my family is one that sat in the lottery for a long time and left our kid in a "bad" school for too long and regret it. my child was bullied. in hindsight, we should of moved ASAP giving the unlikely odds of actually landing a spot in desired school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
SH does not have good buy in from the feeders. It’s IB rate is only 28% so 3 out of every 4 kids are leaving.
And no, 3 out of 4 kids in its feeders are not getting into Latin and Basis BTW.

That's just such rubbish! It's a city-wide fact that most students leave elementary school into other feeders and other systems (charter, private). For better (and for worse!) we have school choice DC. It's for middle school that parents are making it. We took our kids OOB from Maury to Stuart Hobson and to Jefferson. We fell outside of those 28%; now, per the above statement, that should tell you these schools are undesirable?! (FYI, both kids went on to excellent high schools and colleges of their choice. No, at best, that indicator tells you nothing. Or maybe it tells you they're doing something right.)

Today, we might prefer Eliot Hine, or maybe we'd go back and choose that DCI French track we wavered after all. You need to look at your student, at what they need, at your situation, at the opportunities before you, at what's important to you and your family here and now, and make choices on that basis. Then commit to it and make it work. I'm convinced that more than half the success that our kids stand for can be credited to minimizing commutes and investing in our family's convenience and happiness. That left us with plenty of bandwidth to support everyone and bring our best selves into our family's needs. This may not be how others see it, and that's fine and exactly what the system allows. I'm not a big supporter of school choice but I am for making the best of it since we have it. And let's stop judging people and schools about it!

Stuart Hobson and Eliot Hine now have comparable IB participation rates around 30%. As you point out, that is only one data point, but EH's has been steadying climbing for years, which is a positive trend.

We moved to ITDS in 5th grade. From what I can see, there are some high achieving kids in the classes.
Pros: very nicely integrated, a lot of middle class kids, teachers who care
Cons (perhaps, depending on your perspective): a lot of group work which may not be that academic (drawing, making crafts, making video presentations) that is supposed to be in support of learning facts
Younger teachers than in DCPS, including, essentially, student teachers (that's the 'demonstration' part, they are a training campus), as well as paraprofessionals doing teaching.
Progressive, which can mean loosey goosey -- take a break when you feel like it, go to the bathroom a million times during class, three weeks a year of play during school -- Pokemon club or hair and makeup, for instance
According to the last annual report I found, which is the 21/22 school year, ITDS 8th graders went to School Without
Walls, Banneker SHS, Duke Ellington School for the Arts, Phelps ACE High School,
McKinley Tech, Maret School, Elizabeth Seton HS, DeMatha Catholic HS, and
Templeton Academy.
I know there are also ITDS kids at Burke and GDS from talking to 9th graders there.
If you look at Stuart Hobson numbers, a lot of the applicants get in in 6th grade, though maybe some in September? We really liked SH in the open house tour. It is bigger than ITDS so there are more ways to qualify for Ellington -- museum studies, lots of instruments instruction, which ITDS doesn't have. SH is not as integrated as ITDS -- 85% black, as I recall.
It seems like Walls is a bit of a crap shoot, even if you have a strong student, so if that is the only public high school you think makes sense in the city, you might want to either start saving for private HS or move.

Anonymous wrote:
SH does not have good buy in from the feeders. It’s IB rate is only 28% so 3 out of every 4 kids are leaving.
And no, 3 out of 4 kids in its feeders are not getting into Latin and Basis BTW.

That's just such rubbish! It's a city-wide fact that most students leave elementary school into other feeders and other systems (charter, private). For better (and for worse!) we have school choice DC. It's for middle school that parents are making it. We took our kids OOB from Maury to Stuart Hobson and to Jefferson. We fell outside of those 28%; now, per the above statement, that should tell you these schools are undesirable?! (FYI, both kids went on to excellent high schools and colleges of their choice. No, at best, that indicator tells you nothing. Or maybe it tells you they're doing something right.)

Today, we might prefer Eliot Hine, or maybe we'd go back and choose that DCI French track we wavered after all. You need to look at your student, at what they need, at your situation, at the opportunities before you, at what's important to you and your family here and now, and make choices on that basis. Then commit to it and make it work. I'm convinced that more than half the success that our kids stand for can be credited to minimizing commutes and investing in our family's convenience and happiness. That left us with plenty of bandwidth to support everyone and bring our best selves into our family's needs. This may not be how others see it, and that's fine and exactly what the system allows. I'm not a big supporter of school choice but I am for making the best of it since we have it. And let's stop judging people and schools about it!

