OK. I'm game, what's so bad about Peabody/Watkins?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year, most students from those schools who wanted to get in eventually got in. If not right away, at some point over the summer. Although, that may have been the case for any student from any school.

Anonymous wrote:All got in where they wanted, with room to spare, everywhere in DC, PS and charters, including SH. The fear mongering is incredible. Why sacrifice your child's pivotal 5th grade experience?! And consider this: transferring your child into 5th at Watkins will not only lead to no ES graduation experience but to two years of lost opportunities and broken friendships, as by far not all Watkins students even go to Stuart-Hobson. Not to mention that whatever you think the worst case scenario is (God forbid someone's child would actually have to attend Eliot-Hine!) is really actually quite acceptable. Here you have it, no boosterism, plain informed assessment: I'd pick Eliot-Hine over St. Peters anytime.

Anonymous wrote:Why are you attacking a parent who is trying to do right by her kid? If you want to send your kid to Eliot Hine, please do so. I may do the same, but I owe it to my kid to think through the options. The three or four pro EH families really bug me with the guilting of other people. I'd be much more convinced by them if and when their kids attend EH.

Anonymous wrote:My point exactly! Mostly, however, the fear mongering is about how you really have to have the options figured out in 4th grade. My point: that's nonsense. You have (a) way more information about your child's learning habits and emerging pre-teen needs in 5th, and (b) you have many more options after 5th, charters, publics and privates. Those who tell you you won't get in at 6th are not telling you the truth. Sure, on March 15th you may not, but the truth is about who starts in late August. DCPS as well as charters are careful to never give you those numbers. Why I wonder. And I put that puzzle in context with the fact that although I have plenty of friends with kids that age, I don't know anybody who didn't eventually get in where they wanted to.
So, yes, absolutely, think your options through but consider the facts when doing so.

How did you develop such clarity and a command of the facts when so many others are suckers for lying alarmists?

[Anonymous]

^^ I think this is sarcastic.

[Anonymous]

If you're the type of parent who doesn't want to subject our child to 2 school/friend switches between 4th and 6th grade, how could you be the type of parent who can't tell your child for sure where he is going to be going to school the next year (and would be willing to move schools sometime between the first day and mid-October)? None of these situations are ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you're the type of parent who doesn't want to subject our child to 2 school/friend switches between 4th and 6th grade, how could you be the type of parent who can't tell your child for sure where he is going to be going to school the next year (and would be willing to move schools sometime between the first day and mid-October)? None of these situations are ideal.

I'm no more in the business of parenting than you are but here is what I tell my child:
5th grade is about getting ready for middle school. Your teacher(s) and we parents are helping you get organized and ready for that transition, which will come with many new things to be and learn. And here is our middle school. It's a fine school; they have their act together and the kids are nice. Let's go visit it; in fact, why don't you spend a day there with someone you know. You'll like it. There are a couple of other options that your mom/dad and I are looking into, namely [fill in the blanks]. We feel that some of these schools might be a good fit for you, so we go to open houses and may participate lotteries to see if we can get a seat there for you in the fall. Are there any specific things that you feel very strongly about while your mom/dad and I are out visiting these other schools?

While we parents may feel agonized over lotteries, kids are actually fine with it. That seems very fair to them. Other than that, we've found it not to be helpful to take our child around to tour schools, nor have we found it helpful to hear her/him us constantly fret over it, so we don't. Likewise, it's not useful to criticize any of the options. I've found that what our child most wants is to be assured that we know what we're doing and that we take charge of this. (I'm sure this will all be very different when high school choices roll around!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, most students from those schools who wanted to get in eventually got in. If not right away, at some point over the summer. Although, that may have been the case for any student from any school.

All got in where they wanted, with room to spare, everywhere in DC, PS and charters, including SH. The fear mongering is incredible. Why sacrifice your child's pivotal 5th grade experience?! And consider this: transferring your child into 5th at Watkins will not only lead to no ES graduation experience but to two years of lost opportunities and broken friendships, as by far not all Watkins students even go to Stuart-Hobson.

Not to mention that whatever you think the worst case scenario is (God forbid someone's child would actually have to attend Eliot-Hine!) is really actually quite acceptable. Here you have it, no boosterism, plain informed assessment: I'd pick Eliot-Hine over St. Peters anytime.

