Reply to Parents of 2-year-old in DC - what should we be doing NOW to prepare for the PK3 lottery?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
One more https://ms-dc.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2016-lottery-unique-applicants-on-wls-by-grade.pdf[/quote]

Thank you for posting this list. I'm realizing that a huge number of students don't get in anywhere for PK. DC clearly needs more school options - even though the number of slots for students has been rising rapidly, the number of students seems to be rising even more rapidly. I wonder what the prospects are for:
1) WOTP schools to offer PK3 (Potentially parents who would aspire to move to a WOTP neighborhood eventually stay EOTP until their children are older to have an opportunity for PK3)
2) A guaranteed slot for PK3 at neighborhood schools instead of starting at kindergarten (some parents are perhaps choosing the lottery instead of their in-bounds school because of the lack of guarantee?)
3) Either additional schools open or existing schools expand their programs

Interested what people think of this.

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Very unlikely. PK3 and PK4 is not a compulsory year in DC for good reason.

However, in the areas of most need (about 1 dozen Title 1 or likely Title I schools)  they have now made PK3 and PK4 guaranteed to all IB students who enter Round 1 of lottery and list that school first.

The problem is parents are acting like they have a RIGHT to PK3 and PK4. And they don't.

[/quote]

See, I would say the problem is DC does not plan very well. Why offer PS3 in some areas when less than 50% of the IB kids can get into the program? I understand they are not guaranteed seats but I shouldn't have a better chance of winning money on a scratch off than getting my kid into their neighborhood school. I think this is one of the things the lottery is trying to hide by only releasing the WL movement numbers.[/quote]

This is a problem in our EOTP neighborhood but there is little that can be done. Guaranteeing PK to IB families in neighborhoods with huge demand is no solution. You cannot have a school with more PK classes per grade than the upper grades, because you'd just be running a giant daycare with a school tacked onto it, not to mention physical space constraints. So say you have 2 classes per grade in grades 1-5, then your max is 2 classes for PK3 and the same for PK4.

I used to be upset about this, because I saw my neighbors not getting in and I wanted them at the school, for their sake and the school's. But over time I realized that K-5 is not nearly as over-subscribed, just PK3-4. And if that phenomenon occurred for just 1-2 years then it could be a demographic anomaly, like a snowstorm baby boom or something. But it continues, which tells me (and tells DC Central Office) that there is huge demand for PK3/4 mostly because it's free and an amazingly good alternative to $2k/month daycare which is often of no better quality.

But the demand reduces after K. Thus it would be bad policy to offer PK to everyone IB. I wish there was a way (and I bet DCPS wishes the same) to ascertain which parents were committed to stay until grade 5 and give them preference. But that doesn't exist, so the only rational policy is to restrict PK spots to equal K and above spots, per grade.  
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Most of this isn't true anymore in a lot of schools. In our school, most of the grades are 50 to 60 all the way up but they only offer half as many spots to 3 year olds. I would also push back on comparing it to daycare. Yes the reduced cost is nice, however so is the shift from being taught by hourly employees to being taught by people's with Master's in education.

The fact of the matter is that some school EOTP should drop PS3 like several schools WOTP. [/quote]

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