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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]2 things matter regarding schools

1.  The number one factor in school success is the parents/home environment.  Points to the poster commenting that having a shorter commute pays dividends

2.  The second thing that matters is having a highly motivated cohort.  Now, since this is DCUM I'm assuming the kid in question is top 10%.  Usually, most schools have at least a collection of high performing students.  Now unfortunately in DC, this is not the case.  The majority of middle and high schools in DC are terrible.  There are only 3-5 good middle schools in DC which requires either living in the most expensive parts of the city are getting lucky through a charter.  For high school the selective high schools are an option but again middle school is a big problem.

Based on this I would leave DCPS after 4th grade unless you had a path to one of the 3-5 decent middle school options.

[/quote]

OP has a one year old.  The middle school landscape could change sognificantly by then.

OP, the school is only one part of your life.  A long commute will make it very hard to do other things like an instrument, a sport, any special activity that you may choose, especially if you can't afford a lot of household help.  And with your child so young and your preference for downtown, it seems silly to make sacrifices for a middle or high school so far in the future.  [/quote]

People where saying the same thing when my child, who will enter middle school next year, was one as well. No change to the quality of the middle schools in my neighborhood, just additional charter options.

[/quote]

Here are some changes to middle schools in the past 10 years, and these are just the ones I happen to remember at the moment, I'm sure there are plenty more to list.  OP should consider the possibility of being boundaried out of Deal, Hardy, or Wilson in the next boundary review.  Or out of any other feeder.  This list is why people say a lot can change in 10 years.  Not all of these changes are differences in quality, but they're differences that a parent might care about for other reasons.

Eaton was sent to Hardy rather than Deal.
Crestwood Carve-out
The story of the Cluster is too long to even relate here (and Eastern re-opened)
Shaw Middle was proposed in the re-boundarying, then canceled
MacFarland re-opened with Spanish program
New Wells middle school
New Brookland Middle 
New McKinley Middle
High-SES families increased willingness to attend Stuart-Hobson, and a few are venturing to Jefferson and Eliot-Hine
Various elementary school boundary changes altered feeder patterns, for example Bloomingdale zoned to Langley (McKinley Middle) rather than Seaton (Cardozo/Shaw Middle).

Charters:
Inspired Teaching got its Edgewood location and built up its middle school 
Two Rivers built up its middle school and announced the transition to the new Young campus
CMI built up its middle school
DCI was created and developed, and some of the feeders expanded and are only offering a preference at DCI rather than a guarantee.
New Montessori middle school opening this fall
[/quote]

PP mentioned the charters. None of the changes you listed have panned out into any kind of “Alice Deal for all” that would have most parents with other options attending those schools. The change is always just around the corner.[/quote]

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