Anonymous wrote:best DC elementary charter schools for the non special need kid: in no particular order, based on my opinion of the following areas:

a. executive leadership ----
b. location/facilities - current and prospective
c. access to middle school and high school
d. lower percentage of FARM students
e. good CAS scores ( not applicable yet to Mundo)

Obviously, rating the teachers is is a lot more subjective than the above and will be highly variable even within schools.


1. mundo verde
2. LAMB
3. Yu Ying

Why lower percentage of FARM?

best DC elementary charter schools for the non special need kid: in no particular order, based on my opinion of the following areas:

a. executive leadership ----
b. location/facilities - current and prospective
c. access to middle school and high school
d. lower percentage of FARM students
e. good CAS scores ( not applicable yet to Mundo)

Obviously, rating the teachers is is a lot more subjective than the above and will be highly variable even within schools.


1. mundo verde
2. LAMB
3. Yu Ying

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of the non-immersion schools, the ones that get a lot of love here are:

Bridges: small classes, inclusion school

Capital City: one of the oldest charters in DC, founded by parents, nice new facility with greenspace

Creative Minds: started by Stanley Greenspan's foundation, alternative learning, "International Curriculum"

Haynes: probably the most high-profile charter in DC, and most diverse, offers a year-round curriculum

Inspired Teaching: demonstration school of the Center for Inspired Teaching

Two Rivers: also parent founded by Capitol Hill families, expeditionary learning/project oriented curriculum

Incorrect about Haynes, it's #8 http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19691/dcs-most-diverse-charter-schools/ also, why is "international curriculum" for CM in quotes?

My mistake. No harm intended - I honestly thought Haynes was the most diverse, but if it's only number 8 out of 90-something then so be it.

And "International Curriculum" is in quotes because it's not widely known or well understood. Google it and aside from a link to IPC itself, the next links are all for the very well known International Baccalaureate organization, which has nothing to do with IPC, though it sounds suspiciously and confusingly similar. It seems to be as much an accreditation (like North Central or Middle States) than an organization like IBO. Other than a fancy-sounding name, what proven benefits does it offer? If you can educate us, please do. I'd be interested.

Your mistake is that you misidentified CM's curriculum as "International Curriculum" when they actually use the "International Primary Curriculum" or IPC Anyone who googles the term correctly and in quotes will find all the info about it they could care to know. I really don't think it's appropriate to use terms like "suspiciously and confusingly similar" and "fancy-sounding name," thereby insinuating that there's something illegitimate going on when you , by your admission, know nothing absolutely nothing about it.

"Best" is a function of what offerings are important to you, for example language immersion or other aspects.

What's "best" for one family isn't going to be "best" for the next family.

It's not a popularity contest, each of the schools have a different philosophy, different approach, different offerings, different strengths and weaknesses.

You need to research what the school is actually about, not just rely on some arbitrary judgement of "best" or "popular" - unless it's very specifically in the context of what you are looking for, such as immersion in a specific language.

Applying to any and all charters and seeing which ones you get in to makes absolutely no sense, because you could well end up in one that's not a good fit.

There's already far too many parents doing the uninformed shotgun approach getting on the wait list of a whole bunch of schools, clogging up the charter application process each year, there's already far too many kids in the wrong-fit charter for their needs, so there needs to be a lot more clarity and a lot more focus on making sensible, rational, targeted choices.

I would also recommend visiting the top 5-10 schools on your list, in case you don't have the option to do so later. I gave up on visiting schools because I believed we wouldn't get in anywhere. Then, the week before school started, we got into my #1 choice - which I had never visited!! I had to accept immediately or decline the spot. So I accepted, then enrolled my child into a school that I had never visited. NOT ideal.

Op, after reading all of this madness, are you sure that you still want to enroll your child in a DC charter school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree that right now advice is to apply to whatever schools might possibly be of interest and then see where you get in. However, I wonder what will happen if charter schools come up with a system similar to the DCPS one where most schools participate and you have to rank order preferences, limited to a certain # (which I assume would be above six because charters don't have boundaries from which to pull kids).

