Bancroft

[Anonymous]

Just curious, why is it okay to say “we don’t want those annoying gentrifiers at my school, they are using up resources meant for low income students” but it is not okay to say “we don’t want those OOB students at our WOTP school, they are causing overcrowding and using up our resources”.

I am actually for both things, affluent families putting their kids into neighborhood schools in gentrifying areas and OOB kids at WOTP schools. I am just having a problem with the apparent hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

The PK lottery favors OOB siblings over "affluent" inbound families. We live in bounds but ended up at a charter language immersion school because we didn't want to wait until K to start Spanish and never got off the PK wait list at Bancroft. We ended up staying at the charter since our child was happy and settled, but we still debate moving our younger one to Bancroft since it is so much closer to home.

These "affluent families" that are "pouring into K" are simply people who live in the neighborhood sending their kids to their neighborhood school in the earliest grade they can. We got a hard time years ago for NOT sending our kids to Bancroft and now you're lamenting the people who do.

What is the politically correct choice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

The PK lottery favors OOB siblings over "affluent" inbound families. We live in bounds but ended up at a charter language immersion school because we didn't want to wait until K to start Spanish and never got off the PK wait list at Bancroft. We ended up staying at the charter since our child was happy and settled, but we still debate moving our younger one to Bancroft since it is so much closer to home.

These "affluent families" that are "pouring into K" are simply people who live in the neighborhood sending their kids to their neighborhood school in the earliest grade they can. We got a hard time years ago for NOT sending our kids to Bancroft and now you're lamenting the people who do.

What is the politically correct choice?

The right choice, for affluent and non-affluent parents, is to do everything legally possible to get their kids into the best school for the kids and the family. No one has an obligation to be PC on this front (unless you choose to take it on yourself). Parents shouldn't be judged for this. We're all just doing the best we can with what we have. If people want a policy change, they should talk to the city, not judge the parents.

[Anonymous]

the reality is that the affluent parents always get the "rights" correctly, then say that the situation is fair. Right? Person who doesn't have stable housing, doesn't know about lottery, whatever, somehow always loses but the system is fair. You have to be willing to judge fairness in a way that favors you less and the less fortunate more, not introduces a blindness principle and lets you absolve yourself. Nobody should say getting what's mine is right or fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Do you honestly believe that DCPS will allow Bancroft to become a non-Title I school? Bancroft and Marie Reed are both schools that are Title I by design. Yes affluent families are arriving at both schools, but DCPS is assisting both school with the implementation of certain things to ensure that the share of disadvantaged children never drops below 45%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Curious if there’s data on this demographic shift or if it’s anecdotal. Does DC publish school demographic data by grade level?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Curious if there’s data on this demographic shift or if it’s anecdotal. Does DC publish school demographic data by grade level?

You can glean some of it from the PARCC scores broken down by race (last year for first time, they lowered the # of kids you need for a group to report the scores). The overall demographic changes are driven by younger grades since parents of older kids tend to bail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Do you honestly believe that DCPS will allow Bancroft to become a non-Title I school? Bancroft and Marie Reed are both schools that are Title I by design. Yes affluent families are arriving at both schools, but DCPS is assisting both school with the implementation of certain things to ensure that the share of disadvantaged children never drops below 45%.

What are the "certain things" that you're alluding to? I think the in-boundary preference for PK will slow things down, but gentrification at Bancroft is inevitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Do you honestly believe that DCPS will allow Bancroft to become a non-Title I school? Bancroft and Marie Reed are both schools that are Title I by design. Yes affluent families are arriving at both schools, but DCPS is assisting both school with the implementation of certain things to ensure that the share of disadvantaged children never drops below 45%.

What are the "certain things" that you're alluding to? I think the in-boundary preference for PK will slow things down, but gentrification at Bancroft is inevitable.

ps I meant sibling preference, not in-bounds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Do you honestly believe that DCPS will allow Bancroft to become a non-Title I school? Bancroft and Marie Reed are both schools that are Title I by design. Yes affluent families are arriving at both schools, but DCPS is assisting both school with the implementation of certain things to ensure that the share of disadvantaged children never drops below 45%.

What are those “certain things”? It’s not clear to me you can buy a home inbounds to Marie Reed under $900k, and similar for Bancroft. And if a family can fit into a 2BR then you can probably rent a basement place for $3000 a month. Those aren’t Title I numbers. Seems like both schools are heading towards Oyster.

The real problem of course is land use rules in the US. The single-family-only zoning in the close in suburbs and upper NW means there’s not enough new housing so prices in the whole area are ridiculous. There’s a serious housing supply problem created by our zoning rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

Do you honestly believe that DCPS will allow Bancroft to become a non-Title I school? Bancroft and Marie Reed are both schools that are Title I by design. Yes affluent families are arriving at both schools, but DCPS is assisting both school with the implementation of certain things to ensure that the share of disadvantaged children never drops below 45%.

What are those “certain things”? It’s not clear to me you can buy a home inbounds to Marie Reed under $900k, and similar for Bancroft. And if a family can fit into a 2BR then you can probably rent a basement place for $3000 a month. Those aren’t Title I numbers. Seems like both schools are heading towards Oyster.

The real problem of course is land use rules in the US. The single-family-only zoning in the close in suburbs and upper NW means there’s not enough new housing so prices in the whole area are ridiculous. There’s a serious housing supply problem created by our zoning rules.

Oh but what about the piles of luxury condos going up? They’re totally going to fix that right?

[Anonymous]

Problem is we need about ten times as many condos to go up if we want to fix the housing shortage. And the only way to do THAT is to build more densely- upward in the inner wards and multi-family in upper NW where there are currently single family homes.

Seattle just passed a big upzoning rule change allowing lots more multi-family. Seattle just made their city a lot more vibrant and helped its future. We need similar in DC area.

Back to Bancroft: really, how is the city going to keep disadvantaged kids there? Mt Pleasant is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

When the Deal feed is removed and Bancroft feeds to CHEC or Cardozo this affluent family influx might slow down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

When the Deal feed is removed and Bancroft feeds to CHEC or Cardozo this affluent family influx might slow down.

DC really needs to find a good middle school option for Bancroft/Marie Reed/Garrison/Seaton/Ross/Cleveland/Cooke etc. The elementary schools across the center of the city are really great places for learning; middle school needs to catch up. DCPS is doing itself a big disservice if it doesn't address this in the next 5 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know exactly how the PK lottery works now at Bancroft, but the biggest change is that in bounds, affluent families are pouring into K and 1st. So many that they are adding another class for those grades. What this means is that the school, with the new building as a major pull, is now gentrifying fast. It will be a completely different place a couple years from now, not Title 1, more like an Oyster that people are clamoring to get into. OP you need not worry about extracurriculars, those will only expand as the school becomes richer. As someone who has older kids, my feelings are mixed about all this.

When the Deal feed is removed and Bancroft feeds to CHEC or Cardozo this affluent family influx might slow down.

Do you think this adjustment in feeder pattern is likely in the next redrawing of boundaries? Although it would make sense geographically to address overcrowding in Ward 3 schools, I get the impression DCPS knows Bancroft is a major source of diversity at Deal and Wilson, which is something they state they want.

....Maybe if the Mayor had a real education plan instead of 'Alice Deal for All,' other feeder patterns would be getting the focus they deserve...