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HELP! DC School Options
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szengotitabengoa
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We live in DC (the Fort Totten area, south of Takoma Park,) and need to decide whetehr to move because of the ill repute of DC schools. We love our current neighborhood but if there are no good school options for us then our choice is made. But we don't know what's available in ligh of all the options.
Is there ANYONE out there that is a DC schools guru that we can consult with? We are overwhelmed by the options and there is no way for us to get a handle on what is best for our young children's future. Please HELP. |
Anonymous
| I don't know a "guru" but you should definitely talk to parents in your neighborhood, as well as other parents of children a bit older than yours. My kids go to an out-of-boundary school, because our neigborhood school is terrible. You might want to start by checking out the test scores of your local school (try the Washington Post or the DC Schools website). Does your neighborhod have a listserve? That can be a useful source of info as well. |
Anonymous
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Georgia Irvin is a well known consultant. Haven't used her but I might in the future.
http://www.gkirvin.com/ |
Anonymous
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Can someone speak to some of the top schools to apply to for out of boundary? I love in Columbia Heigts..hve heard great things about Murch? What are some of the other good ones?
Many thanks. |
szengotitabengoa
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$1000 for a consultation- I guess her services are geared to those that can afforsd to ask questions like "Beauvoir vs. Sidwell vs. GDS vs. Maret". Are we the only middle class family on this site?
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Anonymous
| Murch is terrific, as are Lafayette, Janney, and Mann. I've heard good things about Key, Eaton, and Stoddard, and Shepherd, although I don't know whether Shephed is still good. Of the charter schools, Cap City is great, although I don't know about the upper grades (6th and above). Washington Latin had great test scores, but is in the middle of adminstrative turmoil. Haynes is supposed to be good too. For middle schools, a lot of people say Deal is good. But that's where we decided to go private. |
LRP
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| What does it take to get into an out-of-boundary school? |
Anonymous
| What about Ross Elementary or Tompson Elementary? Anyone have feedback? |
Anonymous
You have to apply (in January, I think) and there's a lottery. I gather that spots at the high-test-score schools are rare (Key, Mann, Janney, Lafayette, Murch) because many neighborhood parents send their children there. Eaton is reputed to be one of the better schools with a significant number of out-of-boundary spots. |
Anonymous
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The top schools rarely accept out of boundary students. Key has a hearing impaired program that accepts students from outside of the neighborhood. This year they also took several students from low performing schools but that was all done by the Chancellor.
Do you know what your neighborhood school is? |
LRP
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| Sorry to hijack the post. I still have a while before school becomes an issue, but the post caught my eye. My local school is Amidon. My child will not be going there. I'd heard about out-of-boundary before, but I heard it was not really possible to get into the better schools. But I am still holding out hope that I can make the OOB program work for my family or that Rhee will accomplish the impossible. If neither of those work out, I guess there is always the option of moving to the 'burbs. |
TwinsinAdMorg
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Here are a few tools. You are the only guru needed when it comes to your kids, right? On-line comparison of all DC schools, private and public, by statistics http://dcschoolsearch.dc.gov/schools/quick_reports.asp Official public charter school board that you may find helpful. http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/pcschools/index.html Quick reference on NCLB and AYP (if you have to ask what these are, read this...) http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/nclbayp/docs/nclbfactsheet.pdf Charter schools may be the most efficient way to start if your local school is really bad. They are indeed public (free) and 1/3 of DC public kids are in charters anyway. Several offer specialized programs like bilingual and special needs inclusion. Plus you don't have to deal with the whole out-of-boundary issue. Don't be intimidated by the waitlists at "top" schools like Capital City and Haynes. It doesn't hurt to apply. Dec-Feb is "open house" season. You may find it easiest to pick a school each week to visit. Most will take appointments easily. Most applications (usually just a page or 2) are due by March/April. Lotteries - if there's a waitlist - often happen in April. I hope you don't move. It would be great to keep involved parents here in the District. |
Anonymous
| To the PP, thank you so much. We're trying to help my husband's little brother (from Big Bros/Big Sisters) find high school options and this is really, really helpful. |
Anonymous
| LRP - I understand!! I also live in SW, like the neighborhood, but am disappointed in the public school options. |
Anonymous
To PP way above... no, you are not the only middle class poster here! I skip over the posts that don't look like they don't match up with my problems... or budget. 
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