Lottery Rankings - PK3

[Anonymous]

I’m curious to know how other families made their final pK3 ranking decisions. We are having difficulty finalizing the order of our favorites.

[Anonymous]

We got real and removed a few that are too far away, and in general weighted logistics a little heavier as a tiebreaker. I know it's hard to compare such disparate things, but if you're struggling to find a clear preference, definitely go with the shorter commute.

If you share your list here, people can help you rank in a way that makes sense. There is no trick to it other than just ranking in preference order.

[Anonymous]

We are deciding between all the Montessori options. LAMB stands out with the language immersion, but it’s not accredited and Lee is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between all the Montessori options. LAMB stands out with the language immersion, but it’s not accredited and Lee is.

How do you feel about commute? Test scores? Size of the school? Potential pathway to middle school? Overall organization and professionalism of the teachers and administration? If the commutes were roughly equal, personally I would rank LAMB higher because of the potential entry to DCI, but I know not everyone is worried about middle school in PK3!

[Anonymous]

OP, I can't stress enough the consideration you should put on daily commute and how that will impact your quality of life. It was such a relief to do a gut check of that and take schools off our list that would make every day too stressful for us. Most if not all pk3-k experiences are pretty similar (differences with immersion, etc of course but I believe most ECE programs are play based and fun for little kids) so hopefully you can find a school that will work logistically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between all the Montessori options. LAMB stands out with the language immersion, but it’s not accredited and Lee is.

LAMB isn't going to be accredited because it has always done a few things in a non-Montessori way: for example, allowing non-Montessori specialists to come into the classroom to work with students with SN when that is the appropriate setting (an IDEA requirement); keyboards and computers in the classrooms for older students; mixing in some (not a lot) non-Montessori reading or math instruction aimed at PARCC for some students.

[Anonymous]

for us it was commute and a school with a solid play-based prek with outside options.

using pre-k as a feeder to elementary was a consideration for only one school we put down as we are generally happy with going to our inbound for k.

if we don't get the right option, staying in our current daycare is an option

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you everyone for the advice! The commute isn’t an issue for us with either of those 3 schools, thus the difficulty of this decision! At the LAMB open house they said they are “currently” a feeder for DCI, which makes me believe that could change in the future.

[Anonymous]

Commute. If all 3 are close enough that you're having trouble prioritizing, then put them in order of convenience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Commute. If all 3 are close enough that you're having trouble prioritizing, then put them in order of convenience.

+1. A 5-minute difference totally matters, Op! Don't forget to account for parking and drop-off procedures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone for the advice! The commute isn’t an issue for us with either of those 3 schools, thus the difficulty of this decision! At the LAMB open house they said they are “currently” a feeder for DCI, which makes me believe that could change in the future.

Haha that's not changing. Strange wording but. You don't fight that hard to get feeder rights and then randomly give them up.

Also, they're indeed working on AMS accreditation. From what I understand those factors a PP raised would not necessarily disqualify. But AMI and AMS are different. Then again your real consideration should be whether you want Spanish. People too often downplay this. It's central - very central - to immersion schools like LAMB...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone for the advice! The commute isn’t an issue for us with either of those 3 schools, thus the difficulty of this decision! At the LAMB open house they said they are “currently” a feeder for DCI, which makes me believe that could change in the future.

Haha that's not changing. Strange wording but. You don't fight that hard to get feeder rights and then randomly give them up.

Also, they're indeed working on AMS accreditation. From what I understand those factors a PP raised would not necessarily disqualify. But AMI and AMS are different. Then again your real consideration should be whether you want Spanish. People too often downplay this. It's central - very central - to immersion schools like LAMB...

Oh maybe they said that because they're also hoping to (additionally) become a feeder to the new Truth school if that is allowed which it's not yet (they have no feeders at all).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone for the advice! The commute isn’t an issue for us with either of those 3 schools, thus the difficulty of this decision! At the LAMB open house they said they are “currently” a feeder for DCI, which makes me believe that could change in the future.

Haha that's not changing. Strange wording but. You don't fight that hard to get feeder rights and then randomly give them up.

Also, they're indeed working on AMS accreditation. From what I understand those factors a PP raised would not necessarily disqualify. But AMI and AMS are different. Then again your real consideration should be whether you want Spanish. People too often downplay this. It's central - very central - to immersion schools like LAMB...

What they are likely referring to is the fact that their younger classes are larger than their allocation of seats at DCI (same as at MV, Stokes now). So not all students coming from those particular feeders will be able to go to DCI -- there will be a sub=lottery of sorts among the 5th grades from one particular feeder. (See the explanation of the situation from the MV website - the exact numbers are different but the scenario is the same - you need to scroll to the bottom of this page
http://www.mundoverdepcs.org/admissions)

I have never seen or heard LAMB confirm how many DCI slots they actually have vs their enrollment per grade -- but perhaps someone else here does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are deciding between all the Montessori options. LAMB stands out with the language immersion, but it’s not accredited and Lee is.

AMI accredidation has to do with the program the Montessori program the teacher went to - it's not that strict or hard to get. It does ensures a degree of fidelity, through the teacher, to Montessori. But LAMB not only has spanish, it has MUCH high test scores and many more years experience. Lee is still growing.

Both are tough to get into at PK3 but you have a good shot at Lee in elementary and no shot at LAMB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you everyone for the advice! The commute isn’t an issue for us with either of those 3 schools, thus the difficulty of this decision! At the LAMB open house they said they are “currently” a feeder for DCI, which makes me believe that could change in the future.

Haha that's not changing. Strange wording but. You don't fight that hard to get feeder rights and then randomly give them up.

Also, they're indeed working on AMS accreditation. From what I understand those factors a PP raised would not necessarily disqualify. But AMI and AMS are different. Then again your real consideration should be whether you want Spanish. People too often downplay this. It's central - very central - to immersion schools like LAMB...

What they are likely referring to is the fact that their younger classes are larger than their allocation of seats at DCI (same as at MV, Stokes now). So not all students coming from those particular feeders will be able to go to DCI -- there will be a sub=lottery of sorts among the 5th grades from one particular feeder. (See the explanation of the situation from the MV website - the exact numbers are different but the scenario is the same - you need to scroll to the bottom of this page
http://www.mundoverdepcs.org/admissions)

I have never seen or heard LAMB confirm how many DCI slots they actually have vs their enrollment per grade -- but perhaps someone else here does.

I believe they have 60 spots, but am not positive. LAMB doesn't backfill past K, so that does help the odds (compared to most of the other feeders).