To cope with IB Diploma writing requirements on good form, kids need strong writing instruction starting long before junior and senior year in HS. I don't hear Latin families complaining about middle school writing instruction. The only strong writing teacher we had at DCI quit mid-year. By 8th grade, we'd hired an expensive writing tutor and knew other DCI families who did the same. Teens aren't going to magically crank out excellent IB Extended Essays senior year on the foundation of writing training they're getting at DCI. The math at DCI is challenging but the humanities instruction's subpar, and that's putting it mildly. The science, social studies and English were all subpar through 9th grade. Also, few other families on our language track seemed to be taking things seriously, a real disappointment. As far as I could tell, hardly anybody at DCI bothers with summer language immersion programs. Admins and teachers don't even encourage it. Pick your poison if you get a spot at Latin. The math and modern language instruction there don't sound too hot. DCI has other glaring shortcomings.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also interested in more recent feedback. I hear there are some issues with behavior. We are also at a DCI feeder so trying to decide between the two.

We chose to stay at our dci feeder and continue to dci. I would have loved to do a year at Latin and continue to dci for 6th grade, but the way the lottery works prevents that. We have older children at DCI so we’re familiar with the benefits and drawbacks. We have many close friends at Latin who are happy.

Main considerations for dci versus Latin is how invested your child is at languages. My kid speaks excellent spanish (we are native speakers) so that was important to us. Anecdotally the children who struggled the most with languages were the happiest kids from our school to attend Latin. Secondly the math curriculum and STEM curriculum generally are weak compared to DCI. Having both weak stem and weak foreign language programs were the dealbreaker for us. Had my kid struggled with either we would been happy to move for the smaller class sizes and bus transportation alone.

. This. But then DCI’s writing instruction is weak and they don’t push top kids across the board, even in the high school. And if you’re not on the Spanish track at DCI language and cultural studies are only so serious with hardly any native speakers involved (essentially zero for Chinese). We left DCI for a private after 9th grade and my kid was horrified by how much more demanding the academics were at the new school.

No kids at DCI but with the IB diploma requirements, the writing will be demanding in high school. The kids also have to do what is basically a mini-thesis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also interested in more recent feedback. I hear there are some issues with behavior. We are also at a DCI feeder so trying to decide between the two.

We chose to stay at our dci feeder and continue to dci. I would have loved to do a year at Latin and continue to dci for 6th grade, but the way the lottery works prevents that. We have older children at DCI so we’re familiar with the benefits and drawbacks. We have many close friends at Latin who are happy.

Main considerations for dci versus Latin is how invested your child is at languages. My kid speaks excellent spanish (we are native speakers) so that was important to us. Anecdotally the children who struggled the most with languages were the happiest kids from our school to attend Latin. Secondly the math curriculum and STEM curriculum generally are weak compared to DCI. Having both weak stem and weak foreign language programs were the dealbreaker for us. Had my kid struggled with either we would been happy to move for the smaller class sizes and bus transportation alone.

. This. But then DCI’s writing instruction is weak and they don’t push top kids across the board, even in the high school. And if you’re not on the Spanish track at DCI language and cultural studies are only so serious with hardly any native speakers involved (essentially zero for Chinese). We left DCI for a private after 9th grade and my kid was horrified by how much more demanding the academics were at the new school.

We stayed at DCI for ninth grade and it's been much better, and there is definitely a cohort of very motivated kids, but yes, several subjects are still clearly not much of a challenge. That is supposed to change junior and senior year, when the classes are differentiated more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am also interested in more recent feedback. I hear there are some issues with behavior. We are also at a DCI feeder so trying to decide between the two.

We chose to stay at our dci feeder and continue to dci. I would have loved to do a year at Latin and continue to dci for 6th grade, but the way the lottery works prevents that. We have older children at DCI so we’re familiar with the benefits and drawbacks. We have many close friends at Latin who are happy.

Main considerations for dci versus Latin is how invested your child is at languages. My kid speaks excellent spanish (we are native speakers) so that was important to us. Anecdotally the children who struggled the most with languages were the happiest kids from our school to attend Latin. Secondly the math curriculum and STEM curriculum generally are weak compared to DCI. Having both weak stem and weak foreign language programs were the dealbreaker for us. Had my kid struggled with either we would been happy to move for the smaller class sizes and bus transportation alone.

. This. But then DCI’s writing instruction is weak and they don’t push top kids across the board, even in the high school. And if you’re not on the Spanish track at DCI language and cultural studies are only so serious with hardly any native speakers involved (essentially zero for Chinese). We left DCI for a private after 9th grade and my kid was horrified by how much more demanding the academics were at the new school.

thanks!