Why are you attacking a parent who is trying to do right by her kid? If you want to send your kid to Eliot Hine, please do so. I may do the same, but I owe it to my kid to think through the options. The three or four pro EH families really bug me with the guilting of other people.
I'd be much more convinced by them if and when their kids attend EH.

My point exactly! Mostly, however, the fear mongering is about how you really have to have the options figured out in 4th grade. My point: that's nonsense. You have (a) way more information about your child's learning habits and emerging pre-teen needs in 5th, and (b) you have many more options after 5th, charters, publics and privates. Those who tell you you won't get in at 6th are not telling you the truth. Sure, on March 15th you may not, but the truth is about who starts in late August. DCPS as well as charters are careful to never give you those numbers. Why I wonder. And I put that puzzle in context with the fact that although I have plenty of friends with kids that age, I don't know anybody who didn't eventually get in where they wanted to.
So, yes, absolutely, think your options through but consider the facts when doing so.

I don't understand that remark. The schools don't know who's actually going to show up on the first day - so many parents hang on to more than one option for as long as possible, or jump ship when something higher up on their list opens up. Nobody really knows anything for sure until the dust settles on Count Day. Why are you ascribing a dishonest motive here?

[Anonymous]

Oh, there is plenty of motive here! For example, a would like to be popular school (not just middle school, anyone really) will like to tell its constituencies that "oh, no, no, we're absolutely not taking and OOB students" where in fact by late August, and most definitely by Count Day, they do. This is to quiet the angst that "neighborhood" parents have of the drag downward OOB students are often blamed with. Charters are no different although their reasoning behind not disclosing actual enrollment numbers isn't quite the same. They just like to look like they have immense waitlists because that's what gets others to apply. The fair ground mentality of "if the lines are long, it must be good", so better make those lines look really long so as to get as many people as possible that are really desperate (aka invested). Etc.

[Anonymous]

Should have added, in higher ed, this number is called "the yield", a very difficult number to come by, akin to probing an industry secret. Except that DCPS nor charters around here are public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Should have added, in higher ed, this number is called "the yield", a very difficult number to come by, akin to probing an industry secret. Except that DCPS nor charters around here are public.

Some schools (charter and DCPS, I believe) actually publish their waitlists. I don't see them making up names for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Why are you attacking a parent who is trying to do right by her kid? If you want to send your kid to Eliot Hine, please do so. I may do the same, but I owe it to my kid to think through the options. The three or four pro EH families really bug me with the guilting of other people.

I'd be much more convinced by them if and when their kids attend EH.

I lost you, where are these three or four families? At Watkins? We've got them here at Maury and they're never short on hot air. If it weren't for the pigheaded Cluster leadership, Hill elementary schools with high-SES kids in the upper grades might have a chance of effectively lobbying the politicians to change the feeders and beef up teaching and curricular offerings to the point that most of us would stick around the Hill for MS. At S-H. The self-serving Cluster leadership is what's so bad about Peabody/Watkins.

[Anonymous]

^^^ I have to agree with this poster. There is some shared DNA among these groups of parents where downright awful education is deemed acceptable and demanding something better is deemed discriminatory. It is a major limiting factor for Capitol Hill and the district as a whole.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Amongst activists (EH & SH & elementary) there is a naive tendency to accept that DCPS will shortly begin to deliver high quality rigorous instruction with its current plan. A few boosters give the appearance of momentum, and they provide cover for DCPS and politicos. Well intentioned? Yes. Effective? No so much.

[Anonymous]

On the other hand, we don't want people to not be activists. It does have good outcomes. Libraries and early childhood programs and increased enrollment. I just wish there was more clear thinking and less hocus pocus cheerleading.

[Anonymous]

Instead of wielding insults left and right, why don't you take a little time out of your busy schedule to actually check these schools out that you so conveniently lump into one "shared DNA" basket. I have done just that - with many anyway - and have yet to find a principal at any of the Capitol Hill schools who'd not let you sit in and check out their rigor, assets, flaws and all.
Or are we now to pick schools based on parent DNA? How absurd.

[Anonymous]

^^^ Why do you assume we haven't? What if we have been into the schools, met the principals, talked to current and former families, and then come to our own conclusions?

[Anonymous]

Exactly! Been in, out and around and done all of the above. The shared DNA is people who think they have some kind of special awareness of what is true, right and desireable and judge people who disagree. It lines up with some evangelicals I have run into.