Are there honestly great middle school experiences anywhere? I'm doubtful. It's a tough age.

Anyhow, our child with ADHD and HFA is at Inspired Teaching. They are having a good experience but find it not academically rigorous enough while also not doing the homework. Not sure what to say about that. But they are happy.

hard pressed to say any DC middle schools are "great." there are a ton of high schools I would call great, as well as elementary schools.

for middle school, you will have to sacrifice something (crowdedness, no extras, challengingness, money if you go private for those years)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There aren't "magnet" schools in DC.

There are 4 magnet high schools in DCPS: SWW, Banneker, McKinley Tech, and Duke Ellington.

Actually, it's eight. In addition to the four you mentioned, there are Bard, CHEC, Early College at Coolidge, and Phelps.

But OP asked about middle schools, and there are no magnet middle schools in DC, as others have said.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here you go:

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/middle-schools/district-of-columbia

Btw, ignore the previous poster. The person doesn't even have kids in public school in DC. Not sure why the person keeps posting here.

I've had kids in public school in this city for almost a decade. Ignore the previous poster at your own risk.

Fact is, the DC public high school landscape is more welcoming than the middle school landscape. There's a strong element of "make-do" at the middle school level in DC public schools.

We just doesn't have public middle schools with great facilities AND academics, like in Fairfax. Some DC parents go private for middle school, then return for Walls, Wilson or Banneker.

Definitely agree with this. MS is the hump in the road of DCPS that you decide to climb and eventually get over to a better HS experience or stop at the bottom and move out of the DCPS/charter system. We didn't want to leave DC, so we decided to climb over the hump. This is coming from a DCI parent. We are happy enough with MS, but we have higher hopes for HS.

My child just started their first year at DCI. We had pretty low expectations, and it's going better than expected. Not perfect, but I think we'll make it work. My kid comes home pretty happy each day.

I'm predicting posters to chime in, saying that I'll change my mind by seventh or eighth grade. And it's possible I may, who knows.

But it partly depends on what your expectations are and what you're looking for. I'm not expecting a super rigorous academic program, it's just not realistic for a public nonadmissions-based school in DC.

If you have specific questions, feel free to ask. (My kid got in off the lottery, not through a feeder elementary.)

Anonymous wrote:Looking for options for middle school, public charter or magnet, and would love some input from this crowd. Thanks in advance!

OP, nobody on DCUM can possibly advise you effectively without knowing something about your situation.

Magnet middle school? You sound like you live in NYC. We don't have those in DC.

Anonymous wrote:Here you go:

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/middle-schools/district-of-columbia

Btw, ignore the previous poster. The person doesn't even have kids in public school in DC. Not sure why the person keeps posting here.

I've had kids in public school in this city for almost a decade. Ignore the previous poster at your own risk.

Fact is, the DC public high school landscape is more welcoming than the middle school landscape. There's a strong element of "make-do" at the middle school level in DC public schools.

We just doesn't have public middle schools with great facilities AND academics, like in Fairfax. Some DC parents go private for middle school, then return for Walls, Wilson or Banneker.

Any feedback on Sojourner Truth?

Here you go:

https://www.usnews.com/education/k12/middle-schools/district-of-columbia

Btw, ignore the previous poster. The person doesn't even have kids in public school in DC. Not sure why the person keeps posting here.

Hate to break it to you, PP, but there aren't exactly "great experiences" at public middle schools, not in this particular city. There are just good middle school experiences, mediocre ones and bad ones. Great experiences are the preserve of privates and the outer burbs.

Look around. The Deal building was built for around 1000 students with about 1700 enrolled, meaning a dank classroom trailer village, and provides inadequate humanities challenge for many students (no academic tracking for English in DCPS, other than at Stuart Hobson, no formal GT anywhere). Hardy is really coming along, but doesn't provide nearly enough challenge for the strongest students there, either. Stuart Hobson lacks neighborhood buy-in on the part of at least 2/3 of eligible in-boundary families, for many good reasons. The rest of the DCPS MS programs aren't really on the radar for UMC families, though a few super ideological UMC parents will claim that Jefferson Academy and Eliot-Hine are great, even beyond great.

Top-tier charters like DCI, Inspired Teaching and Two Rivers are OK for middle school, not more. BASIS is mostly kill and drill in a joyless building w/out so much as a library, green space, gym or stage, but is far and away the best in DC public for math and science challenge (I'm not going to go as far as "STEM" in a building without much in the way of technology, including a computer lab of any kind.

Are you looking for high test scores, math/science focus, a place where kids who come in scoring low make a lot of progress, foreign language, athletic team, band/orchestra, a short commute, uniforms or no uniforms, combined with elementary or high school or just middle, Montessori, tracking for English and math or no, lots of middle schoolers or few kids per grade, etc.?

Anonymous wrote:There aren't "magnet" schools in DC.

There are 4 magnet high schools in DCPS: SWW, Banneker, McKinley Tech, and Duke Ellington.

Per US News - BASIS is #1

There aren't "magnet" schools in DC.

Looking for options for middle school, public charter or magnet, and would love some input from this crowd. Thanks in advance!