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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm in Ward 4.  Lots of strong options and sleepers.  Whittier, is, by far the highest performing title 1 school that is a community school and not as rigid as say... and Rocketship in Ward 5.  The school has a stable principal and long-term teachers and is out-performing or on par with many of its well-resourced counterparts. (would choose whitter over Takoma or Brightwood).

The feeder to IDA B. Wells is starting to turn for the better.  Whittier was a K-8 and switched to K-5, which helps.  There are other good options in the area via lottery (e.g., Latin). High school is a different challenge.

The hardest schools to get placed in are probably Shephard (not title 1, and majority black) and Latin.  Both are excellent options for middle and elementary.  Shepherd, if you aren't in the zone, forget about it. Housing is scarce.[/quote]

Are you under the impression Takoma and, especially, Brightwood EC are "well-resourced" compared to Whittier?  That is a misconception.  They're three Title 1 schools in proximity to each other.[/quote]

Of course not lol.  I'm well aware of what Title 1 schools are, and I hate that it's used as a proxy to evaluate a school.  We should, instead look at discipline rates, chronic absenteeism, teacher/principal tenure/school climate surveys to get a better picture for our individual child.  Takoma and Brightwood are trending better (especially brightwood,) but the highest performance Title 1, but most markers is whittier.  It's not even close.  Btw, my child attends Eaton, just giving an objective opinion.  I think more parents would opt for Whittier but for the middle school feeder, but that is improving.

When you look at some of the data (both growth and status), of comparable schools out of ward 4 and 5, say, a Watkins in Capitol Hill or Peabody (where I lived before,) Whittier outperforms them on growth and status, but the waitlist wouldn't paint that picture.  [/quote]

Again, incorrect.  Takoma is demolishing Brightwood, "trend"-wise.  Also Takoma and whittier have the same, trending-upwards MS pathway.  I'm honestly very confused by your posts.  If Eaton is your IB so you just don't know, that's fine.  But why hold yourself out as a Ward 4 expert?[/quote]

I love this board.  Sounds like you're projecting.  1) Where did you hear me say I'm a ward 4 expert?  Relax.  I'm offering my opinion.  The initial poster can look at the data and ask the parents themselves.  I live in Ward 4. (typo said 5 earlier).  Eaton is not our IB school.  Demolishing brightwood?  By what account??  Certainly not data.  Brightwood has higher ELL students and still has higher "status.
  Gentrification does not always equal growth-- maybe that is the undertone of your wrongful assessment of Takoma "demolishing" Brightwood.  While it is true more white parents are enrolling their kids in takoma, it doesn't always "translate" into "demolishing" or higher performance.  I'd drop a bunch of links, but I'm sure the scores don't "Measure the essence of the school."  See now I'm projecting ;-)  They all feed into Ida B and good stuff about all of them.  I should probably disclose that I'm an educator. But every parent is an expert at their own child.  I'm giving my opinion.

Here are a few receipts. See student performance at a glance and more importantly, student satisfaction.  Good day to you.

https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Takoma+Elementary+School
https://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/Brightwood+Elementary+School[/quote]

NP. I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but 2 years of student satisfaction scores from 4 years ago (pre pandemic) are about the least useful evidence of a recent trend in school quality that you could provide.[/quote]

Much more indicative of a recent trend is just to look at waitlist results - both schools had the same number of seats and Takoma had a WL ten times the size of Brightwood's this year.  I know IB families still hoping to get in (re-ranked after being disappointed in their preferred charter), and that's not happening at Brightwood.  I wish it were, since it's my IB.[/quote]

I wouldn't put too much emphasis on waitlists as a data source.  A lot of that is a question of the size of the IB population relative to the physical capacity of the school, and that's not really a metric of quality.[/quote]

That's a fair way to think about it, except in this instance it ignores that Takoma is Early Action.  So for pre-K3 at least, the length of the waitlist is an indicator of desirability to OOB families (and like I mentioned upthread, the rare IB family who played the lottery poorly).  Meanwhile Brightwood's, the school that does not guarantee a spot for all IB families, had *2* kids on the waitlist on results day.   [/quote]

Well, I'm not saying it's totally irrelevant.  But also, consider the number of PK3 classes offered.  A school that offers more space initially will have a shorter waitlist.

Also, schools have different approaches to the lottery.  Some schools offer a ton of seats because they have physical space and know they can hire a teacher if needed.  Other schools don't have room to expand so they're more conservative.  One year at our school they increased from two PK3 classes to three PK3 classes.  So there wasn't a waitlist anymore.  I would hate for anyone to think there was a decrease in quality or demand, when the decision was made due to an increase in demand![/quote]

They offered the same number of seats, as mentioned already.

I can't tell if people are just being polite by striking this perfectly neutral "it's just a matter of preference between Takoma and Brightwood" stance, but it's not true on the ground.  The demand is not there for Brightwood like it is for Takoma.  I have a three year old, I talked to parents at the playground all year, and as far as I can tell I'm the only one who listed it at all - people are doing Hebrew immersion or planning commutes to Truesdell and Lewis to avoid it.[/quote]

Brightwood is almost 80% IB. Something tells me you are very exclusive at the playgrounds.[/quote]

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