Other factors I think may be at play:
More kids are struggling with things like anxiety, and there are more anxious parents too, so more parents may be looking for a smaller, more supportive environment for high school for their kids.
Some of the kids from both public and private schools who entered high school in the last few years were not adequately prepared due to Covid. Schools may be choosing more carefully now to avoid that problem, and fair or not, if a few kids who struggled in HS came from the same private k8, that might make a school wary about admitting kids from that particular k8.

Anonymous wrote:K-8 parent of an eighth grader here. What is frustrating about the process is that grades/academic strength of the kids seem to matter so little in the admissions process. The admits to the more competitive schools go to the big donors and siblings and the smarter kids get into same set of schools as the kids that didn’t really try.

I can understand the perception and the frustration but wanted to say that's not universally true. My child plays sports (but not real travel and couldn't get an email returned from any of the coaches he applied to), he had no connection (e.g., legacy) to any of the schools he applied to and yet he got into 2 "Big 3s." He did have (almost) straight As and I'm sure his K-8 advocated for him. But most of all he is just very personable and I'm sure interviewed well. He has friends from his K-8 with similar stories at other competitive schools. So, I do think that there are a lot of factors that go into admission.

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Anonymous wrote:If it weren't for the reference about distance, I would think Norwood. They did awful last year based on their own web page.

I really don't know what you're talking about. My child was an 8th grader at Norwood last year and they had a very good year. Multiple matriculations at all of the Big 3 (including GDS, which was very difficult last year), Holton, Georgetown Prep, Potomac, and Maret.

Let's be clear to everyone not in the know. There were 2 GDS admits last year of which both were admitted in spite of Langley. They excelled elsewhere. There were no Sidwell's. The Potomac admits were 1) admitted to GDS and attended GDS 2) sibling 3) unclear hook or no hook.

80%+ did not get into their first choice.

Again, I really don't know what you're talking about so yes, let's be clear to everyone not in the know. There are 3 at Sidwell from last year's Norwood class- feel free to check the website that you are citing. re: GDS, what does "in spite of Langley mean"? I'm not sure what your point about being admitted to both Potomac and GDS and choosing GDS means. Most kids are accepted at multiple schools and all of them only chose one to attend. But there are still multiple kids attending Potomac from last year's Norwood class.

It is 100% not true that 80% didn't get into their first choice. I can think of more than 20% off the top of my head that got into their first choice and that doesn't include the kids who matriculated at Bullis and St. Andrews, which were many kids first choice given their location and/or interests.

PP here - the comments were regarding Langley School placement. You seem to be mixing up things between Norwood (https://www.langleyschool.org/academics/high-school-placement) and Langley. Langley school outplacement were atrocious

Your information is just wrong--ie there are 5 Langley grads from 2023 at GDS, the year that supposedly no-one got in. Sorry your child didn't do better, but kids got into great schools from that grade. One strength of the k-8s is getting kids off the wait lists.

Reading comp is an issue here . There are 2 class of 2023 at gds. just ask gds

There are 0 at Sidwell

Class of 2022 did well but that was mostly former HOS recommendations . The new HoS is fine also , the middle school head is in above her head

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Anonymous wrote:Why is it the schools that bombed? Why isn’t it the kids?

Neither bombed, except that K-8's are not being entirely forthright about emissions and parents (maybe kids) have unrealistic expectations.

Do people really think that the most competitive private schools are going to fill their ranks with kids coming out of K-8s? Unless it's a HS-only, these schools already have plenty of private school kids joining the 9th grade - their 8th graders. I know that this is a private school board, but there is an almost unlimited number of incredibly strong applicants coming out of the public school systems, and to expect any of the most competitive high schools to take, say, 8 kids from this or that K-8 is just not realistic. Once you get past legacies, siblings, development candidates, athletes, etc., even if they did want to take 8 kids, the number of spots left is tiny.

There are always going to be exceptions, but for unhooked kids, the numbers are really stacked up against them.

Yeah but it's also the case that unhooked kids get in and siblings get rejected.

Anonymous wrote:Why is it the schools that bombed? Why isn’t it the kids?

Could be.

In years past, the families that were not happy and didn't get with placement at highly selective HS were cases where they thought their kid was one of the top - but it wasn't really true. Some were just delusional. Others might be strong enough to "have a shot" but were not in the category that the k-8 school would have been shocked that the kid was shut out of selective schools.

At that time, there would be a rare case, where a kid really was in the top group and was shut out. In those cases the school really is surprised and works hard to try to help.

There were also cases where a family was "difficult" or a smart kid was "challenging". I wasn't surprised to see these kids get shut out because they were generally not great members of the community. We knew it as parents and we weren't even in their grade.

