Ludlow Taylor - Choose It over Watkins for 1st Grade ?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We live on the Hill. My kid is in 4th grade at another Hill school. I know many families who tried Watkins, and most of them stayed through 4th and even onto 5th. Many of them are happy and tell me their kids have had excellent teachers. I feel like Watkins is more of a known entity through the upper grades.

The test scores at Watkins aren't as high as at LT. I can tell you that the PK3 and PK4 classes at LT are almost all staying and continuing into K. LT has a great group of teachers and is generally well run. Opinions on this board to the contrary are not based on first hand knowledge.

True that LT has higher scores overall. Watkins has a particularly large achievement gap between white and black students that is persistent. FWIW white kids in Watkins have quite high scores. There is also a bit of lingering mistrust in the upper grades at LT based on the prior erasure issues. Before the apparent mass exodus this year, Watkins has been a more known quantity in the upper grades. The teachers are/were excellent and many of them are Hill neighbors and/or sent their own kids through the school. I'd say through 4th grade for sure, parents are not exaggerating when we speak of having excellent teachers.

What I find amusing about your post though is you talk about first hand experience, which you have through PK4? The PPP has a 4th grader on the Hill with many Hill friends in Watkins upper grades. Yet you criticize her for lack of first-hand experience.

^^ Me again. I am not celebrating the achievement gap at Watkins in any way. It is appalling. I'm just saying that with a kid in this cohort, I haven't been excessively worried by the scores per se.

If you had any brains, you'd be worried about school safety at Watkins. Knife, strangulation, fistfights. WTF?

Who cares about academics if you don't have safety.

Take your so-called high SES and get a reality check. You're in school in the Hood.

Cheers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:slightly different topic:
there is a lady that consults on schools on the hill and she said that LT waitlist moved 30 spots already. Since all 54 spots were taken before by IB/sibling, that would mean that almost 2/3 of new parents moved their kids elsewhere and would make the new PK3 class dominantly OB.
Anybody know if she is right or not?

I know a lot of IB families attending PK3 next year, and a few OOB (but still on the Hill) enrolling too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:slightly different topic:
there is a lady that consults on schools on the hill and she said that LT waitlist moved 30 spots already. Since all 54 spots were taken before by IB/sibling, that would mean that almost 2/3 of new parents moved their kids elsewhere and would make the new PK3 class dominantly OB.
Anybody know if she is right or not?

I know a lot of IB families attending PK3 next year, and a few OOB (but still on the Hill) enrolling too.

I know 4 families, including mine, all IB and enrolling in pK3 this Fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:slightly different topic:
there is a lady that consults on schools on the hill and she said that LT waitlist moved 30 spots already. Since all 54 spots were taken before by IB/sibling, that would mean that almost 2/3 of new parents moved their kids elsewhere and would make the new PK3 class dominantly OB.
Anybody know if she is right or not?

I know a lot of IB families attending PK3 next year, and a few OOB (but still on the Hill) enrolling too.

You've got it wrong. 30 spots just means 1 or more spots were offered to someone on WL. If someone at the front of the WL declines they're removed and the next person on WL and so on. It might just mean that waitlisted families are committed elsewhere or holding out for another WL option