If quality of education is your only priority, are there any reasons to live in DC...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I wasn't raised in a suburb, I don't like suburbs, I don't want to raise children in a suburb. My children are all smart, and will succeed no matter what--in fact, I would prefer them not to be in an environment chock full of kumon, travel sports, and AP classes for the sake of "rigor." Life is rigor. Living it should be interesting. Being ferried by school bus or suv from one subdivision to another, with the occasional meal at le pain quotidien or the cheesecake factory, sounds like hell.


That's fine. You don't prioritize education in the same way OP does.

Yes, because nothing says prioritizing education like a rich suburban public school, where sports are a mere aside to the true focus of the life of the mind.

haha

I can't wait for the evidence of these rich suburban public schools and their celebrations of the true focus of the life of the mind! All those stories about sex clubs, drugs, and gun violence are made up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

If quality of education is your only priority, your kids are bright and hard working and you can swing 35K per child per year for high school, you do very well in DC, the city with a number of the country's top-performing private schools. The rest of us live under a dark cloud of mediocrity, charter lottery stress, dead end middle school feeds, increasing crowding in the Deal feeders and at Wilson and Deal. I always get bummed out when I check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in the early spring. Wilson produces one, two or three, and so does Walls, and that's it from public schools, year in and year out. Meanwhile, many a suburban high school produces 10, 15, 20, even dozens at TJ and the Blair Montgomery magnets.

Are you really so terrified of raising a mediocre child? Do you really check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semnifinalists every year? If your child is National Merit material, isn't it better do be one of two or three than twenty? Is your metric of success really this narrow and small?

And if you're right? Why the hell is the DMV such a mess? Is that by design? Because I'm not sure it took a national merit scholarship semifinalist to give us the beltway, or the Metro's lack of financing, or our country's collapsing infrastructure. Or Donald Trump.

Not terrified of much, other than perhaps the current crime spike on Cap Hill (neighbor robbed at knife point two weeks ago in front of his house). But I'm not impressed with many DC public schools.

I find the National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists lists useful as an acid test of relative high school quality in the Metro area, helping me discern trends. School leaders, parents and admins can always tout a high school's quality, but if said school can't produced a single NMSS year after year, you might want to ask yourself how good the school really is. E.g. Banneker doesn't produce NMSS students, and Washington Latin hasn't yet. Many well known private schools fall down on a NMSS per capita measure, too, producing little more than the national average of 1% of test takers. Meanwhile, Washington Lee in Arlington adds a couple semifinalists every year without getting much larger. When I first started checking, a decade ago, Washington Lee would produce two or three semifinalists a year. Now they produce a dozen. Meanwhile, Wilson and Walls continue to generate 1, 2 or 3 semifinalists each, never more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are like 6 threads going on this right now.

OP I recommend you move to San Diego. Schools are good and weather is amazing.

Nah. She'd have to move to the 'burbs for the best schools in SD County (i.e., Poway). Schools in SD itself aren't uniformly great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

DC TAG actually makes this a better deal for DC residents as you have hundreds of options, not just your one state school or system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

DC TAG actually makes this a better deal for DC residents as you have hundreds of options, not just your one state school or system.

However DCTAG relies on Congress to fund it each year. It only has funds for 2016 and 2017, and a means test (now high but will decrease) is in place. Its biggest GOP advocate in Congress - John Boehner - is gone.

It is a good program but don't make a real estate decision based on it. I'm not at all confident it will exist when my 9th and 6th graders go to college, much less for an elementary aged child.

If you want to help advocate for it, there's a Facebook page of parents who support it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It takes a big dose of privilege to dismiss other parents' desire for traditionally good schools.

Takes an even bigger one to dismiss every parent who speaks about their positive experience with city schools as someone who "doesn't value education." Seriously, want to talk about privilege? Let's talk about your breathtaking entitlement to a lifestyle with two giant cars, a single family house, driving everywhere, and living in an economically segregated community. You think you have the right to do that because you grew up poor, or something? You think I did not--or, if I did, I just don't "value education?" You think poor people don't value education? Because I suspect your own parents might take some offense at that.

Holy cow you are defensive. OP states that education is her "only priority." I reply that probably DC schools are not a good fit because they are for people who value other things or feel comfortable compromising. Where do you make the leap that I'm saying no DC parents value education? I never said that. All I said was that people who ONLY value education probably won't find what they are looking for. PS there is a lot more to the suburbs than giant cars and houses. Ever have a conversation with a hard working taxi driver from Ethiopia or Ghana? Where do you think they are living and sending their kids to school? Generally, not DCPS.

