School reform ( NOT demographic change) drove achievement

[Anonymous]

A major problem with this study and the Post report is that both assume that African American students comprise a low-income monolith.
The District has been losing lower income African American residents for nearly two decades now. This has increased the percentage of Black D.C. residents who are upper income. In other words, in D.C., the educational and economic demographics within the race have changed. This undoubtedly contributes to the higher average scores of African American students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A major problem with this study and the Post report is that both assume that African American students comprise a low-income monolith.
The District has been losing lower income African American residents for nearly two decades now. This has increased the percentage of Black D.C. residents who are upper income. In other words, in D.C., the educational and economic demographics within the race have changed. This undoubtedly contributes to the higher average scores of African American students.

Did you read it?

It also appears the Hispanic population in DCPS has increased by 6 percentage points over the last ten years. Do we know if that population was lower income additions to the school system, or perhaps they were middle and upper income?

[Anonymous]

Try this:

https://www.mathematica.org/publications/impacts-of-school-reforms-in-washington-dc-on-student-achievement

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A major problem with this study and the Post report is that both assume that African American students comprise a low-income monolith.
The District has been losing lower income African American residents for nearly two decades now. This has increased the percentage of Black D.C. residents who are upper income. In other words, in D.C., the educational and economic demographics within the race have changed. This undoubtedly contributes to the higher average scores of African American students.

Did you read it?

It also appears the Hispanic population in DCPS has increased by 6 percentage points over the last ten years. Do we know if that population was lower income additions to the school system, or perhaps they were middle and upper income?

I find it hard to believe they didn't control for income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's pretty clear that a public service as vital and complex as schools needs a single point of contact for administration and legal control. An elected school board seems like a HORRIBLE way to oversee schools. The exact opposite of what we need.

Charter schools definitely seem to have proven themselves in DC. But, it does seem undeniable that they hollow out neighborhood schools.

I'll deny it right here:

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2011-12: 45,191

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2019-20: 51,036

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in pandemic year 2020-21 slightly down: 49,890

It is *undeniable* that both charter and DCPS sectors have grown and improved over the last decade.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Do they break this out by individual school? Sure, the overall population has grown but which schools are over-enrolled and which schools are under-enrolled ( hollowed out)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's pretty clear that a public service as vital and complex as schools needs a single point of contact for administration and legal control. An elected school board seems like a HORRIBLE way to oversee schools. The exact opposite of what we need.

Charter schools definitely seem to have proven themselves in DC. But, it does seem undeniable that they hollow out neighborhood schools.

I'll deny it right here:

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2011-12: 45,191

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2019-20: 51,036

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in pandemic year 2020-21 slightly down: 49,890

It is *undeniable* that both charter and DCPS sectors have grown and improved over the last decade.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Do they break this out by individual school? Sure, the overall population has grown but which schools are over-enrolled and which schools are under-enrolled ( hollowed out)?

I don't mean necessarily by enrollment size, but by the cohort of grade-level kids and parents with resources to improve the schools that are siphoned off to charters. We talk about this ALL THE TIME here wrt Ward 6. I don't necessarily think this is a negative overall (I'm definitely considering charter options) but we see in Ward 6 that the charter pathway hollows out the neighborhood MS and HS without at doubt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait — so Michelle Rhee wasn’t crazy after all?

her choice of spouse showed me how crazy she is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait — so Michelle Rhee wasn’t crazy after all?

her choice of spouse showed me how crazy she is.

KJ loves working with the children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A major problem with this study and the Post report is that both assume that African American students comprise a low-income monolith.
The District has been losing lower income African American residents for nearly two decades now. This has increased the percentage of Black D.C. residents who are upper income. In other words, in D.C., the educational and economic demographics within the race have changed. This undoubtedly contributes to the higher average scores of African American students.

Did you read it?

It also appears the Hispanic population in DCPS has increased by 6 percentage points over the last ten years. Do we know if that population was lower income additions to the school system, or perhaps they were middle and upper income?

I find it hard to believe they didn't control for income.

