Anonymous wrote:

Superiorwitt wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Thank you much for the Payne suggestion and perspectives! It appears to fit alot of our criteria when researching. It also, as of now, seems to feed into a fairly solid Middle school as well. Much appreciated!

FWIW, Payne didn't accept some students who had proximity preference with sibling attending this year for PK3. Based on neighborhood trends, it's near 0 they'll take an OOB PK3 student with no sibling preference next year.

Anonymous wrote:Get into an immersion charter and then you have a very good chance to get into DCI. Bonus is your kid will learn another language.

I agree with poster above that it is a big mistake not to consider middle and high school feeders. If you don’t, plan to move in middle. DCPS is not going to get any better, in fact worst, with the new ELA and science curriculum.

Anonymous wrote:Regarding science focus, consider looking at Payne in the East Capitol Hill neighborhood. We toured them when we were deciding where to live and were very impressed -- great community and it seems to be getting better and better. Notably, they have a dedicated science teacher and classroom for upper grades that kids from 3-5 go to like a special, but it's part of their core curriculum. This seemed to increase the focus on science and also allow for more hands on activities.

L-T has already been mentioned, but they also seemed to focus quite a bit on science, with a school wide science fair that even the youngest kids participate in (early grades do class projects, starting in I think 3rd, the projects are individual).

Just noting these because people tend to focus on test scores, which are only part of the story. We found it enormously helpful to actually visit schools and talk to students, teachers, and parents. These were the two CH schools that stood out to us on the science front for these reasons, and I don't think you can get that from a MySchool profile or posts on DCUM (I think this site over-fixates on test scores instead of simply treating them as a floor for evaluating schools).

Anonymous wrote:Curious about why you mention having property near Union Market— are you saying you’d likely move there? Otherwise, simply owning property somewhere does not give you boundary preference.

Anonymous wrote:There isn't a STEM-focused elementary school here. Beware of Harmony-- it markets itself as such, but its math performance is really low and it was nearly closed down a few years ago.

I would suggest you look at Langley, Seaton, Burroughs, Langdon, and Inspired Teaching. Stokes is a French and Spanish school so consider whether you want language, if you do, consider Mundo Verde and Yu Ying as well. Avoid Shining Stars Montessori, it seems to be in some sort of slow-motion collapse. Lee Montessori is okay.

You can use this resource to see if any out-of-boundary PK3s were accepted in recent years. https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/61 This helps you to avoid wasting a spot where you have zero chance. Look up Ludlow-Taylor and you'll see what I mean-- they waitlisted in-boundary students so out-of-boundary students don't stand a chance.

The best thing you can do for yourself is 1) understand the difference between boundary and non-boundary schools (which isn't the same thing as charter vs non-charter) and watch the video on MySchoolDC to see how the lottery works and make sure you do truly understand it.

Anonymous wrote:Ok, stop using Greatschools and Niche. Those websites do not understand how the DC school system operates and are often out of date. For example, you should definitely look at JO Wilson, which is near Union Market and is in a temporary space. They will be moving back into a newly remodeled building in 2026. Having to use a swing space sometimes causes a school's scores to dip because people leave, but I think JO Wilson will be a great pick and do really well once the renovation is over. This is an example of why you shouldn't just rely on Great schools.

If you want to look at test score data, you can look here: https://osse.dc.gov/dccape

Each school has a page on https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/home and you can look up each school and review the topics most of interest to you.

There's a lot of data here https://www.empowerk12.org/dcdatahub although it's a little bit of work to understand how to use the dashboard. This will help you to review schools in the context of their demographics-- and this is important because DCPS has many lovely preschool and early elementary programs that don't have great test scores, either because of a high proportion of special needs students or people leaving the elementary school due to a lack of a middle school feeder.

You need to decide whether you're interested in language programs and whether you're interested in Montessori. Start by determining that. Then look geographically and decide how much you care about what the middle school option is.

Anonymous wrote:What age are you looking for?