Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:55
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?
It doesn't translate that way, but also the tests do not align -- PARCC is testing a grade level, middle school SSAT is testing a range of grades (5-7). For high school, our DC did very little prep; never even took a full practice test. The SSAT scores were completely consistent with DC's top PARCC scores. DC got no rejections. Actually, DC did better on the SSAT than on the ELA part of the PARCC and thought the SSAT was easier than PARCC. There was nothing in the math part of the SSAT that DC had not learned in school, so the score there was pure test performance. There was no knowledge gap. I will add that in the interviews, ADs consistently had enthusiastic comments about their experiences with kids admitted from DCPS schools.
What school were you coming from? Kids at our JKLM bombed the ssat and isee. A large amount of the math was brand new to them. I know because I studied it with my child and it was all parents talked about. Our kids had never seen the concepts before.
What grade? The SSAT for middle school is the same test for 5th through 7th graders, so you would expect to see new stuff if you are a 5th grader, unless you are tracked to 7th grade math.
The 5th graders at our JKLM had never seen much the SSAT math before but it was the same for the ISEE. The kids all did badly, despite many having top PARCC scores.
I was the one who studied with my child and he/she had never seen a number of the concepts before (even for the ISEE which was normed to be a 4th/5th grade test).
None of us (parents) could figure out what went wrong in their math curriculum. These are smart kids, who have 4's in math and good if not great PARCC scores but who did horribly on the SSAT and ISEE without a signifiant amount of tutoring
and test prep. Many of the kids ended up taking the SSAT/ISEE 4 or 5 times to get their scores up!
It was eye opening and I'm still not sure why it happened. This is from one of the most popular JKLM schools.
SSAT is SO not hard. I've done quant sample with my 5th grade non-JKLM DCPS student who finished it without errors and 6 minutes to spare. You people are absurd.
huh. My JKLM student and classmates had never been taught a lot of what was on the test. In the fall of 5th they hadn't done any work with negative numbers, fractions, etc.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:46
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:OP again.
Thanks to the last 10 or so kind posters.
You have all taken my post as it was intended: an FYI.
At our JKLM a very common conversation (since K almost) is "what are you guys doing for middle and high school". And most people reply, "we're not sure. Perhaps private, perhaps public".
I think many of us had (have) this vague thought that all options were reasonably obtainable if our kids were doing well in school, etc. Turns out it's not the case. C'est la vie.
If a "top" private is your goal, do what others have said: apply early in PK/K or perhaps apply first to a K-8 private and transfer from there (because they do have relationships
with the top privates and it's much easier to get into a big 3 than from DPCS). Applying directly to a "big 3" from DCPS is a numbers game and not a good one lately (in the experience of those from our school). Maybe it's different
from other schools. Who knows. I'm sure it varies by year, by school, as the wind shifts, etc.
In my own case, I hadn't spent more than 6 months thinking about any of this. I certainly didn't have a 3 year plan to apply to a K-8 and then on to a Big 3. Quite frankly, I'm (we're)
happy with DCPS options for middle and high. We dipped our toe into other options and at this point, they didn't work out. If I was in a situation where I had to move my kid from DCPS at middle
or high school (either based on the kid or the school) or had a life-long plan to send my kid to a top private I would have done well to "set up" my private options earlier.
OP, unfortunately, when you advise me to get my kids into privates at PK instead of 5th, you're telling me to do something that is completely beyond my means. Yes, and I should also buy the more expensive car with better safety ratings, and the 25-year roof rather than the 15-year one, and outsource the house cleaning, and get some of that light plastic surgery too for those sun spots and crow's feet, oh, and a tutor for the kids.
I cannot afford whatever would be left of the tuition after FA, or to pay someone to shuttle my kids across town for six years longer than absolutely necessary, or the time to be in the car with them 90 minutes a day longer than a closer free school would require.
Maybe the top privates take that into consideration. You could have, and maybe should have moved over sooner. I can't.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:45
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I'm not familiar yet with PARCC scores, but it's striking to read that a 99% in the DCPS standardized test (PARCC) translates into 30% in the private school one (SSAT). Can other parents comment on this?
It doesn't translate that way, but also the tests do not align -- PARCC is testing a grade level, middle school SSAT is testing a range of grades (5-7). For high school, our DC did very little prep; never even took a full practice test. The SSAT scores were completely consistent with DC's top PARCC scores. DC got no rejections. Actually, DC did better on the SSAT than on the ELA part of the PARCC and thought the SSAT was easier than PARCC. There was nothing in the math part of the SSAT that DC had not learned in school, so the score there was pure test performance. There was no knowledge gap. I will add that in the interviews, ADs consistently had enthusiastic comments about their experiences with kids admitted from DCPS schools.
What school were you coming from? Kids at our JKLM bombed the ssat and isee. A large amount of the math was brand new to them. I know because I studied it with my child and it was all parents talked about. Our kids had never seen the concepts before.
What grade? The SSAT for middle school is the same test for 5th through 7th graders, so you would expect to see new stuff if you are a 5th grader, unless you are tracked to 7th grade math.
