Feeling sad about striking out for PK3 and Pk4, any advice on K strategy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See you in silver spring soon

The schools in silver spring are terrible.

Ah, yes, the "the schools in Silver Spring are terrible" poster has arrived. Those of us who are very happy with our Silver Spring schools beg to differ.

There are people who are happy on well fare, what does that prove? I don't think the schools are better than what one we find in Brookland IB. Just look at what is happening in the Silver Spring schools within the last couple of weeks. Haven't seen that here in years. Our schools are getting better and yours are getting worse.

What has happened in Silver Spring?

Girl stabbed in front of eastern middle school by an illegal and another illegal brought an stolen car with a gun in it to Einstein high school. Not to mention the illegals that ran a train on a 14 year old during school hours in a bathroom in Rockville

2 of those things weren't in Silver Spring. The one that was didn't happen in a school.

Last year, Silver Spring had a little less than 3% of the violent crime that DC had, with a little more than 10% of the population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:See you in silver spring soon

The schools in silver spring are terrible.

Ah, yes, the "the schools in Silver Spring are terrible" poster has arrived. Those of us who are very happy with our Silver Spring schools beg to differ.

There are people who are happy on well fare, what does that prove? I don't think the schools are better than what one we find in Brookland IB. Just look at what is happening in the Silver Spring schools within the last couple of weeks. Haven't seen that here in years. Our schools are getting better and yours are getting worse.

What has happened in Silver Spring?

Girl stabbed in front of eastern middle school by an illegal and another illegal brought an stolen car with a gun in it to Einstein high school. Not to mention the illegals that ran a train on a 14 year old during school hours in a bathroom in Rockville

Nice wording.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Residents of Brookland are way too concerned with getting into charter schools. It's a mindset thing. And also because so many charters are sitting right there, so that early adopters of those never had to think too hard whether they are really worth the hype. Well, I'm here to tell you they are not. If you embrace your IB or near-IB option, you can make that work to your advantage, and to your child's, as another PP suggested. Stop looking at it as a loss/strike-out and see it as an opportunity, with upsides of being close, of getting some TLC, of teachers actually caring that you and your child are there and happy, of everyone knowing your child (because they care to and the schools aren't so big and transient), of dealing with level-headed parents rather than Type A wrecks on most days.

Sorry but our IB is just not embraceable. Over time it could get better, buy not fast enough for DD. I wish I felt like work would improve it, but volunteering this year and last has been an eye-opening experience. He needs are so great, the funding so inadequate, and the administration so underwhelming, that parents just aren't going to be able to get us there. If it were as easy as you seem to think, DCPS would be very different. And still, what about middle school, am I supposed to fix that too, in my copious free time?

Guess what-- several charters are closer to my house than any neighborhood school. Dysfunctional, poorly performing neighborhood schools do not have a monopoly on TLC. The aides at our school are, frankly, rather harsh to the kids, and it has been a huge battle just to get them to go outside and stop showing Disney movies on instructional time. And I'll take Type A parents any day over the parents at our not-so-level-headed parents who mistreat their kids and feud with the principal. What makes you think anyone cares that my family is there? Get real. The problems with DCPS could be fixed if DCPS were our partner in doing so, but sometimes it feels like we are outright adversaries.

So are you at Bunker? Inquiring minds...that's my IB...

Noyes supposed to be improving as well. Then there's always Bethune?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Residents of Brookland are way too concerned with getting into charter schools. It's a mindset thing. And also because so many charters are sitting right there, so that early adopters of those never had to think too hard whether they are really worth the hype. Well, I'm here to tell you they are not. If you embrace your IB or near-IB option, you can make that work to your advantage, and to your child's, as another PP suggested. Stop looking at it as a loss/strike-out and see it as an opportunity, with upsides of being close, of getting some TLC, of teachers actually caring that you and your child are there and happy, of everyone knowing your child (because they care to and the schools aren't so big and transient), of dealing with level-headed parents rather than Type A wrecks on most days.

Sorry but our IB is just not embraceable. Over time it could get better, buy not fast enough for DD. I wish I felt like work would improve it, but volunteering this year and last has been an eye-opening experience. He needs are so great, the funding so inadequate, and the administration so underwhelming, that parents just aren't going to be able to get us there. If it were as easy as you seem to think, DCPS would be very different. And still, what about middle school, am I supposed to fix that too, in my copious free time?

