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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Reading this is so depressing. The answer is clear and it's right in front of all of us: send all of our kids to the inboundary public middle school and then high school. The end. The quality of the public schools in our neighborhoods depend on the families that attend. You want better ones? Join the PTO and make the school more attractive.

I hear a lot of people on here saying there aren't tracked classes and then that tracked classes are in name only and no one is prepared for the next level. Well, then tracking isn't the solution. Just get a commitment from your other parent friend circles to attend. And do it! The end. That's what happened at Hardy and now all of y'all are salivating over it. Just do it in your own neighborhood. [/quote]

I know groups of Hill families who have tried to do this, at least for S-H, but it has not worked out. People chicken out and it doesn't take long for everyone else to bail too. No one wants to be the one family that sticks to the plan only to have everyone else flee for charters, privates, and suburbs -- they you'll really feel like you failed your kids because not only has your plan to improve the IB MS fallen apart, now all their friends are elsewhere.

I think one reason it worked at Hardy but you see so people on the Hill struggling is that there are actually a number of viable options for Hill families for MS outside the IB. Two Rivers, ITS, CHML, Basis, Latin. All of these are more viable for Hill families than for Hardy. Plus PPs are right that having the Hill divided among three MS also undercuts the ability to create a cohort. One thing I've seen happen is that people get influenced by what their friends at other schools are doing. So for instance if you have friends at Brent and they aren't even looking at Jefferson as a possibility (common) and eyeing Basis instead, then even if your feeder is S-H, that is going to make you give Basis a harder look than if they were just going to Jefferson. So it's not just that any cohort is split between 3 schools, it's that dissatisfaction with Jeffersion and EH seems to spill over into S-H families because there is a lot of mixing among families on the Hill outside of school boundaries. As another PP pointed out, people tend to put a lot of faith in what their friends with older kids have done, too, because as a parent it's hard to chart a new path.

But anyway, I don't think people on the Hill "salivate" over Hardy that much. I think the main envy is Wilson. And Wilson was already established as a good option before Hardy started retaining more students, because Deal was already established. But Eastern doesn't have a feeder like Deal. Eastern is an incredibly tough sell for any family who is invested in their kid going to college. It's really hard for me to imagine sending my kid there even if we do stick with the plan to go to S-H. Eastern is the problem.[/quote]

I think another issue is that Charter schools to their admissions in 5th grade, which is crazy to me. Essentially folks have to make a decision on Charters a year pre-DCPSes. If they're IB, they can always opt back in to, e.g., SH if the Charter doesn't work out... in fact, they won't even miss the entry year... but the reverse isn't true. Usually the Charter works well enough that there's no point in then disrupting their kid's education again to opt back into DCPS. It's insane that it's set up like that.[/quote]

Agree. I also think one reason MS is such a cluster in DC in general is that it's so short and they are critical years for kids. With ES, families can and do feel comfortable trying one option knowing there is time to make a different choice. So families can give their IB DCPS a try and they always have the option of moving to a charter in 1st or 2nd if they aren't happy or are worried about the MS feed. I also know people who have gone the other way -- gone to a charter for PK (sometimes because they wanted immersion or Montessori, sometimes because they couldn't get into their IB for PK, sometimes just because they were afraid of the IB) and then decide the commute and charter environment isn't right for their family and decided to give the IB a try. With young kids, you can switch schools without totally disrupting their social lives, and ES is long enough that you can switch in the middle and they can still settle in, make friends, and get comfortable.

MS is so unforgiving by contrast. We are on the Hill and feel so much anxiety about the MS decision. Our feed is S-H and that's been our plan from the start -- we like public schools, we like neighborhood schools, we like our DCPS ES. But MS is 3 years, HS will be here before you know it, we don't want to try and change gears in the middle (we will if we have to, it would just really suck). Getting into a charter MS in 7th or 8th can be a crapshoot. Plus then your kid is entering into a social scene where the kids all know each other and friendships are already established. It's not impossible (lots of people have done it), but of course you worry about your own kid and you don't want to hamstring them just because you couldn't get your sh!t together and figure out how to approach their education. It's your job, and I hate feeling wishy washy on it.

I totally get why people look at the MS situation in DC and just decamp for the burbs. Of, if they can afford, for a private, even a less expensive private like parochial school. It's not even just about the quality of the schools, it's about the absolutely insane process that seems designed to cause anxiety for kids and parents and make the already stressful tween and early teen years even harder. No one wants to be worrying about lottery results or HS feeds (or HS applications for the application schools) at the same time that your kid is dealing with hormonal changes and friendship drama. Whyyyyy? Why do they do this to us?[/quote]

I feel you, but just to put a more positive spin on changing schools, there is a big shuffle in the system and plenty of kids leave ITS, Two Rivers, etc. In middle.  So there are a bunch of new kids in every grade and nobody's the only one who doesn't know anyone.  The kids who stay are so happy to have new friends.  As I tell my DCs, make new friends or you'll have very few friends.[/quote]

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