Reply to DCI didn't offer any non-preference seats for 6th grade Chinese or Spanish

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Reply to "DCI didn't offer any non-preference seats for 6th grade Chinese or Spanish - What gives?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would say DCI is becoming the Deal middle school EOTP although it’s not part of DCPS.

It has a critical mass of grade level and above grade level kids.  It’s a big enough school but not too big, with the plus that it doesn’t have the overcrowding issue like Deal.  It has great facilities, and a large offering of sports, clubs, and extracurriculars like Deal.  It has an IB curriculum like Deal.

Your choices for middle schools EOTP are DCI, Latin, and Basis.  We toured Latin and Basis and the facilities are sadly lacking and so are the sports, clubs, and extracurriculars.  We are not even going to play the lottery for Latin or Basis although we have a high performing kid.  I’m sure many feeder families like us have made similar decisions.

Of the 3 middle schools above, DCI is most similar to your typical suburban middle school with good academics, facilities, sports, and extracurriculars.  We had that experience, and it’s what we want for our DS.

DCI has passed the point now where they have buy in from middle and UMC families.  And as the overwhelming majority of families track to DCI, the cohort of kids will become stronger and stronger, because the cohort coming up the feeder schools are stronger than what they were just 3 or 5 years ago.

Non-feeder kids won’t have any chance.  
[/quote]

Hello Booster. Do you mean that the Spanish feeders will be allowed to consume the extra French seats? [/quote]

I’m not a booster.  What above is not true about my post?  We looked hard at Latin and Basis and passed.

As to your question, I don’t know.  But what is stopping the school from doing that when the expansion years hit.  [/quote]

I was under the impression that they have to offer some non-feeder seats per their charter agreement. But you seem to be awfully positive about it-- funny because Mundo continues to be a mess, Stokes continues to lag academically, and Latin and BASIS continue to appeal to feeder families within my social circle.[/quote]

I was also under the impression that they have to offers some non-feeder seats per their charter agreement and (presuming from) prior year lottery data, so I checked. Looks like we were wrong:

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/media/file/DCI-Restated-Agreement-2014_0.pdf

"3.2 Enrollment. A. Pursuant to §38-1802.01(c-1) of the Act, enrollment in DCI shall
be open to students in such grades who are residents of the District of Columbia, with priority
given to students who are matriculating from any one of the Member Schools (“Continuing
Member School Students”) in each case to the extent of the number of seats reserved for the
Continuing Students from each Member School. Students who are not residents of the District of
Columbia may be enrolled at DCI to the extent permitted by §38-1802.06 of the Act. DCI shall
determine whether each student resides in the District of Columbia according to guidelines
established by the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education (“OSSE”)."

Their five year report advises them to expand enrollment in order to accomodate incoming sixth graders from member schools AND applicants who don't have the member school designation. But, as others have said, there's the question of space.

https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/media/file/2019-2-28-DCI-5-Year-Review_Redacted_0.pdf

"The school has thus far been able to accommodate all students from all member schools
within its enrollment ceiling and has been able to provide appropriate facilities for
incoming students, in addition to having space to admit students applying from schools
other than the five member schools. However, most of the member schools have expanded
since the formation of DCI, and those that have not yet expanded have indicated they plan
to do so in the future. Most recently, E.W. Stokes PCS expanded to offer a campus in Ward
7, the first dual-language public charter school to operate East of the Anacostia River.
These expansions typically begin in lower grades, meaning that larger matriculating
classes can be foreseen in a few years. Therefore, it is likely that in the next several years,
DCI will need to expand its current program to be able to enroll all rising 6th graders from
its member schools and accept students from outside the member schools."

[/quote]

Then what DCI is likely going to do is if there are extra feeder seats not taken say from the French track, then the feeder kids from the Spanish track will have preference and get them and it won’t go to non-feeder kids.

Above is the obvious route as DCI was specifically created to provide a middle and high school path for the feeder school, they have a close working relationship with the feeder schools, and it’s to their benefit to have kids coming in who have had many years of the language.

[/quote]

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