They do some years in upper grades, but you have to be able to pass the language exam in second grade and up. IMO, it's worth continuing to play the lottery since it gets you feeder rights to Wilson, but it's far from a sure thing (getting a good enough lottery number the year they make a few offers) and there are definite downsides to moving an older child to a new school a year or two before middle school. |
My DD and a few of her classmates from LAMB tried the Spanish lottery for Oyster in 5th grade a few years ago and all were accepted into Oyster after the language test and interview. So it does seem to be an option for the upper grades, with at least adequate Spanish skills. However, my daughter did not leave LAMB and is now happy at DCI. I think one of her classmates moved to Oyster, but not all of them. |
Was this 18-19? Looks like Oyster has about 50 kids on the waitlist for 5th grade each year - they let in 1 in 16-17, 0 in 17-18, 11 in 18-19, 0 in 20-21, and 3 in 20-21. So again, not impossible, but seems like your DD and her friends were all lucky enough to get a good number in a year they let in a decent number of kids. How did she find the Spanish test at that age? |
I guess it would have been 18-19. Good digging up of those numbers! I think she was comfortable with the test, but also really enjoyed the interview, strangely enough. We certainly didn't take lightly turning down a spot at Oyster, but I think we were hesitant to enter the DCPS system and were ready to give DCI a try and wanted a larger MS experience than would have been available at Adams. |