Anonymous wrote:We are open to considering privates and/or move if needed. Academics is our top priority and we are not interested in having to do so much supplementation because DCPS refuses to meet the needs of the higher performing kids. Our IB middle is not a viable option. The lottery is a crap shot and odds are getting higher and higher of not winning,

I’m not interested in forcing tutors, workbooks, or whatever on my kid after a full day of wasted school not learning much and not being challenged. That time is much better spent with outside tests, hobbies, and with family. Time is a precious commodity.

I also know my kid, and he will do the minimum required and coast if things are easy at school. He rises up to his full potential more when surrounded by higher performing peers and in classes where teacher’s expectations are high. Sure some kids are fully internally motivated but not my kid and not the majority of kids.

BASIS DC or the burbs.

Good luck!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that none of the Friendship schools are mentioned here. What about Friendship’s international school up in Woodridge?

There are no mentioned here because DCUM is obsessed with certain schools
only.

There are reasons-- 1) They don't offer a lot of middle school seats, most seats go to their own rising elementary schoolers. Offers are in the single digits. 2) It's pretty far east and not on the metro 2) PARCC scores super low, especially in math.

Math is 17% proficient, which in the context of DC is not that low. Citywide middle school proficiency rate was 20%.

But yes, it’s hard to get in for middle school and true college-bound students get counseled out of the Friendship high schools to the DCPS application schools. Which is to the program’s credit, but means that Friendship isn’t solving the problem of high school uncertainty for college-bound students.

It's not that low, but DCUM tends to be very down on charters that have that kind of scores. It's also not a very big school-- 217 kids over 4th through 8th, so not even 50 kids in a grade. Compare to Brookland middle school, which has roughly comparable test scores and 357 kids over 3 grades so 100+ in a grade. Brookland is definitely where you'll find more activities, electives, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that none of the Friendship schools are mentioned here. What about Friendship’s international school up in Woodridge?

There are no mentioned here because DCUM is obsessed with certain schools
only.

There are reasons-- 1) They don't offer a lot of middle school seats, most seats go to their own rising elementary schoolers. Offers are in the single digits. 2) It's pretty far east and not on the metro 2) PARCC scores super low, especially in math.

Math is 17% proficient, which in the context of DC is not that low. Citywide middle school proficiency rate was 20%.

But yes, it’s hard to get in for middle school and true college-bound students get counseled out of the Friendship high schools to the DCPS application schools. Which is to the program’s credit, but means that Friendship isn’t solving the problem of high school uncertainty for college-bound students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that none of the Friendship schools are mentioned here. What about Friendship’s international school up in Woodridge?

There are no mentioned here because DCUM is obsessed with certain schools
only.

There are reasons-- 1) They don't offer a lot of middle school seats, most seats go to their own rising elementary schoolers. Offers are in the single digits. 2) It's pretty far east and not on the metro 2) PARCC scores super low, especially in math.

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that none of the Friendship schools are mentioned here. What about Friendship’s international school up in Woodridge?

There are no mentioned here because DCUM is obsessed with certain schools
only.

Interesting that none of the Friendship schools are mentioned here. What about Friendship’s international school up in Woodridge?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Met two MV families with rising 3rd and 4th graders on my Ludlow tour this week.

Not every student thrive in two languages, good for the parents to recognize that.

Riiiiight. Nothing to see here, folks! Anyone leaving MV just can't handle the high, high level of Spanish expected.

Anonymous wrote:Met two MV families with rising 3rd and 4th graders on my Ludlow tour this week.

Not every student thrive in two languages, good for the parents to recognize that.

PR? Isn't this all just about supply and demand amidst demographic ups and downs? The number of births fluctuate year over year (and people move to and away from DC). Parents whose kids were in PreK, say, six years ago jockeyed over fewer schools offering that. Charter schools opened in response to that higher demand but those same parents are now done have small children and those with small children can't afford to or don't want to live in the city (Covid and all). That same demographic cohort is now, six years later, jockeying over middle school seats.

Demographic trends, birth rates, moves in and out of the city, etc. - all that is always in flux, ups and downs abound. More than PR, schools need to be able to respond to those ups and downs flexibly. I remember years ago when, at our school, a 5th grad teacher was temporarily dispatched to teach Kindergarten. Imagine a Kindergarten teacher teaching middle schoolers. Not easy all of that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some factors are: the crumbling of TR and CMI (or, people's willingness to acknowledge it), so more people there are lotterying. No longer having a guarantee at DCI means those families are lotterying. Stuart-Hobson is no longer as easy to get into. So people are making longer lottery lists because they're scared.