The 5th graders at our JKLM had never seen much the SSAT math before but it was the same for the ISEE. The kids all did badly, despite many having top PARCC scores.
I was the one who studied with my child and he/she had never seen a number of the concepts before (even for the ISEE which was normed to be a 4th/5th grade test).
None of us (parents) could figure out what went wrong in their math curriculum. These are smart kids, who have 4's in math and good if not great PARCC scores but who did horribly on the SSAT and ISEE without a signifiant amount of tutoring
and test prep. Many of the kids ended up taking the SSAT/ISEE 4 or 5 times to get their scores up!
It was eye opening and I'm still not sure why it happened. This is from one of the most popular JKLM schools.
SSAT is SO not hard. I've done quant sample with my 5th grade non-JKLM DCPS student who finished it without errors and 6 minutes to spare. You people are absurd.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:41
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:What about applying to privates from DCPS PreK4 programs? Should we stay in our preschool for another year and apply to private K from there, or should we go to DCPS for a year and then apply to private K? If we get into DCPS for PreK debating whether to send our son for a year.
It depends on the school and whether they care about siblings or not. Sometimes the Pk4 class is all younger siblings, not unlike DCPS.
Go to the private school board; this is discussed all the time there.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:35
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
What about applying to privates from DCPS PreK4 programs? Should we stay in our preschool for another year and apply to private K from there, or should we go to DCPS for a year and then apply to private K? If we get into DCPS for PreK debating whether to send our son for a year.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:07
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:Many of the K-8 schools have really good outplacement, including Lowell. I think there is some advantage in the long run going to a K-8 and then a top private for HS as your children really earned the spot and will be ready when college application season arrives.
"really earned the spot" -- please, get over yourself.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:00
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
OP has reflected a question that is likely plaguing every DCPS parent with kids who seek to receive a strong education: what do you do when the school system is enmeshed in scandals which make it seem very incompetent? It is a crisis in confidence more than anything else, imo, as the solid-performing schools are going to keep doing what they do, at least in the short term. But it could very well have long-term effects if the Mayor and D.C. Council don't do something to encourage confidence that the whole thing isn't going to fall apart.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 11:00
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:OP again.
Thanks to the last 10 or so kind posters.
You have all taken my post as it was intended: an FYI.
At our JKLM a very common conversation (since K almost) is "what are you guys doing for middle and high school". And most people reply, "we're not sure. Perhaps private, perhaps public".
I think many of us had (have) this vague thought that all options were reasonably obtainable if our kids were doing well in school, etc. Turns out it's not the case. C'est la vie.
If a "top" private is your goal, do what others have said: apply early in PK/K or perhaps apply first to a K-8 private and transfer from there (because they do have relationships
with the top privates and it's much easier to get into a big 3 than from DPCS). Applying directly to a "big 3" from DCPS is a numbers game and not a good one lately (in the experience of those from our school). Maybe it's different
from other schools. Who knows. I'm sure it varies by year, by school, as the wind shifts, etc.
In my own case, I hadn't spent more than 6 months thinking about any of this. I certainly didn't have a 3 year plan to apply to a K-8 and then on to a Big 3. Quite frankly, I'm (we're)
happy with DCPS options for middle and high. We dipped our toe into other options and at this point, they didn't work out. If I was in a situation where I had to move my kid from DCPS at middle
or high school (either based on the kid or the school) or had a life-long plan to send my kid to a top private I would have done well to "set up" my private options earlier.
I'm not sure the bolded has been established. If it is easier to apply from a private K-8, I'm not sure whether that's more than just a slight advantage. I haven't seen data on this.
I'm somewhat surprised from your child's stats that she wasn't accepted at anywhere, but then again I'm not sure what "top" privates you applied to, or whether there were other specific factors in play with respect to your child's application (Did your child not seem very enthusiastic during the interview? Did you or spouse say something that rubbed the interviewer the wrong way, to the extent they didn't feel the school was a good fit? Did they already have several applicants similar to your kid's specific profile?).
I'm an earlier poster who had a child recently accepted to private from DCPS. While I feel for your plight, I do take exception to your characterization of EOTP applicants or their schools as "less polished," whatever that means, as a way to explain why these children may have gotten accepted when yours did not. There are a ton of highly educated, middle/upper middle class families at our IB school. I think it just shows your ignorance, quite frankly, about schools and neighborhoods outside of your WOTP bubble. It may have rubbed others the wrong way as well.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:39
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:OP again.
Thanks to the last 10 or so kind posters.
You have all taken my post as it was intended: an FYI.
At our JKLM a very common conversation (since K almost) is "what are you guys doing for middle and high school". And most people reply, "we're not sure. Perhaps private, perhaps public".
I think many of us had (have) this vague thought that all options were reasonably obtainable if our kids were doing well in school, etc. Turns out it's not the case. C'est la vie.
If a "top" private is your goal, do what others have said: apply early in PK/K or perhaps apply first to a K-8 private and transfer from there (because they do have relationships
with the top privates and it's much easier to get into a big 3 than from DPCS). Applying directly to a "big 3" from DCPS is a numbers game and not a good one lately (in the experience of those from our school). Maybe it's different
from other schools. Who knows. I'm sure it varies by year, by school, as the wind shifts, etc.
