Lottery/school despair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If you try long enough"

Meanwhile your kid is somewhere crappy and/or moving around a lot.

I posted upthread. We tried two schools in 4 years, losing lottery (by miles) each time. Pulled her out in 4th grade. Wish I had done it sooner, but I kept thinking "surely a good option will come up" and it never did.

My kid was never somewhere crappy. We had a lovely time at our IB and it absolutely did meet her short-term needs.

If you're going to think anything less than the best is "crappy", you won't be happy in northeast DC.

That's not us at all, given that we did PG County public schools after DC. You act like I am sad I couldn't get Lafayette. I didnt want or need anything like that. But we never even made it into a tier 3 DCPS. But if you would send your kids to Browne EC, by all means, throw shade. We didn't leave easily.

I had my kid at a one-star school for two years. A school that couldn't even fill up two PK3 classes. It's better now, but how it was back then is definitely similar to how Browne is now. And it was good and her needs were met, for preschool.

PRE SCHOOL. I stayed in schools like that, trying my level best to make it work, til she was mid way through fourth grade. Please go on feeling like you're better than me.

I find it very, very hard to believe that in all those lottery years you never managed to squeak into an adequate DCPS or charter.

And then what happens in MS? Or if you don’t want to commute to an “adequate” school?

At some point, throwing in the towel and moving is the rational choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

If you're wanting a school system where you can get into any good school with no luck at all, I'm not sure where you could find that. Definitely not here. But having a short waitlist is not the same thing as it being really hard to get a spot. Sorry you didn't get a good lottery number, but there's a difference between "Can get in even with a terrible number or post-lottery add" and "really hard to get into".

People are trying to help you find a good school that you can get into, but you're defining "good school" as "school with a long waitlist" and if you keep up with that attitude, it might never work out. Last year, Ludlow-Taylor had a 2nd grade waitlist of 17, and made 17 offers. Does that cause you to think it's a bad school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If you try long enough"

Meanwhile your kid is somewhere crappy and/or moving around a lot.

I posted upthread. We tried two schools in 4 years, losing lottery (by miles) each time. Pulled her out in 4th grade. Wish I had done it sooner, but I kept thinking "surely a good option will come up" and it never did.

My kid was never somewhere crappy. We had a lovely time at our IB and it absolutely did meet her short-term needs.

If you're going to think anything less than the best is "crappy", you won't be happy in northeast DC.

That's not us at all, given that we did PG County public schools after DC. You act like I am sad I couldn't get Lafayette. I didnt want or need anything like that. But we never even made it into a tier 3 DCPS. But if you would send your kids to Browne EC, by all means, throw shade. We didn't leave easily.

I had my kid at a one-star school for two years. A school that couldn't even fill up two PK3 classes. It's better now, but how it was back then is definitely similar to how Browne is now. And it was good and her needs were met, for preschool.

PRE SCHOOL. I stayed in schools like that, trying my level best to make it work, til she was mid way through fourth grade. Please go on feeling like you're better than me.

I find it very, very hard to believe that in all those lottery years you never managed to squeak into an adequate DCPS or charter.

And then what happens in MS? Or if you don’t want to commute to an “adequate” school?

At some point, throwing in the towel and moving is the rational choice.

You're moving the goalposts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If you try long enough"

Meanwhile your kid is somewhere crappy and/or moving around a lot.

I posted upthread. We tried two schools in 4 years, losing lottery (by miles) each time. Pulled her out in 4th grade. Wish I had done it sooner, but I kept thinking "surely a good option will come up" and it never did.

My kid was never somewhere crappy. We had a lovely time at our IB and it absolutely did meet her short-term needs.

If you're going to think anything less than the best is "crappy", you won't be happy in northeast DC.

That's not us at all, given that we did PG County public schools after DC. You act like I am sad I couldn't get Lafayette. I didnt want or need anything like that. But we never even made it into a tier 3 DCPS. But if you would send your kids to Browne EC, by all means, throw shade. We didn't leave easily.

I had my kid at a one-star school for two years. A school that couldn't even fill up two PK3 classes. It's better now, but how it was back then is definitely similar to how Browne is now. And it was good and her needs were met, for preschool.

PRE SCHOOL. I stayed in schools like that, trying my level best to make it work, til she was mid way through fourth grade. Please go on feeling like you're better than me.

I find it very, very hard to believe that in all those lottery years you never managed to squeak into an adequate DCPS or charter.

