Public/Charter School Lottery Experience

[Shuebrooks]

Greetings everyone. I was wondering if some of you who recently went through the school lottery would share your experience with me; preferably parents with children entering into Pre-k 3 and 4. I find myself having severe anxiety about this process as my son will be attending school next year and I believe that the application needs to be completed in December. I have been researching schools for some time and I've narrowed it down to a few schools that I want him to attend, but they're all popular schools, so IDK if he will get into them. I want him in a safe, diverse school that does very well academically. I DO NOT want him to attend the neighborhood school. Please share your experience with me and offer any tips and/or advice that you may have. Thanks in advance.

-G

[Anonymous]

You have until the end of March.

Diverse and also high-performing is hard to find in DC. I would suggest you plan on paying for private preschool, and do some hard thinking about whether you care more about diversity, or about the academic performance of kids who will likely alll have graduated from the school before your child starts Kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Your post may be bad timing, given that alot of parents are stressed out about their waitlists for their children and are focusing on the beginning of school.

You should probably repost this end of Oct.

[Anonymous]

There are very few DC schools that will meet your standards, and the ones that do are not diverse. Just move already.

--a Title I neigborhood school mom who is very happy with the education my child is receiving.

[Anonymous]

I totally understand the anxiety; it's a stressful process. Some tips from someone who just went through it (my DC is entering PK3):

-When ranking, decide what's important to you: commute; language-immersion; curriculum; Montessori.

-Have a solid back-up plan, such as private preschool or staying at daycare. Remember that a lot of private daycares now offer free Pre-K3 programs. These are great back-ups.

-Have some safeties on your list of 12 schools. If you put all reaches (like DC Bilingual, Yu Ying, Stokes, Ward 3, west-of-the-park schools, etc.), you'll be disappointed. For some people, their in-bound is their safety, and they rank it last.

-Don't forget about schools that don't participate in the MySchoolDC lottery (like LAMB and Bethune).

And please remember that the lottery is just that: a lottery. It works out well for some and not for others. Realizing that you have little control of the outcome can help alleviate the stress.

[Anonymous]

You have months and months before you need to finalize your lottery picks. You will probably not get into your top choice schools and you might not get in anywhere. Definitely have a backup plan.

Signed,
4th year in the lottery with 2 children and still have yet to get a top 7 pick.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You have until the end of March.

Diverse and also high-performing is hard to find in DC. I would suggest you plan on paying for private preschool, and do some hard thinking about whether you care more about diversity, or about the academic performance of kids who will likely alll have graduated from the school before your child starts Kindergarten.

This poster makes it sound as if the current test scores of the school are basically irrelevant. This is only the case if you assume that the school is rapidly gentrifying and that the kids currently in PK will actually stay beyond that and raise test scores, which is probably not true for most schools.

Here is the reality of the lottery: it takes and increasing amount of very good luck to get into one of the popular charter schools, and it is impossible to get into any of the popular DCPS schools if you are out of boundary. For PK though, you are likely going to be fine at your neighborhood school or any number of less popular charters. BTDT. DCPS and DCPCS do PK well across the board. So do put some "safeties" on your list if you don't want to pay for private. For the higher grades, you may have higher expectations with regard to academics and peer group, and you may very well have to move or go private. Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are very few DC schools that will meet your standards, and the ones that do are not diverse. Just move already.

--a Title I neigborhood school mom who is very happy with the education my child is receiving.

I'm glad you like your neighborhood school, but I think you're being a little unfair to OP. I'm not sure why you assume OP has unreasonable expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are very few DC schools that will meet your standards, and the ones that do are not diverse. Just move already.

--a Title I neigborhood school mom who is very happy with the education my child is receiving.

I'm glad you like your neighborhood school, but I think you're being a little unfair to OP. I'm not sure why you assume OP has unreasonable expectations.

You tell me how many schools would meet her expectations, assuming she is serious about diversity. The total number of PK3 seats for non-siblings at those schools is ___.

[Anonymous]

Where do you live OP? Commute matters a lot for most people. How long would you want to stick with a school past K? What are your expectations on academics for ECE? Most DCPS and charters are play-based until 1st grade. No one can help you without specifics.

[Anonymous]

11:58 makes a really good point. PK3 and PK4 are done really well pretty much everywhere.

And don't waste spots on your list on out-of-bounds, high-performing DCPS schools. Take a look at the DCPS data on how many out-of-bounds students are admitted before bothering to list one of those schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:11:58 makes a really good point. PK3 and PK4 are done really well pretty much everywhere.

And don't waste spots on your list on out-of-bounds, high-performing DCPS schools. Take a look at the DCPS data on how many out-of-bounds students are admitted before bothering to list one of those schools.

+1. If your master number in the lottery is extremely good, you may be able to get into Janney etc. for K or higher grades OOB (in which case your number would also be good enough to get into any of the popular charters). But there is ZERO chance to get into PK for those neighborhood schools, because they don't even have enough room in PK for their IB students. So make sure you have some safeties on your list as well rather than filling it up with impossible choices.

[Anonymous]

I'd like OP to tell us why her neighborhood school is a nonstarter.

What is it about the children in the neighborhood where you chose to live that is so abhorrent to you?

[Anonymous]

Read the FAQs on the myschool DC website and watch the videos. Understanding the lottery is helpful.

Think about what is most important to you: test scores, outdoor space, commute (a lot of people undervalue commute but having a short trip to school and classmates nearby can be very good for your quality of life), language immersion, class size, diversity, middle school feeder pattern, etc. etc.

Test scores are very closely tied to race and income. If you want a school that does well with kids from poorer families, look at https://empowerk12.org/bold-improvement-schools

Go to the MySchoolDC fair in December and talk with lots of schools.

As other people have mentioned, most of the popular schools have very few PK slots for kids who are out of bounds and/or don't have older siblings at the school. You should absolutely be prepared to send your kid to your in-bounds school and/or to continue your current child care arrangements next year.

[Anonymous]

Shuebrooks wrote:Greetings everyone. I was wondering if some of you who recently went through the school lottery would share your experience with me; preferably parents with children entering into Pre-k 3 and 4. I find myself having severe anxiety about this process as my son will be attending school next year and I believe that the application needs to be completed in December. I have been researching schools for some time and I've narrowed it down to a few schools that I want him to attend, but they're all popular schools, so IDK if he will get into them. I want him in a safe, diverse school that does very well academically. I DO NOT want him to attend the neighborhood school. Please share your experience with me and offer any tips and/or advice that you may have. Thanks in advance.

-G

The lottery application opens in December. You do not have to submit it until the end of February, usually.

You will probably not get into those popular schools you want him in. If they are DCPS, you can guarantee admission at kindergarten by moving in bounds for the school. This might help you get in for PK, but it doesn't guarantee anything until K. If they are charter schools, there is no way to guarantee a spot.

My advice is that you think about why you don't want to send your child to the school assigned to the neighborhood where you have chosen to live. Have you visited the school? If not, I would recommend that you do so, because most likely, that is the school that your child will be matched to in the lottery. If you are truly unwilling to send your child to that school, your safest option is to use the time between now and next school year to move to an area where you are comfortable with the assigned schools. Relying on the lottery is a fool's game and not what I'd recommend for someone who admits that they have anxiety about sending their child to school a year from now.