Reply to Moving to DC:Oyster/Eaton/Hyde/Stoddert/Murch?

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Moving to DC:Oyster/Eaton/Hyde/Stoddert/Murch?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]DH & I are moving back to DC after living in another part of the country for a few years. Neither of us grew up in the DC area. We were living in DC when we met but I moved to the city as a 21-year-old new college graduate & was only 25 when we left so wasn't really paying attention to schools back then. DH is about 10 years older but none of his friends in the city had kids yet when we lived here so he's also not very knowledgeable about DC schools. Some of his old friends in DC are parents now but their kids are all under 3 so they're still figuring the school situation out, too, & can't provide us with much direction in this area.

Our DC is only 2 but we'd like to purchase a home that we can stay in when DC (& any future siblings) are school age. We can afford private school but would very much prefer to send her to public, if possible. We're looking for a school that is reasonably strong academically & provides some differentiated instruction based on student ability. We obviously have no idea whether or not DC is "academically advanced" at this stage -- or, for that matter, if she has a learning disability-- but would like there to be an option for her to receive instruction that is more on par with whatever her abilities might be as opposed to having her curriculum determined solely by her grade level. We'd also like a school that has at least some economic & racial/ethnic diversity & one where there's a strong sense of community among the students' families.

We've found several homes we like that are zoned for Oyster-Adams. The fact that this is a bilingual immersion school appeals to us as does the fact that it goes up to 8th grade. Would the fact that DH & I are nowhere close to being fluent in Spanish detract from our ability to communicate with some other members of the school community or hinder our involvement in DC's education?

We've also looked at some great houses zoned for Eaton, Hyde & Stoddert, all of which appear to be good schools judging by test scores, etc. They all feed into Hardy except maybe Eaton (the real estate agent says there's some debate about where Eaton students will attend middle school & it's still kind of up in the air right now?).We like that Hardy is small, as we think that can be a big advantage for kids that age but we've heard few students from these elementary schools actually end up going to Hardy as most switch to private for middle school. If true, that means DC would have little continuity in terms of her peer group from elementary to middle school (& that age can be difficult enough without having to start a new school without any of your friends!) & few of our neighbors would have kids there, which could detract some from the sense of community. Has anyone sent their kids to one of these elementary schools & then Hardy? If so, what was that experience like?

One of the houses we like is zoned for Murch, which feeds into Deal. We've heard good things about both of these schools but also hear that Murch's boundaries are in flux so there's a chance that our DC will be sent somewhere else that's not within easy walking distance when she's ready for K in a few years (we have a car but I very much prefer to walk places as much as possible). Does anyone know how much truth there is to this? Also, although Deal appears to be have higher test scores & more students from its elementary feeders who attend, would people consider buying a home we like less just because that home is zoned for Deal to be worth it or is Deal not really that much better than Hardy? We've also heard that Hardy is "up-and-coming" so is there a good chance that it will be on par with Deal academically by the time DC is in middle school in a little less than a decade?

All of these schools feed into Wilson, which we've heard is the best public, non-magnet high school in DC. Thoughts on this? Posters who have kids currently attending Wilson, would you say their experiences have been positive for the most part?

I know I've asked a lot of questions lol but any help/thought/opinions would be very much appreciated! This is all a little overwhelming for first time parents!  :-) 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics