What are 4th and 5th looking like next year at Shepherd? My spouse attended the open house but reported it was geared more to the PreK crowd. If you have a child going into 4th or 5th grade are the dynamics between kids good? What about the teachers? Is there still attritrion in the upper grades?


Note: I don’t care about the SES of the students. I just want a nice group of kids who like their school and treat each other well. Oh and some learnin’ is going on too. Thought I would add to this thread as opposed to starting a new one.

If you want a quick snapshot of the school meet the principal, sit in on a PTA meeting, and talk to other parents. In the Spring time there are a large number of parents on the lower field that seam approachable. Also, there is an open house coming up too.

Ask the principal directly - what is the retention rate from year to year. She should readily give this to you. It's a public school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Shepherd, and I've never made any bones about that, but I will say, the lower ses families who care enough to bring their kids across the city to the school are just, if not more, dedicated than the higher ses families around it. Categorizing a child's academic potential by their parents SES is ridiculous, and doing so would exclude most children of teachers, academics, and scientists.

This quest to find a scapegoat or an other to "blame" for perceived educational problems that is a real problem.

Study after study shows that kids of high SES parents almost always perform better academically than low income kids. its not a blame game these are established facts.

SES means "socio-economic status," as in not just about income. The highly educated people you mention would fall in the high social status category.

+1. I couldn't care less about income, it's all about education when I think about "SES" and which kids I would like to be the predominant (not exclusive) demographic at my kids' school.

Anonymous wrote:Op are you worried about pure academics or your DC's friends leaving because of the annual migration before middle school? If the former, really no need to worry through 5th, and even later if you don't mind the urban environment of deal or Wilson.

If the latter, yes probably more than half of the kids will leave because of moves to the burbs, or sometimes choice chargers or privates. But as a pp notes this isn't unique to eotp or wotp schools in general.

I don't think over half of the kids are leaving Shepherd for private, burbs, or charters. The kids in the neighborhood (yes over half go to charter or private), but once they go to Shepherd (especially after K), by far, those kids tend to stay until Deal. Does that make sense?

Op are you worried about pure academics or your DC's friends leaving because of the annual migration before middle school? If the former, really no need to worry through 5th, and even later if you don't mind the urban environment of deal or Wilson.

If the latter, yes probably more than half of the kids will leave because of moves to the burbs, or sometimes choice chargers or privates. But as a pp notes this isn't unique to eotp or wotp schools in general.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Shepherd, and I've never made any bones about that, but I will say, the lower ses families who care enough to bring their kids across the city to the school are just, if not more, dedicated than the higher ses families around it. Categorizing a child's academic potential by their parents SES is ridiculous, and doing so would exclude most children of teachers, academics, and scientists.

This quest to find a scapegoat or an other to "blame" for perceived educational problems that is a real problem.

Study after study shows that kids of high SES parents almost always perform better academically than low income kids. its not a blame game these are established facts.

SES means "socio-economic status," as in not just about income. The highly educated people you mention would fall in the high social status category.

Anonymous wrote:I don't like Shepherd, and I've never made any bones about that, but I will say, the lower ses families who care enough to bring their kids across the city to the school are just, if not more, dedicated than the higher ses families around it. Categorizing a child's academic potential by their parents SES is ridiculous, and doing so would exclude most children of teachers, academics, and scientists.

This quest to find a scapegoat or an other to "blame" for perceived educational problems that is a real problem.

Study after study shows that kids of high SES parents almost always perform better academically than low income kids. its not a blame game these are established facts.

Anonymous wrote:So I have not heard one person actually say what is "bad" about shepherd yet. We are considering it so I have been doing research, there are all these allusions to bad things about the school here on DCUM but I cannot find a single example of what is bad...

There is one particular poster that is negative about her experience at Shepherd. But I actually disagree. Other than her, there are overwhelming positive reviews about the school. We live in the neighborhood and our D.C. Is not old enough yet but we have 5 neighbors on our block that attend (PK3-3rd) and they all have mostly glowing reviews about the school. We are not even going to apply anywhere else this year.

So I have not heard one person actually say what is "bad" about shepherd yet. We are considering it so I have been doing research, there are all these allusions to bad things about the school here on DCUM but I cannot find a single example of what is bad...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I knew a family that left Shepherd because they were racially targeted. It is not a safe school for girls with red hair.

I'm sorry, this is just not true. I'm a very active parent there. It's very small school. And this is just fear mongering. No red heads have left. And definitely no red heads have left over being racially targeted.

Another Shepherd parent. Have also not heard anything of the sort. I assumed the above was a joke.

Anonymous wrote:I knew a family that left Shepherd because they were racially targeted. It is not a safe school for girls with red hair.

I'm sorry, this is just not true. I'm a very active parent there. It's very small school. And this is just fear mongering. No red heads have left. And definitely no red heads have left over being racially targeted.

Anonymous wrote:I knew a family that left Shepherd because they were racially targeted. It is not a safe school for girls with red hair.

whaaaat? can you explain with more specific information? Grade level, when this happened, what exactly?

I knew a family that left Shepherd because they were racially targeted. It is not a safe school for girls with red hair.

I haven't heard many bad things about Shepherd except the admitted Shephwrd hater here. I have two older kids (4th and 7th) and have been around a lot. My 4th grader went to Bridges and it was just ok. We are at another HRC and have two fellow families that came from Bridges and hated it. Just to give more evidence that "experiences" can vary.