Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 16:44     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The person (or people) posting about the "DCC 3 school choice is confused. There is no "DCC choice" process for middle school. I think you are talking about the MSMC, AKA Middle School Magnet Consortium. The MSMS is the open lottery process where students can opt-in to a lottery for the 3 MSMC schools (Loiderman, Parkland, Argyle). There has not been, to my knowledge, anything other than a virtual open house held in the fall for those programs.

There is no general "DCC" choice process for middle school. The options for rising 6th graders are to attend their local zoned MS; to attend one of the MSMC schools if they get a lottery slot; or the STEM/Humanities magnets (not an opt-in process; your student will get a form letter informing them if they have been offered a slot). Fourth option is if they're in a language immersion program, they can opt-in to continue language immersion in MS (which may not be their zoned MS).

I'm not sure what the "extreme" concern is here. Are you worried your kid won't see the inside of the middle school they might be attending?


Correct. I should have titled the thread to just the 8 elementary schools in this awful position.


What 8 schools are you talking about, and what's so awful about the situation?
Anonymous
Post 01/10/2026 15:27     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
“Awful?” No one is required to rank the middle choice magnet schools. If your child gets into one through the lottery process, there is a welcome night you can attend where you’ll see it. Or you can go to your home school. You know, like most people do in this country.

Maybe you should try to understand the process before you start in with the hysterics.
Anonymous
Post 01/08/2026 20:56     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:The person (or people) posting about the "DCC 3 school choice is confused. There is no "DCC choice" process for middle school. I think you are talking about the MSMC, AKA Middle School Magnet Consortium. The MSMS is the open lottery process where students can opt-in to a lottery for the 3 MSMC schools (Loiderman, Parkland, Argyle). There has not been, to my knowledge, anything other than a virtual open house held in the fall for those programs.

There is no general "DCC" choice process for middle school. The options for rising 6th graders are to attend their local zoned MS; to attend one of the MSMC schools if they get a lottery slot; or the STEM/Humanities magnets (not an opt-in process; your student will get a form letter informing them if they have been offered a slot). Fourth option is if they're in a language immersion program, they can opt-in to continue language immersion in MS (which may not be their zoned MS).

I'm not sure what the "extreme" concern is here. Are you worried your kid won't see the inside of the middle school they might be attending?


Correct. I should have titled the thread to just the 8 elementary schools in this awful position.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 19:49     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
The person (or people) posting about the "DCC 3 school choice is confused. There is no "DCC choice" process for middle school. I think you are talking about the MSMC, AKA Middle School Magnet Consortium. The MSMS is the open lottery process where students can opt-in to a lottery for the 3 MSMC schools (Loiderman, Parkland, Argyle). There has not been, to my knowledge, anything other than a virtual open house held in the fall for those programs.

There is no general "DCC" choice process for middle school. The options for rising 6th graders are to attend their local zoned MS; to attend one of the MSMC schools if they get a lottery slot; or the STEM/Humanities magnets (not an opt-in process; your student will get a form letter informing them if they have been offered a slot). Fourth option is if they're in a language immersion program, they can opt-in to continue language immersion in MS (which may not be their zoned MS).

I'm not sure what the "extreme" concern is here. Are you worried your kid won't see the inside of the middle school they might be attending?
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 19:48     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Rising 6th graders do not have a choice; they go to their home school, they are entered into the county-wide lottery for magnets, or they are automatically entered into the lottery for STEM


Not in the DCC. 5th grade parents had to submit a form tanning all 3 MS options and are awaiting placement results.


That's for the MSMC, not for the rest of the DCC.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 18:27     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:At our elementary, representatives of the home middle school come talk to the classes but they do not have a field trip to the home middle school. There is not school choice at the middle school level so there isn’t really any point. Parkland/Loiederman/Argyle did virtual
open houses in the fall, and I believe there is some kind of open house if you are admitted to Eastern or Takoma.


