Today's Post OpEd from DCPS consultants

[Anonymous]

I guess no one googled the guy before they decided to have him plan the fate of a school district. Way to go whoever picked him.

[Anonymous]

The guy wrote an OpEd for the post. I don't think DCPS or OSSE is paying him, at least I hope not.

[Anonymous]

Ross parent here.

Ross currently reports 31% FARMS, but this % will drop as younger IB cohorts replace the older, largely OOB ones. 30-35% FARMS families seems to me like a reasonable target for a school like Ross.

I would welcome an inner NW cluster if it produced win-win outcomes. What do IB families at Ross want. #1. A feed to a middle / high school with reasonable educational outcomes. #2. More space and small class sizes. #3. A more exciting curriculum. Ross has great fundamentals, but isn't resourced to develop languages, arts, science, or physical education programs.

The challenge - come up with a concept for an inner NW cluster that addresses the above, while providing for continued diversity, and keeping the school population in the neighborhood(s). I would get right behind this - understanding that it wouldn't be perfect from day one - and that it would need the backing of IB parents to make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am still so pissed about this. I mean, I hate whiners who ac like FARMS kids are going to ruin their special snowflake. I think the amount of poverty and race disparity in DC is a crime. I think people who buy in the Brent zone and think that gives them a manifest destiny to go to Brent are idiots. But I am fairly certain that destroying positive change in neighborhood schools, and pushing middle class families out of DC, is going to be bad for everyone in the city.

Define "ruin"

In 215 pages of handwringing, I don't believe anyone has admitted to what I'm about to admit:

I emphatically DO believe my special snowflake's education will be nearly "ruined" if he was to attend a school that is comprised of a few of his type and 70, 85% of the type of kids I encounter while at appointments in some parts of the District.

Yes, I do.

It would be one gigantic squandered opportunity for him and his considerable potential. I do believe him to have above-average capabilities at this time. I admit that too. Is he more Special than a destitute kid who eats Cheetos and purple drank for breakfast? Nope. Maybe he's even less Snowflakey. But I do know this: it's not DS role to sacrifice his potential to make a political point. Not his job to sit next to a failing kid so that kid hopefully gets some of DS's good student factors by osmosis or something.

[Anonymous]

Bussing failed for good reason. This is just bussing 2.0 and it will create white flight 2.0

Meaning it will not achieve the racial and class integration goals of wild-eyed liberals.

[Anonymous]

Here is the weird thing. Petrilli is not liberal. He runs the Fordham Institute describe as "right leaning" in that Post article and worked for Bush White House. Education policy in this day and age mkes for some strange bed fellows

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In 215 pages of handwringing, I don't believe anyone has admitted to what I'm about to admit:

I emphatically DO believe my special snowflake's education will be nearly "ruined" if he was to attend a school that is comprised of a few of his type and 70, 85% of the type of kids I encounter while at appointments in some parts of the District.

Yes, I do.

It would be one gigantic squandered opportunity for him and his considerable potential. I do believe him to have above-average capabilities at this time. I admit that too. Is he more Special than a destitute kid who eats Cheetos and purple drank for breakfast? Nope. Maybe he's even less Snowflakey. But I do know this: it's not DS role to sacrifice his potential to make a political point. Not his job to sit next to a failing kid so that kid hopefully gets some of DS's good student factors by osmosis or something.

How many here have experienced being a good student surrounded by poor students? I have. It made me a little lonely, perhaps, but did not diminish my educational achievement. I believe too many of us with success in our own lives and high hopes for our own kids believe that we have to have the best for our kid to reach his or her best. And many of us are right now trying to make an urban life after having lived a homogeneous suburban life, so we have little to go by.

Take a deep breath, everyone. In most of the situations we are placing our children in, they will have opportunties to reach their full potential. We do not need to live the Petrilli hypocrisy in order to have our children succeed in life.

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone, we're all talking about "doing something."

This... (our views) would make a great WP article. Maybe we should contact WP writers.

Which writer is the best person to reach out to.

I'm not sure of the angle other than a lot of pissed off parents not wanting to leave DC but see no other option based on what MAY be presented. AND even better, the TRUE reason why these parents are here in the first place and why they want to make it work for their kids.

We need to squash all this "those parents want..." and speak for ourselves.

So, who do we all contact to get the message out.. or articles written?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More from Mike Petrelli (and his own school choices) here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/schools-dilemma-for-urban-gentrifiers-keep-their-kids-urban-or-move-to-suburbia/2012/10/14/02083b6c-131b-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html

I love it! Thanks for posting.

Don't you almost feel sorry for how 'haunted" he is?. Now after not being able to stomach 33% FARMS in his own local school he is trying to exorcise his demons by mandating for everyone else a 50% FARMS kids in schools policy (but not for really rich people of course).

That article is absolutely freaking ridiculous. White guy who lives in TAKOMA PARK, MARYLAND photographed in front of the Mid City Deli in Logan Circle--which is one of the last buildings in that area to retain its vestiges of sketchiness, despite a Whole Foods being half a block down the street for over a decade--in order to give some credence to his fears about sending his kids to school with poor, brown kids?

He couldn't be more full of shit or out of touch if he tried.

[Anonymous]

His twitter account has a background of Capitol Hill row houses

[Anonymous]

So, have any liberals written local Op Eds or are they only catering to the right wing writers?

I'd like to read articles from someone who really understands the problem from the inside and can present rationale solutions (or at least lay out for everyone else what our concerns are).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:His twitter account has a background of Capitol Hill row houses

I hope to run into him on the Hill but I have a feeling he's not often here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 215 pages of handwringing, I don't believe anyone has admitted to what I'm about to admit:

I emphatically DO believe my special snowflake's education will be nearly "ruined" if he was to attend a school that is comprised of a few of his type and 70, 85% of the type of kids I encounter while at appointments in some parts of the District.