I think that would be in everyone's best interests - schools and parents. Let's hope it comes to pass.

This defeats the purpose of having charter options in the first place. School choice is not a popularity contest.

OP,
Ask again in March when you can realistically narrow down the choices that might be the best for your child based on where you actually get in.

Many, many, many people apply to schools without even setting foot in it or reading past performance reports. They save research for the places they got into.

Start by familiarizing the schools located near you. The search function on greatschools.org let's you focus by geography and apply filters like type of school, grade levels, and other stuff.

Anonymous wrote:Agree that right now advice is to apply to whatever schools might possibly be of interest and then see where you get in. However, I wonder what will happen if charter schools come up with a system similar to the DCPS one where most schools participate and you have to rank order preferences, limited to a certain # (which I assume would be above six because charters don't have boundaries from which to pull kids).

I think that would be in everyone's best interests - schools and parents. Let's hope it comes to pass.

Anonymous wrote:These sorts of threads of useless.

So don't read them.

These sorts of threads of useless.

Agree that right now advice is to apply to whatever schools might possibly be of interest and then see where you get in. However, I wonder what will happen if charter schools come up with a system similar to the DCPS one where most schools participate and you have to rank order preferences, limited to a certain # (which I assume would be above six because charters don't have boundaries from which to pull kids).

Anonymous wrote:to the OP: you're not going to get into all five of the top charters (whatever they are) so you might as well just apply to all that seem strong and are do-able commute wise, and then you research more in depth the ones that you get into or have a high waitlist number.

FWIW, I applied to 10 charters and received admission, ultimately, to three: Appletree, Haynes and Bridges. For the rest (cap city, two rivers, lamb, mundo verde, inspired teaching, stokes, creative minds) my numbers were between 200 and 700. I was extremely lucky to get into a great couple of schools, but I had no illusions that I would be able to get into the top 5 or whatever. Of the six DCPS schools I applied to (West, Barnard, Powell, Cleveland, Marie Reed, Bancroft) all OOB without sibling, I got into Marie Reed last week.

PP makes a good point. The best advice I have seen here: apply everywhere that you would consider acceptable for your family, then make your choice from those to which you are accepted. It's all a lottery, there's little to nothing you can do to improve your odds (the exceptions being Yu Ying and Stokes, where waitlists are ordered by date/time of application). Why set your heart on a school only to have your hopes dashed? Collect a pool of schools you'd consider, apply to all of them, then make a choice. Making decisions in advance is like putting the cart in downtown DC, when the horse is still back in Rockville.

If you don't buy into the assessment and testing cultures, then look at the Montessori - based schools because they focus on the "whole" child. They still have to test, but it's not the main emphasis within the curriculums.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agreed with PP who said popularity vs. tier ranking is skewed. Some of the top schools in terms of popularity and reputation (such as Inspired Teaching or Creative Minds or Cap City) may not be Tier I because of statistical things or test scores while other Tier I schools (like DC Prep or Haynes) with great test scores are unpopular with middle class parents.

CM is too new to even have scores and some of the other programs are early childhood so they don't "tier"

Same with MV and IT. This was IT's first official test year and not enough to earn a tier. The issue becomes that by the time a school is ranked tier 1, it's almost impossible to get in. You've got to take a risk in early (unproven) years.

Maybe not even that, one of the articles said CM had almost 900 people on its waitlist and they don't even have testing info yet.

Yes same thing with IT and even Sela will have a similar look in 1-2 years. My point was the best chances of getting in are year 1. It used to be 3-4 years before a charter was "proven". Now that time period is 1-2 years. No complaints here, I think charters these days are like dating. You pretty much know within the first year

I agree. When we were "looking" I know exactly which three charters were right for my child. We would have gone to a couple others, but we had a top 3. We were very lucky that she got into one of those.