Is the School Lottery System Transparent??

[Anonymous]

May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

Then move to Montgomery, Fairfax, Arlington, or other surrounding counties. It's not that difficult to commute into DC from the VA or MD.

[Anonymous]

Whoa whoa whoa. Ok, first you need to understand the admittedly crazy system. There are 4 ways into school.

1) Attend your in-bound school (starting at kindergarten). You do not need to lottery. You just need to sign up.
2) Attend a charter school. You will need to lottery. The vast majority of charter schools use the centralized lottery which is very transparent.
3) Attend an out-of-bound DCPS school. You will also need to lottery. This is through the centralized lottery.
4) Attend PK3 or PK4 which is all through lottery. Apart from the few charter schools that still have their own lotteries, you will go through the centralized system. If you are in bounds for a particular school or have siblings there, your chances are better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

This is pretty insulting OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

This is pretty insulting OP.

How so? I'm just stating a fact regarding public/charter schools in DC.

[Anonymous]

The lottery system now in place is highly transparent. It is the same system that is used for medical school matching. However, it is worth noting that a few charter schools choose not to participate in the unified lottery so they make up their own procedures.

If you are that worried about participating in the lottery to gain admission, you have two choices: 1) move in bounds to a good neighborhood school. Admission is automatically granted for all K-12 students to their in bound school; 2) move to a MD or VA suburb where you will have a wider selection of "good" neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Whoa whoa whoa. Ok, first you need to understand the admittedly crazy system. There are 4 ways into school.

1) Attend your in-bound school (starting at kindergarten). You do not need to lottery. You just need to sign up.
2) Attend a charter school. You will need to lottery. The vast majority of charter schools use the centralized lottery which is very transparent.
3) Attend an out-of-bound DCPS school. You will also need to lottery. This is through the centralized lottery.
4) Attend PK3 or PK4 which is all through lottery. Apart from the few charter schools that still have their own lotteries, you will go through the centralized system. If you are in bounds for a particular school or have siblings there, your chances are better.

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

Tell us what kind of property you want to buy. If it has to be more than a 1BR+den condo, good luck. At that price range you will have a very tough time with schools unless you are willing to embrace a newly gentrifying school. This is what we did and I'm very happy with it. But you will have a really tough time buying ANYTHING in a good school district at that price.

[Anonymous]

$450-550k, maybe around the Fort Totten area.

You can lottery for DC Bilingual, Bridges and Sela. Lamb would be a long shot.

[Anonymous]

How old are your kids OP?

[Anonymous]

OP, home and even condo prices in DC are really high. You MAY be able to find a fixer upper or a condo in the H Street Corridor area of Cap Hill, which has an up and coming elementary school, or in the NOMA area close by, also with the same. In both of these areas, there are in bounds and city wide lottery admission schools that are walking distance from home and have very involved parent communities. I live in this area (if you can't tell) and we are in a lottery only school but MANY of our neighbors attend also. City life has many perks but I agree with others, if thats not for you, try the suburbs where you can buy more home for your money and have more school stability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

This is pretty insulting OP.

OP. You should stick with looking at the suburbs. Your attitude won't be welcome. Plus, you are too poor to be looking down your nose at us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:May be moving to DC and am worried about the school situation. I have heard some of the lotteries are not truly blind. What is the deal with the school lotteries? So scary to move to a place where you're literally gambling with your child's education.

You are overstating the risk. If you want to go to a good school guaranteed, then buy or rent a home within the boundaries of a good school in Northwest DC. That way, you can try the lottery, but if you are not successful, you still receive a quality education by right.

Which neighborhoods are recommended with good in-bound schools for our budget ($450-550K)? See now why I would think we would be gambling with our child's education?

Tell us what kind of property you want to buy. If it has to be more than a 1BR+den condo, good luck. At that price range you will have a very tough time with schools unless you are willing to embrace a newly gentrifying school. This is what we did and I'm very happy with it. But you will have a really tough time buying ANYTHING in a good school district at that price.

OP, you want a burke townhouse and take the VRE into DC. Trust me, save yourself a lot of grief.