Jay Mathews Points Readers in Wrong Direction on Top Charters
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Anonymous
| It does worry me that there is a disproportionate percentage of white students (40%) at my child's charter school. Seems it will continue to increase as the school becomes more popular among white families in the years to come. I do not think anything nefarious is going on, I just think it is a result of popularity and randomness of the lottery. It does concern me though. |
Anonymous
This is ridiculous. 40% white, by definition, is PROPORTIONATE. DC is 38% white. When you assume most ward 7&8 students go to schooks in wards 7&8, the % is even higher. I am AA and this statement is crazy to me. |
Anonymous
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The school system as a whole is about 10% white. 60-70% black.
The school is in ward 5 - a majority black ward (I think around 70%+). I want to make sure my school is working to spread the word / outreach to a variety of families and not just defaulting on the spreading the word based on social networks of current families. |
Anonymous
+1000 As is the Washington Post. About to cancel my subscription. Even the coupons aren't worth it. |
Anonymous
| The school system is that makeup because most white families will not send their kid to any public school other than these HRCs. If they don't get in, they will go private or move out of DC. Is that what you want? As an AA parent, I am pleased to belong to a school that represent the city in which we live. |
Anonymous
I live in Ward 5 and my part of Ward 5 is about 60-70% white right now. this is the exact opposite from when I moved there more than 10 years ago and was one of only about 5 white households on my block. And many of those newer white families now have young children (and are remaining in the city and sending them to charter or DCPS rather than private) at the same time, there are fewer black families with young kids (some new families but the longer term poorer families have moved away as house prices have soared). A more helpful way to look at it would be what percentage are middle class -- the better schools simply have higher percentages of middle class families regardless of race. And it is the educated, middle class families that are (on the whole, obviously there are exceptions) doing their research and applying for the best charter schools, and are more willing/able to drive half way across the city to get their kid to whichever school they end up in. |
Anonymous
Yes, agreed. Also, this is just absurd: Martel has a point that some of the schools with high white and middle-class percentages have ambitious academic policies — such as heavy use of AP — that alienate parents who think their children can’t handle the strain. Whether something should be done about that will be the topic for a future column on what Martel has discovered. First off - "what Martel has discovered?" He didn't "discover" anything - he looked at CAS demographic breakdowns, speculated that there obviously must be some sort of nefarious reason for those breakdowns, and then squawks that schools "should produce evidence that “their student demographic data are the results of random lotteries” and not caused by sneaking more affluent white kids onto their rolls when the D.C. school admissions officials aren’t looking." In essence, prove you aren't cooking the books. If you don't, we'll assume you are. More troubling is the suggestion that schools with "ambitious academic policies" are somehow doing something WRONG - I can't even. We should now discourage rigorous academic programs because some parents are intimidated? We wouldn't want to challenge kids. What a hack. |
Anonymous
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Jay Matthews should be ashamed of himself. That wasn't reporting -- that was a soapbox for Martel to stand on. I think it's interesting that Martel got screwed by DCPS yet is out to get charters. Is he running for an education post with Bowser?
I'd like him to defend the percentages at JKLM schools. Does he want to bring back bussing to be more fair? |
Anonymous
I divorced the Post a few years ago. I'm self-supporting, so I didn't ask for alimony, but it ticked me off that he got to keep some of my friends (friends are the unspoken custody battle in even the most amicable of divorces). Good to know that some of you are finally seeing the light. |
Anonymous
You are about a decade too late. I cancelled my subscription during their build up of the Iraq War. |
Anonymous
| Many educators in HRCs feel the same way as Martel. They're in education to help poor minority kids succeed. If those kids do not get access to the better schools the achievement gap will grow. The poor families' hope is on a charter since they can't afford Wotp. When a white middle class kid takes a spot, there is palpable disappointment whether you realize it or not. |
Anonymous
So you are ok with schools that are 80-100% AA? In a city that is 38% white? |
Anonymous
Can't do anything about that (other than busing which would not work in a system where we are) when the schools you mention are not appealing to white families, are isolated and maily in areas were the population represent the student demos. My ward 8 school is 99% black and the neighborhood in which I live is 99% black. |
Anonymous
Wait. What? That's obscene. "when a white middle class kid TAKES a spot". FU. White kids have as much right to a quality public education and any other kid. Thats racist and inflammatory in the extreme and not worthy of any educator I know. |
Anonymous
+1 why don't these educators with an interest in only teaching poor minority kids go straight to the source and teach in a DCPS school EOTR? |