Reply to How different are various DCPS elementary schools in terms of curriculum/policies?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Obviously, they have very different kids attending, are in different locations, have different feeders, and have very different test scores, all of which matter and all of which you can figure out easily online.

Outside of those very googleable facts - how much do schools really differ? Are they all:

[b]Using the same curriculum?
Providing the same amount of recess?
Have roughly the same technology policies (1:1 for devices in the classroom after 3rd grade)?[/b]

For context: I'm starting the process of looking for a new school for my K student - I don't think their current school will work well for upper elementary school. I've created a long list of potential options based on commute times and eliminating those without a cohort of on/above grade level performers. My list is too long to go to that many open houses - 24 schools. I'm wondering if it makes sense to just eliminate any DCPS school that's in, let's say, the bottom 50% for commute of the schools on my list, assuming I've got other DCPS schools on my list with similar test scores, similar lottery chances, and a similarly crappy feeder. It's unlikely that one of them is a diamond in the rough for some weird reason I wouldn't be able to figure out without getting inside the building?

Or if people have another suggestion on ways to get this list down without visiting, I'm open to it. That's too many to even visit tables for at EdFest. [/quote]

Our family has experience at two different DCPS elementary schools and they are different. Reading is the same at both schools (fundations etc). Math is Eureka at both but the better one has more options for upward differentiation. Social studies, science and writing are dramatically better and way less screen time during the day.

24 schools is a lot! But I would highly recommend going to as many open houses as you can, looking at student work, and asking the principal "what do you offer that my current school doesn't." They know.[/quote]

OP here. This is really, really helpful (though it makes my current conundrum worse). We do have two top picks that we'll definitely go to open houses for - maybe for the other 22, we just get a sitter for EdFest, each take 11 schools, and see if we can bang through all of them with some basic questions. Hopefully that gets us down to like 10ish schools (or puts us in a place where we're comfortable doing a second round of cuts based on commute), and that many open houses is probably reasonable over 2-3 months.

11 a person at EdFest seems nearly impossible though, even without the kids. It's three hours. You'd probably need five minutes to find each school. That gives you about 10 mins per school. That's TIGHT! Especially cause you'd have to be taking notes cause there's no way to internalize the information that fast. [/quote]

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