Correct, there is not a field trip per se but I recall with my current middle schooler there was an evening event at the MS in mid or late January for parents and students to learn about the school, how to select classes, etc. The school administration and reps from the academic departments were there. I don't know if all middle schools do this as a rule but our neighborhood MS did. However, it occurred before kids found out about magnet selection and our kid wound up going to a magnet (which had a separate open house later on which I think was on Zoom).


They did this last year but they also had fall open houses last year befofe kids had to complete the ranking form. Since that was eliminated this year and we still haven’t heard anything about MS articulation events for students or parents, I am extremely concerned.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 18:26     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:At our elementary, representatives of the home middle school come talk to the classes but they do not have a field trip to the home middle school. There is not school choice at the middle school level so there isn’t really any point. Parkland/Loiederman/Argyle did virtual
open houses in the fall, and I believe there is some kind of open house if you are admitted to Eastern or Takoma.


There were no virtual open houses for DCC middle schools. We had 1 webinar for all 3 schools that last a total of 15 minutes followed a few weeks later by a combined event at Kennedy HS. They didn’t even introduce the principals! It was terrible.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 18:24     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:Rising 6th graders do not have a choice; they go to their home school, they are entered into the county-wide lottery for magnets, or they are automatically entered into the lottery for STEM


Not in the DCC. 5th grade parents had to submit a form tanning all 3 MS options and are awaiting placement results.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 18:23     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:I’m confused by your post because rising 6th graders don’t have much by way of school selection unless you mean the magnets? The DCC elimination hasn’t happened yet but it wouldn’t impact middle school selection. DCC choice is just for high school.



My kid had to rank the DCC 3 Middle Schools and is waiting to find out which one she will attend in 6th grade. She did not get to visit any of the schools prior to choosing. Now, her peers at non-DCC schools are taking field trips to their middle schools and their parents are attending articulation events at those schools. Nothing yet from the DCC middle schools about any of this go our kids, which is why I am asking other DCC parents
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 11:22     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Anonymous wrote:At our elementary, representatives of the home middle school come talk to the classes but they do not have a field trip to the home middle school. There is not school choice at the middle school level so there isn’t really any point. Parkland/Loiederman/Argyle did virtual
open houses in the fall, and I believe there is some kind of open house if you are admitted to Eastern or Takoma.


Correct, there is not a field trip per se but I recall with my current middle schooler there was an evening event at the MS in mid or late January for parents and students to learn about the school, how to select classes, etc. The school administration and reps from the academic departments were there. I don't know if all middle schools do this as a rule but our neighborhood MS did. However, it occurred before kids found out about magnet selection and our kid wound up going to a magnet (which had a separate open house later on which I think was on Zoom).
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 10:16     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
At our elementary, representatives of the home middle school come talk to the classes but they do not have a field trip to the home middle school. There is not school choice at the middle school level so there isn’t really any point. Parkland/Loiederman/Argyle did virtual
open houses in the fall, and I believe there is some kind of open house if you are admitted to Eastern or Takoma.
Anonymous
Post 01/07/2026 10:08     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Rising 6th graders do not have a choice; they go to their home school, they are entered into the county-wide lottery for magnets, or they are automatically entered into the lottery for STEM
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2026 23:13     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
Are you talking about rising 9th graders and what the high schools offer or don't offer to support the transition?
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2026 21:54     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
I’m confused by your post because rising 6th graders don’t have much by way of school selection unless you mean the magnets? The DCC elimination hasn’t happened yet but it wouldn’t impact middle school selection. DCC choice is just for high school.
Anonymous
Post 01/06/2026 20:09     Subject: Question for Rising 6th graders in the DCC
I know rising 6th graders for Wood and Sligo middle schools have field trips this week to visit the schools in person with evening events for parents later this month.

Has anyone in the DCC heard of anything similar? I already complained in person and in writing about the elimination of the fall DCC open houses prior to students making their school selections. Hoping they don’t also miss out on this.

Lastly, how will articulation work with the new programs?