Lottery Consultant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

So TR's retention is low, is what you're saying. Why is it so low?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

I don't think this is actually true for ELA at TR4, at least. I think it is true for math.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

I don't think this is actually true for ELA at TR4, at least. I think it is true for math.

https://stossepublicdocsprod.blob.core.windows.net/public-docs/dc-school-report-card/2021-22/profiles/149-1152(Two%20Rivers%20PCS%20-%20Middle%20School).pdf

21-22 data. Two Rivers Middle School (6th-8th) is only 36% at-risk. Only 3% ELLs! Yet even so, only 32% are on grade level for math, and only 20% are on or above grade level for ELA. Its performance is slightly better than Wells middle school, which has 56% at-risk kids. It's about on par with DC Prep, which has 43% at-risk kids. So I do not think Two Rivers middle school has particularly good performance relative to its demographics.

If you want to compare to Inspired Teaching, you'd have to use the OSSE PARCC spreadsheets because ITS middle school isn't a separate LEA. ITS as a whole is onl 17% at-risk, but the middle school is higher for sure, maybe 20-25%, I'm not sure how to find that data. But ITS also posts proficiency scores for grades 6-8 that are far superior to Two Rivers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

I don't think this is actually true for ELA at TR4, at least. I think it is true for math.

https://stossepublicdocsprod.blob.core.windows.net/public-docs/dc-school-report-card/2021-22/profiles/149-1152(Two%20Rivers%20PCS%20-%20Middle%20School).pdf

21-22 data. Two Rivers Middle School (6th-8th) is only 36% at-risk. Only 3% ELLs! Yet even so, only 32% are on grade level for math, and only 20% are on or above grade level for ELA. Its performance is slightly better than Wells middle school, which has 56% at-risk kids. It's about on par with DC Prep, which has 43% at-risk kids. So I do not think Two Rivers middle school has particularly good performance relative to its demographics.

If you want to compare to Inspired Teaching, you'd have to use the OSSE PARCC spreadsheets because ITS middle school isn't a separate LEA. ITS as a whole is onl 17% at-risk, but the middle school is higher for sure, maybe 20-25%, I'm not sure how to find that data. But ITS also posts proficiency scores for grades 6-8 that are far superior to Two Rivers.

For some reason that link doesn't work. But you can get to it here: https://osse.dc.gov/dcschoolreportcard/schoolsnapshot And it's 32% on or above grade level ELA and 20% math, not the other way around. Sure it's better than various area schools, but relative to demographics it's not impressive at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From this thread, TR sounds awful:
https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1108405.page

OP here, is this true that TR is bad? They get great ratings…

That's because the bar for ratings is super low. If you control for income and look at the upper grades' test scores, you'll be alarmed.

I am no apologist for TR but you've unintentionally stumbled on one of the challenges of measuring success at TR. So very many kids peel off in 3rd, 4th and then in HUGE quantities in 5th that the demographics of the upper grades are very different than younger grades. To the extent that there are enough to report, the white, non-FARMS scores are on par with other schools dominated by that demo. The problem is that (1) most of the upper ES grades are not like the lower grades or broader TR population and (2) it says very little about TR's ability to succeed when these kids do well on tests.

I don't think this is actually true for ELA at TR4, at least. I think it is true for math.

https://stossepublicdocsprod.blob.core.windows.net/public-docs/dc-school-report-card/2021-22/profiles/149-1152(Two%20Rivers%20PCS%20-%20Middle%20School).pdf

21-22 data. Two Rivers Middle School (6th-8th) is only 36% at-risk. Only 3% ELLs! Yet even so, only 32% are on grade level for math, and only 20% are on or above grade level for ELA. Its performance is slightly better than Wells middle school, which has 56% at-risk kids. It's about on par with DC Prep, which has 43% at-risk kids. So I do not think Two Rivers middle school has particularly good performance relative to its demographics.

If you want to compare to Inspired Teaching, you'd have to use the OSSE PARCC spreadsheets because ITS middle school isn't a separate LEA. ITS as a whole is onl 17% at-risk, but the middle school is higher for sure, maybe 20-25%, I'm not sure how to find that data. But ITS also posts proficiency scores for grades 6-8 that are far superior to Two Rivers.

