Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bought a house in a "bad" school boundary 5 years ago. Cheap house lets me work a dream job, instead of law firm job. Kids just started an excellent charter school. And, if we had not gotten into the charter, I would have happily sent them to PK and K at the local school (might have happily gone further than that, too...).

DH and I can commute to work by bike in under 20 minutes.

Don't buy more house than you can afford or more commute than you can live with. DC schools are getting better and in 3-5 years will be better still.

This is Op - thanks for this! You are describing my ideal life

Hi OP - just a warning that you might be hearing only what you want to hear. It works out for some but not others, and that is generally due to the luck of the draw. Some folks say chances are getting better, some say worse, and it's hard to know what the real numbers will be. If you want to take a chance, just make sure you can "take it back" and that you are comfortable selling your house at a loss in a few years if it comes to it. There are a lot of people out there stuck in a house for years with very poor school options for their kids. PK is one thing, 3rd grade is another . . .

BTW, I'm not personally bitter - my kid got into a great charter and middle school looks good for us, so we finally feel relaxed now, but my neighbor across the street is ready to pull her hair out because her kid had bad luck in all of the decent lotteries.

Anonymous wrote:To PP. Not to be snarky, but why do you have your kids spread among 2 or 3 schools. Can you not get them all into the same charter or OOB school. Seems like you are punishing yourself with the driving.

They were in the same charter where some thrived, some did not. Do you move everyone, even the thriving students? Or just the one that for valid reasons about that charter and that student needs a different school? And the different school is the long drive, so moving the younger students there would just prolong the years for that distance vs leaving them at the charter.

My personal algorithm, but I see many parents go through versions of this. Do I move the younger student into a new school before the older student graduates, so enrolled when there is sibling preference? do I drive across town to a Deal feeder starting in 3rd grade, even though the neighborhood school is good for elementary, but not for middle? do I pull my student from 5th in his elementary because Latin starts at 5th and that's the best /only(?) year to get in? But what if the new Latin location doesn't work for our family? etc. etc. etc. It's like a complex chess game and the students are the pawns.

Anonymous wrote:Bought a house in a "bad" school boundary 5 years ago. Cheap house lets me work a dream job, instead of law firm job. Kids just started an excellent charter school. And, if we had not gotten into the charter, I would have happily sent them to PK and K at the local school (might have happily gone further than that, too...).

DH and I can commute to work by bike in under 20 minutes.

Don't buy more house than you can afford or more commute than you can live with. DC schools are getting better and in 3-5 years will be better still.

This is Op - thanks for this! You are describing my ideal life

To PP. Not to be snarky, but why do you have your kids spread among 2 or 3 schools. Can you not get them all into the same charter or OOB school. Seems like you are punishing yourself with the driving.

I live in a neighborhood with an "up and coming" elementary school, one that were my kids in PreS PreK now, I would consider. But they are in 1st and 3rd. It is a constant source of stress, as another PP said, where they will go to school. So far, we have used 2 OOB, and 1 charter, and this year, I drive A LOT to accomodate 2 schools. Middle school is a constant worry for me. The in boundary middle school is not acceptable (not bad but a small cohort in a preS to 8 with few students per grade). We moved in here before pregnacy and I thought, we'd figure something out. But the amount of stress, transitions for the kids, weighing of options, miles on the car, it has been very very stressful. Has it worked? yes. If I could do it over, would we buy a condo on ct ave in the Murch district? I'd like to say yes, knowing what I know now, but not knowing it, probably not.

so, how hard is it really? my answer: really hard

But, if more neighborhoods gentrified, there would be fewer impoverished kids to spread around.

This is "it" in a sentence.

Bought a house in a "bad" school boundary 5 years ago. Cheap house lets me work a dream job, instead of law firm job. Kids just started an excellent charter school. And, if we had not gotten into the charter, I would have happily sent them to PK and K at the local school (might have happily gone further than that, too...).

