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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please don't invest too much in the postings of our resident malcontent who claims to know about writing tutors, poor Chinese, etc. He/She is the biggest critic of DCI on this forum, yet still keeps his/her child/children in the school. So exhausting and unfair to new parents! 
My child graduated this year and had a stellar experience and multiple offers from great universities.
The DCI IB for All model is perhaps the single biggest educational equity opportunity in this city for a diverse group of learners. 
Middle school is a time when kids branch out and start forming new friend groups, so your child will make friends quickly and won't suffer from not having been in a feeder. He/She will enjoy learning Chinese at a beginner level and have plenty of time to become proficient (not saying bilingual). 
The high school program is wonderful, because the students get a solid preparation for the DP program from their years in the MYP program. [b]The DP program is VERY rigorous, and your child will be beyond prepared for postsecondary education.[/b]
Please know that your child will be welcomed, included, and have opportunities to grow and learn far beyond most schools. Welcome!!!! [/quote]

In our experience, there are several major and enduring problems with the Diploma program at DCI. The rigor is essentially too little, too late, because the prep provided by the DCI feeders and DCI middle school is mediocre. Admins ensure that the program is mired in relatavism. They take the attitude that because DCI Diploma rigor is greater than that at Eastern and Banneker, the other IBD programs in the DC public system, it's good enough for the District, particularly for languages. IB Diploma language study is geared toward speaking and listening, while the prep up the chain emphasizes writing and reading. So in order for your student to get on track to achieve decent IB Diploma language scores even at the Standard Level eventually (DCI only teaches Spanish at the Higher Level for now), you need to start paying for for true immersion experiences during the middle school years, e.g. summer immersion camps. Another serious problem is very limited subject choice of Diploma exams, particularly for the arts requirement and Higher Level humanities and sciences.  A third problem is that the high school students aren't encouraged to double up on the AP exams that overlap IB subject exams, or to take 2 IBD SL exams junior year (permitted by the Geneva testers).  What happens is that DCI seniors wind up applying to college without nearly enough high standardized test scores to be taken seriously by the most competitive institutions. If you're looking for a serious IB Diploma program, where most of the students score in the mid to high 30s and low 40s, you need to look to the burbs (Fairfax, Arlington, MoCo).  Alternatively, to stay in the DC public system with more rigor in the mix, your kid can try to test into School Without Walls, switching to an AP program. From what I've seen, the DCI 8th graders who are good at math generally make the cut at Walls. [/quote]

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