Reply to DCI middle and high school current experience?

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Reply to "DCI middle and high school current experience?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We have one kid that did DCI for middle coming from a feeder that we moved to a private for high school this year. We also have a 4th grader we plan to just go ahead and move to private in 6th. We didn't hate it but our kid was not thriving there and so we made the difficult, albeit expensive, choice to move and are very grateful we did. But we have many friends with kids there that like it and are doing well. The ones that are happiest have high-achieving, motivated girls who are active in sports and clubs. My thoughts on your questions in particular:

-academic rigor (math, sciences, ELA, writing, etc)
I'd say mediocre and very teacher dependent. You at least get some differentiation in math but writing instruction was particularly underwhelming. This was the case for our DCI feeder, too. It became even more clear to us when we moved our kid to a private with a very strong writing curriculum and emphasis.

-specials (languages, music, art, sports, etc)
Specials are aligned with your language and assigned based on schedule availability and not interest so it's a real crap shoot what you'll get. For kids that are say really interested in art, their options could be limited. This was a major downside for my kid in particular.

-socio-emotional support and behavior management (middle school and high school)
I actually found this to be pretty decent for a school with a large and varied student body including the counseling available but like other posters, my kid frequently complained of being surrounded by unmotivated kids. The advisor your kid is assigned to can make a big difference in their experience, too.

-sports (all genders)
DCI is actually great for sports and have teams that have done really well for a new school.

-diversity (students, teachers, staff, etc)-we’ve looked at the available data from 2021 on student demographics
This is another area where DCI is strong. Probably the most diverse middle/high school in DC.

-commute (do most kids live nearby…we don’t!)
Lots of kids live nearby and lots come from all over the city.

-technology (how much time are they really on laptops)
Pretty much everything is done on a laptop. This came in handy when everything went remote for the pandemic but is another reason we left the school- way too reliant on tech for our taste. Particularly considering the IB exams are all written. 
[/quote]

Not pp, but another feeder parent wanting to say thanks for this detailed post.

Our friends seen mostly happy at DCI. The kids I've talked to also are happy and told my fifth grader "it's so much better than elementary!" They seem to love done clubs in particular.

I had no idea that the IB exams are all written. By hand? Is that true? That is an odd for with a school that touts its 1:1 technology focus. After the pandemic, my fifth grader can barely write legibly, and the school has done more and more on the computer "to get ready for DCI "[/quote]

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