And then what happens in MS? Or if you don’t want to commute to an “adequate” school?

At some point, throwing in the towel and moving is the rational choice.

You're moving the goalposts.

Lol, no. MS and HS will happen sooner than you know. Playing the lottery and moving your kid around until second grade buys you an entire 3 years, then do it again. And don’t forget that the wheels often fall off the school in 4th and 5th as kids hit puberty and families leave for charters/privates/MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

If you're wanting a school system where you can get into any good school with no luck at all, I'm not sure where you could find that. Definitely not here. But having a short waitlist is not the same thing as it being really hard to get a spot. Sorry you didn't get a good lottery number, but there's a difference between "Can get in even with a terrible number or post-lottery add" and "really hard to get into".

People are trying to help you find a good school that you can get into, but you're defining "good school" as "school with a long waitlist" and if you keep up with that attitude, it might never work out. Last year, Ludlow-Taylor had a 2nd grade waitlist of 17, and made 17 offers. Does that cause you to think it's a bad school?

The issues you are having at your school OP are likely the same issues at the schools on the short waitlist.

I would not move my kid to find out in 1-2 years that you need to move your kid again. So unstable and disruptive to play musical chairs. Then you have to do the lottery all over again in another 1-2 years after that. It’s going to be socially hard for your kid to have to adjust to new environment and make new friends.

I would move to burbs for guarantee feed thru high school. You could always sell your place and just rent if you don’t want to buy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

Au contraire, it's also the case that people get off the waitlist without receiving an offer. The people on the Maury waitlist and the Ludlow-Taylor waitlist are an overlapping population, and if they get into one, they'll sometimes exit the list for the other. So 7 seats could get you to #20 if that happened often enough. It really just depends. You seem determined to be in despair and I'm not sure what anyone can do to help you until you change your attitude.

There is data on OOB kids. It's a little hard to understand, but you can look at it here. There are other online data sources for this kind of thing too, that report in different ways. https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

So you can see that, for example, of the 431 Brent students, 284 are in-boundary. Of 440 Ludlow-Taylor students, 276 are in-boundary. Of the 531 Maury students, 443 are in-boundary. To be sure, they are concentrated in the upper grades, but still. It is simply untrue to assert, as you did, that "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids".

You'll be a lot happier, and a lot more likely to get a satisfactory placement, if you actually look at the data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If you try long enough"

Meanwhile your kid is somewhere crappy and/or moving around a lot.

I posted upthread. We tried two schools in 4 years, losing lottery (by miles) each time. Pulled her out in 4th grade. Wish I had done it sooner, but I kept thinking "surely a good option will come up" and it never did.

My kid was never somewhere crappy. We had a lovely time at our IB and it absolutely did meet her short-term needs.

If you're going to think anything less than the best is "crappy", you won't be happy in northeast DC.

That's not us at all, given that we did PG County public schools after DC. You act like I am sad I couldn't get Lafayette. I didnt want or need anything like that. But we never even made it into a tier 3 DCPS. But if you would send your kids to Browne EC, by all means, throw shade. We didn't leave easily.

I had my kid at a one-star school for two years. A school that couldn't even fill up two PK3 classes. It's better now, but how it was back then is definitely similar to how Browne is now. And it was good and her needs were met, for preschool.

PRE SCHOOL. I stayed in schools like that, trying my level best to make it work, til she was mid way through fourth grade. Please go on feeling like you're better than me.

I find it very, very hard to believe that in all those lottery years you never managed to squeak into an adequate DCPS or charter.

And then what happens in MS? Or if you don’t want to commute to an “adequate” school?

At some point, throwing in the towel and moving is the rational choice.

You're moving the goalposts.

Lol, no. MS and HS will happen sooner than you know. Playing the lottery and moving your kid around until second grade buys you an entire 3 years, then do it again. And don’t forget that the wheels often fall off the school in 4th and 5th as kids hit puberty and families leave for charters/privates/MoCo.

THIS. There is no way you should not consider MS/HS in making any moves to schools that are not much better than where you are currently.

You will just be in the same predicament before you know it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

Au contraire, it's also the case that people get off the waitlist without receiving an offer. The people on the Maury waitlist and the Ludlow-Taylor waitlist are an overlapping population, and if they get into one, they'll sometimes exit the list for the other. So 7 seats could get you to #20 if that happened often enough. It really just depends. You seem determined to be in despair and I'm not sure what anyone can do to help you until you change your attitude.

