Langley

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for the low down on Langley. It's our IB school, so we are guaranteed a spot. Realistically, with how the lottery often goes, the odds are that we'll end up at Langley. I've toured there, and it looks good. I really don't know what I'm looking at to be honest. I'm fine with my kid going there, at least for early elementary. But I'm putting together my lottery list and considering which schools to rank higher. Honestly, I like the idea of a neighborhood school and running into my kid's classmates at the park (and walking my kids to school!), and I hear a lot of positive things from Langley parents on the blogs, but it's hard to reconcile that with the school's scores. So what's the real story with Langley? Is it just as good a school as Seaton/Garrison/etc when you look at the younger grades? When these younger kids get up to 4th and 5th grade, do you think Langley will be just as strong as the other schools?

TIA!

[Anonymous]

The story is that like a lot of DCPS schools it is gentrifying and the k-2nd cohort is demographically different and performing higher than 3rd-5th. Also the lack of a desirable middle school makes people leave in the upper grades.

Also Langley has a large self-contained classroom special needs program. Some of those kids take the PARCC and their scores are rolled into the total. If you go to the OSSE website you can break out the numbers in more detail.

We attended for a while and thought it was quite nice. Good teachers, good principal, love Conscious Discipline, very warm and lively atmosphere, lots of physical space. PTA is small but motivated. Kid was challenged and differentiated adequately. Now that the school is doing better I would have no concerns about staying through 1st or 2nd if you are starting Pk3 now. We could not afford a larger home in the neighborhood so we moved farther away and switched to a charter. I loved the diversity of Langley. It is diverse AF!

[Anonymous]

Come on in, neighbor. We are loving it. Come to our Community Night at Spark on Friday, there will be a band!

It is not so much gentrifying as seeing a big uptick in middle-income kids and they tend to do just fine academically. We love the atmosphere and Playworks and Foodprints. And we love being a part of making it great. Commuting sucks.

[Anonymous]

We turned down Seaton now that we are settled at Langley. Seaton is lovely especially if you ride the green line, but it did not seem worth giving up the walk to school, which I love. Garrison was too far for us.

I see no reason Langley can't do as well as nearby schools in time. If anything McKinley Middle is more appealing than Cardozo Middle.

[Anonymous]

OP, our feeling was that we were not going to take on a longer commute for anything where we didn't want to stay. For us that meant Garrison which is our IB. I am just not the type to make my kids change schools more times than is needed. Now that DC is in 1st, a longer commute would make it impossible to do anything such as piano practice or a bath in the evenings. And some nights even hard to have much family time at all. I was not going to make that tradeoff for anything less than stellar.

[Anonymous]

I'm a bloomingdale res who is bound for (and attends) another school, but I've been watching this whole Langley thing with a lot of interest, and remember a time 5+ years ago when most parents who had recently moved into the neighborhood found it inconceivable to attend. It is astounding how quickly that changed!

about three years ago, a huge cohort of neighborhood parents got in (and didn't get into any charters, initially--the crew now in K), and they collectively decided to make the best of it. Many meetings, etc. There has been a TON of attrition from that group -- most peeled off for charters either that year, the next year, or this year -- but to me, it seems like the activity of that group jump started this whole movement to attend Langley. The next year was a bit less scared, and it seems like the crew in PreK3 now doesn't even remember the time when Langely was a non-option.

There are also so, so many kids in that boundary now -- it seems to me that now that people are opting in and enrollment is rising (as someone said, this is less about displacement and more just a rise in enrollment, with the rise coming from middle class and UMC people), Langely is inevitably going to be a good school.

As someone who walks everyday to their DCPS, i feel there are huge, huge benefits to attending your neighborhood school. There is just another layer of connectivity that doesn't exist in charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a bloomingdale res who is bound for (and attends) another school, but I've been watching this whole Langley thing with a lot of interest, and remember a time 5+ years ago when most parents who had recently moved into the neighborhood found it inconceivable to attend. It is astounding how quickly that changed!

about three years ago, a huge cohort of neighborhood parents got in (and didn't get into any charters, initially--the crew now in K), and they collectively decided to make the best of it. Many meetings, etc. There has been a TON of attrition from that group -- most peeled off for charters either that year, the next year, or this year -- but to me, it seems like the activity of that group jump started this whole movement to attend Langley. The next year was a bit less scared, and it seems like the crew in PreK3 now doesn't even remember the time when Langely was a non-option.

There are also so, so many kids in that boundary now -- it seems to me that now that people are opting in and enrollment is rising (as someone said, this is less about displacement and more just a rise in enrollment, with the rise coming from middle class and UMC people), Langely is inevitably going to be a good school.

As someone who walks everyday to their DCPS, i feel there are huge, huge benefits to attending your neighborhood school. There is just another layer of connectivity that doesn't exist in charters.

I'm the PP -- a couple more benefits of DCPS: they pay their teachers a lot more than charters do, so in our experience, the teacher quality is outstanding. DCPS schools often have more resources generally -- more extra staffers, better libraries, etc. So if you have a good DCPS option, to me that trumps a good charter option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a bloomingdale res who is bound for (and attends) another school, but I've been watching this whole Langley thing with a lot of interest, and remember a time 5+ years ago when most parents who had recently moved into the neighborhood found it inconceivable to attend. It is astounding how quickly that changed!

about three years ago, a huge cohort of neighborhood parents got in (and didn't get into any charters, initially--the crew now in K), and they collectively decided to make the best of it. Many meetings, etc. There has been a TON of attrition from that group -- most peeled off for charters either that year, the next year, or this year -- but to me, it seems like the activity of that group jump started this whole movement to attend Langley. The next year was a bit less scared, and it seems like the crew in PreK3 now doesn't even remember the time when Langely was a non-option.