Longer lists is probably part of it, but the number of unique 5th grade applicants has been on an upward trend over the past three years, so I would expect that’s part of it as well.

I'm curious about this as well. Are there numbers available yet on the number of unique applicants per grade this year? If this year's rising fifth graders don't have a DCI guarantee and SH isn't taking as many OOB students as it used to, families may be hedging their bets and applying for Latin and Basis for fifth instead of putting all of their stakes on a good enough lottery number for sixth.

I think most rising 5th graders have a DCI guarantee. I can't think of a feeder that has a bigger 4th class than spots.

That may be true now, but most of the DCI feeders are dramatically increasing the size of their primary classes and, when pushed, are acknowledging that this means that there will not be a guarantee for kids entering PK3, PK4, K, or even 1st (at some of the schools) right now. At YY, for example, they told us that kids have lots of middle school options and that because "many" kids will choose to go to MS like Latin or BASIS, there should be enough spaces at DCI available for those kids that want to go there, even when the grades start with 100 students (as they will soon at YY), but that is far from a guarantee and also not reflective of the current reality w/r/t the number of kids waitlisted at MS like Latin and BASIS this year.

Sure. But the poster was trying to understand this year's patterns and they can't be explained by kids at DCB or LAMB thinking they might not get a spot at DCI in 6th.

I actually didn't know YY had expanded or was that big, wow.

Depends what is meant by "rising 5th grader"-- at this point in the year I think it means someone who's in 4th grade today. Anyone in 4th at MV or Stokes who isn't a DCI sibling should be concerned and strongly consider other options.

I don't think that's true for Stokes French. As the only French-track member school, there should be enough spots to accommodate any Stokes French student. 20 guaranteed spots + usually about 30 additional spots to which Stokes students are offered preference ahead of others on waitlist.

Met two MV families with rising 3rd and 4th graders on my Ludlow tour this week.

Anonymous wrote:We are open to considering privates and/or move if needed. Academics is our top priority and we are not interested in having to do so much supplementation because DCPS refuses to meet the needs of the higher performing kids. Our IB middle is not a viable option. The lottery is a crap shot and odds are getting higher and higher of not winning,

I’m not interested in forcing tutors, workbooks, or whatever on my kid after a full day of wasted school not learning much and not being challenged. That time is much better spent with outside tests, hobbies, and with family. Time is a precious commodity.

I also know my kid, and he will do the minimum required and coast if things are easy at school. He rises up to his full potential more when surrounded by higher performing peers and in classes where teacher’s expectations are high. Sure some kids are fully internally motivated but not my kid and not the majority of kids.

Typo interests not test

We are open to considering privates and/or move if needed. Academics is our top priority and we are not interested in having to do so much supplementation because DCPS refuses to meet the needs of the higher performing kids. Our IB middle is not a viable option. The lottery is a crap shot and odds are getting higher and higher of not winning,

I’m not interested in forcing tutors, workbooks, or whatever on my kid after a full day of wasted school not learning much and not being challenged. That time is much better spent with outside tests, hobbies, and with family. Time is a precious commodity.

I also know my kid, and he will do the minimum required and coast if things are easy at school. He rises up to his full potential more when surrounded by higher performing peers and in classes where teacher’s expectations are high. Sure some kids are fully internally motivated but not my kid and not the majority of kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some factors are: the crumbling of TR and CMI (or, people's willingness to acknowledge it), so more people there are lotterying. No longer having a guarantee at DCI means those families are lotterying. Stuart-Hobson is no longer as easy to get into. So people are making longer lottery lists because they're scared.

Longer lists is probably part of it, but the number of unique 5th grade applicants has been on an upward trend over the past three years, so I would expect that’s part of it as well.

I'm curious about this as well. Are there numbers available yet on the number of unique applicants per grade this year? If this year's rising fifth graders don't have a DCI guarantee and SH isn't taking as many OOB students as it used to, families may be hedging their bets and applying for Latin and Basis for fifth instead of putting all of their stakes on a good enough lottery number for sixth.

I think most rising 5th graders have a DCI guarantee. I can't think of a feeder that has a bigger 4th class than spots.