There is data on OOB kids. It's a little hard to understand, but you can look at it here. There are other online data sources for this kind of thing too, that report in different ways. https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

So you can see that, for example, of the 431 Brent students, 284 are in-boundary. Of 440 Ludlow-Taylor students, 276 are in-boundary. Of the 531 Maury students, 443 are in-boundary. To be sure, they are concentrated in the upper grades, but still. It is simply untrue to assert, as you did, that "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids".

You'll be a lot happier, and a lot more likely to get a satisfactory placement, if you actually look at the data.

OOB kids pull in siblings so you can basically cut those numbers by minimum 50% and likely more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

If you're wanting a school system where you can get into any good school with no luck at all, I'm not sure where you could find that. Definitely not here. But having a short waitlist is not the same thing as it being really hard to get a spot. Sorry you didn't get a good lottery number, but there's a difference between "Can get in even with a terrible number or post-lottery add" and "really hard to get into".

People are trying to help you find a good school that you can get into, but you're defining "good school" as "school with a long waitlist" and if you keep up with that attitude, it might never work out. Last year, Ludlow-Taylor had a 2nd grade waitlist of 17, and made 17 offers. Does that cause you to think it's a bad school?

No, that does not make me think it's a bad school -- I would be over the moon happy if we got into L-T.

But my lottery luck runs such that if they had a waitlist of 17, I'd been spot #17, and then that would be the year they only made 16 offers.

Honestly, this thread is not me asking you to fix my lottery problem. It was really just me venting about the fact that the system feels arbitrary and frustrating, where one family can get lucky in PK3 and other families get unlucky year after year, and that's what dictates whether you can stay in your home. And, oh yeah, all of this is coinciding with market conditions that are throwing up obstacles to us moving, like living in a place with skyrocketing housing prices (except on the kind of housing we currently own) at a time when rates are going up as well.

I'm just complaining. Some people actually have offered useful advice for which I'm grateful, but you're running in circles saying stuff like "Are you saying L-T isn't a good school because they cleared their 2nd grade waitlist last year?" and not listening when I explain that of course it's a good school, it's just that we're not on the waitlist for 2nd and the odds of them clearing their waitlist this year are extremely slim and we are literally in the last spot on their waitlist, so there is virtually no point in discussing whether I would accept a spot there (I would) since I almost certainly won't be offered a spot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

Au contraire, it's also the case that people get off the waitlist without receiving an offer. The people on the Maury waitlist and the Ludlow-Taylor waitlist are an overlapping population, and if they get into one, they'll sometimes exit the list for the other. So 7 seats could get you to #20 if that happened often enough. It really just depends. You seem determined to be in despair and I'm not sure what anyone can do to help you until you change your attitude.

There is data on OOB kids. It's a little hard to understand, but you can look at it here. There are other online data sources for this kind of thing too, that report in different ways. https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

So you can see that, for example, of the 431 Brent students, 284 are in-boundary. Of 440 Ludlow-Taylor students, 276 are in-boundary. Of the 531 Maury students, 443 are in-boundary. To be sure, they are concentrated in the upper grades, but still. It is simply untrue to assert, as you did, that "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids".

You'll be a lot happier, and a lot more likely to get a satisfactory placement, if you actually look at the data.

OOB kids pull in siblings so you can basically cut those numbers by minimum 50% and likely more.

Again, moving the goalposts. OP said "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids". Not "Hill schools are not adding a lot of only children with terrible lottery numbers".

Looking at last year's data on Tableau, Ludlow-Taylor made a number of offers nearly equal to or exceeding its initial lottery waitlist for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Last year, ITS made 40 offers for a 1st grade waitlist of 50 kids. 20 offers for a 5th grade waitlist of 22. Lee was begging for 1st graders. We haven't even talked about Watkins, but last year it cleared or almost-cleared its waitlist for grades 1-5. This year Watkins had almost no waitlist at all, in the initial lottery. If OP was among the 5 kids waitlisted at Watkins for 1st, that's sad, but last year Watkins made 25 offers for 1st grade, so there is just no reason to be such a downer about it! It's not even August.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

If you're wanting a school system where you can get into any good school with no luck at all, I'm not sure where you could find that. Definitely not here. But having a short waitlist is not the same thing as it being really hard to get a spot. Sorry you didn't get a good lottery number, but there's a difference between "Can get in even with a terrible number or post-lottery add" and "really hard to get into".