Guess what-- several charters are closer to my house than any neighborhood school. Dysfunctional, poorly performing neighborhood schools do not have a monopoly on TLC. The aides at our school are, frankly, rather harsh to the kids, and it has been a huge battle just to get them to go outside and stop showing Disney movies on instructional time. And I'll take Type A parents any day over the parents at our not-so-level-headed parents who mistreat their kids and feud with the principal. What makes you think anyone cares that my family is there? Get real. The problems with DCPS could be fixed if DCPS were our partner in doing so, but sometimes it feels like we are outright adversaries.

So are you at Bunker? Inquiring minds...that's my IB...

Noyes supposed to be improving as well. Then there's always Bethune?

Not gonna say, sorry

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You should be applying to Bridges and Inspired Teaching. Both are excellent schools and nearby.

Also look in to Cap City. Bunker Hill. CMI. You won't likely like all of these schools but you will like one and should include that on your list. At K you can start including DCPS schools. Perhaps Shepard.

Do you need to change your strategy? Probably. Will you end up with a school you are pleased with? Probably. Will it be perfect? No school is.

Inspired teaching has 3 K spots last year and probably the same this year. Its up there with CMI-next to impossible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should be applying to Bridges and Inspired Teaching. Both are excellent schools and nearby.

Also look in to Cap City. Bunker Hill. CMI. You won't likely like all of these schools but you will like one and should include that on your list. At K you can start including DCPS schools. Perhaps Shepard.

Do you need to change your strategy? Probably. Will you end up with a school you are pleased with? Probably. Will it be perfect? No school is.

Inspired teaching has 3 K spots last year and probably the same this year. Its up there with CMI-next to impossible.

Huh? On the public tableau site it says they offered 14 this year. 10 last year and then 35 waitlist offers were made.

[Anonymous]

I am wondering what your 'right to attend school' is?? We toured Bunker Hill today and it seemed like a nice school. Big bright class rooms, long term teachers and a new principal that is trying and has made improvements. We also struck out on our charters and added a few nearby DCPS to our 2nd lottery list. We got low 100s for a few of the charter schools but most were 300s or above. Even with waiting unitl the 2nd round I think our highest PCS number was in the 30s. (But then we also figured it wasn't worth adding the higher wait list schools.
We have been ofeed a Prk3 seat at Bunker Hill. I would love any feed back possible on the school.

1st round lottery:
Mundo Verde Bilingual PCS
Creative Minds International PCS
Lee Montessori PCS
Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS (Spanish Language Program)
Two Rivers PCS at 4th Street
Shining Stars Montessori Academy PCS
Bridges PCS
E.L. Haynes PCS – Elementary School
Two Rivers PCS at Young
Washington Yu Ying PCS

2nd 'round' we added:

Burroughs Elementary School
Raymond Education Campus
Dorothy I. Height Elementary School
Barnard Elementary School
Truesdell Education Campus
Bunker Hill Elementary School

Capitol Hill Montessori School @ Logan
DC Bilingual PCS

[mcjd79]

Anonymous wrote:As someone also in Brookland, we had many of your schools on our list but also added some good (better) DCPS like Bruce Monroe and even Langley. I see both of these on the upswing. Then you may also be able to get into Seaton, Garrison or even Cleveland over in Shaw area. These too are going to be not exactly "safety" but everything on your list requires a super number. They may be mainly full with IB but I think chances are higher. I understand disappointment with our local DCPS in this neighborhood, they really should be better by now.

If more 'new' higher SES families would go to their IB schools and invest in the community resources could come more quickly. There won't be great neighborhood choices until attention is drawn the needs of DCPS neighborhood schools and more funding. DC needs to spot opening charter schools and invest in neighborhood schools. Which is very long over due.

[Anonymous]

mcjd79 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone also in Brookland, we had many of your schools on our list but also added some good (better) DCPS like Bruce Monroe and even Langley. I see both of these on the upswing. Then you may also be able to get into Seaton, Garrison or even Cleveland over in Shaw area. These too are going to be not exactly "safety" but everything on your list requires a super number. They may be mainly full with IB but I think chances are higher. I understand disappointment with our local DCPS in this neighborhood, they really should be better by now.

If more 'new' higher SES families would go to their IB schools and invest in the community resources could come more quickly. There won't be great neighborhood choices until attention is drawn the needs of DCPS neighborhood schools and more funding. DC needs to spot opening charter schools and invest in neighborhood schools. Which is very long over due.

Not really. There are just not enough higher-SES families in the school system.

Look at the DC-wide equity report.