DH and I can commute to work by bike in under 20 minutes.

Don't buy more house than you can afford or more commute than you can live with. DC schools are getting better and in 3-5 years will be better still.

Those Van Ness embassy children are at Hearst.

Why not try renting a nice apartment on Conn. Ave. in upper NW? You would be in district for a good school, have easy access to metro, restaurants, shops, etc. Schools like Eaton and Murch have quite international student bodies, especially Murch, which is in bounds for the embassies in that complex near Van Ness. If you are not thrilled with the situation, you can always move or buy elsewhere.

Anonymous wrote:To go back to the original question, it's hard to play the lottery game unless you've got a back-up. so nerve-wracking, and the truth is, you may strike out on every front.

This is really the crux of the matter. We were very fortunate to get into a great charter, and that alleviates the nerves for 5 years or so - hopefully more. But the stress never really goes away, OP. Our charter goes all the way through high school (I suppose I outed myself there) - but it's a work in progress. Like many DC schools, public and charter, middle school is a tough needle to thread, and the school (also like many others) experiences a significant amount of attrition post-elementary school. So while we're set for the next 2-3 years, after that it's a year-by-year assessment. Luckily, we have the resources to move if we need to - I can't imagine how stressful it would be if that's weren't a financially feasible option.

(Our backup plan was, and is, to move to the close-in suburbs. The limited interaction we've had with private school kids - and parents - makes that options distasteful. I realize I'm painting with a broad brush, and that there are many private school kids and parents who aren't unctuous douchebags. I just haven't happened to meet any of them.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're "indigenous" to DC and our current income would not qualify us for a $250k mortgage. DH bought our house many years ago using a DC program that helped people buy with no money down.

I guess we should just shoot ourselves or move away....

no one has a right to live anywhere, if this was the case everyone would demand subsidies to live in beverly hills. income ratio to subsides and a high average incomes is an indicator of the quality of the public education, quality and education of the residents and safety of the neighborhood

& yet our gentrified neighborhood has high average incomes and a high # of people with masters degrees, yet our local school is still pretty crappy...

The out-of-boundary system makes it so that neighborhood gentrification does not equal quick neighborhood school improvement. But, if more neighborhoods gentrified, there would be fewer impoverished kids to spread around. Obviously, this does nothing to help the education for those who leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're "indigenous" to DC and our current income would not qualify us for a $250k mortgage. DH bought our house many years ago using a DC program that helped people buy with no money down.

I guess we should just shoot ourselves or move away....

no one has a right to live anywhere, if this was the case everyone would demand subsidies to live in beverly hills. income ratio to subsides and a high average incomes is an indicator of the quality of the public education, quality and education of the residents and safety of the neighborhood

& yet our gentrified neighborhood has high average incomes and a high # of people with masters degrees, yet our local school is still pretty crappy...

Do those families send their kids to the local school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We're "indigenous" to DC and our current income would not qualify us for a $250k mortgage. DH bought our house many years ago using a DC program that helped people buy with no money down.

I guess we should just shoot ourselves or move away....

no one has a right to live anywhere, if this was the case everyone would demand subsidies to live in beverly hills. income ratio to subsides and a high average incomes is an indicator of the quality of the public education, quality and education of the residents and safety of the neighborhood

& yet our gentrified neighborhood has high average incomes and a high # of people with masters degrees, yet our local school is still pretty crappy...

Anonymous wrote:To go back to the original question, it's hard to play the lottery game unless you've got a back-up. so nerve-wracking, and the truth is, you may strike out on every front.

I agree that it is best to play at 3 and 4, so you will have time to move before kindergarten if you find that you are not. Good fit for the system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've heard good things about Powell too!!

http://www.greatschools.org/modperl/achievement/dc/99

I guess you only judge a school by its test scores? Also, those scores are from 2010.

How else would you judge it by? The color of the brick and perhaps the paint texture on the walls?