Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 14:16     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:Langdon is 4 star school with a final grade of 72% and has a PK3 waitlist of 10.
Bunker Hill is a 3 star school with a final grade of 49% and a PK3 waitlist of 2.
CMI is basically a 2 star school with a final grade of 40% and has a PK3 waitlist of 212.

Anyone care to guess why the difference?


It's right in front of your face as hard as it may take you to spit it out.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 14:00     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
If your long term goal is montessori, than I'd say SSMA. It may get better and you will likely get an elementary spot in another school at some point.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 13:53     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Truly though, how bad is SSMA for someone that otherwise struck out for pre-k 3? Is it "pay for another year of daycare" bad or okay for a year or two while we try for something better?


I live in Brookland and we have a lot of friends with kids at SSMA. We've heard positive things about the classroom experience for PK3 and PK4, so I wouldn't say it's "pay for another year of daycare" bad, especially if the location is convenient for your family.

That said, every parent we know at SSMA lotteried their kid for a new school this year, and one planned to send them to their neighborhood school rather than face another year of HVAC failures and communication issues. So it might not be "pay for more daycare" bad but it's worth taking a hard look at whether it's better than your DCPS. (Ignore that advice if your neighborhood school is hard to get into and you already struck out there.)


Someone posted below this with a fairly accurate response as well, but as a current SSMA parent I would 100% say it is worth attending for prek3 - K vs staying at daycare another year. The primary classrooms are generally pretty great (from good to awesome). The questions ore surround the lower el and upper el classrooms. And as someone who had experience at one of the DCPS's in the area, I am also 100% happier the be at SSMA vs the neighborhood DCPS. YMMV, but when the choices are daycare or Brookland DCPS I would wholeheartedly endorse the primary classrooms at SSMA.

There is currently some positive momentum with the administration as well. Obviously HVAC issues and some stuff went down last year with the admin, but there seems to be progress being made.


Would it be worth commuting for? We're deciding between Bridges and SSMA likely. Bridges is very convenient and SSMA is decidedly not, though doable, but we hope to get a spot at one of the other Montessori schools in the next few years.


Haven't experienced Bridges, so can't say definitively - but there are definitely parents commuting to SSMA currently that are planning to stay. In general I would probably go for the shorter commute if all other things were equal. But if you're gung ho about Montessori (and will keep trying for other Montessori in the future), then I think that might tip the scales in SSMA's favor. Having Montessori experience early would help with the transition later for sure.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 13:46     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Truly though, how bad is SSMA for someone that otherwise struck out for pre-k 3? Is it "pay for another year of daycare" bad or okay for a year or two while we try for something better?


I live in Brookland and we have a lot of friends with kids at SSMA. We've heard positive things about the classroom experience for PK3 and PK4, so I wouldn't say it's "pay for another year of daycare" bad, especially if the location is convenient for your family.

That said, every parent we know at SSMA lotteried their kid for a new school this year, and one planned to send them to their neighborhood school rather than face another year of HVAC failures and communication issues. So it might not be "pay for more daycare" bad but it's worth taking a hard look at whether it's better than your DCPS. (Ignore that advice if your neighborhood school is hard to get into and you already struck out there.)


Someone posted below this with a fairly accurate response as well, but as a current SSMA parent I would 100% say it is worth attending for prek3 - K vs staying at daycare another year. The primary classrooms are generally pretty great (from good to awesome). The questions ore surround the lower el and upper el classrooms. And as someone who had experience at one of the DCPS's in the area, I am also 100% happier the be at SSMA vs the neighborhood DCPS. YMMV, but when the choices are daycare or Brookland DCPS I would wholeheartedly endorse the primary classrooms at SSMA.

There is currently some positive momentum with the administration as well. Obviously HVAC issues and some stuff went down last year with the admin, but there seems to be progress being made.


Would it be worth commuting for? We're deciding between Bridges and SSMA likely. Bridges is very convenient and SSMA is decidedly not, though doable, but we hope to get a spot at one of the other Montessori schools in the next few years.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 13:16     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:

Truly though, how bad is SSMA for someone that otherwise struck out for pre-k 3? Is it "pay for another year of daycare" bad or okay for a year or two while we try for something better?


I live in Brookland and we have a lot of friends with kids at SSMA. We've heard positive things about the classroom experience for PK3 and PK4, so I wouldn't say it's "pay for another year of daycare" bad, especially if the location is convenient for your family.