87,000 students in DCPS and Charters combined
79.5% are economically disadvantaged

http://learndc.org/schoolprofiles/view?s=dc#equityreport

[Anonymous]

mcjd79 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone also in Brookland, we had many of your schools on our list but also added some good (better) DCPS like Bruce Monroe and even Langley. I see both of these on the upswing. Then you may also be able to get into Seaton, Garrison or even Cleveland over in Shaw area. These too are going to be not exactly "safety" but everything on your list requires a super number. They may be mainly full with IB but I think chances are higher. I understand disappointment with our local DCPS in this neighborhood, they really should be better by now.

If more 'new' higher SES families would go to their IB schools and invest in the community resources could come more quickly. There won't be great neighborhood choices until attention is drawn the needs of DCPS neighborhood schools and more funding. DC needs to spot opening charter schools and invest in neighborhood schools. Which is very long over due.

Ha! Not on my dime. More charters, please!

[Anonymous]

The thing about it is that if you stick with the lottery long enough, you will eventually get a good lottery number. It's an endurance test as much as anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, DD just failed the lottery again. We will remain at our EOTP Title I for PK4, but what are her prospects for K? What should be on our list as I bid the dream of LAMB and Yu Ying farewell? We live in Brookland. Do any HRCS or just moderately-RCS add a classroom at K?

you could try Hyde Addison next year - they will still be in the Meyer swing space & will have K slots open. But then after that, you'd have to commute to school in G-town... but a super great school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi all, DD just failed the lottery again. We will remain at our EOTP Title I for PK4, but what are her prospects for K? What should be on our list as I bid the dream of LAMB and Yu Ying farewell? We live in Brookland. Do any HRCS or just moderately-RCS add a classroom at K?

you could try Hyde Addison next year - they will still be in the Meyer swing space & will have K slots open. But then after that, you'd have to commute to school in G-town... but a super great school!

Thanks... but yeah, that's pretty far, considering that we both work and live in Brookland.

I guess I'm wondering whether to change up our list with a lot more safety schools for K, or hold out until sibling preference kicks in at 1st. It would suck to move DD for one year, only to move again at 1st.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would think very seriously about moving out of DC. We struck out for both the 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries. It sucks to have to uproot our family's life at this point. Had I been able to see the future, I would prefer to move when my kids were your age so that we could keep building our roots in a community instead of starting over again.

Yes - things change every year on the school scene, but you now know how it feels to 'lose' the lottery two years in a row. And I think the stakes are lower for elementary than middle/high school so whatever disapppointment, discontent, unhappiness you're feeling - imagine that magnified several times over if you again don't have lottery luck at middle school/high school time.

Thanks for this perspective, PP. I worry about this a lot.

-NP

Meh. We moved out of the city at the end of 5th grade because we didn't like our middle school options. I'm not at all sorry we stayed as long as we did; DC1's elementary school experience was great. And DC2's elementary experience in Arlington was great, too. And I have no doubt that DC1's middle and high school experiences were better than we could have gotten in DCPS.

In my experience, 5th graders in DCPS tend to scatter to the winds for middle school anyway (this would definitely have been the case for DC1), so we didn't feel like we were "uprooting" really. DC1 would have had to start over in a school knowing very few kids whether we stayed in DCPS or not.

We loved our city neighborhood, but we've loved our Arlington neighborhood, too. No regrets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You should be applying to Bridges and Inspired Teaching. Both are excellent schools and nearby.

Also look in to Cap City. Bunker Hill. CMI. You won't likely like all of these schools but you will like one and should include that on your list. At K you can start including DCPS schools. Perhaps Shepard.

Do you need to change your strategy? Probably. Will you end up with a school you are pleased with? Probably. Will it be perfect? No school is.

Inspired teaching has 3 K spots last year and probably the same this year. Its up there with CMI-next to impossible.

Huh? On the public tableau site it says they offered 14 this year. 10 last year and then 35 waitlist offers were made.

+1.

OP, we played the lottery for my incoming Ker for 2016/2017. He got a decent master wait list number - his highest number was in the mid-50s, i think. By mid-summer he had offers from Hyde Addison and Frances Stevens. ultimately, he got into K at Inspired Teaching off of the wait list with zero preferences. Mind you, he got a spot the day before school started, which was a little insane but doable. His original wait list number for Inspired was fairly decent (low 30s) but nobody on DCUM thought he would get a spot. Well, we have had a fabulous year and are transferring my older child to Inspired in the fall (through the lottery with sibling preference). It really is just dumb luck and out of your control...but it does happen. Be open minded, geographically speaking, if you love your neighborhood. we shlep across town because Inspired has some built-in safety nets that is best for my DS that is hard to find at other schools. Good luck.