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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't want to be negative about Powell--I've heard good things about it. But I think the biggest difference is that from what I know/read, middle class families are not staying at Powell past K. At Bancroft, a handful of middle class families have been staying through 5th for the last few years. Believe me, this makes a huge difference to your social interactions and your child's experience at the school. Your child's best friend, like or not, is probably going to be from an English speaking, educated family.

As for test scores, read what you will into them, but one difference between Powell and Bancroft is that (as far as I know) Bancroft has had bilingual instruction for all kids through 5th for many years, while at Powell and most of the other dual language DCPS schools (except Oyster), the program either stops after the lower grades or only some classes are bilingual. I think some schools are moving to all-bilingual all the way through, but they're not there yet. I've been told that this will affect test scores. Kids spending only half their class time on English instruction won't score as well on a test in English. However, I've also been told that the kids eventually catch up, and that you can see this in Bancroft's grade by grade test scores--the scores rise from 3rd grade to 5th.

The new principal at Bancroft isn't Hispanic, but she's bilingual, which our previous principal was not. Many Bancroft parents think having a bilingual principal at our bilingual school is important.

OP, you may get off the Bancroft waitlist (it can move into early October). If you don't get it, take the spot at Powell and see how it goes, then you can always move to Bancroft for K--seems like it should be pretty seamless for your child since the schools are similar.[/quote]

That's my fear people aren't staying. Would really love LAMB or MV but as we all know those are impossible to get in. If however we do get in at Powell we will stick with them until K and go with Bancroft. Bilingualism is important to us as our child is biracial.[/quote]

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