Why is SWS so white?
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Anonymous
They really just don't exist in DC at all. DC median income for white families: $161,812 DC median income for black families: $54,401. It's a stark difference. There are white, poor people in the US writ large, but in DC itself? Very, very few. |
Anonymous
I’m not sure how you defined LMC/MC but the median DC income is around 100k. There are certainly white/ nonprofit/Hill staff families in DC that probably fall under that if a parent stays home or if there is a divorce. One secret of Capitol Hill is that you can actually rent apartments and houses for comparatively little. So there absolutely could be a significant number of MC white families renting here. |
Anonymous
Also, very few lower middle class white people. We whites of DC are educated and high SES even if we've chose to be slightly lower income than we could be. |
Anonymous
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More DC income and other statistics if you'd like to parse them.
https://www.dchealthmatters.org/demographicdata?id=130951§ionId=936 |
Anonymous
Yup, DC is just for limo libs and the help of said limo libs. |
Anonymous
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Just wanted to note that we are a MC white family in DC. HHI of 130-140k, both parents work.
We don't go to SWS but would if we got a spot because we really value a more holistic approach to education with less emphasis on testing/achievement and more focus on developing a love of learning. I recognize that to some extent, white privilege allows me to want that for my kid because I don't have to worry about them being discriminated against for their race, and I don't worry so much about my kid being viewed as "exceptional" academically because I think a reasonable middle class life will be available to them. I will also note that I am aware that people in DC of all colors do not think we exist in DC. It's a genuine challenge navigating schools in this city because we don't have the resources of many other white families (or even the resources others presume us to have by virtue of being white people living in DC) but also we are not poor and our kid is not at risk in any way (stable housing, food, etc.). This was particularly challenging during the pandemic when it was assumed we would have resources for full time childcare so that we could work and when we said we didn't, we were accused of being "cheap." |
Anonymous
This is us and we attend SWS, driving in. You wouldn't know our income from looking at us, though. Or maybe we make our TJ Maxx clothes look too nice?  Also yes, the pandemic was absolutely awful, especially with two full time working parents and I was required to work in person throughout the pandemic.
I actually think it's nuts that there are people here saying that people who live in $1M+ townhomes on the Hill are UMC - that is Upper class! Does UC (rich) vs. MC (not at risk, but not rich) make a difference? Yes! Look at the suburbs. Look at public schools in upper class areas in Mclean and Arlington vs more middle class suburban schools in Virginia or Maryland. Even there, you see a difference in test scores where the super rich area schools SAT scores are 100-200 points vs. the regular middle class schools. |
Anonymous
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on??? |
Anonymous
Yes, you are middle class (for White people in DC) as is my family. But please recognize that you make more than twice as much as the average income of your black neighbors. You're middle class with an asterisk. We can fly to London and pay for college. Not everyone in our city has that level of income. |
Anonymous
And affording a $1M Capitol Hill home is upper class, not middle, not even upper middle. |
Anonymous
| All depends on when you bought your house and how much sweat equity you put in. The 400k CH house we bought 20 years ago and spruced up with help from handy relatives is worth at least 3 times that now. |
Anonymous
| If you make more money your kids will do better on the PAARC. |
Anonymous
I didn't say I was lower middle class. Please stop yelling at me. I said we were middle class, which we absolutely are. We are not rich. We do not own a $1m+ house on the Hill or elsewhere (our condo might be worth 500k now, but probably less). We do not have secret family money that we use to afford a higher standard of living. We are middle class. Our IB schools have low test scores, but they also have very high truancy rates, high suspension rates (an anomaly in DC where suspensions are incredibly rare and often only authorized for serious violations like bringing a weapon or drugs onto campus), and are perennially under-enrolled. Even the schools on the Hill that many UMC and UC people would deem unacceptable for their children are light years better than our IB. I know because we actually go to one of those schools OOB and we know people on the Hill turn up their noses at it. And yes, I'd go to SWS even though we are not wealthy. I'm just providing a data point here. |
Anonymous
I hate to break this to you, but if you own a house worth $1.2m or more, you are now very well off. Owning an asset that has appreciated over 300% in 20 years makes you a successful capitalist, not a lucky pauper. |
Anonymous
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Regardless of whether you are a white person making $75k, $130k or $300k, the school should not get a pass for not teaching middle class white kids to be on grade level with academics. Do you really think SWS white kids are more poor than white kids at Marie Reed, Inspired, Payne, Shepherd, DC Bilingual, Powell, Two Rivers? Their overall at risk is 10% which means not even all the Black and Latino students that have are at risk yet only 15% have efficiency rates.
Why are you all giving SWS a pass for their abysmal scores? The short answer is that you like the school because it’s “granola, safe, and holistic” read = White. |