If Fenty Loses ...

[Anonymous]

Yeah, a parent here who sends her kid to a school considered "up and coming" by this board. Unfortunately it was on the upswing prior to Rhee and so it doesn't "count." It has been made evident in a myriad of ways that Rhee cares little about what our parents think and makes no effort to engage them.

By the way, some parents "don't show up" because they are working their second or third job. It doesn't mean they don't care. They are desperately trying to keep their children fed and clothed.

[Anonymous]

You don't need a silk purse to be involved. If you do care, I'm not talking about you. And wrong, I live east of the park and not on the Hill and my school is slammed on this board so you don't know what you're talking about.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools are getting attention because the parents are demanding it. There are so many parents who could care less where their kids go and what type of education they get. They never show up to school or participate. I've only learned this recently but yeah, it's sad and their kids' low performance needs to be blamed on them not curriculum, teachers or central office.

I care very much about the education of my child. How dare you assume that parents care less for their children because the parents do not have silk purses. I would never send my child to the neighborhood school, as it is one of the schools that is often overlooked by Rhee et al and her groupies on DCUM. I send my child to a charter school. I am sure that my child is receiving as good an education or better than the education your child has received at his/her marquee school on the hill or JKLMM.

[Anonymous]

What's your school?

I feel for parents who have multiple jobs but they can take out a few hours for a few days for their children. Otherwise, what's the point if their kids wind up with a bad education and the cycle of poverty continues?

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, a parent here who sends her kid to a school considered "up and coming" by this board. Unfortunately it was on the upswing prior to Rhee and so it doesn't "count." It has been made evident in a myriad of ways that Rhee cares little about what our parents think and makes no effort to engage them.

By the way, some parents "don't show up" because they are working their second or third job. It doesn't mean they don't care. They are desperately trying to keep their children fed and clothed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What's your school?

I feel for parents who have multiple jobs but they can take out a few hours for a few days for their children. Otherwise, what's the point if their kids wind up with a bad education and the cycle of poverty continues?

Yeah, see, I really don't think the problem is parents having mulitple jobs. I think that's a nice viewpoint but what is really happening is parents with one job, with low education, who place a low value on education. They send their kids to school and think that's all they have to do and then complain when things go wrong but take not aciton to work with their own child or get involved in the school because its easier to just complain and say it's the schools fault.

[Anonymous]

What is your definition of a "bad education"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Certain schools are getting attention because the parents are demanding it. There are so many parents who could care less where their kids go and what type of education they get. They never show up to school or participate. I've only learned this recently but yeah, it's sad and their kids' low performance needs to be blamed on them not curriculum, teachers or central office.

I care very much about the education of my child. How dare you assume that parents care less for their children because the parents do not have silk purses. I would never send my child to the neighborhood school, as it is one of the schools that is often overlooked by Rhee et al and her groupies on DCUM. I send my child to a charter school. I am sure that my child is receiving as good an education or better than the education your child has received at his/her marquee school on the hill or JKLMM.

I think you've misunderstood the allusion. The old saw is "you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." Ergo a so-called "silk purse" school would be one that Rhee has attempted to make into a marquee by giving it a new building when the reality is that it still has dismal test scores and limited draw from the local middle/upper-middle/high income families which she is blatantly courting at the expense of their low-income neighbors.

This point was made because she might actually get lucky with Brent ES on the Hill. The suggestion is that there is such a wealth of genuinely wealthy and well-connected families who are stuck there for the time being (b/c they are underwater on their mortgages). Considering the lousy economy many of these families (who would ordinarily go straight to private) may actually stick it out with Brent for a few years (before going private) that Brent might achieve the impossible dream of being another JKLM.

Then we'll all have to snark about "JKLMO AND Brent-on-the-Hill."

No actual silk purses were carried in the making of this post.

[Anonymous]

Why would anybody consider JKLM to be a prize worth achieving. The only advantages these schools have is the affluence and wealth of their surroundoing neighborhoods. The truth is, the students at these schools are offered the same mediocre DCPS curriculum that every child receives, all over the city -- a rather pathetic form of equity. With the excepton of some niche programs, like foreign language and IB, the DC elementary program is bread and water, especially in the areas of social studies, science, and literature.

[Anonymous]

heard this before pp. tell us something new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As for "marquee" schools, I guess you mean like upper NW? A school that serves children that aren't on a free or reduced price lunch?

Is it troubling to anyone that Rhee seems to have given up on low-income children? While the parents of these children may not be well represented on DCUM, they do make up the majority of DCPS.

Everyone with a passing familiarity with DCPS knows what I mean by "marquee" schools. You can't swing a dead cat on these forums without hitting some reference to "JKLM" or Oyster.

And Rhee hasn't given up on low-income children. What would you have her do? Wave her magic fairy wand? That's the attitude that's crippled any chance for reform over the last decade. The only thing that *can* be done is to slowly increase the number of decent DCPS schools (increasing OOB slots in the meantime). That also frees up resources to deal with the worst of the schools mired in poverty.

Again, even on the Hill, you've got 3 years before in boundary children dominate Brent's testing grades and even longer at schools like Ludlow-Taylor, Miner and Maury.

How is that relevant? You're nuts if you think Brent or the others are going to be turned inside out if they're successful, regardless of test scores. Rhee may be evil incarnate, but she knows which side her bread is buttered on. Same goes for whoever replaces her.

[Anonymous]

Whaaa? I get the alphabet soup reference. They are also all affluent schools, no?

You know, it's Rhee who has said the the factor that most matters in a child's education is the teacher. She has said this over and over and teachers are being fired right now for failing to raise test scores.

