McKinley Tech and Banneker - why don't more white students attend?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know this had been said before, but some kids just don't want to learn. And their parents, in many cases can't help them or push them.

It's sad that this is the reality, but what can be done? I hear about wrap around services etc. but you can only do so much. It's a lost cause.

Until there is no more poverty we will face test score as such in the future. I feel bad for these kids, but I'm worried about my own in their up and coming school.

You can't tell me that 90+% of students in schools like Roosevelt don't want to learn. If you want to say a quarter, or even half, I'd give you that just for argument's sake (although I'd probably still argue ). But there's something seriously wrong WITH THE SCHOOL SYSTEM when it can't teach children the "basics," and it's not that the kids don't care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Paying hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate failing schools clearly hasn't worked, and that was Kaya's idea. Maybe someone else will actually have a plan.

Many of those millions went or are going to successful schools like Janney, Banneker, Wilson, Lafayette, Shepherd, Murch, Hearst etc etc...don't make it seem like the money is only going to failing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Paying hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate failing schools clearly hasn't worked, and that was Kaya's idea. Maybe someone else will actually have a plan.

So you think that kids from tougher situations should be left with crappy conditions in their schools?

Congratulations, you get the heartless award of the day.

Congrats, YOU get the heartless and brainless award of the day.

I'm not the previous PP, but her point is clear. Shiny buildings do not great schools make -- as we can see in any of the recent academic scores. Rather than continue to fail kids and more kids, those dismal schools should be closed down, and a serious plan established to offer a better alternative. One hundred million dollars equal either one shinny school building or 2-year salaries for 1,000 teachers.

Admit it, you don't care about the kids.

NP. I think the sad reality is that the schools are actually being renovated for the projected growth of white children in the area. They knew they wouldn't get any of the white families currently pushing strollers around Petworth to consider Roosevelt if they'd left it in the condition it was in - for decades - when the area was still primarily AA.

Plenty of schools in non-gentrifying areas that continue to rot, if it makes you feel any better about how money is being spent on capital development.

But truthfully, by the time kids reach high school the damage is way past done. You can't expect changes in achievement two years after a renovation.

[Anonymous]

The schools are being renovated as a means of economic development. It creates jobs, period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The schools are being renovated as a means of economic development. It creates jobs, period.

I posted at 14:39 and agree, but some people refuse to see it as anything but a waste of money.

[Anonymous]

They don't attend because of the overall school population don't have enough smart white kids to attend the schools in great numbers. Case in point you can't an freshmen class of 100 for Banneker with the expectation that over half will be white. There's not enough white children in the 8th grade to make it into Banneker...to include more whites mean you will have to exclude more blacks...and that ain't happening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know this had been said before, but some kids just don't want to learn. And their parents, in many cases can't help them or push them.

It's sad that this is the reality, but what can be done? I hear about wrap around services etc. but you can only do so much. It's a lost cause.

Until there is no more poverty we will face test score as such in the future. I feel bad for these kids, but I'm worried about my own in their up and coming school.

You can't tell me that 90+% of students in schools like Roosevelt don't want to learn. If you want to say a quarter, or even half, I'd give you that just for argument's sake (although I'd probably still argue ). But there's something seriously wrong WITH THE SCHOOL SYSTEM when it can't teach children the "basics," and it's not that the kids don't care.

well for starters DC had a policy that required students be promoted every year even if they learned nothing or were functionally illiterate. I think 3rd and 8th grade were the only years a student could be held back. that is way too late. That policy only recently changed. but its still virtually impossible. So yes, by the time a kid to high school and reads on a 2nd grad level its too little too late (ie Ballou with ZERO kids getting a 4 or 5 on PARCC)

[Anonymous]

I'm pretty sure that you can repeat 9th grade, seeing as many DC students do.

[Anonymous]

back to the original question: they don't apply or attend because they aren't marketed to. No outreach at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:back to the original question: they don't apply or attend because they aren't marketed to. No outreach at all.

Disagree. None of the 4 college prep oriented application only high schools (SWW, McKinley, Ellington and Banneker) proactively market. They all hold open houses but that's it. Yet white students find their way to SWW and, to a lesser degree Ellington.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The schools are being renovated as a means of economic development. It creates jobs, period.

I posted at 14:39 and agree, but some people refuse to see it as anything but a waste of money.

It is a waste of money if it is spent on something that isn't used. Those schools should have been made smaller, and the money saved by that should have been used to build something truly needed.

[Anonymous]

They don't attend because there's not enough whites who can make the cut for the application process. Familiarity brings comfort, those who look like "us" will poplulate areas that are about educating "us." So, as with Historical Black College/Universities it attracts those who they want to educate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They don't attend because there's not enough whites who can make the cut for the application process. Familiarity brings comfort, those who look like "us" will poplulate areas that are about educating "us." So, as with Historical Black College/Universities it attracts those who they want to educate.

What, is there a freestyle rap battle in the process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They don't attend because there's not enough whites who can make the cut for the application process. Familiarity brings comfort, those who look like "us" will poplulate areas that are about educating "us." So, as with Historical Black College/Universities it attracts those who they want to educate.

What, is there a freestyle rap battle in the process?

Nope, there's a question about what are the top ten cities in Africa (AAs get exempted from that question, because they obviously know)