal and Wilson.

PP here. That is certainly true historically, as many of the (mostly AA) high school kids in the neighborhood do not attend Wilson, instead opting for private, Walls, etc. However, that seems to be changing. In my kid's cohort (current 2nd graders), virtually all parents I know with kids currently at Shepherd have said they intend to send their kids on to Deal and Wilson. Of course, only time will tell, and certainly some will peel off to private etc. But there does seem to be more buy-in for Wilson now than there has been in the past.

Also, many families at schools west of the park also historically have done private after elementary. This is not something that is unique to Shepherd by any stretch. And I expect this will happen less and less across schools as privates get more expensive--not every family has 30-40K per kid to spare.

FWIW, my DC is in 4th at Shepherd and reported to me that, of the 40 4th grade students last year, only 2 weren't back to school this week. That doesn't seem like a "fair number," just feels normal to me.

[Anonymous]

Shepherd offered 5 slots for OOB students at 3rd, 4th and 5th in the initial lottery this year, and went into the wait list to fill spaces in those grades and others.

Whether that was because people turned the spaces down, or they wanted to add more kids is unclear based on the available data.

[Anonymous]

Have you thought about Chevy Chase MD right on the boundary line? So easy to drive to Georgetown and downtown or walk to red line. You can do westbrook > westland > bcc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thanks everyone with your feedback. I'm frankly not too excited about Wilson because of its size. Looking for small and progressive options. Do people often do the lottery for HS? This whole lottery thing is very new to me.

Wilson is really as good as it gets for DC. But, the publics in MD and VA that others have mentioned are also big. There really aren't small public HSs around here.

In terms of progressive, it depends on what you mean. Most of the people at any of these schools are progressive. In terms of pedagogy, I would say they are fairly traditional.

This. And frankly, there are benefits to a large HS, including the variety of classes and extracurricular activities it can offer by virtue of its size and resources. If you want small, you need to go private. If you want a decent guaranteed option, live IB for Wilson. Wilson has its detractors, but we know many families who sent their kids there and were happy with the education, and the kids had no trouble going on to good colleges. It's big and diverse, but has options for lots of kinds of kids.

The only HS that people try to lottery into is Wilson. Other "lottery" HS are actually application-only (Banneker, School Without Walls, Ellington, etc.)

In terms of elementary school, pretty much any of the Wilson feeders will be both good and contain many international students, because NW DC is full of international families. Deal is considered the best MS, although Hardy seems to be improving rapidly as more kids from the feeder ES continue on to Hardy. Personally, I'd be okay with sending my kid to either one.

I'd look at neighborhoods that are in bounds for Janney, Mann, Murch, Hearst, Lafayette, Stoddert, Eaton, or Shepherd Elementary schools. All are full of UMC kids, have a decent cohort of international students, and feed to Hardy or Deal. Frankly, given your budget and housing needs, you might find that the choice is driven by the real estate market, but these schools will offer a good education and a solid feeder pattern to MS and HS.

latin

Thanks, I forgot about Latin.

[Anonymous]

I would def +1 to Shepherd Park. You can get a very nice size house, feed to Deal, walkable access to diverse and lively areas Takoma Park and Siver Spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.

In what way? Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that. Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive. Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary. Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.

Unlike the schools west of Rock Creek Park, Shepherd is always going to lose a fair number of students to private schools in 4th or 5th grade, and replace them with OOB students. Many of the Shepherd IB families have no intention of sending their children, many of whom are black or AA, to Deal and Wilson.

PP here. That is certainly true historically, as many of the (mostly AA) high school kids in the neighborhood do not attend Wilson, instead opting for private, Walls, etc. However, that seems to be changing. In my kid's cohort (current 2nd graders), virtually all parents I know with kids currently at Shepherd have said they intend to send their kids on to Deal and Wilson. Of course, only time will tell, and certainly some will peel off to private etc. But there does seem to be more buy-in for Wilson now than there has been in the past.

Also, many families at schools west of the park also historically have done private after elementary. This is not something that is unique to Shepherd by any stretch. And I expect this will happen less and less across schools as privates get more expensive--not every family has 30-40K per kid to spare.

Only the Hardy feeders are comparable to Shepherd in this particular respect. At the Deal feeders, this is more distant history; there is no noticeable exodus in 5th.

And yes, the percentage of economically disadvantaged and OOB kids is what will make the school seem less desirable to many. If we're realistic, most people will not see a relatively high percentage of economically disadvantaged kids as an asset, even if it wouldn't necessarily deter them from enrolling in the school.

Lastly, and this is certainly a matter of personal preference, Shepherd has uniforms while the elementary schools WOTP don't. We attended a school with uniforms for PK, and it felt liberating to move on to a school that doesn't. Now OP might be used to uniforms if she is from Australia (unlike someone like myself from continental Europe), but she also mentioned she is looking for a progressive school, and uniforms are not exactly a sign of a progressive school culture in the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would def +1 to Shepherd Park. You can get a very nice size house, feed to Deal, walkable access to diverse and lively areas Takoma Park and Siver Spring.

Only small parts of SP can truly be considered walkable to Silver Spring or Takoma Park.