Yes, I do.

It would be one gigantic squandered opportunity for him and his considerable potential. I do believe him to have above-average capabilities at this time. I admit that too. Is he more Special than a destitute kid who eats Cheetos and purple drank for breakfast? Nope. Maybe he's even less Snowflakey. But I do know this: it's not DS role to sacrifice his potential to make a political point. Not his job to sit next to a failing kid so that kid hopefully gets some of DS's good student factors by osmosis or something.

How many here have experienced being a good student surrounded by poor students? I have. It made me a little lonely, perhaps, but did not diminish my educational achievement. I believe too many of us with success in our own lives and high hopes for our own kids believe that we have to have the best for our kid to reach his or her best. And many of us are right now trying to make an urban life after having lived a homogeneous suburban life, so we have little to go by.

Take a deep breath, everyone. In most of the situations we are placing our children in, they will have opportunties to reach their full potential. We do not need to live the Petrilli hypocrisy in order to have our children succeed in life.

Yes. Fine. But in a city where the public school system is mostly in shambles, and the schools have so far managed to get 13% of its poor children to read on grade level by 4th grade, a majority of FARMS children in the classroom will not have the outcome you experienced.

If it was a functional school system with experienced and accomplished leadership then, yes, freaking out about poor kids in the classroom is ridiculous. But what we have is a system that ONLY SCHOOLS THAT AVOID a majority of poor kids in the classroom are having success in teaching. ( charter schools a different story )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 215 pages of handwringing, I don't believe anyone has admitted to what I'm about to admit:

I emphatically DO believe my special snowflake's education will be nearly "ruined" if he was to attend a school that is comprised of a few of his type and 70, 85% of the type of kids I encounter while at appointments in some parts of the District.

Yes, I do.

It would be one gigantic squandered opportunity for him and his considerable potential. I do believe him to have above-average capabilities at this time. I admit that too. Is he more Special than a destitute kid who eats Cheetos and purple drank for breakfast? Nope. Maybe he's even less Snowflakey. But I do know this: it's not DS role to sacrifice his potential to make a political point. Not his job to sit next to a failing kid so that kid hopefully gets some of DS's good student factors by osmosis or something.

How many here have experienced being a good student surrounded by poor students? I have. It made me a little lonely, perhaps, but did not diminish my educational achievement. I believe too many of us with success in our own lives and high hopes for our own kids believe that we have to have the best for our kid to reach his or her best. And many of us are right now trying to make an urban life after having lived a homogeneous suburban life, so we have little to go by.

Take a deep breath, everyone. In most of the situations we are placing our children in, they will have opportunties to reach their full potential. We do not need to live the Petrilli hypocrisy in order to have our children succeed in life.

You may think you have been in that kind of situation, but I don't think you fully understand what actually goes on in some of these classrooms in DC - so much chatter, crosstalk, kids moving around in the classroom and not sitting as they are supposed to, kids wandering in the halls and wandering randomly in and out of classrooms that they aren't even supposed to be in, kids throwing things, and in general, kids exploring every possible means of being disrespectful to the teacher, to the school, and to each other - that the teacher can't even get through the day's course materials because her hands are so full of trying to deal with a classroom full of undisciplined rowdy kids who have apparently had zero parenting at home. If the teacher can't teach, then yes, your educational achievement damn sure will be diminished. And let's drop this "special snowflake" baloney because it's never been about one "special snowflake" in the class - bad behavior ultimately hurts and holds back EVERY child in that classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In 215 pages of handwringing, I don't believe anyone has admitted to what I'm about to admit:

I emphatically DO believe my special snowflake's education will be nearly "ruined" if he was to attend a school that is comprised of a few of his type and 70, 85% of the type of kids I encounter while at appointments in some parts of the District.

Yes, I do.

It would be one gigantic squandered opportunity for him and his considerable potential. I do believe him to have above-average capabilities at this time. I admit that too. Is he more Special than a destitute kid who eats Cheetos and purple drank for breakfast? Nope. Maybe he's even less Snowflakey. But I do know this: it's not DS role to sacrifice his potential to make a political point. Not his job to sit next to a failing kid so that kid hopefully gets some of DS's good student factors by osmosis or something.

How many here have experienced being a good student surrounded by poor students? I have. It made me a little lonely, perhaps, but did not diminish my educational achievement. I believe too many of us with success in our own lives and high hopes for our own kids believe that we have to have the best for our kid to reach his or her best. And many of us are right now trying to make an urban life after having lived a homogeneous suburban life, so we have little to go by.

Take a deep breath, everyone. In most of the situations we are placing our children in, they will have opportunties to reach their full potential. We do not need to live the Petrilli hypocrisy in order to have our children succeed in life.

You may think you have been in that kind of situation, but I don't think you fully understand what actually goes on in some of these classrooms in DC - so much chatter, crosstalk, kids moving around in the classroom and not sitting as they are supposed to, kids wandering in the halls and wandering randomly in and out of classrooms that they aren't even supposed to be in, kids throwing things, and in general, kids exploring every possible means of being disrespectful to the teacher, to the school, and to each other - that the teacher can't even get through the day's course materials because her hands are so full of trying to deal with a classroom full of undisciplined rowdy kids who have apparently had zero parenting at home. If the teacher can't teach, then yes, your educational achievement damn sure will be diminished. And let's drop this "special snowflake" baloney because it's never been about one "special snowflake" in the class - bad behavior ultimately hurts and holds back EVERY child in that classroom.

Jesus, please just go and move to Fairfax. Or likely you are already there.