What do families that do not get into an acceptable middle school do?

[Anonymous]

You can the PARCC results for each feeder school and the DCCAS for the year prior.

No - DCI doesn't break it down once they are DCI students but children don't usually make a huge jump in proficiency from 5th to 6th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to be IB for Deal (and Wilson). If we didn't find a house we liked (or if we didn't think Deal/Wilson would be OK for our kid), we'd have moved to MD or VA (and we looked at houses in both these places).

One of my goals as a parent is to give my children the best education I can afford. Now, what each parent can afford and what they consider best is going to differ, but my point is that if you think best education would be achieved by moving and you can afford to do so, why not? I don't get the aversion people on this board have to moving to the suburbs.

If I'm going to move to the suburbs, I would move to Virginia before I'd move to upper NW.

How old are you? This canard is getting boresome.

The in-state tuition for UVA is reason enough. Why so aggressive? I'd rather live in VA than the dull upper NW. Sorry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I do not think this is true anymore, sadly enough.

I feel sorry for you. I really do.

But if you're right, then your own little HYP overachievers will just be the first up under the guillotine at some point. Do you really want to live in a world that polarized? That's where you want to put your kids? What a way to live.

If you want to bury your head in the sand, go right ahead. I don't care what you feel towards me. I would rather give my kids the best that I can by facing reality than some weird delusion that it will all work out somehow in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't buy into the hype. Well educated people have raised well educated children in this town for decades, not only in private schools I can tell you because I know enough to see the pattern. Not to say no one ever moved away. Many did and, still do, for schools maybe, but just as much because of housing or lifestyle issues (cars, a two-door garage, yards, dogs etc.). If you like living in the city and your house isn't forever pinching you, there are really plenty of "acceptable" options, and that's considering options before you get to Eliot-Hine, Jefferson, Brookland, which enough parents are considering "acceptable" these days for others to take notice.

What you're looking at in this discussion is a lot of insecurity from parents who themselves may not have a solid college education or who may have grown up in a homogeneous suburb and never known anything else or who may not have the disposable income their parents did to buy their way into a private school pipeline. All of them are looking at something new here, finding a new lifestyle, new type of schools. They may just not know what to look for and how, coming to these boards every so often in exacerbation (or maybe with an agenda, sometimes I wonder). If you're truly new to this, most important of all, take a deep breath. Then, rather than looking at middle school (and high school) in panic and grasping at these pseudo-scenarios of "moving to suburban nirvana", which by the way no longer exists as your parents can probably tell you, you need to arm yourself with facts and speak to people who've successfully moved through our school system, 2 years ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years. Deliberately ask for them, look for them, speak to them, ask them questions. In all likelihood, you'll find that what made them successful and happy with their achievements is their particular path, the support they got from their parents, opportunities they seized, the right investment at the right time, a tight-night relationship with neighbors, friends, and teachers. DCUM cannot help you with that, but your neighbors can.

Agree. as someone who grew up in the deep south, went to crappy public schools and then on to the big state school college (which was second tier), let me assure you, my friends and I all did fine (if we came from educated families - that is a big if though). I am a tenured college professor. brother graduated from an ivy law school. It's really ok not to go to good schools in your teens and to go to a "eh" college. You can still shine and end up exactly where you want to be. The 90s is not so different than now in this regard. However, if you are from a less high ses family, middle and high school may be more important.

The goal isn't a college name, the goal is a degree and profession you love. We got it. The latin kids will get a degree and a profession they love if they work hard at those colleges.

I actually find this sort of cute and charming. Love your throwback advice! This might have been true in the 50s, but it is not good advice in today's world.

[Anonymous]

The goal isn't a college name, the goal is a degree and profession you love. We got it. The latin kids will get a degree and a profession they love if they work hard at those colleges.


I actually find this sort of cute and charming. Love your throwback advice! This might have been true in the 50s, but it is not good advice in today's world.

