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[quote=Anonymous]I'm a long time (20 year) DCPS parent with kids at both schools and the academic expectations are much higher an elite DC private (the Big3).  There's honestly no comparison.  The kids are asked to write things (in English class but also in history, religion, and foreign language classes) that I did not have to write as an English 
major at an Ivy league school. There are no retakes for anything, no late work is accepted, etc.  Basically you get things turned in on time or you get a zero. You better do well on every test or quiz or you get a crappy grade---so there is really no room for error or a night of blowing off the reading. 
And there is a LOT of reading.  My 10th grader is now on the 8th or 9th book this year in Brit Lit.  It's 30-50 pages a night every night for one (ELA) class. Pop quizzes are the norm on the previous night's reading. There are many Bs and Cs as course grades--even for kids who are working very hard and doing every single assignment to the best of their ability.  In some classes, getting a course grade A is almost impossible. The teacher may structure things so that one kid gets a final A (out of 15 kids in the class).

The teaching staff is great and most have been at the school for 10-30 years.  There is complete stability in that regard--i.e. never any fear that you won't have a teacher or even a good teacher.  (As a long term DCPS parent i think this might have been the most striking difference)

There are very few middle class (or even professional class) kids.  Most are either wealthy or on aid.  We are in the middle (just over the aid cut-off) and sometimes it feels like we're on our own island.  Our kid fits in fine.  I will say that I used to think that these schools must be filled with wealthy dumb kids.  The reality is that wealthy people in DC tend to be extremely smart and successful and smart people tend to have smart kids.  So my kid's school is filled with wealthy and very smart kids. There are very few external flaws to be found---"what you're rich, athletic AND really, really, smart?"---it can be hard on a high schooler who is trying to figure out life when this is almost all their peers. 
The racial stuff is interesting.  A disproportionate percentage of the kids on aid (and aid kids are about 30% of the student body) are URM.  Certainly not all the URMs are on aid.  But this does add a class dimension to the race dimension.  I'd like to think that there is not a lot of outwardly racist stuff that goes on (I hope!) but I will say that the kids tend to segregate socially by race. Such is life anywhere. These schools haven't figured out a way to really integrate the kids' social lives anymore than the rest of society has.

That all said, I sometimes (often) wonder if the academic stress is worth it or necessary.  I wouldn't say my kid is having a FUN high school experience.  It's more of a long slog.  My child at Walls was much happier overall.  It was a far less challenging, far more uneven (with regards to teacher and overall quality) but allowed my kid to have more outside interests and a better quality of life.  The racial stuff (since that was mentioned) was pretty similar.  My kids (I have 4) are long-term DCPS kids.  Sure, they had a sprinkling of close friends of other races all the way through but in general, when it really comes down to it, kids in DCPS tended to segregate by race (and class) as well. That part is very similar between public and private in DC.

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