Anonymous wrote:I am not sure whether the charter middle schools are better options. People are turned off by the test scores at McFarland but the few families I know that have attended are having a really good experience and many more resources than the charters listed above. Charters may be good for those that have kids that need something more than a traditional curriculum. But if you want your kids to learn the traditional curriculum DCPS is definitely better.

I think this really varies by DCPS middle school (whereas I do think that the DCPS elementary curriculum is more similar across schools, and that it's pretty good. We stayed at a medium-good DCPS over a "highly regarded" charter I am very glad we did.)

The good DCPS middle schools have so many more classes than the worse ones. At the good ones, you can learn Mandarin, get on track to take Geometry by 8th grade with a strong cohort, take honors English and read tons of books, learn how to code... and at other DCPS schools you can't do any of these things. So the question of whether or not charters are better is actually complicated. I was very anti charter for elementary, but for middle school I am considering a few.

Most charters and DCPS schools are essentially the same when it comes to curriculum, especially when it comes to math.

I am not sure whether the charter middle schools are better options. People are turned off by the test scores at McFarland but the few families I know that have attended are having a really good experience and many more resources than the charters listed above. Charters may be good for those that have kids that need something more than a traditional curriculum. But if you want your kids to learn the traditional curriculum DCPS is definitely better.

Ward 4 parent here. For elementary I completely agree with PP. DCPS may be uneven, but there are elementary seats at DCPS schools that outperform the popular charters (with the exception of Yu Ying). It’s both the curriculum, admin, and the resources from being part of a big LEA. But it’s the reverse in middle school. For a Ward 4 parent who doesn’t want to gamble on a winning lottery number in fifth, the charter options are miles better than DCPS (primarily DCI, but also IT, ELH, CC for some families), and you have to secure that feeder pattern in elementary.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

DCPS schools can differ on the margins (like project based stuff) but the curriculum is largely uniform across all the elementary schools.

There are elementary schools where half the kids are getting 1s on the PARCC. Don't teachers to some extent modify what they're teaching to meet students where they are, regardless of what the curriculum says?

As a parent at a DCPS school where some kids are getting 1s but mine got 5s, the teachers rely heavily on small groups and they push each group as far as they are able to. A minority of time is spent on common instruction.

But then it's not exactly a uniform curriculum. In schools where a lot of kids are higher-performing, they can get more instruction because that can be done for the classroom as a whole.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

DCPS schools can differ on the margins (like project based stuff) but the curriculum is largely uniform across all the elementary schools.

There are elementary schools where half the kids are getting 1s on the PARCC. Don't teachers to some extent modify what they're teaching to meet students where they are, regardless of what the curriculum says?

As a parent at a DCPS school where some kids are getting 1s but mine got 5s, the teachers rely heavily on small groups and they push each group as far as they are able to. A minority of time is spent on common instruction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

DCPS schools can differ on the margins (like project based stuff) but the curriculum is largely uniform across all the elementary schools.

There are elementary schools where half the kids are getting 1s on the PARCC. Don't teachers to some extent modify what they're teaching to meet students where they are, regardless of what the curriculum says?

When it comes to the actual knowledge that my 5th grader has gained in one year at Latin, versus his technically excellent NW elementary, there is zero comparison. Latin by a landslide.

Anonymous wrote:I have two kids who went through elementary school in dc at a reputable charter school. And are heading to middle school next year. We stuck with one school through all their admin disruptions because we liked teachers and community. But in retrospect, as I compare academics to friends whose kids went to DCPS, I have to say I wish we had gone the DCPS route. The academics after 3rd grade are much better at for example Barnard and Shepherd elementary compared to any ward 4/5 charter school. If I were to do it again I’d skip the charter hype for sure. Each individual school just doesn’t have enough oversight to make it a reliable experience from year to year.

My DS also was in a supposedly reputable charter school in EE that we thankfully escaped from before MS. I would have gladly traded strong academics for community. Community is totally overhyped in elementary school.

(DCPS has a whole department -- the department of teaching and learning -- where curriculum gets built, and then it is passed down to the schools. Absolutely agree that it is ahead of the hippie charters than UMC parents tended to like a decade ago.

I do think that at the middle school charters, like Latin and Basis, it is debatable whether or not they are behind. They are certainly different, but I don't know if they are behind.)

Anonymous wrote:Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

DCPS schools can differ on the margins (like project based stuff) but the curriculum is largely uniform across all the elementary schools.

Anonymous wrote:Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

I do think there is a difference between schools that have the support of a central office or a central headquarters and those that don't. Things have slowed down a bit, but as someone who worked at one of the charter school networks that I think grew too big too fast 10+ years ago, I am glad to see charter expansions have slowed down a bit. Yes, every DCPS and every charter school is different so it is hard to compare. But if you have ever worked in a school system, having a team of people who can handle operations, payroll, hiring and admin makes a big difference. For smaller charter school networks or individual schools, that work is often put on the school leaders. What you end up with is school leaders who are good at being principals but not all the other stuff or the other way around.

Th grass is always greener…

Charter vs public (since in DC all charters are also public) and even DC public charter vs DCPS aren't helpful comparisons because the experiences are so uneven. All DCPS schools aren't equal and neither are all public charter schools.

Do you have a question or are you sharing experience you think would be helpful to others? I wonder how you know about the academic experience at all of the Ward 4 and 5 charter schools to be able to compare to what your friends say about Shepherd and Barnard. Plenty of DCPS schools offer unreliable experiences, it just sounds like you happen to live in a neighborhood where you would have been happy with the local DCPS ES and are now wondering why you went with another option.

I have two kids who went through elementary school in dc at a reputable charter school. And are heading to middle school next year. We stuck with one school through all their admin disruptions because we liked teachers and community. But in retrospect, as I compare academics to friends whose kids went to DCPS, I have to say I wish we had gone the DCPS route. The academics after 3rd grade are much better at for example Barnard and Shepherd elementary compared to any ward 4/5 charter school. If I were to do it again I’d skip the charter hype for sure. Each individual school just doesn’t have enough oversight to make it a reliable experience from year to year.