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[quote=Anonymous][quote]I wouldn't be surprised, though, if there was talk of a new charter opening in your neighborhood, giving your neighbors the option (if they get lucky in the lottery!) of a good ms/hs without having to do the work of getting DCPS to cooperate with getting a good neighborhood school up and running. I hope I'm wrong, but I think DCPS is more eager to help charters than it is to help parents. Keep that in mind when dealing with them.[/quote]

PP here and I don't agree that DCPS wants to help charters.

I believe opening up PS and PK was, in part, a gambit against charters.  DCPS can get more families in the door if they make PK4 a guaranteed right at neighborhood schools.

I also think the unified lottery is the same gambit.  The overwhelming majority of participants are new to the schools game.  Previously, the approach for families EOTP was to talk to neighbors and friends, peruse and search DCUM for the most talked about schools, and line up a mix of mostly charters and a few DCPS.  Maybe there were 2-5 decent DCPS you could envision for your child, most of those only for the near-term before you jump again for something better.

But limiting the number of schools that could be ranked forced parents to do more research and, hedging bets against the outrageous wait lists at charters and WOTP schools, many more parents considered DCPS elementary schools for their PS and PK kids that they would not have considered previously.  For one thing, it was too much work to visit every single school profile online.  MySchoolDC put the quick stats right in your face.  And maybe the majority of those who were shut out in the first round will just go back to their private preschool or daycare, but there are others who are taking a look at those never-discussed schools for the second round.

Maybe they'll get involved and start advocating for more parents to join them.  Two years ago, I would have said no way to Powell and Bruce Monroe; this year both schools have wait lists.  I drive by Garrison ES a lot and had no idea there was such an enthusiastic group of parents there - until I considered it as a "safety choice" on my ranking and did some research.  Some of those parents are going to jump ship at the first opportunity, but some are going to stay and others will join them.

Now that DCPS is getting parents in the door EOTP, they have to keep them.  It's not too early to start enticing them with EOTP middle and high schools.  In fact, if more charters open up, it will be too late.

And for those who say there are not enough students who could go a new MacFarland or Roosevelt right now, consider this:

- the number of students EOTP currently going to Deal  http://edu.codefordc.org/#!/school/405
- and the number going to Wilson   http://edu.codefordc.org/#!/school/463

You can't tell me that all of those coming from EOTP are low-scoring, low-income students.  And you can't tell me they'd keep choosing Deal/Wilson if they had a closer option that offered the same quality experience.

Finally, I'll say this: I firmly believe that at least some of the challenge OOB students have in their schools can be attributed to the jumping around to different schools that so many families do and the stress of commuting.  When you can keep a cohort of kids close to home and at the same school until their transition to the next, I think you raise their chances of doing well.[/quote]

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