Anonymous wrote:Yeah the "class of" insta pages are usually where they post decisions right? I'm actually a current parent and have followed them for a few years, just haven't seen any this year.

The Instagram is

@2025wlpcsdecisions

Yeah the "class of" insta pages are usually where they post decisions right? I'm actually a current parent and have followed them for a few years, just haven't seen any this year.

Anonymous wrote:Where are folks seeing the 2025 Latin admissions? Im a parent and have requested Classof25 insta, but haven't been accepted in a few months.

Current Latin parent - that is the IG for current students who graduate this year. Main Instagram is just washingtonlatin, I think. There is a family FB but you need to be enrolled first.

Where are folks seeing the 2025 Latin admissions? Im a parent and have requested Classof25 insta, but haven't been accepted in a few months.

Anonymous wrote:I am also interested in more recent feedback. I hear there are some issues with behavior. We are also at a DCI feeder so trying to decide between the two.

We chose to stay at our dci feeder and continue to dci. I would have loved to do a year at Latin and continue to dci for 6th grade, but the way the lottery works prevents that. We have older children at DCI so we’re familiar with the benefits and drawbacks. We have many close friends at Latin who are happy.

Main considerations for dci versus Latin is how invested your child is at languages. My kid speaks excellent spanish (we are native speakers) so that was important to us. Anecdotally the children who struggled the most with languages were the happiest kids from our school to attend Latin. Secondly the math curriculum and STEM curriculum generally are weak compared to DCI. Having both weak stem and weak foreign language programs were the dealbreaker for us. Had my kid struggled with either we would been happy to move for the smaller class sizes and bus transportation alone.

Anonymous wrote:I think Latin has many positives, more than negatives. But no school is perfect. Latin is having a problem with sports teams with the expansion of Latin Cooper - too many kids for not enough spots on the teams, and lack of playing fields means many kids get shit out of teams, even decent players. I hope they fix this problem, and I am sure they will, but it may take a while. Keep that in mind if your kid wants to play sports. This is also true for the theater program.

Cooper has their own theater program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Impressive? Looks like they are only sending about 5 of 160 to Ivies.

Class size is 90-95 per grade

Love it when a statistics warrior comes on here with no real facts!!

+100. Not sure how many in class of 2025 but definitely less than 100. 5 Ivies seems pretty impressive for a citywide lottery school. And lots of kids are deciding on financial aid so perhaps more are getting in but can't attend. But regardless, the kids graduating from Latin are kind, compassionate, thoughtful human beings which is way more important than what college one attends.

5% going to ivies is great and we all should be thankful that there is another solid public option. We didn't rank Latin for a variety of reasons are happy elsewhere, but have many friends who send their kids to Latin and it seems properly challenging -- not easy to get all As. And the kids are happy and social.

I think Latin has many positives, more than negatives. But no school is perfect. Latin is having a problem with sports teams with the expansion of Latin Cooper - too many kids for not enough spots on the teams, and lack of playing fields means many kids get shit out of teams, even decent players. I hope they fix this problem, and I am sure they will, but it may take a while. Keep that in mind if your kid wants to play sports. This is also true for the theater program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Impressive? Looks like they are only sending about 5 of 160 to Ivies.

Class size is 90-95 per grade

Love it when a statistics warrior comes on here with no real facts!!

+100. Not sure how many in class of 2025 but definitely less than 100. 5 Ivies seems pretty impressive for a citywide lottery school. And lots of kids are deciding on financial aid so perhaps more are getting in but can't attend. But regardless, the kids graduating from Latin are kind, compassionate, thoughtful human beings which is way more important than what college one attends.

Anonymous wrote:The DC Cape score comparison for math is bogus because all the Basis students take the grade level math exam whereas most other schools have students take the test for the class they are actually taking. So the advanced math students at other schools take more challenging tests and are then out of the testing pool entirely by 9th grade. Basis kind of rigs its numbers.

That being said, Basis also pushes out a large portion of the kids who start in 5th, so the kids who are left are very strong students. Latin has a very different philosophy and believes it should serve all students in the school. There is very little turnover except a moderate amount (20 percent?) from 8th to 9th.

And that being said, Latin doesn’t do a whole lot for advanced math students in 5th or 6th, but things get better after that when kids can start Algebra I in 7th if their MAP scores are high enough.

There are almost no students who are not taking the math CAPE in 9th grade. Walls is the only school where it's not a rounding error. In 10th grade it's more substantial at a few schools.