What’s your HS “back up” option?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

One families backup plan is another's dream school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

One families backup plan is another's dream school.

That's definitely true but also: do people genuinely have "dream schools" within DC's public system? I think I must be too cynical. I can see drawbacks to every school. Tho I can also see the silver linings to a lot of schools. I just see DC's system as largely a question of compromise, for better or worse.

My "dream school" for my kids would probably not reside in a district with as many structural obstacles to quality education. My wants:
- Academic tracking
- Strong emphasis on writing and oral communication skills
- A citizenship or volunteer requirement that really means something and isn't just a box kids check
- Lots of more casual and intramural sport options, care less about competitive sport programs
- Strong music and visual art programs, I don't care about theater
- Racially and socioeconomically diverse (I went to a HS like this and I think there are major advantages in terms of addressing the myopia pretty much everyone gets when they don't interact regularly with people from different backgrounds), but less than 20% economical disadvantaged with strong supports for those kids
- Strong alumni network locally (people are proud to go there and stay in touch)
- Easy commute

Probably the closest to these preferences is Latin or DCI, but neither checks off the whole list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

Cries in Ward 6.
This thread isn’t for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have a 7th grader and are starting to think ahead for next year. We don’t live in J-R school district and our in boundary isn’t an option. If you don’t get into one of the more highly regarded schools (walls, Banneker…), whats next on your list? Do you have another selective high school you’d be happy with, and if so, which one and why? Are you applying to private? Would consider moving?

We chose BASIS for 5th grade.

We’re good.

😀

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

Cries in Ward 6.
This thread isn’t for you.

I don't understand your post.

But in any case this thread is for anyone who wants to post. Like public school, everyone has a right to attend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

Cries in Ward 6.
This thread isn’t for you.

I don't understand your post.

But in any case this thread is for anyone who wants to post. Like public school, everyone has a right to attend.

OP literally says they are not zoned for JR and I think most sane people understand why JR as a “backup” adds zero of value to the conversation.

[Anonymous]

I don’t have JR as a backup (and I wish I did), but I do think it is fair to acknowledge that it is also an imperfect school that is not everyone’s top choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

Cries in Ward 6.
This thread isn’t for you.

I don't understand your post.

But in any case this thread is for anyone who wants to post. Like public school, everyone has a right to attend.

OP literally says they are not zoned for JR and I think most sane people understand why JR as a “backup” adds zero of value to the conversation.

Are you OP? The thread is generally about backup plans for HS, not just OP's plan. Also it's actually good to understand that JR isn't some dream school, and if you lived IB for JR, you might not view it as your first choice either. Having this perspective can be helpful in realizing that most people are compromising in public education.

But in any case, I live in Ward 6, our IB is Eastern (as I said the comment you were replying to when you told me "This thread isn't for you") and JR is not my backup. But I get that it's someone's back up.

Maybe if you read the posts and thought about them instead of just reacting and emoting and thinking you are in charge of the thread, you too could have a less vindictive attitude about all this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Walls is our only hope. Otherwise we will have to move and I don’t know if we’d end up in NW DC or MD. Hate this system overall.

What system? Dcps, the lottery, living in a city where a huge percentage of kids come from generations of poverty?

People here are very scared of the generations of poverty and don’t want their precious children to be anywhere near it. Very sad when people think they are better than others.

I guess I'm just be of the people who is afraid if generational poverty, but it's not because I think I'm better than anyone. It's because I come from generational poverty (as well as violence, abuse, mental health issues, and substance abuse) and my biggest fear is that can't successfully keepy family lifted out of that situation.

I feel like if I had generational wealth or a family network of stable, supportive people to help me raise my kids, I'd feel less stressed about all this. But I'm on my own (with my spouse, from a similar background) and I want a school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability. I think that can be hard to find at a high poverty school.

My family doesn’t come from poverty but I am not so privileged as to believe “my kid will be fine anywhere!” It also takes a weird set of beliefs to not see that a school with concentrated poverty won’t be significantly disadvantaged. I can’t put my finger on it but it is as if people believe their kids are so special that education actually doesn’t matter.

It does feel terrible that we work so hard to segregate ourselves. Either you move to avoid the at-risk kids, you lottery to avoid the at-risk kids, you perform/lottery to avoid the at-risk kids (Walls, etc.), or you buy a spot in private to avoid the at-risk kids. But at the end of the day there is no shame in wanting a "school community that is going to reinforce the values of education, hard work, emotional maturity, and personal accountability." Can't argue against those goals.