Because they can't afford to live in DC in the neighborhood they want generally. The ones I know don't even have kids and live outside. Right there near Landmark mall, Bailey's crossroads and Duke street. Many Ethiopians came here early 90s and DC had more crime. Doubt they were thinking about education as much as not living in Barry city and joining other Ethiopians.
The schools seem so meh there to be though right now. We are moving out of DC because of we can't afford 3-bedroom in NWDC where we like to live and live now. Need a bigger home ultimately and we are working on saving for it and would regardless of kids or not. DH also works in Virginia, so there is a lot to think about.
I can also say that if education is your nr 1, why not move to South Korea or to Finland.
"OP states that education is her "only priority."" If that's what she is saying, we think our IB DCPS is the best for DC. I actually didn't even understand what she said or why she said it after there already was a thread on it or even 10.
We live a block away from small upper NW elementary school. It was recently beautifully redone and I believe it has under 300 kids. There schools is very international and DH and I are both from abroad as you probably already guessed. I have no reason to think that the ABC's they teach there are lesser than the ABC's of suburbia. I actually contacted a school abroad and they are sending their schooling material here. I'd do it even if we didn't live in the city. As of right now, we could move so DH would have a better commute (rent is cheap in VA), but we pay mortgage here and just love the school.
OP, tell me again how well the ABC's are taught in schools in suburbia vs the school we chose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:rather than Arlington or Bethesda? I ask because my child will enter kindergarten this year, I rent, and I am willing to move wherever is necessary.

Yes, move to upper NW, choose the smallest school, move as close as possible. Now you are all set for the next 6 years, then ask again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wasn't raised in a suburb, I don't like suburbs, I don't want to raise children in a suburb. My children are all smart, and will succeed no matter what--in fact, I would prefer them not to be in an environment chock full of kumon, travel sports, and AP classes for the sake of "rigor." Life is rigor. Living it should be interesting. Being ferried by school bus or suv from one subdivision to another, with the occasional meal at le pain quotidien or the cheesecake factory, sounds like hell.

Alrighty then...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

DC TAG actually makes this a better deal for DC residents as you have hundreds of options, not just your one state school or system.

Not in terms of money! DC TAG is 10k; out of state tuition is up near 50k at some publics now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

DC TAG actually makes this a better deal for DC residents as you have hundreds of options, not just your one state school or system.

Not in terms of money! DC TAG is 10k; out of state tuition is up near 50k at some publics now.

I don't think this program is sustainable if there are more college bound students then before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If quality of education is your only priority, your kids are bright and hard working and you can swing 35K per child per year for high school, you do very well in DC, the city with a number of the country's top-performing private schools. The rest of us live under a dark cloud of mediocrity, charter lottery stress, dead end middle school feeds, increasing crowding in the Deal feeders and at Wilson and Deal. I always get bummed out when I check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in the early spring. Wilson produces one, two or three, and so does Walls, and that's it from public schools, year in and year out. Meanwhile, many a suburban high school produces 10, 15, 20, even dozens at TJ and the Blair Montgomery magnets.

Are you really so terrified of raising a mediocre child? Do you really check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semnifinalists every year? If your child is National Merit material, isn't it better do be one of two or three than twenty? Is your metric of success really this narrow and small?

And if you're right? Why the hell is the DMV such a mess? Is that by design? Because I'm not sure it took a national merit scholarship semifinalist to give us the beltway, or the Metro's lack of financing, or our country's collapsing infrastructure. Or Donald Trump.

Not terrified of much, other than perhaps the current crime spike on Cap Hill (neighbor robbed at knife point two weeks ago in front of his house). But I'm not impressed with many DC public schools.

I find the National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists lists useful as an acid test of relative high school quality in the Metro area, helping me discern trends. School leaders, parents and admins can always tout a high school's quality, but if said school can't produced a single NMSS year after year, you might want to ask yourself how good the school really is. E.g. Banneker doesn't produce NMSS students, and Washington Latin hasn't yet. Many well known private schools fall down on a NMSS per capita measure, too, producing little more than the national average of 1% of test takers. Meanwhile, Washington Lee in Arlington adds a couple semifinalists every year without getting much larger. When I first started checking, a decade ago, Washington Lee would produce two or three semifinalists a year. Now they produce a dozen. Meanwhile, Wilson and Walls continue to generate 1, 2 or 3 semifinalists each, never more.

