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DCI or Deal
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Anonymous
| We registered my child for DCI for 6th grade to continue on from a language charter but I'm having cold feet as it seems like there are still many kinks to work out at DCI. We happen to be in bounds for Deal so there is some appeal to going to an established school pattern, especially after so many years at a start up charter. Just worried my kid will get lost at Deal since it is enormous and he is not exactly a self starter. I realize in the scheme of things two solid choices is a good problem to have, but don't know which is better for a very solid but not exceptional student who could benefit from encouragement and mentoring. Any wisdom about either school for this type of kid is welcome. |
Anonymous
|
I go with DCI based on how you described your kid. Some kids will thrive in any environment, whether a huge class like Deal or a smaller charter. And some kids need the smaller environment. Your kid sounds like one of them.
If for whatever reason it doesn’t fit at DCI, you can always go to Deal at any time. But you can’t do the reverse of you start at Deal and it’s not a fit. |
Anonymous
| Deal. No question. |
Anonymous
|
I will have 3 kids at DCI next year and am confident they are getting a good education. Not every teacher is great but I am impressed by some of them— math, English. Science especially. The ATL home room is designed exactly for mentoring and support and it has done that for my kids. They are learning languages — which you could get at Deale I understand but they wouldn’t have the opportunity to do other courses in their target language (social studies, music, etc). My introverted kids are happier at DCI then at their old school and there are many extracurricular activities.
If your child wants to continue with Language then I would definitely definitely second trying it for a year. |
Anonymous
| Deal |
Anonymous
|
I don't know anything about DCI but I have two kids at Deal and I can tell you that while the teachers are great in class, there is no or very little 'encouragement and mentoring" going on unless a kid specifically seeks it out by joining an afternoon club with a teacher.
Here's an example: let's say you have a kid who gets 2 quarters of As and suddenly gets all Cs. No one will notice. There is no teacher with enough time to actually look at your kids' bigger picture--even within the class they are teaching--unless you meet with them for the 5 minute parent teacher conference by which time it will likely be too late. I have had friends who had this happen to their kids. Anyway, it's a great school but a very large one and even with the team structure, kids fall through the cracks because the teams are large and the teachers' responsibilities are many. |
Anonymous
|
Deal is a large school - the 6th grade teachers are the strongest. You will hear the horror stories - kids set fire to another child's hair, incident in the stairwell, some teachers not strong in classroom management, don't ride the bus .....
There is also a lot of positive stuff happening. If you are on the fence, you need to get over to both Deal and DCI this week and visit so you can see the school in action. Next week the 6th graders are doing Willy Wonka - buy a ticket and sit in the audience - talk to parents / students during intermission. |
Anonymous
OP here. I actually just got tickets for the 6th grade musical with that in mind. Thank you all for the responses! |
Anonymous
| DCI isn’t exactly small and cozy either. |
Anonymous
About 270 kids in a each grade. Deal has just under 500 in each grade. |
Anonymous
no, more like 550 in 6th grade at Deal |
Anonymous
Sure. You’re right. I wrong. I hope you can forgive me. I just took the overall enrollment from the DCPS website and divided by 3. |
Anonymous
True. And Deal at least tries by make it feel smaller by having several teams. DCI doesn't. |
Anonymous
Going to a too small middle school has issues - no peer group, no variety of classes, min extracurricular, etc.. DCI is not too small nor is it too big. I like the size. Deal is not only too big but way overcrowded for the building. It’s a big, big problem with no solution in sight. The problem just gets worst. We are at a feeder into DCI and planning on staying the track. No interest in moving to the DEAL boundaries although we can easily afford it. |
Anonymous
Who are you kidding? DCI is 1/2 the size of Deal and 600 kids is easily manageable compare to over 1500 in an overcrowded building where kids are on top of each other in the hallways, cafeteria, and classroom. |