That said, every parent we know at SSMA lotteried their kid for a new school this year, and one planned to send them to their neighborhood school rather than face another year of HVAC failures and communication issues. So it might not be "pay for more daycare" bad but it's worth taking a hard look at whether it's better than your DCPS. (Ignore that advice if your neighborhood school is hard to get into and you already struck out there.)


Someone posted below this with a fairly accurate response as well, but as a current SSMA parent I would 100% say it is worth attending for prek3 - K vs staying at daycare another year. The primary classrooms are generally pretty great (from good to awesome). The questions ore surround the lower el and upper el classrooms. And as someone who had experience at one of the DCPS's in the area, I am also 100% happier the be at SSMA vs the neighborhood DCPS. YMMV, but when the choices are daycare or Brookland DCPS I would wholeheartedly endorse the primary classrooms at SSMA.

There is currently some positive momentum with the administration as well. Obviously HVAC issues and some stuff went down last year with the admin, but there seems to be progress being made.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 10:48     Subject: waitlist data up
Does anyone remember the site that had these data but in a format you were able to view them via excel file?
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 10:29     Subject: Re:waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Creative Minds seems to be tanking (rightfully so IMO).
2016-17 PK3 433
2017-18 PK3 394
2018-19 PK3 406
2019-20 PK3 212

PK4 also went from 278 last year to 177 this year
K went from 255 to 134

Wow!


Seriously.



+1 so glad and grateful that we got out of there


Same, the only parents who are still there are either SN parents or white folks who fear their IB school. The people I know still there are typical folks who move here from the Midwest for the city feel, but don’t actually want to mix with city people.


This seems to be a really bitter poster, I'm not sure why. The only family I know at CMI is a middle class AA family. They like it. And I've been trying to get in for 3 years with no luck.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 10:25     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:well it depends. How hot or cold is your child willing to get before being upset?


This is silly. Our DCPS schools also has HVAC and heating issues. So did my daycare. It happens. Are these schools not trying to fix problems? I doubt that's the case.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 08:16     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:McKinley Tech kind of surprised me.


In what way? That they have no waitlist? (really curious what you mean - have my eye on it but not sure it'll be a good enough school in the timeframe we need.


That they matched fewer kids this year than last year. Not sure what that means.


It means two things: there are only so many students who applied, met the admissions criteria (4 or 5 on PARCC and 3.0 GPA) who did not rank another school higher.

If you apply and are deemed ‘admitted’ by more than one application school or another high school (eg. Bard) you will only be matched to your top choice. You fall off all other wait lists. Enough students do this and a school will be underenrolled because they won’t waterdown the standards.

There is one more selective admissions program this year — Coolidge early college - and Bard was also popular. Kids applied to McKinley but it wasn’t enough students’ first choice.
Anonymous
Post 04/05/2019 07:27     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:PP waitlist for most schools aren’t going to move 180 spots when they only have ONE slot available per grade. Some kids really hit the jackpot at age 3.


This was true for us but we got nothing in PK4 and so far K. But, friends have had opposite experience. I think K easier than PK4. First grade may be less easy than these earlier years.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2019 22:30     Subject: waitlist data up
PP waitlist for most schools aren’t going to move 180 spots when they only have ONE slot available per grade. Some kids really hit the jackpot at age 3.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2019 20:11     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:Waitlists at eye opening, the schools we applied for for 1st grade had 0-2 slots a available and hundreds on the waitlist. Basically if you don’t get in at PK3 you are screwed.


Totally not true. We got into lots of schools for PK4 and K despite bad or middling numbers. PK3 looks like there are spots but they mostly or entirely go to siblings. Older-grade spots go only somewhat to siblings.

A lot of people with older kids lottery just in case, but end up staying where they are. So the waitlists move quite a bit.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2019 20:08     Subject: waitlist data up
Waitlists at eye opening, the schools we applied for for 1st grade had 0-2 slots a available and hundreds on the waitlist. Basically if you don’t get in at PK3 you are screwed.
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2019 16:37     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:well it depends. How hot or cold is your child willing to get before being upset?


He's pretty resilient actually!
Anonymous
Post 04/04/2019 16:27     Subject: waitlist data up
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:McKinley Tech kind of surprised me.


In what way? That they have no waitlist? (really curious what you mean - have my eye on it but not sure it'll be a good enough school in the timeframe we need.


That they matched fewer kids this year than last year. Not sure what that means.