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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

My children attend a nearby DCPS that feeds to a different middle school and I could not help but notice some of our strongest 5th graders chose Brookland rather than their IB middle school.  I think Brookland is on the way up.  [/quote]

I would choose Brookland over our IB middle school (McKinley).[/quote]

Me too, but I don't think the difference is really that big.  I would do McKinley of your kid is really into math and science, because they can take 9th grade classes at Tech.[/quote]

I feel the same way--I think it comes down to whether your kid wants a bigger school v. smaller, and is more into math/science.  But I'm also going to be watching to see how the school does with the interim and then new principal.  I think both schools have a lot of potential.[/quote]

Maybe, but doubtful. My DD is in MS and we've been hearing the same old since Brookland MS opened. "Lots of potential"..."maybe it will get better by the time our kids get to MS..." Listen, it probably won't. Even if your kids are in PK, have a plan B (private, move) for later ES, MS years. Your charter or DCPS might be great for your kid(s) in PK, K, even 1st or 2nd, but often the wheels start to come off as kids get older in many of these schools in terms of educational rigor. [/quote]

I hear you, but I don't think this is a unique thing to Ward 5 schools, or DC schools in general.  If our school stops meeting the needs of our kids, we will address that, of course.  That problem can happen anywhere, even in tony neighborhood schools.  But, I've been hearing that our IB is good until K, or good until 2nd, or whatever since we enrolled in PK3, but we've had a good experience so far (not perfect, but no big issues).  That may change, but I know parents in the upper grades who are also happy, so I'm not going to let the fear of the unknown, or the fear of 2 years' old bad test scores drive my decision over my kids' current experience.  It's harder to say that in MS because you are changing schools no matter what, of course.  But I think there's a difference between keeping options open keeping plan Bs in mind, on one hand, and assuming that the middle schools will not be an option and making moves now to avoid them, on the other.[/quote]

The test scores are 2 years old but you should realize that the scores will be much worst if the kids took it today.  DC suffered huge learning losses with closing schools so long as proven by the data.  And those affected the most were the lower performing students.  The achievement gap will be the greatest it’s ever been in the past 10-15 years.

The pandemic has made things worst, not better.  Many of these kids will never catch up and the city will deal with the ramifications of this for years to come. [/quote]

This. Making moves prior to MS is definitely not the worst thing in the world when you confront these bad test scores (new PARCC should shine a bright light on the current state of things in a month or two), as well as increasing behavior problems that start to occur in 3rd/4th grade that create a disruptive environment. And this is based on my child's experience before COVID. The pandemic has only exacerbated social/emotional issues as well as learning loss, and many DC schools are just not equipped to handle them. [/quote]

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