But - I can't speak to the current year and can't speak to those complaining about their school bombing. I do think it is too early to make a final judgement - even if it does suck to not get in initially - it could be that some of these kids get off wait lists.

Anonymous wrote:Why is it the schools that bombed? Why isn’t it the kids?

Neither bombed, except that K-8's are not being entirely forthright about emissions and parents (maybe kids) have unrealistic expectations.

Do people really think that the most competitive private schools are going to fill their ranks with kids coming out of K-8s? Unless it's a HS-only, these schools already have plenty of private school kids joining the 9th grade - their 8th graders. I know that this is a private school board, but there is an almost unlimited number of incredibly strong applicants coming out of the public school systems, and to expect any of the most competitive high schools to take, say, 8 kids from this or that K-8 is just not realistic. Once you get past legacies, siblings, development candidates, athletes, etc., even if they did want to take 8 kids, the number of spots left is tiny.

There are always going to be exceptions, but for unhooked kids, the numbers are really stacked up against them.

Why is it the schools that bombed? Why isn’t it the kids?

HS Admissions seem to be more competitive every year; contrary to what people thought would happen after COVID. My child’s school had (what I think is a record) of over 500 applications this year for 80-90 spots . It’s rough out there.

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Anonymous wrote:The days of admission with a handshake or a call from ...are long gone.

When and why did outplacement from a good K8 to a better K12 change to become harder ?

Basically COVID significantly increased the number of people that wanted private schools while the number of spots stayed constant

Agreed - COVID could have an impact because some schools admitted more strong students that would normally be at public...and places like GDS overenrolled. This impacts later admissions in HS. It also affects admissions overall if, for a certain year, one K-8 has a large number of high fliers or if they all do. More strong k-8 applicants than before...

But this always has fluctuations..

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Anonymous wrote:If it weren't for the reference about distance, I would think Norwood. They did awful last year based on their own web page.

I really don't know what you're talking about. My child was an 8th grader at Norwood last year and they had a very good year. Multiple matriculations at all of the Big 3 (including GDS, which was very difficult last year), Holton, Georgetown Prep, Potomac, and Maret.

Let's be clear to everyone not in the know. There were 2 GDS admits last year of which both were admitted in spite of Langley. They excelled elsewhere. There were no Sidwell's. The Potomac admits were 1) admitted to GDS and attended GDS 2) sibling 3) unclear hook or no hook.

80%+ did not get into their first choice.

Again, I really don't know what you're talking about so yes, let's be clear to everyone not in the know. There are 3 at Sidwell from last year's Norwood class- feel free to check the website that you are citing. re: GDS, what does "in spite of Langley mean"? I'm not sure what your point about being admitted to both Potomac and GDS and choosing GDS means. Most kids are accepted at multiple schools and all of them only chose one to attend. But there are still multiple kids attending Potomac from last year's Norwood class.

It is 100% not true that 80% didn't get into their first choice. I can think of more than 20% off the top of my head that got into their first choice and that doesn't include the kids who matriculated at Bullis and St. Andrews, which were many kids first choice given their location and/or interests.

PP here - the comments were regarding Langley School placement. You seem to be mixing up things between Norwood (https://www.langleyschool.org/academics/high-school-placement) and Langley. Langley school outplacement were atrocious

Your information is just wrong--ie there are 5 Langley grads from 2023 at GDS, the year that supposedly no-one got in. Sorry your child didn't do better, but kids got into great schools from that grade. One strength of the k-8s is getting kids off the wait lists.

This...it's too early to make a final determination, anywhere.

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Anonymous wrote:The days of admission with a handshake or a call from ...are long gone.

When and why did outplacement from a good K8 to a better K12 change to become harder ?

Basically COVID significantly increased the number of people that wanted private schools while the number of spots stayed constant

Private schools are one of the few things people want in DC. Might even help with sinking Metro ridership and declining jobs.

Of course city is so badly managed it won’t allow school expansion.

Just like with college. More qualified students applying for the same number of spots.

Anonymous wrote:I work in a K-12 independent school that many people on this thread want their children to attend. First, admission has gotten much harder, period. It's not necessarily the K-8's fault if fewer students are getting admitted to GDS or Sidwell or wherever. For one, there's less attrition in the independent k-12s. In part, I think people are more wary of their public options these days. Second, the students that I work with who come out of K-8s stand out to me as being quite self-possessed and especially great at advocating for themselves. They're comfortable leading as well, and contribute so much to the community and my classroom. Overall, an impressive group. It's not all about the brand name or hedging your bets for the future. You're trying to raise skilled, caring, good, well-educated human beings. It's not a zero sum game.

This is 100% why we chose K-8. Thank you for this post.

Anonymous wrote:The days of admission with a handshake or a call from ...are long gone.

When and why did outplacement from a good K8 to a better K12 change to become harder ?