School Daze

We live in the District of Columbia, a district not generally known for its public education system, except in notorious terms. While we purchased our house in anticipation of Owen's arrival, we didn't anticipate that we'd still be living in DC once his elementary education began, and so no consideration was given to what school was associated with our address.

This appears to have been a terrible oversight.

See, while we love our neighborhood and don't want to leave it for several more years (there's lots of kids Owen & Nora's ages; it's close to H street and its numerous cool bars and restaurants; I can walk to work; we're close to Allen's dad's and a reasonable distance to Allen's mom's...), we're not loving our neighborhood school. Miner Elementary is a lovely campus, but it's on the border between our neighborhood and one which isn't particularly safe, has no diversity, and regularly scores below the district's average test scores (which are significantly below the national average).

This means that when applying to the District's school lottery, we will be out of area for all of our top choices. Moreover, as it is a lottery in the truest sense of the word, there is nothing we can do to improve our chances of getting into one of our preferred schools.

But Owen turns 4 before September 30th 2010 and so the search for a suitable educational institution is on. Last night we went to Peabody's Open House, Thursday is Maury Elementary and next week is Ludlow-Taylor. The week after Thanksgiving we attend the Capitol Hill School Information Night at St. Peters. All of which culminates on January 28th (or there abouts) when we electronically submit our application and hope for the best.

And begin weighing the pros and cons of homeschooling...