How does a 'safety" school turn into a highly regarded one?

[Anonymous]

I was reading another thread about what choose if you don't get into your desired school. There are several 'safety schools I see -Burroughs, Langley, Langdon, Sela, Bancroft, Garrison, JO Wilson, Takoma, etc.

Question 1 - What are the safety schools?

Question 2 - How do they become Highly Regarded/ Desired?

[Anonymous]

I believe neither Takoma nor Bancroft have admitted OOB this year, for PK3. So not a safety unless you are IB.

Appletree CH was a safety this year (admitted everyone who lotteried).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was reading another thread about what choose if you don't get into your desired school. There are several 'safety schools I see -Burroughs, Langley, Langdon, Sela, Bancroft, Garrison, JO Wilson, Takoma, etc.

Question 1 - What are the safety schools?

Question 2 - How do they become Highly Regarded/ Desired?

the issue is that none of these "safety" schools is acceptable to 99% of the High SES families for anythign past 1st grade. Garrison has a ton of boosters but lets get real, the high income families are not keeping their kids in there. Maybe JO Wilson is starting to get a critical mass moving up in each grade.

[Anonymous]

Bruce Monroe only let in two IB englsih dominant families off their IB waitlist this year. That doesn't mean its a good school or a safety for the long haul.

[Anonymous]

It's not that simple. I think there's still a fairly small universe of schools EOTP that people on this site consider acceptable past 1st. Nobody in DC really needs to bolt for suburbs or WOTP if they can afford it until after a few spins on the lottery wheel.

[Anonymous]

By having or offering a guaranteed feeder to an acceptable middle school. That is really the only thing that works.

[Anonymous]

Having entire elementary classes "churn" by first grade helps no one. None of these schools will ever go anywhere if families don't invest in them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Having entire elementary classes "churn" by first grade helps no one. None of these schools will ever go anywhere if families don't invest in them.

It churns for a reason. Resolving those reasons is the answer. Lack of middle school options will usually be one of the main reasons.

[Anonymous]

A safety school is a school that you would be willing to attend, that accepted a significant number OOB students last year (like maybe 20% of the class). Or a charter that went through most of its waitlist.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having entire elementary classes "churn" by first grade helps no one. None of these schools will ever go anywhere if families don't invest in them.

It churns for a reason. Resolving those reasons is the answer. Lack of middle school options will usually be one of the main reasons.

One of those reasons: JKLM (and Stoddert) parents squatting in EOTP schools until they get by-right entry to K. Let's just stop that.

[Anonymous]

I think some of the churn is innocent. People move, people leave town, and when people move to the suburbs for a better school they may be moving a preschooler as a younger sibling. But it is a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having entire elementary classes "churn" by first grade helps no one. None of these schools will ever go anywhere if families don't invest in them.

It churns for a reason. Resolving those reasons is the answer. Lack of middle school options will usually be one of the main reasons.

One of those reasons: JKLM (and Stoddert) parents squatting in EOTP schools until they get by-right entry to K. Let's just stop that.

Oh, you just stop that. You know full well that Ward 3 parents are a tiny fraction of the churn. The vast majority are EOTP parents who play the lottery again and again until they get into one of the few highly regarded schools, and if not, they move. Very few plan on staying at their IB school beyond PreK, unless it happens to be one of the few desirable ones.

[Anonymous]

Be careful, OP. Last year's safety schools are probably much less safe now. It really can change quite a bit in a year if there is a change in leadership or if it's on the cusp of being considered acceptable. If a few families give it a chance and they are pleased with it, you can expect an influx of kids. They will still leave by 1st grade, but the school will be fine for preschool and will gradually make progress until it hits the Wall of No Middle School Options in 3rd-4th-5th.

You can look at some of last year's data here: https://public.tableau.com/profile/ceyde#!/vizhome/FINALYr2R1ResultsDashboards_3-31-15/CountsDashboard This is just Round 1 data so it doesn't reflect waitlist movement over the summer, which at safety schools may be considerable.

I think any school that had more than 50% OOB students is a school you could consider safe this year.

[Anonymous]

You can also use this data: http://dcps.dc.gov/node/1150887

[Anonymous]

One of those reasons: JKLM (and Stoddert) parents squatting in EOTP schools until they get by-right entry to K. Let's just stop that.


Oh, you just stop that. You know full well that Ward 3 parents are a tiny fraction of the churn. The vast majority are EOTP parents who play the lottery again and again until they get into one of the few highly regarded schools, and if not, they move. Very few plan on staying at their IB school beyond PreK, unless it happens to be one of the few desirable ones.

+1

For one, we can afford to actually pay for one of our many excellent neighborhood nursery schools. I can't think of a single household in which the parents said, You know what? Let's drive from 39th and Fessenden over to Woodridge every day, twice a day, and then back to our jobs at Farragut North so we can save the $10K we'd spend on PS3.