That is surprising and probably speaks in part to the lack of a gifted program in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

If quality of education is your only priority, your kids are bright and hard working and you can swing 35K per child per year for high school, you do very well in DC, the city with a number of the country's top-performing private schools. The rest of us live under a dark cloud of mediocrity, charter lottery stress, dead end middle school feeds, increasing crowding in the Deal feeders and at Wilson and Deal. I always get bummed out when I check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists in the early spring. Wilson produces one, two or three, and so does Walls, and that's it from public schools, year in and year out. Meanwhile, many a suburban high school produces 10, 15, 20, even dozens at TJ and the Blair Montgomery magnets.

Are you really so terrified of raising a mediocre child? Do you really check Metro area lists of National Merit Scholarship Semnifinalists every year? If your child is National Merit material, isn't it better do be one of two or three than twenty? Is your metric of success really this narrow and small?

And if you're right? Why the hell is the DMV such a mess? Is that by design? Because I'm not sure it took a national merit scholarship semifinalist to give us the beltway, or the Metro's lack of financing, or our country's collapsing infrastructure. Or Donald Trump.

Not terrified of much, other than perhaps the current crime spike on Cap Hill (neighbor robbed at knife point two weeks ago in front of his house). But I'm not impressed with many DC public schools.

I find the National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists lists useful as an acid test of relative high school quality in the Metro area, helping me discern trends. School leaders, parents and admins can always tout a high school's quality, but if said school can't produced a single NMSS year after year, you might want to ask yourself how good the school really is. E.g. Banneker doesn't produce NMSS students, and Washington Latin hasn't yet. Many well known private schools fall down on a NMSS per capita measure, too, producing little more than the national average of 1% of test takers. Meanwhile, Washington Lee in Arlington adds a couple semifinalists every year without getting much larger. When I first started checking, a decade ago, Washington Lee would produce two or three semifinalists a year. Now they produce a dozen. Meanwhile, Wilson and Walls continue to generate 1, 2 or 3 semifinalists each, never more.

That is surprising and probably speaks in part to the lack of a gifted program in DC.

oh wait - less surprised. I just looked it up, and national merit semifinalists are 0.5% of a state's seniors. That is why DC has numerically few (small population) and the NOVA schools have so many (sucking up the rest of the large state's allocation).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you are the type to prioritize "whatever is necessary" in education, you are not going to find what you are looking for in DC. There are jusy too many compromises, which people make in order to stay living in DC. Nobody moves to DC *for* the schools. And then for college you face the lack of any public option ... This isn't to say you can't get an adequate education, especially for the very little ones, but if it is your #1 priority ... yeah, you probably aren't staying in DC.

DC TAG actually makes this a better deal for DC residents as you have hundreds of options, not just your one state school or system.

Not in terms of money! DC TAG is 10k; out of state tuition is up near 50k at some publics now.

I don't think this program is sustainable if there are more college bound students then before.

Exactly. The DCPS boosters here are very "let them eat cake." Sure DCPS is great! All you need is to buy a 1 mil+ house zoned for Wilson or win the charter lottery, plus have an extra 80-100k lying around for college since we have no public option!

[Anonymous]

This thread is so ridiculous

Anyone with a half brain knows you ultimately either live in Wilson district, send your kid to a private, or get the heck out of DC if you have kids

All these defenders of DCPS are crazy one-offs concerned more with class size, some weird new curicculum, or people who lucked out the charter system and haven't hit middle or high school yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so ridiculous

Anyone with a half brain knows you ultimately either live in Wilson district, send your kid to a private, or get the heck out of DC if you have kids

All these defenders of DCPS are crazy one-offs concerned more with class size, some weird new curicculum, or people who lucked out the charter system and haven't hit middle or high school yet

What is wrong with the charter school options for middle and high school? I have friends with kids at both Latin and BASIS and they seem very happy. And I've heard good things about DCI. No one I know is getting the heck out of DC. I live on Capitol hill. If we wanted to leave it would be a snap to sell and make a huge profit on the sale, but we aren't interested. I think my kids are getting a far better education that I did as a kid in rural Oregon.