Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused why you like Center City. Do you mean Cap City?

SWWFS seems really far.

What about the other Stuart-Hobson feeders? I guess JOW is your bad-number safety plan?

OP here. Cap City middle school doesn’t seem to really have a cohort of kids doing on/above grade level work in middle school. Their test scores for middle school are very weak. We didn’t even seriously consider them for academic reasons. Do you think it’s worth a look?

Center City Brightwood does seem to have a cohort of kids doing work on/above grade level, and their scores have been going up. Teacher retention is solid, and they’ve been getting some good awards and stuff lately (one of their campus’ is a “bold performance” school).

Commute is key for us. We don’t have a car (one of many reasons BASIS is at the top of our list - easy metro commute!) and per Google can get to SWW@FS in less than 40 mins on the bus. So the location isn’t ideal, but better than SH which would be closer to an hour.

Thompson -> SWW@FS is our bad number safety plan (Thompson clears its 5th grade waitlist every year). JOW is our break-glass-in-case-of-emergency-something-crazy-happened backup plan.

I do think CC-Brightwood has good scores. They must have some great teachers! But here's the thing, it's a *really* small school. Only 25 kids in a grade at middle school. A lot of kids would really chafe at that setting, it doesn't give them enough variety of peers and can be hard to make friends. It also makes it hard for the school to offer typical middle school things like sports, a musical, and Algebra I for 8th graders. You need to look at what's offered at Brightwood and really try to see whether it'll suit your kid. And that's not a knock on Brightwood-- some kids really do thrive in a small setting. But others don't.

I wonder if you've considered Wells middle school feeders. I know Wells' test scores aren't great but here's the thing-- at a larger school, you can still have a cohort of on/above grade level kids even if the overall stats are pretty bad. Plus all the benefits of a big school. It's time to stop thinking about the overall test scores and drill down into your child's actual needs and the actual experience your child would have.

Anonymous wrote:You’ll be able to walk into JOW almost certainly. They’re in swing space next year and typically have an under enrolled 5th grade even not in swing space. I’d put Ludlow-Taylor as your 12th pick: good school for a year; same feed. If you get nothing, add JOW post-lottery.

OP here. Leaving JOW off the list entirely is an interesting idea. Would give us another slot to play with.

The Hill schools are just really unappealing commute-wise. And Hardy and the Hardy feeders are a complete non-starter for commute reasons. It’d be two busses and about an hour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know it’s a low-probability chance, but two years ago they let in 29 kids off the waitlist, and they’ve let in a kid or two most years.

What would you put on instead? Seems more likely than Janney or Murch. Could instead put Center City Petworth or maybe in CMI (which we toured but didn’t love).

I would not put CMI. You could add it post-lottery but I wouldn't give up one of your 12 spots for it. ITDS is chock full of people who left CMI.

Have you looked at EL Haynes and Cap City?

OP here. EL Haynes is worth another look. They’re SO CLOSE but the academics for middle school seemed a bit weak.

Anonymous wrote:I'm confused why you like Center City. Do you mean Cap City?

SWWFS seems really far.

What about the other Stuart-Hobson feeders? I guess JOW is your bad-number safety plan?

OP here. Cap City middle school doesn’t seem to really have a cohort of kids doing on/above grade level work in middle school. Their test scores for middle school are very weak. We didn’t even seriously consider them for academic reasons. Do you think it’s worth a look?

Center City Brightwood does seem to have a cohort of kids doing work on/above grade level, and their scores have been going up. Teacher retention is solid, and they’ve been getting some good awards and stuff lately (one of their campus’ is a “bold performance” school).

Commute is key for us. We don’t have a car (one of many reasons BASIS is at the top of our list - easy metro commute!) and per Google can get to SWW@FS in less than 40 mins on the bus. So the location isn’t ideal, but better than SH which would be closer to an hour.

Thompson -> SWW@FS is our bad number safety plan (Thompson clears its 5th grade waitlist every year). JOW is our break-glass-in-case-of-emergency-something-crazy-happened backup plan.

We just listed one school in the lottery: BASIS.

Anonymous wrote:Basis goes pretty deep into the waitlist. If thats your real #1, great. But you are not getting any of the schools you have listed from 2-6 if your number is not good enough for Basis.

Maybe that's their number 1! We are there and happy. If they don't like it, they could always try to lottery for SH or Francis or Hardy for 6th grade, but there isn't another chance to get into BASIS, so I think the list makes sense.


The Latins don't make as much sense below (you would never have a number that gets you into Latin but not basis) but I did this too, I just couldnt bring myself to leave them off.

You’ll be able to walk into JOW almost certainly. They’re in swing space next year and typically have an under enrolled 5th grade even not in swing space. I’d put Ludlow-Taylor as your 12th pick: good school for a year; same feed. If you get nothing, add JOW post-lottery.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know it’s a low-probability chance, but two years ago they let in 29 kids off the waitlist, and they’ve let in a kid or two most years.

What would you put on instead? Seems more likely than Janney or Murch. Could instead put Center City Petworth or maybe in CMI (which we toured but didn’t love).

I would not put CMI. You could add it post-lottery but I wouldn't give up one of your 12 spots for it. ITDS is chock full of people who left CMI.

Have you looked at EL Haynes and Cap City?

I'm confused why you like Center City. Do you mean Cap City?

SWWFS seems really far.

What about the other Stuart-Hobson feeders? I guess JOW is your bad-number safety plan?

Anonymous wrote:OP here. I know it’s a low-probability chance, but two years ago they let in 29 kids off the waitlist, and they’ve let in a kid or two most years.

What would you put on instead? Seems more likely than Janney or Murch. Could instead put Center City Petworth or maybe in CMI (which we toured but didn’t love).

I don’t think Lafayette is a wasted slot. It’s a huge school and, like you said, has weird years where various grades move.

Basis goes pretty deep into the waitlist. If thats your real #1, great. But you are not getting any of the schools you have listed from 2-6 if your number is not good enough for Basis.

Maybe add Eaton or Hyde, which occasionally let kids in, and I think Hardy is preferable to John Francis.

Good luck! We "played" 5th grade last year and got offers from two of the schools on this list. Make sure you are ranking in order of your true preference!

OP here. I know it’s a low-probability chance, but two years ago they let in 29 kids off the waitlist, and they’ve let in a kid or two most years.

What would you put on instead? Seems more likely than Janney or Murch. Could instead put Center City Petworth or maybe in CMI (which we toured but didn’t love).

Lafayette is a wasted spot. According to myschool data they made 0 waitlist offers and had 0 lottery spots for 5th last year.

We’re in an elementary with a middle school that’s a non-starter, so will def switch to somewhere with a decent middle school path this year. We’re in Columbia Heights.

BASIS
Latin
Hearst
Shepherd
Lafayette
Latin Cooper
ITDS
SWW@FS
Center City Brightwood
Ross
Thompson
JOW