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Thank you. Why do they do this? Under resourced? In the name of equity? Both?
I just spoke with a recent Whitman grade who said that for freshman year, normally one does not take APs., but there are grade-level and honors courses. For sophmore year, there are grade-level, honors, and AP classes. Then junior year, there are just AP classes, and non-AP classes (whether it's called honors or grade-level.) That makes a lot of sense. If my child was in a regular class in freshman year, they have something to reach for for sophomore year - to get into the honors by working hard, and knowing what to reach for.
So in which schools are all the on-level courses disappearing, and instead all kids are just put into a dumbed down honors, and is that for all 4 grades?
So in which schools are all the on-level courses disappearing, and instead all kids are just put into a dumbed down honors, and is that for all 4 grades?
Anonymous wrote: Churchill has a strong Asian contingent that is very studious, mostly Chinese. Downtown Bethesda has a small community of Japanese expatriates and diplomats from various nations of Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia, so the BCC cluster is very international, which is why the IB is there. The people we know from Whitman are by no means very wealthy! Your kids will find their friends wherever they go.
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Thank you for this. It's actually very helpful. Walter Johnson seems to be a mix of it all: "wealthy whites," internationals, immigrants (it appears to be not dominated by one area of the world, but a mixture). Could it be characterized in that way? Just curious.
Thank you. I haven't looked at this area much. It's not as direct for my communting needs. But I will. Thank you.
Thank you. Understood. No, am not sending to BCC/W school for elite college admissions. Rather for their better school administration, communcation, education, etc.. One can argue how much better it is than eg Jackson Reed in NW DC, but.... for my kid, anything marginally better will be helpful; if I can't do private; and just trying to support through external tutoring, I think, won't be enough.
Thank you to all the thoughful posters, the feedback from the WJ parent about kids borrowing parent cars and working in summers, the poster about having maanged in Whitman without being "rich", the poster alerting about boundary change - yes, am aware. The thread about boundary changes is really long, and have yet to read. If I did WJ, I'd live in the southern area of the zone for commuting reasons, and then will just have to roll along with the changes on the boundary changes.
Thank you. What you are saying is what I am finding to be the case.
OP here. I'd appreciate serious conversations on this thread.
Thank you 9:13 and 9:28 for your thoughts. Yes, am posting to try to break though the assumptions. So I appreciate your thoughts.
Do you -- or others -- have a sense of BCC and Whitman? They are the two wealthier areas (at least based on home prices. I know BCC has an area in its zone that is not, but kids life in sub-cultures/sub-groups so still trying to figure out what the experience would be like for us.)
Thank you 9:13 and 9:28 for your thoughts. Yes, am posting to try to break though the assumptions. So I appreciate your thoughts.
Do you -- or others -- have a sense of BCC and Whitman? They are the two wealthier areas (at least based on home prices. I know BCC has an area in its zone that is not, but kids life in sub-cultures/sub-groups so still trying to figure out what the experience would be like for us.)
Anonymous wrote:Our kids graduated from WJ and we did none of those things. A lot of stereotyping in your post, OP. Our kids played sports, did a lot of SSL hours and had part-time jobs. They drove a used car (ours, not theirs).
Thank you. Actually, of all the BCC/W schools, WJ is one of the ones that -- to me at least (based on nothing more than general sense of home prices and demographics and observations) -- seemed to have less of the issues around "feeling out of place because of wealth / padding of resume with purchased experience." Since we're on DCUMs, the HSs that I worried had it the most -- again, at least to me -- were BCC and Whitman. Yet these are the ones that for various commuting reasons, would be easiest to me (I'd have to rent, not buy.)
So which are those high schools? Unless one already lives there and over the years has learned nuances about different sub-cultures, strengths and weaknesses, it's hard to tell. And those are the places that aggregate scores like Great Schools are the worse for, ... precisely because it is aggregated
Thank you. This is all very helpful. I appreciate you sharing. You nailed it with the problem of pricey rentals and condo fees. I think it's impossible to find family friendly places (playground/field nearby, kids walking independently) within a certain price range, unless condo with high condo fees. Also, agreed, it's not easy to say "we'll make new friends" for either the children nor the parents.
One of my main concerns about BCC/Ws is the extent to which it'd be comfortable for my kids to not be super wealthy. Eg:
-- not have a (fancy) car once they hit driving age.
-- not be supplemented with tutors constantly
-- not have super enriching summer programs / camps that are purchased, or internships accessed through relationships
-- not have a private college counselor to guide them every step of the way.
I'm thinking about both social and mental ease and a sense of belonging and fitting in, but also -- college applications -- ... if most wealthy kids can pad their resume with purchased experiences, then what?
I welcome sincere perspectives. Thank you.
-- not have a (fancy) car once they hit driving age.
-- not be supplemented with tutors constantly
-- not have super enriching summer programs / camps that are purchased, or internships accessed through relationships
-- not have a private college counselor to guide them every step of the way.
I'm thinking about both social and mental ease and a sense of belonging and fitting in, but also -- college applications -- ... if most wealthy kids can pad their resume with purchased experiences, then what?
I welcome sincere perspectives. Thank you.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Highest predictor of academic success is education level of mother. That's why J-R is called "Yale or Jail." Parents who can supplement - supplement from an early age with weekend language classes, tutors, summer camps, internships. Those kids are prepared for college and would be prepared anywhere.
I work in college admissions, have a kid at J-R and don't think it's quite that simple. Yes, the "Yale" or "Jail" phenomenon is real. But there's a good-sized group of bright but not terribly motivated potential "Yale" students in the ES feeders and Deal who would do better in better-run and more demanding schools than DCPS, schools that would have pushed them harder from the upper ES grades. UMC parents can't always compensate for what schools aren't doing by supplementing extensively. All of these parents aren't going to find the time, resources, stamina or working relationship with a child to get and stay on track for "Yale" from DCPS. My do-the-minimum older kid wouldn't have worked hard at Deal or J-R (so attended parochial schools after ES), while my younger one has thrived in DCPS as a pre-teen and teen.
Can you speak a little more about your kids different styles? Would the older kid not worked as hard at Deal/JR and pushed more at parochial school?
Older kid is pushed much harder at top parochial middle school than at Deal. He only does what he has to, now he puts nose to the grindstone (or we don't let him play sports he loves). His interests aren't academic, but he can perform well if required to. Younger kid has strong academic interests, enjoys reading, writing, plays a musical instrument well. We supplement for younger kid in DCPS with harder math and language study on weekends. We can only afford parochial school for one comfortably, don't get fi aid from the school and highly doubt that they'd have admitted him if we needed a scholarship. If we hadn't bought a house in NW almost 20 years ago, leaving us with a small mortgage, we'd have bailed for the burbs by now to head off college admissions issues for older kid.
Do you think your older kid would have done as well in the surburban "W" schools. Or, he needed he smaller environment and more personal attention of parochial?
This was so helpful. Thank you!
Thank you. That's an excellent point. But for my kid, I think he'd need to be part of a process, culture, "everyone doing it" to really do it well. My child is not naturally academically oriented. And the older he gets, the more I need his ecosystem and "norms" to support him. He, and I, would greatly benefit from being part of the culture, and the information and communcations flow and process.