Well I actually think the at risk kids and families often value education, maturity and accountability. There’s no moral judgment on my part. I think that because they are poor they get access to worse services. Just like I wouldn’t buy a house in a dangerous part of w7 or 8 and assume it would have the top access to services and safety and amenities. That’s what it means to be marginalized. Also my kid doesn’t have better values than his current at risk classmates but I can afford to put him in a school where his individual values don’t matter.

Teaching quality is broadly the same--we are a high pay district that attracts quality instructors overall. Schools with a large percentage of at-risk kids get larger budges. And teachers at Title I schools can get larger bonuses. I don't know why you assume the services provided by the city are worse in W7 or W8. The difference between schools is primarily about the type of students that attend.

This is a great point. I’m the PP who said I don’t see that schools just outside DC are significantly better. Richer and whiter, yes. Not throwing shade - this is where knowing your kid comes into play. My kid benefits from positive peer pressure. She’s creative and curious but not a striver and benefits from being part of a nice cohort of kind, nerdy peers. She is not the kid who will thrive anywhere. That said she is also anxious and I don’t want her in a pressure cooker (or with a bunch of snobs). Nor is she wildly advanced and counting down the days to multi variate calculus. So we’re looking for the balance between the two and hoping for a nice diverse group with a certain critical mass of serious-about-school types and some options for advanced classes if she qualifies but not to the point that it’s a competitive and hostile environment or one that is hyper focused on the accelerated kids. From where I’m sitting, I think we’re more likely to find that in DC than in the immediate suburbs.

You’re not being honest or you are very uniformed or you are one of those parents who will be like “Oh the DCPS IB schools is WONDERFUL but Larla chose Walls!”. I am in the middle of this decision and there is a massive difference between our IB DCPS HS and the schools we are looking at in Arlington. FWIW all of the Arlington and Fairfax schools are quite diverse.

I mean depending on what your IB is I’m sure that’s true. But mine is JR and I agree with the poster you responded to. I’m not willing to move far enough away from DC to get public HS that will be significantly better for my child’s needs. BCC and Whitman just don’t seem that much better for what my middle-of-the-road ish kid needs. And I would never move to VA (no shade on it, just not for me)

Ma’am this is a thread about high school backup plans. JR is not a backup plan.

DP but JR as your IB is 100% a backup plan. Many people have a priority list that looks like: first choice Walls, second choice one of three acceptable privates, backup plan JR as IB.

And I say that as someone not in that position. Our IB is Eastern. And I guess it's one of our backup plans, though it's not as solid of one as JR.

A backup plan is something you will do if all else fails. If you already live IB for JR, it's the perfect backup because you don't have to do anything to make it happen. It just does.

Cries in Ward 6.
This thread isn’t for you.

I don't understand your post.

But in any case this thread is for anyone who wants to post. Like public school, everyone has a right to attend.

OP literally says they are not zoned for JR and I think most sane people understand why JR as a “backup” adds zero of value to the conversation.

Are you OP? The thread is generally about backup plans for HS, not just OP's plan. Also it's actually good to understand that JR isn't some dream school, and if you lived IB for JR, you might not view it as your first choice either. Having this perspective can be helpful in realizing that most people are compromising in public education.

But in any case, I live in Ward 6, our IB is Eastern (as I said the comment you were replying to when you told me "This thread isn't for you") and JR is not my backup. But I get that it's someone's back up.

Maybe if you read the posts and thought about them instead of just reacting and emoting and thinking you are in charge of the thread, you too could have a less vindictive attitude about all this.

Meh. At this point in the game, zero patience for people who don’t actually contribute useful and honest information, or who are perseverating on options other people would be very happy to have. If you want to cry about JR because your kid didn’t get into GDS there is a different forum for that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have JR as a backup (and I wish I did), but I do think it is fair to acknowledge that it is also an imperfect school that is not everyone’s top choice.

Where's the perfect school though? I mean, I guess some people may say the W schools in MoCo or TJ but for a lot of (smart!) kids those are pressure cookers. Any school is going to involve tradeoffs, for most families and kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have JR as a backup (and I wish I did), but I do think it is fair to acknowledge that it is also an imperfect school that is not everyone’s top choice.

Where's the perfect school though? I mean, I guess some people may say the W schools in MoCo or TJ but for a lot of (smart!) kids those are pressure cookers. Any school is going to involve tradeoffs, for most families and kids.

I’m the person you quoted, and I totally agree. Which is why I think it is fair for people who are inbounds for JR to also have mixed feelings about it. There is no perfect school.

[Anonymous]

JR is some people’s primary choice/plan. Other people its backup plan #5. It is sort of healthy to add a range of views. The grass is not always so much greener even in far NW.

[Anonymous]

There is no perfect school - especially if you are talking public schools. Walls is by no means absolutely perfect, and some smart students might be happier at somewhere more like McKinley Tech than Walls too.