Peabody and G&P are among the best public schools in the city. If your choice is between those two, you can't go wrong.

Those are great schools. Also put Baldwin on your list of preferred places. The school bus system works so well that walking distance doesn’t really matter.

Cynic here: what makes you think you’ll get your first choice?

Proximity helps a lot in the lottery.

We have neighbors that go to Baldwin so that is also a good shout.

Real talk: it’s not guaranteed, because Cambridge also weights income. Do you need aftercare? Which school has better aftercare placement rates?

Peabody has been great for our kid who’s been there since K. All the teachers have been wonderful, and the new administration has been a welcome change.

My kids all went to the same CPD elementary and had vastly different experiences based on the teacher as well as the kids in their respective cohort. So it is a leap of faith...your kid's experience is even less in your control than it appears!

All CPD elementaries are good, especially the ones in your proximity. So I'd just go with the one that is easiest to get to, especially if one is walkable. Walking your young elementary kid to school is a great start to the day, and when they're older, they can get back & forth on their own. Both are surprisingly wonderful quality-of-life perks.

Also getting one of your 3 picks is far from a sure thing, so have a sense of your backups. When we didn't get a top choice, we were given 48 hours to pick from one of 3 other schools that we knew nothing about. That was super stressful. You don't need to preemptively tour them, but at least have an idea of where they all are and what makes each school distinct.

That is so stressful that you didn’t get one of your top three. Did you have lottery bonuses for them? Peabody is in walking distance for us which would be so massive, even though bussing exists. It’s just so nice to not waste hours a day in transportation.

I worked briefly at G&P and would be delighted to send my son there if it was closer to our apartment!

85% got their first choice in last lottery. 94% got one of their top 3. https://www.cpsd.us/cms/one.aspx?portalId=3042869&pageId=3478220

Yes, for our oldest, we had proximity preference for our first choice and ended up not getting any of our top 3. It happens. He ended up all the way across town, which was a massive inconvenience, especially because we didn't want to subject a 5 year old to a 45+ minute bus ride. Other than that, he had a fine experience. (In a lot of ways, that school turned out to be a better environment for him, and we've always wondered if we should have left him there. So no matter how much research you do, you really won't ever be sure.)

He was high on the waitlist and he moved to our 1st choice early in his 2nd year. Waitlist slots always open up, because families (esp in West Cambridge) frequently leave CPS at mid-elementary age, either because 1) they feel like they need a bigger house and move to the 'burbs, or 2) they are rich and move their kids to private school to keep them away from the poors. :(

OP, I know this feels really stressful, because I've lived through it. But, again, all the CPS elementaries are good environments for learning and social development, so try not to sweat it too much.

https://cdn5-ss5.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_3042785/File/departments/administration/frc/JKK_Lottery_Projections_2023.pdf

From this data, you would be pretty much assured of getting into Peabody if you make that your first choice (since they are expecting at least four spots for people without any bonus points). You are not assured of getting into G&P.

They project 19 spots for people with proximity bonus at G&P, and in the previous year there were 32 folks with proximity bonus that applied.

Thank you for sharing your experience!!

Yep, I saw those projections… i took them with a grain of salt since i didn’t see them say how their projections compared to reality last year. Thank you for digging them out!!

I recommend going with close, so that your kid's friends tend to be nearby too.

Baldwin is the most challenging school to get a placement without proximity. Take a close look at the numbers. It may not be worth burning a lottery spot on.

I was underwhelmed by G&P when we toured it, but many regard it as the best elementary school in the city. I thought Peabody was great, but it was a bit far and the hours didn’t work so l well for our family. If it was walkable for us, it would have been a no brainer.

Having 2 years of kindergarten may be the best thing about CPS.

All the elementary schools are great! The middle schools are the problem.

Which one is worse?? Hoping to go to rauc since that is closest. What don’t you like about the middle schools?

My children are at King Open because of the bilingual education (Portuguese / English). I have heard wonderful things about G&P but also heard that it is very competitive.

How do you like the king open? Did your kids test in? We love the idea of bilingual elementary school but our wee one isn’t strong enough in Spanish to pass, we imagine

They did not test in. They start the kids in Junior K or K, depending on how your child falls. It is bilingual immersion, so no child has to test—they learn the language through the immersion.