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- This topic has 14 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 3 months, 1 week ago by Petra.
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LMomGuest
Are there any parents here with a child in the current Bell RGC 1st grade program? We are #1 on the 2nd grade entry waitlist for the Bell RGC program, but we were just offered a spot in the Edison RGC program. Our heart was set on Bell, but we know that Edison is a great program too. We know that one spot was already offered and accepted at Bell. If there are any current 1st grade Bell RGC parents on here, do you have any insider information if anyone else might be leaving the class? Thanks for any advice!
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LMKGuest
Hi there, did you end up taking the Edison offer? Any insights on whether Bell has/will have any openings in the summer?
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LMomGuest
Hi! We did accept the Edison offer. There is the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out), that maybe a Bell opening will happen, but that is not guaranteed at all. We took into account last year’s rising 1st grade entry waitlist (the current 1st grade class). There were 27 children in the Kindergarten class for some reason, so there was already 1 spot available. Then during the waitlist round of offers in May, there was 1 more additional opening spot offered (for a total of 2). After that, there were no more openings for the rest of the summer. This similar situation occurred with Edison’s 1st grade entry last year too, where there was no movement in the waitlist after May. You never know if something unexpected happens to a family’s decision making, but past history shows there is a very small percentage of another opening during the summer. Hope that helps!
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LMKGuest
Anything new from anyone for 2 grade entry at RGCs? Our WL number was in top 5 and then it moved further down due to spring tests release, so we have no hopes, but we just wanted to see if there were any additional Edison or Bell offers given recently.
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BMomGuest
Was the spring test released already?
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RoxanaGuest
I don’t believe so. We tested in late April and nothing so far.
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LMKGuest
Is it possible that spring test results are released in portions rather than all of them at once?
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LMKGuest
We think yes because our WL went down like 2-3 spots in both RGC and Classical.
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RCGuest
2-3 spots is more likely due to initial applicants jumping on a new waitlist (and/or getting an offer elsewhere, getting withdrawn, and then re-joining after declining the other offer) than due to spring test scores.
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BellParemtGuest
I can tell you that someone got an offer either very recently or tonight for the rising 2nd grade class.
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BMomGuest
Just heard someone got an offer today for the rising 2nd grade class at Bell. Last year, the last offer for rising 1st grade at Bell was made after school started. It seems Edison has many more openings for rising 1st grade this year (at least four) but not for Bell (only one so far).
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Mom of threeGuest
Seems like Edison might be on a decline among northside RGCs. Bell has higher cut scores this year. Pritzker and McPherson seem to have quickly rising scores. Maybe something to do with the new funding formula and direction of the district favoring neighborhood schools? Or did something change recently at Edison? Is the lack of bussing and post pandemic desire for less commuting really hurting Edison because it’s so far out there? Are the other schools just starting to perform relatively better now?
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PetraGuest
My kiddo is rising 2nd at Edison and I’d say roughly 2/3 of the departures in her class have been due to kids moving out of the city and the other 1/3 have been kids transferring to their siblings’ school. As far as I know, no one has left due to dissatisfaction with the school itself or the level of academic rigor offered. I think it’s a real stretch to take one year of cut scores and some anecdotal message board data about how many open seats the school has and conclude that Edison is “on the decline”. And what purpose does it serve to air this speculation in a public forum, anyway?
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PetraGuest
Adding also that I think this sort of discourse is unhelpful regardless of what school is being discussed and I’d object even if it wasn’t my child’s school. It feeds into the idea that there’s a hierarchy among SE programs- and not only that, but that where schools fall in that hierarchy is tied to their student population rather than something tangible like their teachers, admin, curriculum, etc.
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sxiao531Participant
My daughter is starting 2nd grade at Edison this fall as a new student as well, I am a little anxious about if she can break into the group who have been together for two years as she is pretty shy. Would you mind meeting up with us before school starts so that she will at least know someone there?
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