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get why people are willing to play the lottery and move their kids around for poor schools year after year. And no, just because your kid does fine in school doesn’t mean they will get the best education in these schools. They will for sure be behind their peers in much better schools because they will not reach their full potential. Easy to cruise and do nothing and learn little when standards and expectations are so low.

I was a FARMs kid and got out of bad situations and low expectations because of G & T in elementary and tracking. It’s bad enough when majority of kids are way below grade level. It’s worst when a kid with lots of potential is placed in the same group. The teacher is not going to be focusing on your kid when 3/4th or more of the kids are below grade level. Your differentiation will be putting your kid on a computer or giving a workbook to work on.

As to middle school, it’s laughable that naive parents think that there is any differentiation and even if there is that it even works.

I won’t even touch on the behavior issues, disruptive classes, truancy, bullying, fights, verbal abuse to students and teachers, etc…. Sure there are these issues in all schools but the frequency, severity, and consequences matters a lot. In DC there are no consequences. Think about that for a minute.

Move to the best school pyramid you can if you are able and then you don’t have to

with all these stuff

I don’t get why people are willing to play the lottery and move their kids around for poor schools year after year. And no, just because your kid does fine in school doesn’t mean they will get the best education in these schools. They will for sure be behind their peers in much better schools because they will not reach their full potential. Easy to cruise and do nothing and learn little when standards and expectations are so low.

I was a FARMs kid and got out of bad situations and low expectations because of G & T in elementary and tracking. It’s bad enough when majority of kids are way below grade level. It’s worst when a kid with lots of potential is placed in the same group. The teacher is not going to be focusing on your kid when 3/4th or more of the kids are below grade level. Your differentiation will be putting your kid on a computer or giving a workbook to work on.

As to middle school, it’s laughable that naive parents think that there is any differentiation and even if there is that it even works.

I won’t even touch on the behavior issues, disruptive classes, truancy, bullying, fights, verbal abuse to students and teachers, etc…. Sure there are these issues in all schools but the frequency, severity, and consequences matters a lot. In DC there are no consequences. Think about that for a minute.

Move to the best school pyramid you can if you are able and then you don’t have to

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You think kids in the suburbs have fewer opportunities to bike than kids in the city? That makes no sense

Also we have farmers markets, community pools, etc

…why are you on this thread at all? Do you think the suburbs are, like, going to lose steam as a concept if you don’t jump into the DC public schools forum to share their glories?

DP, anyone can chime in and maybe PP above lived in DC and moved to the burbs, giving their perspective.


Why are you so triggered and insecure about above? PP is correct BTW. I live in DC EOTP but kids in the burb have way more opportunities to bike then the city and it’s much safer and I drove out to the burbs to bike many trails

Anonymous wrote:You think kids in the suburbs have fewer opportunities to bike than kids in the city? That makes no sense

Also we have farmers markets, community pools, etc

…why are you on this thread at all? Do you think the suburbs are, like, going to lose steam as a concept if you don’t jump into the DC public schools forum to share their glories?

Edscape data: 112 of the SH 6th graders in fall 2022 came from its three feeder schools. A lot of those kids are OOB and Hill buy-in is mixed is true.

Anonymous wrote:The feeders have lots of OOB students.

So, it doesn’t mean IB kids can’t go to these schools. They have the right to attend regardless of the number of students or where they are coming from.

BTW, your above statement implies that feeders also don’t have a lot of buy in then.

The feeders have lots of OOB students.

The person above who lives in the suburbs always pops into these forums to tell people their choice of living in the city "makes no sense." This person is too consumed with other's peoples choices.

You think kids in the suburbs have fewer opportunities to bike than kids in the city? That makes no sense

Also we have farmers markets, community pools, etc

I can't really imagine prioritizing adult commute over kid commute, and there is biking and community in the suburbs.

Anonymous wrote:SH actually has pretty good buy-in from all three of its feeders (it is why it is similar to hardy somewhat hard to get in OOB). Some 4th graders leave for latin and basis like at pretty much every elementary school across the hill. There is space in 5th if the elementary school wants to keep the same number of classrooms.

SH does not have good buy in from the feeders. It’s IB rate is only 28% so 3 out of every 4 kids are leaving.

And no, 3 out of 4 kids in its feeders are not getting into Latin and Basis BTW.