| I don't often see much about Shepherd. What little we do hear via friends is mostly positive. We live in Takoma. Rising 1st. Good numbers at both schools. |
| Personally, I prefer to stick with a school that does the basics well, so I'd pick Shepherd between the two of those. |
Doesn't Shepherd currently have a good middle and high school feeder? I've heard good things about the school in general. Also, sounds like it might be a better commute? |
| Shepherd. |
| OP. I commute to NE not far from IT. |
Thanks. Any reasoning? Do you have any experience with either school? Why don't I see that many posts about Shepherd? |
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I would choose Shepherd.
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Then definitely IT. Go with the more convenient school; both are great. |
That's it. Shepherd is very convenient as well. Almost walkable. About 10 blocks. DH works in Bethesda so literally passes Shepherd every day. Sorry should have added that. |
| I've heard Shepherd is great early on but still developing for later grades, but I don't really know. Can you talk to current parents at both schools? |
| We had the choice and went to IT. Very happy there. Solid teachers and "creative" learning along with the basics. |
| Great that they are both convenient! I posted this in the other thread, but I would frame this as "these are two great options, so I can't go wrong." And then if you really don't have a preference, go with whatever you put first in your lottery application. Good luck! |
13:37. Not convinced the IT model is sustainable for upper grades (beyond 1st). I also think Shepherd is doing the best job in the city educating at risk and minority kids which is their majority population. |
Minority, yes. At-risk, no. Shepherd is 15% at-risk (as of 14-15) and is a case where it is absolutely not appropriate to conflate the two terms. And I think ITS has some pretty good evidence behind their model (at least in terms of student test scores), but it is a young school and certainly less established than Shepherd. Which is probably good and bad. |
I wouldn't say at risk. Yes they are high minority but very low at risk. They are not the same you know. |