That may be true now, but most of the DCI feeders are dramatically increasing the size of their primary classes and, when pushed, are acknowledging that this means that there will not be a guarantee for kids entering PK3, PK4, K, or even 1st (at some of the schools) right now. At YY, for example, they told us that kids have lots of middle school options and that because "many" kids will choose to go to MS like Latin or BASIS, there should be enough spaces at DCI available for those kids that want to go there, even when the grades start with 100 students (as they will soon at YY), but that is far from a guarantee and also not reflective of the current reality w/r/t the number of kids waitlisted at MS like Latin and BASIS this year.

MV sent a letter recently saying there will be more kids than spots for the current 4th graders-- 70 spots and 100 kids. So even assuming not everyone applies to DCI, not everyone who applies matches or enrolls, and some kids peel off for Latin and Basis in 5th, it's possible someone could be shut out of DCI. Depending on whether the other Spanish member schools use their full allocation of seats, as well. So it's a really hard thing to predict. But it's not some vague future hypothetical-- for MV and Stokes it's happening now.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k90Y1NiPfpaGHYuHLAHIdgZA79KiNfLE/view

Can you imagine suffering through MV in hopes of solving MS and HS only to be shut out? I'd be in therapy for years trying to deal with what I did to my kid.

Says someone who knows absolutely nothing about MV. P 3rd grade had issues last year but things are good otherwise. We are at 8th St and having a great year and my kid is doing great socially and academically.

Good luck with Cardozo or whatever……

Right, just one year in one grade at one campus. Everything else is totally perfect! Nothing to see here!

Open your eyes. And good luck when you don't get a spot at DCI.

Nope multiple classes, multiple years, in addition to talking to parents in other grades. The 1st year back post pandemic was rough like everywhere else but things have stabilized.

You must not have taken a stats class. Chance of going to our IB school is 0. Chance of getting into DCI significantly higher 60-80%. I’ll circle back to you when we are there.

BTW, no need to move to Deal. DCI has a good cohort of IB Deal families who are happy they made the choice and trajectory is upwards.

This has been the opposite of our experience at MV. DS is now in 4th grade, been there since K--so have seen it ALL and hoped it was improving. It just keeps getting worse. Thankfully, this is our last year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some factors are: the crumbling of TR and CMI (or, people's willingness to acknowledge it), so more people there are lotterying. No longer having a guarantee at DCI means those families are lotterying. Stuart-Hobson is no longer as easy to get into. So people are making longer lottery lists because they're scared.

Longer lists is probably part of it, but the number of unique 5th grade applicants has been on an upward trend over the past three years, so I would expect that’s part of it as well.

I'm curious about this as well. Are there numbers available yet on the number of unique applicants per grade this year? If this year's rising fifth graders don't have a DCI guarantee and SH isn't taking as many OOB students as it used to, families may be hedging their bets and applying for Latin and Basis for fifth instead of putting all of their stakes on a good enough lottery number for sixth.

I think most rising 5th graders have a DCI guarantee. I can't think of a feeder that has a bigger 4th class than spots.

That may be true now, but most of the DCI feeders are dramatically increasing the size of their primary classes and, when pushed, are acknowledging that this means that there will not be a guarantee for kids entering PK3, PK4, K, or even 1st (at some of the schools) right now. At YY, for example, they told us that kids have lots of middle school options and that because "many" kids will choose to go to MS like Latin or BASIS, there should be enough spaces at DCI available for those kids that want to go there, even when the grades start with 100 students (as they will soon at YY), but that is far from a guarantee and also not reflective of the current reality w/r/t the number of kids waitlisted at MS like Latin and BASIS this year.

MV sent a letter recently saying there will be more kids than spots for the current 4th graders-- 70 spots and 100 kids. So even assuming not everyone applies to DCI, not everyone who applies matches or enrolls, and some kids peel off for Latin and Basis in 5th, it's possible someone could be shut out of DCI. Depending on whether the other Spanish member schools use their full allocation of seats, as well. So it's a really hard thing to predict. But it's not some vague future hypothetical-- for MV and Stokes it's happening now.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k90Y1NiPfpaGHYuHLAHIdgZA79KiNfLE/view

Can you imagine suffering through MV in hopes of solving MS and HS only to be shut out? I'd be in therapy for years trying to deal with what I did to my kid.

Says someone who knows absolutely nothing about MV. P 3rd grade had issues last year but things are good otherwise. We are at 8th St and having a great year and my kid is doing great socially and academically.

Good luck with Cardozo or whatever……

MV's issues are not new and have been getting worse for years. They were masked when they had only one campus and came into the light when they (predictably) spread themselves too thin. Ironic to a fault for you to be ignorant of issues extending over a number of years while accusing others of "knowing absolutely nothing about MV".