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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]Ward 3:  Janney, with Mann as a close second.[/quote]

I would disagree with this.

My opinion (in order):
ward 1: Bancroft, Tubman
ward 2: Ross, Hyde
ward 3: Mann, Stoddert, Murch, Eaton, Oyster, Janney, Key, Hearst (can't go wrong in this ward)
ward 4: [b]Lafayette, Shepherd[/b]
ward 5: slim pickings as this is charter central but I'd say Burroughs
ward 6: Brent, Maury
wards 7&8 are pretty tough as they are also areas where good charters attract a lot of the high achievers[/quote]

I'd potentially switch that order around.  Maybe not for most people, but there are a subset who want a smaller and/or more diverse school (Shepherd is pretty diverse in the lower grades).  Shepherd has somewhere between 325-350 students, vs. like 700 kids at Lafayette, right?  Of course, I know families at Lafayette who have no interest in Shepherd.  I guess it's sort of like the Deal vs. Hardy comparison.[/quote]

You say Shepherd is diverse in the lower grades. [b]What about the upper grades? OP's kid is in second grade.[/b][/quote]

PP here.  I don't know about second grade in particular, but overall the school is listed as being 78% AA.  The upper grades are less diverse, and the early grades (esp. PK3/4) are extremely diverse, so I'd guess 2nd grade is somewhere in the middle of that distribution.[/quote]

Get real for a moment. There is no comparison. 
They are both equally un-diverse, though Shepherd is LESS diverse than Lafayette:

Shepherd is 78% black
Lafayette is 70% white

However, Lafayette's 2016 average passing PARCC score was[b] 75%[/b] while Shepherd's is [b]47%[/b].

If you want a smaller school, Shepherd holds appeal. But let's not presume that the school is "best" by any stretch of the imagination.

[/quote]

PP here.  It really depends on what metric you're using to define "best."  If looking only at test scores, yes, Lafayette "wins" by all means.  However, as another poster said, 1/3 of Shepherd's population is FARMs, vs. 4% FARMs at Lafayette.  So it's not really an apples to apples comparison when considering test scores.

Also, there are a subset of families who look beyond test scores and prefer a smaller, more diverse school.  Again, not a majority by any stretch, but some families.  One of my neighbors interviewed principals at several different schools, including WOTP, and settled on buying in-boundary for Shepherd.  So it's sort of a niche school for people who want specific things that Shepherd offers, whether re: the curriculum or the demographics. Lots of black middle class families, multiracial families, families with adopted kids of a different race, etc.

[b]Finally, while Shepherd is definitely a majority black school, there is a significant amount of international diversity. [/b] My kid's class is majority black, but at least 1/3 of the class speaks another language at home.  Among them, francophone families, a few that speak African languages, and a couple that speak European languages.  Shepherd has sometimes advertised school events in Spanish, French, and Amharic.  So simply focusing on the 78% statistic belies the level of diversity actually present.
[/quote]

Also true at Lafayette and many DCPS schools.

My point about "the best" is that anyone who is asking to be told "the best" schools is most likely someone for whom numbers and easy labels are paramount. I wouldn't talk about schools in that way- I'd be looking for the right fit for my family and that would include a smaller school and other qualities. But I suspect OP is looking for a school that tops a list of one sort or another. [/quote]

Someone should tell that to all the folks that say Janney is the best. There are 3-4 schools that outperform them by every measure. Maybe 5, can't remember.[/quote]

NP: Yes, but everyone knows that, so when someone posts Janney, everyone assumes they are being sarcastic.[/quote]

So PP was making a point how we shouldn't judge a school by the scores alone, but now you guys are using the fairly minor differences in scores to devalue Janney? That doesn't make any sense. Maybe the Janney parents love the school for other reasons as well and aren't basing their judgment on the recent scores.

- not a Janney parent[/quote]

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