Even today's typically lower-paid professions that its professionals "love" -- PhD scientific research, journalism, creative writing, math professor -- absolutely require top university educations to get actual jobs.

Well, I suppose the local features writer for the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal need not have attended Columbia School of Journalism (or Northwestern, or Michigan, etc) to land that job she loves. Okay, now that I think about it, I see PP's point. Renting a 1-bedroom apartment in Lubbock, Texas and working as a features writer for the 32,000-circulation Avlanche-Journal could be done with a degree from West Texas A&M. The tiny-market journalist could indeed "love" that job. The fact that few people reading DCUM or living in Washington DC might want that sort of career is immaterial as to whether the employee in question

1. worked hard at West Texas A& M
2. earned a degree from there
3. entered a profession related to that degree

1st PP is correct in her way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Many OOB kids get into Hardy and Hobson. Everyone gets into Basis. There are options.

Don't bank on this remaining the case. BASIS is planning to reduce the number of 5th grade openings from around 140 this lottery season to around 90 in fall 2017 even as demand increases steadily. Ask BASIS MS parents for confirmation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I do not think this is true anymore, sadly enough.

I feel sorry for you. I really do.

But if you're right, then your own little HYP overachievers will just be the first up under the guillotine at some point. Do you really want to live in a world that polarized? That's where you want to put your kids? What a way to live.

Well, I was a HYP overachiever and will like to give my kids the same opportunities. In DC, it does not look possible (for high SES, not underrepresented minority kid) unless you go private. Good bye.

Wilson got more kids into Harvard last year than NCS or St Alban's.

-- signed, 15 year Harvard interviewer

[Anonymous]

Is that true? How many was it?

[Anonymous]

Wilson had 3, the Cathedral schools one apiece.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson had 3, the Cathedral schools one apiece.

How many kids in the graduating class at Wilson vs the graduating classes at the Cathedral schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson had 3, the Cathedral schools one apiece.

How many kids in the graduating class at Wilson vs the graduating classes at the Cathedral schools?

We're the kids that got in from Wilson white?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson had 3, the Cathedral schools one apiece.

How many kids in the graduating class at Wilson vs the graduating classes at the Cathedral schools?

We're the kids that got in from Wilson white?

How about the Cathdral schools?

[Anonymous]

I find it pathetic that the self-described HYP overachiever did not know that there is a long history of admissions to highly selective colleges out of Wilson. Clearly lacking in research skills despite all that prestige. Students applying out of Wilson get a bump up in their acceptances because they are graduating from a high poverty urban school, despite the fact that those applying to top colleges are rarely the FARMs kids.

I may be alone here, but I want my children to go to schools where they will thrive academically, build a strong sense of self and develop lifelong friendships and I don't care if it is an Ivy or SLAC or whatever. Good luck with that plan to control your children's lives, it should lead to some joyful teenage years as your children discover your values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We moved to be IB for Deal (and Wilson). If we didn't find a house we liked (or if we didn't think Deal/Wilson would be OK for our kid), we'd have moved to MD or VA (and we looked at houses in both these places).

One of my goals as a parent is to give my children the best education I can afford. Now, what each parent can afford and what they consider best is going to differ, but my point is that if you think best education would be achieved by moving and you can afford to do so, why not? I don't get the aversion people on this board have to moving to the suburbs.

If I'm going to move to the suburbs, I would move to Virginia before I'd move to upper NW.

How old are you? This canard is getting boresome.

The in-state tuition for UVA is reason enough. Why so aggressive? I'd rather live in VA than the dull upper NW. Sorry.

snort. tearing it up in Fairfax!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And part of the problem with middle schools is that the high schools in DC (except perhaps Wilson) are a non-starter. So if you don't get into, e.g., Latin or BASIS and you live on the Hill, you're probably not going to try Stuart Hobson because where do you go from there? Pray for SWW? You're sure as hell not going to send your kid to Eastern.

It's a shame. We toured Eastern and it is a stunning facility. Just gorgeous. it was a 71 million dollar renovation, LEED certified.