People are trying to help you find a good school that you can get into, but you're defining "good school" as "school with a long waitlist" and if you keep up with that attitude, it might never work out. Last year, Ludlow-Taylor had a 2nd grade waitlist of 17, and made 17 offers. Does that cause you to think it's a bad school?

No, that does not make me think it's a bad school -- I would be over the moon happy if we got into L-T.

But my lottery luck runs such that if they had a waitlist of 17, I'd been spot #17, and then that would be the year they only made 16 offers.

Honestly, this thread is not me asking you to fix my lottery problem. It was really just me venting about the fact that the system feels arbitrary and frustrating, where one family can get lucky in PK3 and other families get unlucky year after year, and that's what dictates whether you can stay in your home. And, oh yeah, all of this is coinciding with market conditions that are throwing up obstacles to us moving, like living in a place with skyrocketing housing prices (except on the kind of housing we currently own) at a time when rates are going up as well.

I'm just complaining. Some people actually have offered useful advice for which I'm grateful, but you're running in circles saying stuff like "Are you saying L-T isn't a good school because they cleared their 2nd grade waitlist last year?" and not listening when I explain that of course it's a good school, it's just that we're not on the waitlist for 2nd and the odds of them clearing their waitlist this year are extremely slim and we are literally in the last spot on their waitlist, so there is virtually no point in discussing whether I would accept a spot there (I would) since I almost certainly won't be offered a spot.

Why don't you tell us what your actual numbers and actual schools are, and then we can be more helpful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

Au contraire, it's also the case that people get off the waitlist without receiving an offer. The people on the Maury waitlist and the Ludlow-Taylor waitlist are an overlapping population, and if they get into one, they'll sometimes exit the list for the other. So 7 seats could get you to #20 if that happened often enough. It really just depends. You seem determined to be in despair and I'm not sure what anyone can do to help you until you change your attitude.

There is data on OOB kids. It's a little hard to understand, but you can look at it here. There are other online data sources for this kind of thing too, that report in different ways. https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

So you can see that, for example, of the 431 Brent students, 284 are in-boundary. Of 440 Ludlow-Taylor students, 276 are in-boundary. Of the 531 Maury students, 443 are in-boundary. To be sure, they are concentrated in the upper grades, but still. It is simply untrue to assert, as you did, that "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids".

You'll be a lot happier, and a lot more likely to get a satisfactory placement, if you actually look at the data.

OOB kids pull in siblings so you can basically cut those numbers by minimum 50% and likely more.

Again, moving the goalposts. OP said "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids". Not "Hill schools are not adding a lot of only children with terrible lottery numbers".

Looking at last year's data on Tableau, Ludlow-Taylor made a number of offers nearly equal to or exceeding its initial lottery waitlist for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Last year, ITS made 40 offers for a 1st grade waitlist of 50 kids. 20 offers for a 5th grade waitlist of 22. Lee was begging for 1st graders. We haven't even talked about Watkins, but last year it cleared or almost-cleared its waitlist for grades 1-5. This year Watkins had almost no waitlist at all, in the initial lottery. If OP was among the 5 kids waitlisted at Watkins for 1st, that's sad, but last year Watkins made 25 offers for 1st grade, so there is just no reason to be such a downer about it! It's not even August.

OP is trying to get into a school without sibling preference. What are her chances. Of course she needs to look at the data in the setting of OOB kids pulling in siblings and her chances are significantly decrease because if that. You just can’t look at raw data when you are looking at the probability when preferences are given.

[Anonymous]

OP, hon. You are *much* more in control of this than you think. You *can* stay in your home, if you are willing to open your mind to more schools. It's a choice that you are making. Lots of people attend schools like Langley, Seaton, Burroughs, Miner, etc., and they like it! If that's not what you want, fine. But it's a thing that lots of real people are doing all over the city. You're choosing not to be open-minded and do what you need to do to make a lower-performing school work for your family. But it's a choice. And you'll feel less in despair about this if you recognize that it is a choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are making the mistake of assuming that popularity = quality. The pool of kids looking to lottery and change schools starts to shrink after K. There start to be spaces in many of the Hill area elementary schools (for example) in mid-elementary grades. There are some reasonably good DCPS elementary schools that do not necessarily get much attention OOB.