For some reason that link doesn't work. But you can get to it here: https://osse.dc.gov/dcschoolreportcard/schoolsnapshot And it's 32% on or above grade level ELA and 20% math, not the other way around. Sure it's better than various area schools, but relative to demographics it's not impressive at all.

13% of the school is white, down from 30 and 27% from the ES that feed it. The MS is 40% more at risk than the ES that feed it.The PARCC scores for the white kids is on par with "good schools". The increase in at risk and changed demographics tells you how many families flee before MS. That is why I say it is a challenge to nail down how well TR does or does not do in upper ES (when demographics change) and MS.

[Anonymous]

From the other thread it sounds like the real problem at TR is a subpar curriculum and an unwillingness to get control over classes, including in lower grades.

[Anonymous]

Now that there's My School DC and all of the info about the lottery and school data on line, less need for a consultant for public and charter schools.
.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We worked with a consultant (not EV) and found her helpful. Can you save money and do everything with the info on the internet? Totally. But it takes a lot of time, and there are a million rabbit holes. We were pretty well-informed, but the consultant helped us by talking through our priorities and offering suggestions for schools that met them that we might not otherwise have considered. We were trying to save ourselves some time in the money v. time tradeoff. In the end we got a terrible lottery number, but the consultant had also put a private school on our radar that ended up being a good fit and we're still there now. It wasn't a waste, but you can't expect the consultant to have a magic answer. In the end it is still a lottery.

Can you share this consultant's name/website/contact?

Lindsay Ferrer, https://www.leadconsulting.biz/pre-k-lottery-consultations

[Giggles hard at how easily DCUM parents are to separate from their money]

I was side eyeing your comment until I clicked the link.

Yup. She's charging for an intro on "DC Lottery Basics". My School DC literally wrote the book, pamphlet and video on the topic...and they are all free! I don't blame her. If entitled people with too much disposable income are too dumb and lazy to know better then goo for Lindsay.

So true. AND My School DC has a hotline! You can get high-quality and real-time advice!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We worked with a consultant (not EV) and found her helpful. Can you save money and do everything with the info on the internet? Totally. But it takes a lot of time, and there are a million rabbit holes. We were pretty well-informed, but the consultant helped us by talking through our priorities and offering suggestions for schools that met them that we might not otherwise have considered. We were trying to save ourselves some time in the money v. time tradeoff. In the end we got a terrible lottery number, but the consultant had also put a private school on our radar that ended up being a good fit and we're still there now. It wasn't a waste, but you can't expect the consultant to have a magic answer. In the end it is still a lottery.

Can you share this consultant's name/website/contact?

Lindsay Ferrer, https://www.leadconsulting.biz/pre-k-lottery-consultations

[Giggles hard at how easily DCUM parents are to separate from their money]

Whatever. Like I said, I know it was mostly publicly available information. But it was a lot of information. If it was worthwhile to me if I could spend $200 or whatever it was to save myself 4-5 or ten or whatever hours of research and spreadsheet making and lurking around DCUM trying to separate the wheat from the chaff. We all make tradeoffs in the time v. money game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a prek4 kid on the Hill. Happy to help you here with your list. We consulted with EV a few years ago, not worth the money.

Yes, same experience. Talk with as many other parents as you can. That's what we did when our kids were younger, and now we're the parents of older kids (MS and HS) who share our experiences with parents of younger kids. But remember that our experience - like that of any one family - is very limited, and that kids differ, as do their parents' priorities and situations.

The problem is if you don’t have anyone to talk to in person about these things. As new DC residents who moved during the pandemic, we had 0 DC friends with children. Everyone we know with kids is in NoVa. It was frustrating trying to navigate it alone. I poured through DC gov websites, ppts, my school DC, school sites, DCUM, past lottery data, really any information I could get my hands on, but this never really gets you to the same type of qualitative information that having a conversation with a real person does. Talking to the consultant gave me more context and understanding of the PK school landscape. But I’m someone who feels better when I have as much information as possible before making a decision.