In my own case, I hadn't spent more than 6 months thinking about any of this. I certainly didn't have a 3 year plan to apply to a K-8 and then on to a Big 3. Quite frankly, I'm (we're)
happy with DCPS options for middle and high. We dipped our toe into other options and at this point, they didn't work out. If I was in a situation where I had to move my kid from DCPS at middle
or high school (either based on the kid or the school) or had a life-long plan to send my kid to a top private I would have done well to "set up" my private options earlier.
And now you are well prepared for the college admissions process, which is even nuttier and more random than what you've just been through.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:37
Subject: Re:applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
OP again.
Thanks to the last 10 or so kind posters.
You have all taken my post as it was intended: an FYI.
At our JKLM a very common conversation (since K almost) is "what are you guys doing for middle and high school". And most people reply, "we're not sure. Perhaps private, perhaps public".
I think many of us had (have) this vague thought that all options were reasonably obtainable if our kids were doing well in school, etc. Turns out it's not the case. C'est la vie.
If a "top" private is your goal, do what others have said: apply early in PK/K or perhaps apply first to a K-8 private and transfer from there (because they do have relationships
with the top privates and it's much easier to get into a big 3 than from DPCS). Applying directly to a "big 3" from DCPS is a numbers game and not a good one lately (in the experience of those from our school). Maybe it's different
from other schools. Who knows. I'm sure it varies by year, by school, as the wind shifts, etc.
In my own case, I hadn't spent more than 6 months thinking about any of this. I certainly didn't have a 3 year plan to apply to a K-8 and then on to a Big 3. Quite frankly, I'm (we're)
happy with DCPS options for middle and high. We dipped our toe into other options and at this point, they didn't work out. If I was in a situation where I had to move my kid from DCPS at middle
or high school (either based on the kid or the school) or had a life-long plan to send my kid to a top private I would have done well to "set up" my private options earlier.
Thanks to the last 10 or so kind posters.
You have all taken my post as it was intended: an FYI.
At our JKLM a very common conversation (since K almost) is "what are you guys doing for middle and high school". And most people reply, "we're not sure. Perhaps private, perhaps public".
I think many of us had (have) this vague thought that all options were reasonably obtainable if our kids were doing well in school, etc. Turns out it's not the case. C'est la vie.
If a "top" private is your goal, do what others have said: apply early in PK/K or perhaps apply first to a K-8 private and transfer from there (because they do have relationships
with the top privates and it's much easier to get into a big 3 than from DPCS). Applying directly to a "big 3" from DCPS is a numbers game and not a good one lately (in the experience of those from our school). Maybe it's different
from other schools. Who knows. I'm sure it varies by year, by school, as the wind shifts, etc.
In my own case, I hadn't spent more than 6 months thinking about any of this. I certainly didn't have a 3 year plan to apply to a K-8 and then on to a Big 3. Quite frankly, I'm (we're)
happy with DCPS options for middle and high. We dipped our toe into other options and at this point, they didn't work out. If I was in a situation where I had to move my kid from DCPS at middle
or high school (either based on the kid or the school) or had a life-long plan to send my kid to a top private I would have done well to "set up" my private options earlier.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:24
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So "win in the lottery or go private" isn't a real thing? Shocking.
You can make it work if you are willing to go to a 'lesser' K-8 or middle, and then apply to your Big 3 school in high school. Then you have the advantage of the outplacement office of the K-8 pushing for your child.
I am a different poster, but was making the same point in another post. Agreed!!
But DCPS straight to Big 3 (or 4 or 5) -- it does happen but there's an element of randomness to who gets in and who doesn't. Rather like trying to lottery into Deal or Washington Latin for 5th.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:14
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So "win in the lottery or go private" isn't a real thing? Shocking.
You can make it work if you are willing to go to a 'lesser' K-8 or middle, and then apply to your Big 3 school in high school. Then you have the advantage of the outplacement office of the K-8 pushing for your child.
I am a different poster, but was making the same point in another post. Agreed!!
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:13
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
Anonymous wrote:So "win in the lottery or go private" isn't a real thing? Shocking.
You can make it work if you are willing to go to a 'lesser' K-8 or middle, and then apply to your Big 3 school in high school. Then you have the advantage of the outplacement office of the K-8 pushing for your child.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:13
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
I think the OP made a choice by not applying to any K-8 schools for the middle school. They do have much better chances to get into the private high schools than the public middle school students. It is just reality. Take it or leave it.
But, I have a feeling once the sting wears off the OP will feel good about their public choices again. Good luck OP, I know that all of these decisions are tough and we are all just trying to do our best for our children.
But, I have a feeling once the sting wears off the OP will feel good about their public choices again. Good luck OP, I know that all of these decisions are tough and we are all just trying to do our best for our children.
Anonymous
03/05/2018 10:07
Subject: applying to private school from DCPS isn't easy; my advice: if you want to move, do it early on
So "win in the lottery or go private" isn't a real thing? Shocking.