No, you don’t understand school differences. There is a huge difference between Capitol Hill DCPS elementary schools and most other DCPS elementary schools EOTP. That difference, which is the most important, is academic performance. CH schools overwhelmingly at and above grade level, 60-89%. Non CH around 30% so overwhelmingly below grade level.

School in CH start losing kids after 4th because of the middle school feed due to Latin and Basis. Retention of families in K-3rd is high. Non CH schools EOTP, in contrast, start losing kids much earlier like K-1st. By 2nd, it’s stark. It’s not due to the middle school feed. It’s because families are not happy like OP and they are looking for a better school and trying to trade up.

There might be an exception in 1 or 2 grade where the CH schools may have space to take a few OOB kids but not common at all. You never see CH schools on short waitlist. Where other many non CH schools you can pretty much get in any grade 1st and up and on the short waitlist almost every year.

And no I’m not in CH. I’m in the other group.

You are massively overstating this. Just this year already, Brent offered 18 spots in the K lottery and has already made 22 offers for K on top of that. Last year Brent made 34 offers for 2nd grade. Ludlow-Taylor offered 4 seats for 1st and also made 4 offers, 7 seats for 2nd and also made 4 offers, 12 seats for 3rd and already made 2 offers, etc. Multiple offers in all grades last year as well. Maury is harder to get into, but last year they made 15 offers for K and 7 for 1st. Now, this isn't to say that any one particular kid will definitely get a spot at a particular school, but if you keep trying at multiple schools, chances are it'll work out. You're being ridiculous when you say "a few OOB kids" and "not common at all". Try checking the data before you assert yourself. This site is supposed to be helpful, not mislead people.

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

OP here. None of those schools— Brent, Maury, L-T— have short waitlists. I know because I’m on them. You still have to lick into spots there.

The schools on the Hill with short waitlists are fairly similar to our current school— fine for ECE but issues after that. I’m not interested in trading one such school for another, there is no point.

DP I would also add that number of offers doesn’t equate to number of seats. Families could decline seats, took one at another hill school that offered a seat, decide to go private, move etc…Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids. We were o the waitlist at some of these schools with decent numbers before and did not get any offers.

So yes, just because a school made 7 offers doesn’t mean there are 7 seats. There might be 2 with 5 decline. And if you are number #20 at the school, no way in hell there is any chance.

Au contraire, it's also the case that people get off the waitlist without receiving an offer. The people on the Maury waitlist and the Ludlow-Taylor waitlist are an overlapping population, and if they get into one, they'll sometimes exit the list for the other. So 7 seats could get you to #20 if that happened often enough. It really just depends. You seem determined to be in despair and I'm not sure what anyone can do to help you until you change your attitude.

There is data on OOB kids. It's a little hard to understand, but you can look at it here. There are other online data sources for this kind of thing too, that report in different ways. https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

So you can see that, for example, of the 431 Brent students, 284 are in-boundary. Of 440 Ludlow-Taylor students, 276 are in-boundary. Of the 531 Maury students, 443 are in-boundary. To be sure, they are concentrated in the upper grades, but still. It is simply untrue to assert, as you did, that "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids".

You'll be a lot happier, and a lot more likely to get a satisfactory placement, if you actually look at the data.

OOB kids pull in siblings so you can basically cut those numbers by minimum 50% and likely more.

Again, moving the goalposts. OP said "Hill schools are not adding a lot of OOB kids". Not "Hill schools are not adding a lot of only children with terrible lottery numbers".

Looking at last year's data on Tableau, Ludlow-Taylor made a number of offers nearly equal to or exceeding its initial lottery waitlist for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th.

Last year, ITS made 40 offers for a 1st grade waitlist of 50 kids. 20 offers for a 5th grade waitlist of 22. Lee was begging for 1st graders. We haven't even talked about Watkins, but last year it cleared or almost-cleared its waitlist for grades 1-5. This year Watkins had almost no waitlist at all, in the initial lottery. If OP was among the 5 kids waitlisted at Watkins for 1st, that's sad, but last year Watkins made 25 offers for 1st grade, so there is just no reason to be such a downer about it! It's not even August.

OP is trying to get into a school without sibling preference. What are her chances. Of course she needs to look at the data in the setting of OOB kids pulling in siblings and her chances are significantly decrease because if that. You just can’t look at raw data when you are looking at the probability when preferences are given.

The sibling data is only published for the initial lottery, so it's hard to do calculations about it. It's down lower on the Tableau site.