Will this finally get DCPS to create magnet schools?

[Anonymous]

Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

[Anonymous]

Right on point! A honest parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

It would look like SWW. Which is still more diverse in all ways than most DCPS schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

It would look like SWW. Which is still more diverse in all ways than most DCPS schools.

But which has opaque admissions and lower than expected standards. Doesn't hold a candle to TJ/Blair etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

It would look like SWW. Which is still more diverse in all ways than most DCPS schools.

But which has opaque admissions and lower than expected standards. Doesn't hold a candle to TJ/Blair etc.

But which is better than what we're getting now. I recognize that there are already schools like Banneker, SWW for HS, but we need something from Elementary onward. My kid is 2 grades ahead in math and reading in Elementary. What are they going to offer him in MS to keep him engaged? Some previous posters talked about SEM but it's only offered in a handful of schools. At a minimum, DCPS could offer SEM in all schools. There are many steps that DCPS can take to retain families short of opening a TJ-like school, and I would be happy with anything that was more than the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

This is awesome work! We can create diverse magnets if that's what we want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

You don't think a magnet school with this makeup would be crucified with less than 1/3 black students? I do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Magnet schools will not attract white families to send their children to majority black schools. It makes them feel uncomfortable and we all know that if the school is majority black it must not be a safe environment. What will make them send their children there would be enough white students attending the school so that the families would not feel like a minority. Wilson is a good example of this.

Oh, tell me more...Is Shepherd unsafe? The color of one's skin does NOT make people unsafe, you bigot. Poverty and injustice are the problems. I hope you don't speak like this around your children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

This is awesome work! We can create diverse magnets if that's what we want.

+2; I like this idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

There are not enough white children in the city to outnumber AA children in a magnet. The Asian population is also small. Magnet schools would look a lot like some of the more popular charter schools in terms of diversity...slight white majority, but a sizable AA population.

[Anonymous]

all this assumes that all the parents of kids scoring 5s will want their kids to go to magnets. Many won't. The commute will be terrible for some of them. Some have siblings who wouldn't be eligible and the parents won't want to split them up. A lot of the kids scoring 5s go to charters and their parents don't want to give up montessori or language immersion or a path through middle school. Kids don't want to give up their friends.

And what about the kid who scores 5 in one thing and a 2 in another?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

This is awesome work! We can create diverse magnets if that's what we want.

And that doesn't include charter students, so adding those kids in likely makes for an even more diverse pool of potential magnet students. The stats were taken from "PARCC 2015 DC Grades 3-8 Aggregate State Sector and School Results"

Also, I personally am not in favor of magnets, especially when it involves young children having long commutes, but then my kids' needs are being met in our neighborhood schools, so I recognize that it is an easier position for me to take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here is the problem-
White families will happily attend true magnet/gifted schools that select the true top of the class. But to create such a school would mean DCPS would wind up with a school that is majority white. Which would look terrible and DCPS would be accused of racism. So then they would be forced to carve out ways to make it better reflect the makeup of the city...which would mean lowering the bar to entry and/or making acceptance criteria opaque. At which point it loses all credibility as a magnet school.

This is actually not true. Lets assume you are pulling from the students who score 5s on part of the PARCC. If you look at the demographics of 5s on PARCC, you have a good number of kids from all races -- enough to fill a class that is less than 1/2 white. While you probably could fill it with only white students, you would not have to (or want to).

For example, in one year for 3d graders scoring a 5 in Math:


276 total:
10 Asian (3.6%)
87 black (31.5%)
29 Hispanic (10.5%)
25 two or more races (9.1%)
125 white (45.3%)

If that is the pool, you can create a very diverse magnet class that is absolutely not 100% white.

This is awesome work! We can create diverse magnets if that's what we want.

And that doesn't include charter students, so adding those kids in likely makes for an even more diverse pool of potential magnet students. The stats were taken from "PARCC 2015 DC Grades 3-8 Aggregate State Sector and School Results"

Also, I personally am not in favor of magnets, especially when it involves young children having long commutes, but then my kids' needs are being met in our neighborhood schools, so I recognize that it is an easier position for me to take.

The idea that only 276 third graders in all of DCPS scored a 5 troubling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:all this assumes that all the parents of kids scoring 5s will want their kids to go to magnets. Many won't. The commute will be terrible for some of them. Some have siblings who wouldn't be eligible and the parents won't want to split them up. A lot of the kids scoring 5s go to charters and their parents don't want to give up montessori or language immersion or a path through middle school. Kids don't want to give up their friends.

And what about the kid who scores 5 in one thing and a 2 in another?

All valid points--some families won't opt for magnets depending on location, preferences, etc.

As for the bolded, perhaps the rules could be that kids have to score 5s on all, or 4/5s on all, along with teacher rec. There may be ways to make it work.