There are also so, so many kids in that boundary now -- it seems to me that now that people are opting in and enrollment is rising (as someone said, this is less about displacement and more just a rise in enrollment, with the rise coming from middle class and UMC people), Langely is inevitably going to be a good school.

As someone who walks everyday to their DCPS, i feel there are huge, huge benefits to attending your neighborhood school. There is just another layer of connectivity that doesn't exist in charters.

I agree, it has been a rapid change. People really, really want Langley to work and the neighborhood can afford enough fundraising. It's just a matter of building it up. We also do not attend, but I donate because there is only one way to get my beloved neighborhood out from under this miserable lottery and that is a good school of right.

To be fair, and not to diminish the efforts of the "crew", the boundary change looping in Bloomingdale (denying them IB access to Seaton) made a difference. The new principal is good, and the one befote her good too--it just takes a while. And the overall baby boom of the neighborhood making it harder to get into HRCS.

[Anonymous]

It's true there was a big effort put forth by that cohort to get the PTA off the ground. But as Langley's total enrollment has increased, it has attracted well-performing kids and involved parents in upper grades too. I wouldn't say any one cohort is the bleeding edge of gentrification. Maybe 3rd grade is. But it's definitely not K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on in, neighbor. We are loving it. Come to our Community Night at Spark on Friday, there will be a band!

It is not so much gentrifying as seeing a big uptick in middle-income kids and they tend to do just fine academically. We love the atmosphere and Playworks and Foodprints. And we love being a part of making it great. Commuting sucks.

I’m sorry but isn’t that the definition of gentrifying? The idea that the school is changing because it’s becoming more middle class and now more middle class families go there while other families are being displaced? (Don’t try to tell me people aren’t being displaced. The racial makeup of the neighborhood has very much changed)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on in, neighbor. We are loving it. Come to our Community Night at Spark on Friday, there will be a band!

It is not so much gentrifying as seeing a big uptick in middle-income kids and they tend to do just fine academically. We love the atmosphere and Playworks and Foodprints. And we love being a part of making it great. Commuting sucks.

I’m sorry but isn’t that the definition of gentrifying? The idea that the school is changing because it’s becoming more middle class and now more middle class families go there while other families are being displaced? (Don’t try to tell me people aren’t being displaced. The racial makeup of the neighborhood has very much changed)

Not PP but I think the point is that there are more moderate-income kids, as distinct from high-income.

Langley has a very large buiding. Nobody would dispute that housing costs in the neighborhood are absurd and people are being displaced. But Langley can fit another 200 kids in the building and has ample OOB kids at every level. It used to go up to 8th grade and now only goes to 5th so there is extra room right now.

[Anonymous]

People will sing Langley's praises, and continue to bail at the first opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on in, neighbor. We are loving it. Come to our Community Night at Spark on Friday, there will be a band!

It is not so much gentrifying as seeing a big uptick in middle-income kids and they tend to do just fine academically. We love the atmosphere and Playworks and Foodprints. And we love being a part of making it great. Commuting sucks.

I’m sorry but isn’t that the definition of gentrifying? The idea that the school is changing because it’s becoming more middle class and now more middle class families go there while other families are being displaced? (Don’t try to tell me people aren’t being displaced. The racial makeup of the neighborhood has very much changed)

Not PP but I think the point is that there are more moderate-income kids, as distinct from high-income.

Langley has a very large buiding. Nobody would dispute that housing costs in the neighborhood are absurd and people are being displaced. But Langley can fit another 200 kids in the building and has ample OOB kids at every level. It used to go up to 8th grade and now only goes to 5th so there is extra room right now.

So we don't have the grade by grade enrollment data for SY 18-19 yet, but the enrollment at Langley was pretty constant for the 3 years prior. There was a pretty significant jump in both PK3 and K in 17-18. https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment

SY/PK3/PK4/K/ECE enrollment/total school enrollment

15-16 28/30/33 / 91/278

16-17 23/38/27/88/284

17-18 41/26/39/106/275

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People will sing Langley's praises, and continue to bail at the first opportunity.

Au contraire, we bailed at the fifth opportunity. It is good enought that we would not have left for anything but a top choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Come on in, neighbor. We are loving it. Come to our Community Night at Spark on Friday, there will be a band!

It is not so much gentrifying as seeing a big uptick in middle-income kids and they tend to do just fine academically. We love the atmosphere and Playworks and Foodprints. And we love being a part of making it great. Commuting sucks.

I’m sorry but isn’t that the definition of gentrifying? The idea that the school is changing because it’s becoming more middle class and now more middle class families go there while other families are being displaced? (Don’t try to tell me people aren’t being displaced. The racial makeup of the neighborhood has very much changed)

Not PP but I think the point is that there are more moderate-income kids, as distinct from high-income.

Langley has a very large buiding. Nobody would dispute that housing costs in the neighborhood are absurd and people are being displaced. But Langley can fit another 200 kids in the building and has ample OOB kids at every level. It used to go up to 8th grade and now only goes to 5th so there is extra room right now.

So we don't have the grade by grade enrollment data for SY 18-19 yet, but the enrollment at Langley was pretty constant for the 3 years prior. There was a pretty significant jump in both PK3 and K in 17-18. https://osse.dc.gov/enrollment

SY/PK3/PK4/K/ECE enrollment/total school enrollment

15-16 28/30/33 / 91/278

16-17 23/38/27/88/284

17-18 41/26/39/106/275

18-19 enrollment will show an increase.

There used to be only two Pk3s and now there are three. This makes it much easier to fully enroll PK4. Most cohorts at Langley have two classrooms but some (K and 3rd) have just one. So you will see some fluctuations as those groups progress through the grades. It is just based on the number of kids who enroll. In the future, noe that Langley attracts enough families, there will be two of every grade.