How are the test scores relevant? Well, Rhee has said repeatedly that they are, right? She has created a very labor intensive and expensive teacher evaluation system that is tied to--you guessed--test scores!

So even if you are an adored teacher at a rapidly gentrifying school, if you still have low income children in your testing grade and they fail to produce on the DC_CAS, your IMPACT score goes waaay down.

15:55, you seem to want to both ways. It's Rhee who has said it's teachers that matter, every child can learn and test scores count.

Or wait, do the test scores not count now that they've dropped to BELOW what they were before Rhee rolled into town?

While you're at it, can you explain how pumping money and the best principals/teachers into rapidly gentrifying schools helps the schools mired in poverty? I missed that part of the lesson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, it's Rhee who has said the the factor that most matters in a child's education is the teacher. She has said this over and over and teachers are being fired right now for failing to raise test scores.

Okay, just so we know where you're coming from: Do you think poor kids can learn? Do you think the teacher is irrelevant?

Or wait, do the test scores not count now that they've dropped to BELOW what they were before Rhee rolled into town?

This is meaningless, unless you break it out via the individual schools, grades, etc... The demographics of DC are changing rapidly; to say "The Scores" have dropped is just silly.

While you're at it, can you explain how pumping money and the best principals/teachers into rapidly gentrifying schools helps the schools mired in poverty? I missed that part of the lesson.

First of all, they aren't pumping money and the best principals/teachers into the gentrifying schools, although some resentful petty-minded folks might interpret it that way. There are schools in very poor areas of the city that look a Hell of a lot nicer than those in gentrifying areas. On the Hill Brent looks pretty nice; Maury looks like it's falling down around itself. Eastern High School is being completely gut-rehabbed--is that a poor school, or a "gentrifier" school?

There's a schedule of improvements to various schools you can actually download from DCPS. It will show that the money actually gets spent pretty equitably.

It's not even an issue of the "best principals/teachers" going to schools in gentrifying areas. First of all, there is on "best" principal or teacher: different schools have different needs. The best principal or teacher for some far-NW school isn't going to be the best for some school in Barry Farms. There are different challenges with each situation. This seems glaringly obvious to me.

So in other words, schools in gentrifying areas don't get more money, better teachers or principals, or anything else of that kind.

So how does increasing the number of schools that aren't completely dysfunctional help the schools that are dysfunctional? Because by having one more school that has a bunch of committed middle-class parents in it, who wouldn't be there otherwise, you have a) folks with money who are committed to the system; and b) one fewer dysfunctional school that is a major drain on the system. How much do schools like JKLM raise in PTA dollars? That's all money that doesn't have to be made up for by DCPS. The more schools like that there are, the more attention can be paid to the truly bad schools.

[Anonymous]

Of course, there are some "old timers" who see any kind of growth in the middle-class in DC as a loss for the "real" folks, as opposed to a strengthening of the city as a whole.

[Anonymous]

Then we will be back at square one. Again, it is not who replaces Rhee, it is about the person who be able to handle the power to independently run a school system. If Fenty loses....will the replacement be able to tell his Superintendent/Chancellor that you have free reign? It would be quite demoralizing to say to the incoming you can do only some of the things that the previously leader has done. Remember what has made all of the previous superintendents successful? It was that they continued with some of the management and/or educational style of the previous leader. Case in point Rhee...made amazing ground because of what she adapted from Janey...and he did so...from those who proceeded him. It is when they try to change the recipe of sorts and all of sudden...there's smoke in the kitchen.

Rhee has done great by me...for the two schools that I deal with and one is in Ward 7 and the other is in Ward 6. I have not had any qualms with the Mayor when and if he or she leaves...and for the Superintendents/Chancellor they all have been quite approachable, acceptable, agreeable and enjoyable to be in their presence when it comes to educatonal issues. In a matter of days the new Eastern will open...and it was 3-years ago this week when she met with the small group of concern parents regarding Eastern...and what she told us then...has pretty much come to reality at this point.

If I had my druthers, I would love to see the replacement of Rhee, if Fenty loses to be a homegrown replacement at the helm of Superintendent...merely because of the fact that outsiders who gain power in this city are not respected. Yet, it takes one to give respect to get respect too.

I will predict if the other candidate wins...I can guarantee that Paul Lawrence Dunbar Senior High School will get all the amenities than one would want for his high-school alma-mater.

[Anonymous]

So are you saying that the JKLM schools, are sharing some of the funds they raise (in the $250K-$500K range) with low income schools? Last I checked, those funds go to those schools to reduce class size, pay for field trips and supplies.

So again, explain to me how the Lafayette Home School Association benefits Aiton? I'm curious.

And I haven't said what I personally believe on any of these threads. Seriously, who cares what I think?

I think people should care what the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools says and does.

She says test scores matter, all you need is a rock star teacher and that every child can achieve regardless of their home situation. There are some on DCUM that seem to challenge this assertion. All I can say is I hope you don't work for Rhee, cuz those are firin' words.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So how does increasing the number of schools that aren't completely dysfunctional help the schools that are dysfunctional? Because by having one more school that has a bunch of committed middle-class parents in it, who wouldn't be there otherwise, you have a) folks with money who are committed to the system; and b) one fewer dysfunctional school that is a major drain on the system. How much do schools like JKLM raise in PTA dollars? That's all money that doesn't have to be made up for by DCPS. The more schools like that there are, the more attention can be paid to the truly bad schools.

That's not how PTA money works. Each school gets a set amount of money per pupil. The extra money raised by the PTA is spent at the school where it was collected. The spectacular educational opportunities of Mann have no bearing on the children at Whittier.