Reply to Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?

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Reply to "Capitol Hill families - If you moved to NW or burbs for school, do you have any regrets?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Most people on CH can’t afford to move or go private, so they are really stuck. However there are more charter high schools than the ones DCUM finds acceptable and many families I know send their kids to these high schools. [/quote]

Total BS. Whether a family rents or buys on CH, the same money spent on rent and equity/mortgage payments could be spent on housing in the DC burbs. No middle-class family is stuck with mediocre or bad schooling options in Ward 6.[/quote]

No, housing is relatively cheaper on the Hill. Many of us can’t trade up that easily. [/quote]

Cheaper as compared to where? North and Central Arlington 3-bedroom houses and Hill houses are priced comparably (we've done lots of searching).  Same with 3-bedroom rentals.  Almost all of Fairfax and Falls Church and at least half of MoCo are cheaper than the Hill. [/quote]

Not for schools that are clearly better.

NW DC, Arlington, Falls Church and MoCo zoned for the “good” schools have almosr nothing under $1m. 20002/20003 currently have 150+ 2br+ properties for under $1 mil. Fairfax is better but you start getting really deep into the burbs and trading off time for money.

This leaves families contemplating a move to the DCC or Richard Montgomery HS. At that point many Hill families will stick it out a bit longer to hope that Walls or McKinley or a cheaper Catholic HS will work out.

[/quote]You keep saying this.  But you've been told over and over again that things sell quickly in these areas so you just won't ever see lots of inventory at any price point.  (At least not in the 7 years I've lived in Arlington.)  There are never ever 150+ properties on the market in a single price range.  You have to watch when things come up and pounce.  It doesn't mean that there aren't options.  It just means that they don't sit around.  [/quote]

This is not even remotely limited to Arlington. Houses in the Dc area sell fast. And i don’t know where you’re finding homes under 1 million on Capitol Hill. They don’t really exist. 
[b]
As a final note- Arlington middle schools are not good.[/b] [/quote]

What is your basis for arguing this?  I live on the Hill while my ex lives in Arlington. We split custody.  I like the neighborhood MS my boys attend in Arlington, although it's not one of the several with the "most favorable demographics." My rising 8th grader has earned the grades to enroll in "intensified" (honors) classes across the board for his last year in MS, in science, math (geometry and algebra II), social studies (geography for HS credit), English and band. He's also going into his 3rd year of Chinese at the school. He's taken band as a daily class since 6th grade, learned to play a brass instrument well for free. For the most part, his teachers are strong, experienced, older, been at the school for many years. Admins tell me that intensified classes outside math will be available to younger son starting in 7th grade, a new county initiative.

At the several DCPS middle schools in Ward 6, which my ex and I considered, the only definite honors classes I heard about are for math, and maybe grade-level English at Stuart Hobson.  If Arlington middle schools aren't good, where are they good in this area, other than the super duper GT test-in programs in Fairfax and MoCo serving less than 10% of students?  Arlington doesn't have test-in GT, DCPS either of course. [/quote]

A lot of UMC in Ward 6 have kids at BASIS, which starts in 5th.  True, you have to get accepted in 5th grade and it gets harder each year (easier with sibling preference).

There are other options in DC as well:

[url]https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/middle-schools/district-of-columbia[/url]

Other than maybe Williamsburg or Swanson, it doesn't seem like Arlington has very good options.[/quote]

This CH mom with kids in a public MS in Arlington, where my ex lives, doesn't agree.  My boys aren't at Williamsburg, Swanson or Dorothy Hamm. Every Arlington MS teaches MS math on a par with that at BASIS, offers robust foreign language options (from 6th grade, and not just at the beginning level), serious electives and a full menu of core honors classes in 8th grade (and 7th grade from SY 2024-25).  My kids' biggest classes have two dozen kids.  Their writing classes (separate from reading classes) have no more than 15 students.  They can take like ASL, orchestra, chorus, band, cooking, forensics or science competition prep as electives daily. Their school has giant playing fields/courts, a greenhouse and a large vegetable garden, an indoor track, a student run TV station, a modern theater/stage, and giant gym and library.  I've worked as a consultant in the miserable BASIS building and know it well.  [/quote]

That sounds like a lot of unsupported rhetoric.  What school and what is the data supporting your claims?[/quote]

Unsupported rhetoric is silly. Thomas Jefferson, the smallest of the six with around 800 students. The auditorium and indoor track are shared with the county. Jefferson is the only Arlington MS offering the IB Middle Years Curriculum, feeding into the Washington-Liberty IBD program. The school requires languages from 6th grade and teaches more languages than the other schools. All Arlington middle schools permit students to take math up to two years ahead of the curriculum.  I get emails from the county announcing the roll-out of 8th grade intensified classes, followed by the roll out of 7th grade intensified classes the following school year. We've signed up for 8th grade intensified classes for sci, math, social studies and English.[/quote]

Only about 15% of Arlington middle school students currently take Algebra I in 7th grade.  We'll see how that changes.

BASIS DC requires that 100% of students take at least Algebra and Geometry I in 7th grade.  In fact, some 7th grade students take Algebra and Geometry II, Precalc B, or Precalc AB.[/quote]

The arrangement isn't nearly as rosy as you make it sound, doesn't give a true picture. My BASIS middle school grad was forced to repeat a lot of algebra and geometry in 9th grade at a top private, although he'd always earned good math grades at BASIS.  He was pushed to accelerate in math too fast at BASIS, with no way out.  I've heard the same story from many other BASIS parents, particularly those who moved onto Walls or suburban high schools.  I know that the percentage of MoCo, Arlington and Fairfax MS students taking Algebra in 7th grade is way down from 10 years ago, for good reason.  Those counties took a hard look at what aggressive middle school math acceleration for most had wrought in high school and ratcheted it back.  Based on our experience, it would behoove BASIS to follow suit, unless DC were to set up elementary school math GT programs that fed into BASIS!  [/quote]

Or at least BASIS should offer slower tracks. There is some advantages to having accelerated math, but only for the kids that can actually handle that. [/quote]

The good thing is that BASIS is a DC-wide charter and parents can self-select if their kids will go.  If you don't want an accelerated curriculum for your child, choose another school.[/quote]

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