Reply to Elementary School Recommendations for Family moving to DC from Australia

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Shepherd Park is a nice neighborhood, but OP should be aware that buying there would mean that her kids have to cross the park (by car or bus) in order to get to middle and high school. Same for her if she works in Georgetown. Commute-wise, it would be better for all of them if they live west of the park.

Also, [b]while Shepherd Elementary is fine, it is not on par with the Deal and Hardy feeders west of the park.[/b][/quote]

In what way?  Similar to Wilson, Shepherd's population is much more socioeconomically diverse than most other feeders, and its test scores reflect that.  Almost 30% of its students are considered "economically disadvantaged," vs. 1% of Janney's students, and 4% of Lafayette's students, just to grab data for a couple of west of the park schools.

For some people, some socioeconomic diversity is a positive.  Even if OP were uncomfortable with a higher proportion of poor kids, it would likely have little impact on the grades she's interested in--the lower grades at Shepherd are mostly in-boundary.  Families that live in-boundary for Shepherd are pretty much all middle/upper middle class, which makes sense given home prices in Shepherd Park/Colonial Village.[/quote]

Unlike the schools west of Rock Creek Park, Shepherd is always going to lose a fair number of students to private schools in 4th or 5th grade, and replace them with OOB students. [b]Many of the Shepherd IB families have no intention of sending their children, many of whom are black or AA, to Deal and Wilson[/b]. [/quote]

PP here.  That is certainly true historically, as many of the (mostly AA) high school kids in the neighborhood do not attend Wilson, instead opting for private, Walls, etc.  However, that seems to be changing.  In my kid's cohort (current 2nd graders), virtually all parents I know with kids currently at Shepherd have said they intend to send their kids on to Deal and Wilson.  Of course, only time will tell, and certainly some will peel off to private etc.  But there does seem to be more buy-in for Wilson now than there has been in the past.

Also, many families at schools west of the park also historically have done private after elementary.  This is not something that is unique to Shepherd by any stretch.  And I expect this will happen less and less across schools as privates get more expensive--not every family has 30-40K per kid to spare.[/quote]

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