I don’t think they did. They used NAEP data, and here is what they said about free and reduced lunch:

“We do not control for free and reduced-price meal status in any of our runs given that (1) ways of coding that variable have changed over time and (2) a growing number of schools treat all students as eligible (Hewins et al. 2017). This is reflected in the data as a general upward trend over time for the percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, in DC and the rest of the nation (Figure A.3 in Appendix A).”

[Anonymous]

So there's no way to tell if the growth in scores from Black and Hispanic students has to do with higher income Black and Hispanic students moving to DC. Ok then. Thanks, mathematicians, for providing useful propaganda for the Mayor. I guess that's what you got paid for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's pretty clear that a public service as vital and complex as schools needs a single point of contact for administration and legal control. An elected school board seems like a HORRIBLE way to oversee schools. The exact opposite of what we need.

Charter schools definitely seem to have proven themselves in DC. But, it does seem undeniable that they hollow out neighborhood schools.

I'll deny it right here:

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2011-12: 45,191

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in SY 2019-20: 51,036

DCPS ( neighborhood schools ) enrollment in pandemic year 2020-21 slightly down: 49,890

It is *undeniable* that both charter and DCPS sectors have grown and improved over the last decade.

https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-glance-enrollment

Do they break this out by individual school? Sure, the overall population has grown but which schools are over-enrolled and which schools are under-enrolled ( hollowed out)?

I don't mean necessarily by enrollment size, but by the cohort of grade-level kids and parents with resources to improve the schools that are siphoned off to charters. We talk about this ALL THE TIME here wrt Ward 6. I don't necessarily think this is a negative overall (I'm definitely considering charter options) but we see in Ward 6 that the charter pathway hollows out the neighborhood MS and HS without at doubt.

"Without a doubt". Please show the data that the middle and high schools in Ward 6 have been "hollowed out" since the charter movement began. And if they have ( I'll wait to see the data ). It would be interesting to see how that has actually harmed any students. Or are they better off in new school settings, or in their smaller neighborhood schools--as this new study seems to suggest. Remember, this is about the well-being of students not school buildings or enrollments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So there's no way to tell if the growth in scores from Black and Hispanic students has to do with higher income Black and Hispanic students moving to DC. Ok then. Thanks, mathematicians, for providing useful propaganda for the Mayor. I guess that's what you got paid for.

Well, they did note that the PP would seem to be wrong and a *higher* proportion of kids in DC are eligible for FARMS now than in the previous period. I guess those could be white kids, except the last time I checked the number of white FARMS eligible kids in DC was so low that it couldn't be reported on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So there's no way to tell if the growth in scores from Black and Hispanic students has to do with higher income Black and Hispanic students moving to DC. Ok then. Thanks, mathematicians, for providing useful propaganda for the Mayor. I guess that's what you got paid for.

I've also just begun to read the report, and it appears the improvement that can be proven is in math. Reading improvement cannot be determined yet. So pps may be right--there are some sweeping statements being made about improvements that may be in a narrow arena.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So there's no way to tell if the growth in scores from Black and Hispanic students has to do with higher income Black and Hispanic students moving to DC. Ok then. Thanks, mathematicians, for providing useful propaganda for the Mayor. I guess that's what you got paid for.

Well, they did note that the PP would seem to be wrong and a *higher* proportion of kids in DC are eligible for FARMS now than in the previous period. I guess those could be white kids, except the last time I checked the number of white FARMS eligible kids in DC was so low that it couldn't be reported on.

But if those white students attend a DCPS that has above a certain threshold of FARMS-eligible students, they are swept up in the stats when their school becomes a CEP ( Community Eligibility Provision) school. Then they no longer tease out stats for who is eligible and who isn't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So there's no way to tell if the growth in scores from Black and Hispanic students has to do with higher income Black and Hispanic students moving to DC. Ok then. Thanks, mathematicians, for providing useful propaganda for the Mayor. I guess that's what you got paid for.

So your theory is that we have an influx of UMC Black and Hispanic students flooding into DC? Seems unlikely but OK.