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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Budget is very important here.

The Capitol Hill elementary schools are great— Ludlow-Taylor, Maury, Chisholm, Payne, Brent (though they’re in a swing space for 2 years), and the neighborhood is wonderful. But your money is not going to go as far as the burbs and you’ll have less space. The trade off (particularly commute/walking/proximity to H, Eastern Market, downtown) is worth it to many but it’s pricey.  [/quote]

No, they aren't great. They're DCPS schools and they're just OK. All you need to do to understand what I'm talking about is visit Mathnasium on Penn. Ave SE after school on a weekday. The place is packed with Ludlow, Maury, Brent and Payne students mainly from families seeking extra math challenge. Nothing was hard enough for my kids at Brent in the upper grades, not math, not English, not social studies, not science. They weren't given remotely acceptable writing instruction. The school was fun and friendly, but great academically it was not. Without a law on GT education in DC or any formal programming for advanced learners in elementary school and lower per capita outlays for schools mainly serving high SES families than Title 1 schools in the District, DCPS ES programs can only be so good. You get sick of fund-raising in DCPS fast. You get tired of inexperienced and not terribly motivated teachers and iffy principals.[/quote]

I think your experience may have more to do with the situation at Brent that has been discussed a lot on this forum - combining 4th and 5th, lots of attrition in 5th etc.

I think parents do Mathnasium or outside tutoring for a variety of reasons, sometimes bc their kid needs an extra push, sometimes bc their kid is bored, sometimes bc the parents want their kids to be the best. If you drive around the suburbs there are Mathnasium and Kumon centers all over the place so I think they’ll open up wherever a certain type parents with disposable income are living.

All that to say every school is different and every 4th/5th grade team I am sure is different too. I think a lot of it has to do with individual kids, some of whom may not push themselves, regardless of which school they were at, and some of whom would push themselves and sign up for all the things and excel wherever they attend.

Public schools in DC have debate, robotics club, book clubs, music, theater etc. IMO, kids that have good attendance, do all the work, sign up for things etc, they are learning just as much as their suburban counterparts.[/quote]

I have always been a bit confused by what I read here about so many kids attending Mathnasium. If your child needs extra support, that makes complete sense. But, [b]I'm not sure why elementary students need to work so far ahead--for what?[/b] I have two in DCPS (upper elementary and middle), and neither school is considered very highly regarded by DCUM standards, but my kids have had good math instruction and get 5s on CAPE without any outside formalized supplementing. My older is on track to do geometry in 8th, and that feels like plenty. [/quote]

Most of them are not working that far ahead but doing just enough to not fall behind, which can be fatal in math.

Clearly, your kids have sufficient cognitive ability, exec function, and internal motivation to excel with decent school instruction alone. Many kids are lacking in one or more of these areas and thus need out-of-school structure to stay on track, though perhaps not perpetually.

Now - the folks sending their kids to, e.g., AOPS and/or doing Beast Academy are actually looking to push their kids “ahead,” though with more an emphasis on developing conceptual depth (much of which doesn’t fully manifest on elementary-level math testing, e.g. CAPE or MAP math). This may also apply to folks doing math enrichment via JHU/CTY, But this is generally a different crowd than the folks using Mathnasium or Kumon.

I’d much rather be in your position: kids with inherently strong math skills so no need to supplement out of school, but optionality to do so as desired based on THEIR goals. 
[/quote]

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