Good schools EoTP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing to stop us from following the high performing peers where they land after 8 good years at our DCPS ES. Life can be lived one year at a time.

+1 (and we can enjoy the appreciation on our DC homes in the meantime!)

Heck yes. Would much rather rent and rent for a few years than sell and double-triple our mortgage for the next 30. Or hey, maybe the lottery will get us an OOB spot somewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing to stop us from following the high performing peers where they land after 8 good years at our DCPS ES. Life can be lived one year at a time.

Life can be lived one year at a time for adults. But get back to me when your 11 year old has to move to a new school with no friends, and also when you're frantically trying to time a home sale and home purchase in the tiny of sliver of time post-lottery announcement and before school starts ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

The thing about it, though, is that a lot of people move. It's not like if we had stayed at our IB, all of DD's friends would be there too. All of her friends were leaving. Some of them went with her to the new school. I'm not saying it's a small school, but I'd look at it as if you attended a school that didn't have a specific middle school feeder. You just have to accept that the band is breaking up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

Get back to me when your self worth isnt wrapped up in parcc scores. it has next to nothing to do with the quality of the teaching your child will receive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

Get back to me when your self worth isnt wrapped up in parcc scores. it has next to nothing to do with the quality of the teaching your child will receive

LOL! You obviously don’t have an older kid. Get back to us when your kid is in MS at Jefferson, McFarland, or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

This. If you think it was hard not getting a seat at an elementary school you wanted in the lottery, it will be much harder for middle school. The most competitive seats in the lottery are middle school.

And each year, it’s gets more and more competitive so if you kid is in the early grades, you can expect the competition for seats to double or triple what it will be today.

Many more people will be in PP position above. That is a fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

Get back to me when your self worth isnt wrapped up in parcc scores. it has next to nothing to do with the quality of the teaching your child will receive

LOL! You obviously don’t have an older kid. Get back to us when your kid is in MS at Jefferson, McFarland, or whatever.

Two kids at Roosevelt doing great. Old enough?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

This. If you think it was hard not getting a seat at an elementary school you wanted in the lottery, it will be much harder for middle school. The most competitive seats in the lottery are middle school.

And each year, it’s gets more and more competitive so if you kid is in the early grades, you can expect the competition for seats to double or triple what it will be today.

Many more people will be in PP position above. That is a fact.

I know middle school is competitive in the lottery but nothing compares to PK3 Spanish immersion competition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

The thing about it, though, is that a lot of people move. It's not like if we had stayed at our IB, all of DD's friends would be there too. All of her friends were leaving. Some of them went with her to the new school. I'm not saying it's a small school, but I'd look at it as if you attended a school that didn't have a specific middle school feeder. You just have to accept that the band is breaking up.

Right. The point is - if you move to a neighborhood where the kids go to their IB MS and HS, then more of a chance of continuing friendships and less disruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

The thing about it, though, is that a lot of people move. It's not like if we had stayed at our IB, all of DD's friends would be there too. All of her friends were leaving. Some of them went with her to the new school. I'm not saying it's a small school, but I'd look at it as if you attended a school that didn't have a specific middle school feeder. You just have to accept that the band is breaking up.

Right. The point is - if you move to a neighborhood where the kids go to their IB MS and HS, then more of a chance of continuing friendships and less disruption.

Well sure, but I just don't think it's that big a deal. People send their kids to different schools all the time. What do you think going to boarding school is like, you know basically nobody and can't even see your old friends on the weekends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

The thing about it, though, is that a lot of people move. It's not like if we had stayed at our IB, all of DD's friends would be there too. All of her friends were leaving. Some of them went with her to the new school. I'm not saying it's a small school, but I'd look at it as if you attended a school that didn't have a specific middle school feeder. You just have to accept that the band is breaking up.

Right. The point is - if you move to a neighborhood where the kids go to their IB MS and HS, then more of a chance of continuing friendships and less disruption.

