Is it important to have kids stay at your school through 5th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seems whether you stay or go, it's a shift for your kid if they've been with the same peer group for many years. If they leave, they are dealing with a new school and peer group. If they stay, they are dealing with missing the friends who did leave. It's a change no matter what.

+1, and in DC, most kids go through this a second time with HS, because between application high schools, charters, privates, and kids who leave the city for suburban schools, there's a ton of upheaval between MS and HS. You even see a lot of kids leaving before the terminal grade just like in elementary, because many families start out thinking they are fine with the feeder MS and then change their minds. Once you hit HS, grades matter for college admissions, and curriculum matters a lot too, so it's not uncommon to see kids leave for 7th or 8th as their parents decide they want to get them on track for whatever HS they are going to wind up at.

I know a lot of DC families who kind of shrug at this dynamic but I hate it and think it's sad how many kids in DC have these very transient experiences bouncing between schools and communities. We are planning to leave and this is a major factor why. I think DC has some great schools, but we don't want to have to move our kid around so much to access them, and our IB middle and high school leave a lot to be desired. We'd rather move once and be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems whether you stay or go, it's a shift for your kid if they've been with the same peer group for many years. If they leave, they are dealing with a new school and peer group. If they stay, they are dealing with missing the friends who did leave. It's a change no matter what.

+1, and in DC, most kids go through this a second time with HS, because between application high schools, charters, privates, and kids who leave the city for suburban schools, there's a ton of upheaval between MS and HS. You even see a lot of kids leaving before the terminal grade just like in elementary, because many families start out thinking they are fine with the feeder MS and then change their minds. Once you hit HS, grades matter for college admissions, and curriculum matters a lot too, so it's not uncommon to see kids leave for 7th or 8th as their parents decide they want to get them on track for whatever HS they are going to wind up at.

I know a lot of DC families who kind of shrug at this dynamic but I hate it and think it's sad how many kids in DC have these very transient experiences bouncing between schools and communities. We are planning to leave and this is a major factor why. I think DC has some great schools, but we don't want to have to move our kid around so much to access them, and our IB middle and high school leave a lot to be desired. We'd rather move once and be done.

This is us too. If you have more than one kid, you're potentially going through this twice if you don't get into a school with sibling preference or they are far enough apart in age that sibling preference doesn't help. What if the older kid lotteries into a good school, but then they're in highschool and the younger kid doesn't lottery into a good school - then you move including moving your older kid out at highschool age? No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Given the combined "upper school" for 4th and 5th grades at Brent, fewer parents are planning to stay for 5th and many are considering leaving before 4th. Families are looking beyond charter schools for 5th including parochial schools and other independents that expand in 5th. So sad.

[Anonymous]

We happily left our Deal feeder after 4th to take a charter lottery offer. Our child was happy for new opportunities and is having a much better experience than at our ES, academically and socially. We’d do it again in a heartbeat.