If your in-bounds school is West of the park and begins w/ J, K, L, or M would you consider charter?

[Anonymous]

We are starting the process of exploring schools and was wondering if I am just shopping b/c it is an option?
I believe that after you get to a certain level of demonstrated performance for a school (let's use CAS as an indicator) it is about fit for the child and the family. I am wondering what others think?

Thanks!

[Anonymous]

If J, K, L, or M were our in-bound schools, we wouldn't be shelling out bucks for a private.

[Anonymous]

Even in the west of the park high performance schools, you get the disadvantages of being part of a larger system that is dysfunctional -- witness the $40M RIP currently going on. You get unpredictable class sizes -- witness the 27 per class at Murch first grade this year and no additional class section opening up even though the school has 75 - 80 1st graders and per union contract guidelines of 20 per section should have another section.

On the othe hand, in charters, you get the luck of the lottery in terms of who is in your kid's class. That tends to mean a more diverse group in terms of race, economic advantages, behavior, educational needs. Some of those things are more controlled at Janney, Mann, Murch, etc. But, charters can expel kids for bad behavior, not so publics.

At the JKLM schools, if there is a need for additonal resources, parents have the resources to write checks. Not so likely at the charters.

None of the JKLM schools have language immersion, if that's important to you, need to go elsewhere, charter or private.

I am DC parent, in boundary school is not okay, did an OOB east of park first, and now charter. I am mainly happier with the charter. Certainly relieved that all/most of the influences on my kid's education are in the building they go to. But, the kids are much less well behaved than in the DCPS school. The teachers are younger, more enthusiastic and more likely to leave (it feels to me), the facilities are a lot less nice with lousy outdoor play space.

If I were inbounds for JKLM, I'd tour charters, put my name in the hat, see what happens, especially for preK where there is no guarantee for an inbounds space anyway.

[Anonymous]

Yes, but only if the charter is WL or WYY.

[Anonymous]

Only if I were really set on language immersion. Walking to a good neighborhood school, with friends and parents from the neighborhood, is tough to overvalue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, but only if the charter is WL or WYY.

wow. tough crowd. capital city and haynes anyone?

[Anonymous]

Got into one of those schools OOB and turned down a spot in a very highly regarded charter due to fit. Very happy so far. For those who rent, there are buildings in bounds for all of those west of park schools.

[Anonymous]

Cap city & EL Haynes only great for the early grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cap city & EL Haynes only great for the early grades?

I think everyone wishes them well, but if you are in-bounds for JKLM what compelling case is there to go there? It's not like they're competing on their scores.

[Anonymous]

I think the stories about the mismanagement in DCPS have a detrimental effect even in the best schools, such as JKLM. Reading the RIF thread, for example, is depressing and makes you want to isolate yourself from the destructive forces outside the school walls. This is definitely something that charters have going for them - even competing against the best of schools.

Having said that, unless you're seriously committed to a high end language program (i.e., Latin or Mandarin) or determined to go private the JKLMs are why people move to this corner of the District in the first place.

[Anonymous]

If we could have been guaranteed a spot at Haynes, we would have bought wherever we wanted and saved money. Haynes is a great school. I have a couple of friends on the board (which can't get you in) and know first hand what the place is like.

But you can't be guaranteed a charter, and although I find WYY a promising and exciting option, it is just too much of an experiment for my taste because no adult in our family has the time to pick up one word of Mandarin and because you can't be sure that your kid has the stamina. We just haven't seen results yet.

We bought in bounds for Oyster. We liked language immersion but Spanish was better for our family. I speak French and have been picking up Spanish along with my daughter. We liked the diversity too.

Long story short about Murch, Lafayette, Mann, Key, Eaton, Hyde-- none was exactly right either because they lacked diversity or because the neighborhoods were not a good fit for our family. Eaton was our 2d choice because we love Cleveland Park but ultimately Oyster won out because bilingual was attractive, we had good friends with great experiences there and because we liked the convenience to Dupont and Adams Morgan, plus our row house was smaller but less $$ than Cleveland Park.

All of this soul-searching would have been unnecessary if we could get Haynes, but we couldn't gamble on being among the lucky few, so we picked the right place for us.

As you can see, our choice related in part to neighborhood and in part to school. I think that it's important to remember that you are not only buying in a school district, you are buying in the place you will come home to every day and where your child will grow up.