Not convinced. Suburban neighborhoods are much more spread out than ours, Capitol Hill. It seems to me that one's chances of keeping in-boundary DCPS ES friendships going are good in a high-density area if you make the effort. My middle school students' ES friends mostly still live a short walk from us. Their DCPS pals may have scattered to the four breezes for middle school, but we still see their closest friends from PS3-5th grade regularly, e.g. at Girl Scout meetings, parks, our church, block parties etc. We take care of their families' pets and plants when people go on vacation. One day, I feel like we'll be glad that we stayed. When our kids are in their 20s our lively, walkable neighborhood will surely be more of a draw to them than some staid suburb would have been. Maybe our kids will actually bother to come home to see Mom and Dad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

This. If you think it was hard not getting a seat at an elementary school you wanted in the lottery, it will be much harder for middle school. The most competitive seats in the lottery are middle school.

And each year, it’s gets more and more competitive so if you kid is in the early grades, you can expect the competition for seats to double or triple what it will be today.

Many more people will be in PP position above. That is a fact.

I know middle school is competitive in the lottery but nothing compares to PK3 Spanish immersion competition.

The stakes are MUCH lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nonsense that your kid will be with "much higher performing peers all the way thru elementary" if you move from DC to a suburban school rather than EotP, other than perhaps in the case of super-duper test-in GT programs in MoCo and Fairfax for 4th and 5th grades (very hard to crack). Total BS where Brent, Maury, SWS and even Ludlow Taylor, Tyler Spanish Immersion and Watkins are concerned. My kids have not been short on seriously high-performing peers in DCPS EotP all the way through elementary, UMC kids who do math two grade levels ahead and read all the Harry Potter books in 2nd or 3rd grade.

We looked at public elementary schools in MoCo and Northern VA where at-risk percentages were higher, sometimes a lot higher, than at our DCPS ES EotP. In these suburban schools, we saw classes where a single teacher taught as many as 30 kids. We've never had more than around 23 students in any DCPS ES class for our kids, generally with two teachers in the room at least half the day. Just not worth moving to the burbs for ES anymore.

Ok ... but your kids will get older, and they will have to go to MS, and all your "high performing peers" in elementary school will go to Basis, Latin, or move to NW or MoCo.

NP but I don’t think MoCo schools have the same shine they used to for DCPS parents. The schools just aren’t that impressive, it’s the SES of those schools that makes them still have the reputation they have.

Get back to me when the alternative is your IB MS with the majority of kids score 1s and 2s on PARCC! Then we'll see what kind of shine MoCo has.

I don't deny that staying in your "wonderful Title I EOTP elementary" is appealing; we certainly did it. But I'm now exactly in the situation you are brushing off as NBD and I'm here to tell you that it actually is a big deal. I'm not sure if I would have changed our decisions, but it is a really big deal to have to move when your kid is in MS.

The thing about it, though, is that a lot of people move. It's not like if we had stayed at our IB, all of DD's friends would be there too. All of her friends were leaving. Some of them went with her to the new school. I'm not saying it's a small school, but I'd look at it as if you attended a school that didn't have a specific middle school feeder. You just have to accept that the band is breaking up.

Right. The point is - if you move to a neighborhood where the kids go to their IB MS and HS, then more of a chance of continuing friendships and less disruption.

Well sure, but I just don't think it's that big a deal. People send their kids to different schools all the time. What do you think going to boarding school is like, you know basically nobody and can't even see your old friends on the weekends.

I ... don't think there's any useful comparison between boarding school and the general MC/UMC public school pathways in this area. Yes people send their kids to different schools all the time; but the common notion on DCUM that "you can just move if MS doesn't work" is MUCH more difficult than it sounds when you have a 2 year old.

[Anonymous]

I mean, get back to me when the first class of DCI feeder families realizes the difference between a guarantee and a preference. Or when their younger kid gets a crappy lottery draw and no sibling preference.

Honestly, kids in DC switch schools and cohorts ALL of the time. They switch for a feeder pattern, they switch at middle for Latin or Basis. They switch when Basis stops working for them. It’s different than a rural area with little transience and zero school choice, but I really think people are just justifying their choices when they go on about these things.