Reply to Did you leave a DCPS for North Arlington schools?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. We too are trying to avoid Hardy and Wilson b/c these schools aren't a good fit for our kids. We aren't interested in the middle school charters b/c it's a temporary fix and doesn't resolve HS.  [/quote]

Define "good fit," please.  There are kids at Hardy and Wilson who are every bit the intellectual equal of kids in Arlington schools. [/quote]

Of course there are, and no one has said otherwise.

Our DCPS elementary fed into Hardy and we knew several families that were happy there. We were reluctant to send our kid there though, because we were concerned about the administration's approach to discipline at the school at that time (and we had a kid who had a history of needing discipline at school).

We also became aware that most of the kids we knew who were thriving in DCPS middle and high schools were highly motivated, mature, and self-disciplined girls. This was anecdotal, of course, but our neighbors and friends who had boys all seemed to have mixed or negative experiences as their kids progressed through DCPS. Since we had a boy who had some behavioral issues, this was a huge red flag for us. We considered other middle schools but we are very uncomfortable with charter schools on principle and didn't want to support one, and we weren't thrilled about the other options open to us.

At the same time, we had seen a lot of changes at our elementary school, driven in part by the changing demographics of the school population, and so we were concerned about what the future would bring for Hardy, as Rhee sought to make it more attractive to neighborhood residents. We anticipated a great deal of turmoil--and it turns out we were right. (We also strongly disliked Michelle Rhee and just felt generally unsettled about where DCPS was heading.)

All this was going on at the same time that we felt we had outgrown our home. We realized that the only way we could afford more space in the city was to move substantially east. That would have been fine, except that (a) raised elementary school concerns for our younger child (we'd either have to move to a poorly performing school or commute across the city to stay at our current school), (b) complicated "commuting" concerns for our older child (since we'd be moving far away from the middle schools we were considering), and (c) significantly increased commuting times for me and especially for my DH.

Ultimately, we decided that, given our concerns, needs, and wants, it made no sense to stay in the city. We moved to Arlington, where for about the same amount of money we bought a bigger house with yard, largely worry-free educations for our children (so far, anyway), and reasonable commutes for both DH and me. I was very sad to leave, but ultimately it was win-win-win for us. We have no regrets.[/quote]

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