Are you under the impression Takoma and, especially, Brightwood EC are "well-resourced" compared to Whittier? That is a misconception. They're three Title 1 schools in proximity to each other. |
Of course not lol. I'm well aware of what Title 1 schools are, and I hate that it's used as a proxy to evaluate a school. We should, instead look at discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, teacher/principal tenure/school climate surveys to get a better picture for our individual child. Takoma and Brightwood are trending better (especially brightwood,) but the highest performance Title 1, but most markers is whittier. It's not even close. Btw, my child attends Eaton, just giving an objective opinion. I think more parents would opt for Whittier but for the middle school feeder, but that is improving. When you look at some of the data (both growth and status), of comparable schools out of ward 4 and 5, say, a Watkins in Capitol Hill or Peabody (where I lived before,) Whittier outperforms them on growth and status, but the waitlist wouldn't paint that picture. |
Again, incorrect. Takoma is demolishing Brightwood, "trend"-wise. Also Takoma and whittier have the same, trending-upwards MS pathway. I'm honestly very confused by your posts. If Eaton is your IB so you just don't know, that's fine. But why hold yourself out as a Ward 4 expert? |
I love this board. Sounds like you're projecting. 1) Where did you hear me say I'm a ward 4 expert? Relax. I'm offering my opinion. The initial poster can look at the data and ask the parents themselves. I live in Ward 4. (typo said 5 earlier). Eaton is not our IB school. Demolishing brightwood? By what account?? Certainly not data. Brightwood has higher ELL students and still has higher "status. Gentrification does not always equal growth-- maybe that is the undertone of your wrongful assessment of Takoma "demolishing" Brightwood. While it is true more white parents are enrolling their kids in takoma, it doesn't always "translate" into "demolishing" or higher performance. I'd drop a bunch of links, but I'm sure the scores don't "Measure the essence of the school." See now I'm projecting They all feed into Ida B and good stuff about all of them. I should probably disclose that I'm an educator. But every parent is an expert at their own child. I'm giving my opinion.
Here are a few receipts. See student performance at a glance and more importantly, student satisfaction. Good day to you. https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Takoma+Elementary+School https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Brightwood+Elementary+School |
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Reading along here. Also live in the area. Agree on Whittier being the strongest Title 1. Takoma and Brightwood are a matter of preference. I would go with Brightwood if student is English Language Learner. Lot of good things are happening at Takoma with strong community supports. Future looks good for the feeder MS. |
NP. I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but 2 years of student satisfaction scores from 4 years ago (pre pandemic) are about the least useful evidence of a recent trend in school quality that you could provide. |
At Takoma you get the youth orchestra stuff. Whittier is a powerhouse, impressive stats! I think the future of the middle school is bright. Attracting high-SES students is a later thing-- right now the idea is to draw middle-income students and focus on quality. |
+ 1 also reading along and enjoying the discussion. |
Much more indicative of a recent trend is just to look at waitlist results - both schools had the same number of seats and Takoma had a WL ten times the size of Brightwood's this year. I know IB families still hoping to get in (re-ranked after being disappointed in their preferred charter), and that's not happening at Brightwood. I wish it were, since it's my IB. |
That's a good point. And, some good options get overlooked (but not many) because of the governance structure too. (e.g., I think that Appletree for PK3-K is a fantastic option in Ward 5.. It's in high demand in Cap. Hill, but it's not well publicized that they are housed at Rocketship Infinity's new building that's surrounding a ton of new development as well (e.g., condos and new library). I presume it may be overshadowed b/c it's house in rocketship (which is more regimented in general). Parents look at where other parents are going as a strong indicator of what is best. I agree with the post above about student satisfaction data, but if you look at the trend over the past five years, it gives context into the leadership and culture of the school and could be a good data point. There are a ton of DCPS schools that parents push, but the students aren't happy. (I wonder if it's because of the parents though?
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I know DCYOP rehearsals are held at TEC on Saturdays because my DD treks up there, but that's not really a Takoma thing, is it? Like is there spillover to the actual school where they do some kind of afterschool programming they don't offer elsewhere (because I know they offer afterschool instrument lessons at a variety of T1s)? Like the rehearsals were previously held at Eastern and I wouldn't have thought that was a benefit to attending Eastern... |
I wouldn't put too much emphasis on waitlists as a data source. A lot of that is a question of the size of the IB population relative to the physical capacity of the school, and that's not really a metric of quality. |
They do have school programming and I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I know there's something and I think you also get a discount if you attend Takoma. |
That's a fair way to think about it, except in this instance it ignores that Takoma is Early Action. So for pre-K3 at least, the length of the waitlist is an indicator of desirability to OOB families (and like I mentioned upthread, the rare IB family who played the lottery poorly). Meanwhile Brightwood's, the school that does not guarantee a spot for all IB families, had *2* kids on the waitlist on results day. |