Reply to Housing dilemma in Capitol Hill - which schools are worth it?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Coming back after 7 years overseas (Foreign Service) and are wondering what are the big differences amongst these schools besides their feeder patterns, - which we do not care about as we will go out again in 3-5 years.  We will be buying a house in the next month and have an incoming 1st grader and a girl in PK4 (too late for the lottery, will most likely keep her at home due to COVID anyway). Seems the houses we like are mostly zoned for Watkins or LT, and the ones zoned for Maury or Brent (which from the stats seems to be better) don't have parking.

Is the difference in quality enough to suffer looking for parking every evening?  Does Maury and Brent merit an extra 200K ?[/quote]

OP, we were in a similar situation five years ago, zoned for Ludlow Taylor with PreK4 kid and 2 year old.  We bought in-boundary for Brent and have never looked back, although we could have afforded a larger house elsewhere on the Hill.  I wouldn't prioritize off-street parking over a good school.  I'd learn to live with street parking and without driving everywhere like the rest of us.

Brent and Maury are, frankly, a much better bet than Ludlow.  Ludlow has had four principals in the last 7 years.  Brent has had a very good principal for the past several years who seems serious about staying on indefinitely.  She used to be the head of a very popular, heavily upper middle-class school in Upper NW, Janney.

Maury had a kick-ass Canadian principal for a decade, followed by a strong successor in the last couple years.  Leadership makes more of a difference in this largely dysfunctional urban school system than it probably would in a well-run school system.  Also, only Brent and Maury support PTAs raising megabucks, 300-400K a year (seriously).  PTA money mainly pays for extra instructors in classrooms, which is huge.  My children's classes are often taught my two experienced teachers at a time, both running small pull-out groups.  Brent and Maury have the funds and demographics to support serious arts programs (they stage kiddie Broadway shows), strong music instruction and serious science instruction (they hire designated science teachers, unlike DCPS programs without PTAs w/robust fund-raising capacity).

Both Brent and Maury practically run homegrown in-house gifted programs, e.g. teaching math one, even two years, ahead of grade level to upper grades students who are ready for the challenge.  Ludlow doesn't, not yet.

Ludlow is probably 5 years behind Brent and Maury in all this, which won't help you.  Ludlow is a decent school, but don't believe the hype.  Buy or rent in-boundary for Maury or Brent, period.[/quote]

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