Upper elementary at a Title 1 school
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
| Y’all looking at DC school children as Black or not-low SES white/Asian seem to be missing decent size groups of Hispanic and other first or second-generation immigrants (that can’t all be lumped into one “Asian” race). There are Latin school kids of all income levels and some low SES immigrant (including Asian) kids in DCPS/charters that are often overlooked by DC policy makers in the same way. There aren’t as many as the nearby suburbs but making decisions based on Black vs rich Whites (and now white/Asian) is an old DC pattern that shows no signs of letting up. |
Anonymous
Is it really the same school, though? My DC attended a school that people say this about. The preschool about half white, same teachers and curriculum as it had a few years ago. That part is true. But what they don't see is how much change the principal implemented behind the scenes. The upper grades teachers are mostly *not* the same as before, and there's a reason for that. DCPS invested a ton of money above the regular funding. And the principal and AP had several years to change how things are done and hold the staff to a higher standard. Change really does happen, but a school can gentrify *and* substantively improve at the same time. And maybe, just maybe, the work that went into that improvement was partially done by the people who were willing to attend the school back when it was way worse, who you're now calling racist. Also don't forget, there are significant differences in classrooms and in kids. It's basically random whether your kid ends up in a class with serious behavior issues or a class of mostly easy kids. Title I schools take in new kids every year so it's hard to balance the classes for special needs. And sometimes there are grade levels that are just known to be more difficult. In our old school, my DC's cohort was really high needs, and retention suffered, it was way worse than retention in the grade level above it. Sometimes a school does well with grade-level kids but advanced differentiation is poor. Sometimes the classroom teachers are good but the SPED team isn't. Siblings in the same family can go to the same school and have a totally different experience. I'm not saying there isn't racism, but try to open your mind to the idea that different children have different needs and different experiences at the same school. |
Anonymous
Get out od preschool and then talk to me. Jeesuz |
Anonymous
Oh believe me, people are talking about moving. Just not talking about it with you. And you'll be talking about it eventually too, when you wrap your head around how difficult and deep-seated the problems of DCPS truly are. I'm not saying that improvement is impossible, or that it's wrong to send your child there. I sincerely hope it works out for you and that your child loves attending Dunbar or whatever. But it sounds like you have a lot to learn. |
Anonymous
|
The more people try to say it’s racist and racism as the overwhelming reason why families leave poorly performing title 1 schools instead of acknowledging that there are many issues at these schools and the dysfunctional system that is DCPS, the more you will drive away all families.
Minority who grew up poor and been there. |
Anonymous
Drive them where though? They’re not going to Bethesda or Ward 3, they’re going to a charter that also has issues and possibly even lower test scores. Plenty of families at JKLM schools can handle DCPS, and not all EOTP schools are dysfunctional. Why would someone choose Cap City over Whittier? Or Lee over West? Or MV over Bruce Monroe? You’re trading one set of issues for another, not avoiding issues by opting into some significantly better option. So why do people choose those schools then, if not for the demographics? Honest question because I truly don’t understand what these “best choices for my family” decisions are based on. |
Anonymous
I suggest you re-read this thread and focus on the posters who have stated the many specific issues they have had with their title 1 school and why they left. Not every single thing applies to all title 1 schools but you are just either in denial or ignorant if you don’t know what some common themes are. You have no idea about any of the schools you mention above and only have 1st hand experience at the school where your child is. Yet you make blanket statements. And you say the only reason is because people are racist. You don’t know the reasons why families left and your post above is why they continue to leave. |
Anonymous
For some of those the answer is the middle school/high school path. I chose a charter school for my kid 10 years ago. Our local ES has changed overwhelmingly for the better in those 10 years. Our local middle and high schools, not so much. |
Anonymous
This. And for the programming. But try reviewing the thread and you'll see there are many reasons listed. Such as avoiding the dysfunctionality of DCPS central office. |
Anonymous
You’ve taken a deep dive into some anti-charter talking points—they are loud and they have an agenda that is not about your child. As a pp suggested, why don’t you listen carefully, with an open mind and no pre-formed assumptions. You are getting answers, they just don’t fit your narrative. |
Anonymous
What history shows is that if we ignore racism, or just don't talk about it then people will be less racist. /sarcasm |
Anonymous
Talk about it all you like. But DCPS's shortcomings are real too. |
Anonymous
Many anti-charter talking points are valid. Most of the city’s charters don’t serve students any better than their neighborhood DCPS schools, and most of the ones that do have sizeable populations of UMC families. My kids attend a Title 1 DCPS and while I’m not a fan, at all, of Central Office, we love our school’s admin and are happy to support traditional public schools over semi-privatized education initiatives. |
Anonymous
Hence why some (not all!) UMC families may reasonably prefer such charters, all things being equal. We should of course be willing to call out that charters don’t serve lower-SES kids any better than DCPS, but that’s not of practical concern to an UMC family (of any race) when deciding between comparable charters vs DCPS schools. At any rate, white (which is a crude proxy for UMC in DC) kids test about the same at all schools in DC, according to GreatSchools. Of course, some schools don’t have enough white kids to report disaggregated scores for white kids. In fact, many schools where most of the black kids are far below grade level, will have almost all white kids at grade level, and sizable chunks above grade level. So, once again, all things being (somewhat) equal, what is so objectionable about opting for a school with a critical mass of likely academic peers (which may only be 15-20% in some cases, so we aren’t necessarily talking about predominately high SES schools). |
Anonymous
Are you being deliberately obtuse? There are lots of reasons. Logistical reasons. Feeder pattern reasons. Programmatic reasons. The difficulty of getting into desirable DCPS schools OOB. Cap City over Whitter because it offers access to a better middle and high school. Or at least it did before the Coolidge/Wells renovation. Lee is not anywhere near West so are people really choosing between them? The answer is to get Montessori, and because you live closer to Lee, or because your number isn't good enough for West OOB. You might more reasonably compare Lee with Langdon Montessori, but again, it's hard to get into Langdon's program OOB and even if you live IB, because it's such a small program. MV over Bruce Monroe is because OOB English-Dominant students have zero chance of getting into Bruce-Monroe even with a great lottery number. And until recently, for the guaranteed access to DCI. Look, there are plenty of charters that people *don't* choose over DCPS. SSMA, for example, has significant attrition to Seaton and other nearby DCPS. Very few people chose to go to Harmony even when Langley's test scores were rock bottom low. It's not like people think charters are automatically better. Lots of DCPS schools have long PK3 waitlists. But a lot of people find charters to be their best option and there are real reasons for that. Pretending those reasons away won't help DCPS improve. |