Anonymous wrote:Two Rivers. Also look at Wells and Eliot-Hine.

Don't assume every year will be harder, it's not as linear as that.

You live near some Friendship schools and I would give them a serious look. They did well on the Bold Performance list this year and that's something I respect, because that can't happen without high quality teaching.

For Middle?? Do not do this.

you can try again for ITS too

based on that feeder school list, you can try for both SH and EH again in the 6th grade lottery. you will probably get into at least one of those (with EH being the easier one to lottery into) and on the plus side its only 1 school change with your child able to also finish out 5th grade with graduation and all at current ES.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI? How hard is that to lottery into? I’ve heard good things.

There are multiple feeders you can get into in 2nd-4th grades.

OP's child is clearly in 6th grade, Wheatley is an EC so PK3-8th grade. OP's DC seems to be entering 6th grade at Wheatley. Too late to get into a DCI feeder and then go to DCI for 6th.

OP here. Kid is in 5th and has been very happy at their ES. We did lottery for Basis + Latin + a handful of feeders at 5th and didn't get in anywhere (LT, Watkins, ITS, SWS, Maury). We did not lottery at 3rd or 4th because kid was happy and thriving.

5th grade and i think if you can roll with the uncertainty of the lottery and include some easier lottery options like the ones listed earlier in this thread it will probably work out okay

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCI? How hard is that to lottery into? I’ve heard good things.

There are multiple feeders you can get into in 2nd-4th grades.

OP's child is clearly in 6th grade, Wheatley is an EC so PK3-8th grade. OP's DC seems to be entering 6th grade at Wheatley. Too late to get into a DCI feeder and then go to DCI for 6th.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

Talk to parents at the school, and also get real about your own expectations. People want/expect different things, and what you want/expect might not be the same as what others want/expect, and that is ok. It's like the endless BASIS threads -- BASIS is a particular way. Some people like that way, some people hate it, some people are ok with it for a limited time, etc. Decide what is important for *you*, and realize that may be different from all the people you know, and be ok with it.

this is good advice. I realized that fights aren't a big deal to me, but some people act like any fighting in HS is sending your kid to a war zone. I got into a fistfight myself (stood up to a girl who was trying to bully me) and still went to an Ivy league college.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

NP and current Jefferson parent. I have asked my child about bullying in the school several times, and they said they don't see it or hear about it at all. That's obviously not a comprehensive perspective, but it makes me think it's not pervasive. It is middle school and I don't doubt that there are incidents and some more serious issues, but my child feels safe, has very strong relationships with their teachers, has made many new friends, and is generally happy to go to school, and that seems to be true of the other families I know currently attending.

NP with a kid at EH. I think kids are all different in how they process this. My kid knows there are fights at EH but could not care less about it. But I’m sure some sensitive kids could be more affected. That said he is in 8th grade and has started to complain about disruptions in class for the first time this year. I think that is because he is taking school more seriously and for some reason the classroom behavior is more disruptive in 8th and bothers him more because he would like to do the assignments in peace. At the end of the day though we are happy with the school - many more positives than negatives.

EH is much more racially and economically diverse than Jefferson. Bullying looks and feels different when it's targeted at an "only."

It is unclear of whether the incident mentioned above was targeted at an "only", but from my family's personal experience with a student at Jefferson, and knowing quite a few families there now, bullying or any sort of targeted behavior towards their kids has not been a big issue/concern. And even from a general middle school years perspective, I've actually been surprised by how the kids seem generally nice to each other and there's not a lot of teasing/gossiping/intentional excluding/etc that I have seen or heard about. I'm not discounting other experiences, and I have seen kids from the school being disruptive outside of the school/in other neighborhoods, but on the whole, from our experience, the school environment seems well managed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

NP and current Jefferson parent. I have asked my child about bullying in the school several times, and they said they don't see it or hear about it at all. That's obviously not a comprehensive perspective, but it makes me think it's not pervasive. It is middle school and I don't doubt that there are incidents and some more serious issues, but my child feels safe, has very strong relationships with their teachers, has made many new friends, and is generally happy to go to school, and that seems to be true of the other families I know currently attending.

NP with a kid at EH. I think kids are all different in how they process this. My kid knows there are fights at EH but could not care less about it. But I’m sure some sensitive kids could be more affected. That said he is in 8th grade and has started to complain about disruptions in class for the first time this year. I think that is because he is taking school more seriously and for some reason the classroom behavior is more disruptive in 8th and bothers him more because he would like to do the assignments in peace. At the end of the day though we are happy with the school - many more positives than negatives.

EH is much more racially and economically diverse than Jefferson. Bullying looks and feels different when it's targeted at an "only."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

NP and current Jefferson parent. I have asked my child about bullying in the school several times, and they said they don't see it or hear about it at all. That's obviously not a comprehensive perspective, but it makes me think it's not pervasive. It is middle school and I don't doubt that there are incidents and some more serious issues, but my child feels safe, has very strong relationships with their teachers, has made many new friends, and is generally happy to go to school, and that seems to be true of the other families I know currently attending.

The student was surrounded by peers and physically threatened until they gave up valuable personal property, which the peers never returned. Happened on or near school property. Doesn't seem like the sort of thing that would happen as a one off.

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

Talk to parents at the school, and also get real about your own expectations. People want/expect different things, and what you want/expect might not be the same as what others want/expect, and that is ok. It's like the endless BASIS threads -- BASIS is a particular way. Some people like that way, some people hate it, some people are ok with it for a limited time, etc. Decide what is important for *you*, and realize that may be different from all the people you know, and be ok with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

NP and current Jefferson parent. I have asked my child about bullying in the school several times, and they said they don't see it or hear about it at all. That's obviously not a comprehensive perspective, but it makes me think it's not pervasive. It is middle school and I don't doubt that there are incidents and some more serious issues, but my child feels safe, has very strong relationships with their teachers, has made many new friends, and is generally happy to go to school, and that seems to be true of the other families I know currently attending.

NP with a kid at EH. I think kids are all different in how they process this. My kid knows there are fights at EH but could not care less about it. But I’m sure some sensitive kids could be more affected. That said he is in 8th grade and has started to complain about disruptions in class for the first time this year. I think that is because he is taking school more seriously and for some reason the classroom behavior is more disruptive in 8th and bothers him more because he would like to do the assignments in peace. At the end of the day though we are happy with the school - many more positives than negatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

NP and current Jefferson parent. I have asked my child about bullying in the school several times, and they said they don't see it or hear about it at all. That's obviously not a comprehensive perspective, but it makes me think it's not pervasive. It is middle school and I don't doubt that there are incidents and some more serious issues, but my child feels safe, has very strong relationships with their teachers, has made many new friends, and is generally happy to go to school, and that seems to be true of the other families I know currently attending.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.

That was never our experience but obviously my kids didn't know every single kid at the school so I can only speak to our experience. We've found the staff to be very on top of everything and my kids never reported anything unsafe.

Anonymous wrote:This was us a few years ago. Older kid struck out in 5th grade and 6th grade lotteries so ended up at our IB Jefferson. Had a FANTASTIC experience there - took Algebra in 7th, geometry in 8th and got into a top application HS and is on honor roll there. While Jefferson gets knocked on here often, our experience (now with 2 kids since our younger followed the same pathway) has been great.

Biggest piece of advice is to talk to parents at the school. They will have much better feedback on the actual experience there than an annonymous forum.

DP. We talk to parents with kids at Jefferson. They once described an extreme bullying incident the school did nothing about. The parents seemed mostly unfazed by the situation and their kid is still there, but that conversation is what convinced me that the school is definitely not an option for us.