Why is SWS so white?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

We bought our house in DC for under $500K and now is estimated at over $1M. Our salaries haven't significantly increased but our property taxes have. At some point we may be priced out. So no, just because you have a million dollar home doesn't make you rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

What you aren't getting is that for many families, "on grade level" is totally fine, especially if the kids are getting other things that a family deems a priority. You may not like the "granola, safe, and holistic" approach to education but there are many families that do. There is a reason that schools like SWS, CHMS, charter Montessori's, ITDS, etc., often have lengthy waiting lists. People like small class sizes, experiential learning, a de-emphasis on testing, etc. You might hate it, which is fine, because you don't have to send your kids there.

Your obsession with test scores at SWS as though the families who send kids there are unaware of the test scores is getting tired. People know. And some of those people could send their kids to Brent or L-T or Maury or private if test scores were their main concern. They could move, etc. They don't. Why?

Because those schools don't offer things that SWS does offer, which is a gentler, more holistic educational approach combined with good enough academics.

Not everyone views public schools as college applicant factories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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.

We bought our house in DC for under $500K and now is estimated at over $1M. Our salaries haven't significantly increased but our property taxes have. At some point we may be priced out. So no, just because you have a million dollar home doesn't make you rich.

You could sell your house for $1m and take your $500k+ in equity and buy a house in any of a number of places with good quality of life and high quality of schools.

Yes. You are rich. You just aren't rich enough to upgrade your house in CH to something nicer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

Why do you stay in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:60% is not “very” or “so”. It is much more diverse than e.g. Walt Whitman.
If you knew much about DC schools you’d know that kids often travel outside the school boundaries, so your analysis and comparison to Brent is nonsensical.



Are you a real DC parent or a conservative troll trying to amp up racial division?

60% white is very white when you consider that white kids account for 16% of DCPS elementary age students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

The median household income for Black households in DC is $53K. Making twice that isn't wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

Why do you stay in DC?

We would like to move but at present are tied here for my spouse's job (government). Moving to the suburbs would actually cost us more money -- we are trying to figure out if we could afford it. We'd have to buy a car and most houses in the suburbs are either in worse school districts than DCPS without the lottery to bail you out, or they are out of budget for us.

And this area was much more affordable when we first moved here. It's gotten rapidly more expensive and while our incomes have gone up, we also had a kid and can't live as cheaply as we used to. When we moved here in the early aughts, DC was a great job market for our industries with a pretty reasonable COL. A lot has changed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.

130K is close to the median household income for DC, but not nationally. It's actually more than 50% higher than the median income in many states. Whether or not it's middle class is a different conversation, but it's certainly upper middle class in many, many places. DC just doesn't happen to be one of those places.

Here's a chart of median household income for each state:
https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20220401/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

As you said, words have meanings and your words:

"It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally."

may or may not be true depending on what we define as middle class, but they are not in the middle of the income graph nationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:More DC income and other statistics if you'd like to parse them.
https://www.dchealthmatters.org/demographicdata?id=130951§ionId=936

Very interesting data. Only 20% of DC are kids and about 45% of households have only one person. This really is a city of singletons because the other 55% of households include roommate living.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.

130K is close to the median household income for DC, but not nationally. It's actually more than 50% higher than the median income in many states. Whether or not it's middle class is a different conversation, but it's certainly upper middle class in many, many places. DC just doesn't happen to be one of those places.

Here's a chart of median household income for each state:
https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20220401/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

As you said, words have meanings and your words:

"It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally."

may or may not be true depending on what we define as middle class, but they are not in the middle of the income graph nationally.

It's middle income in DC and also for the US as a whole. No, it may not be middle income in certain states or areas that are very economically depressed.

No one claimed that 130k was middle class in rural Mississippi. You can live like a king in a place like that on 53k, but the schools are pretty bad and the test scores are abysmal. So it's pretty irrelevant to this conversation about SWS in Washington DC, and it's test scores and academic quality, and whether it meets the needs of families of different incomes and races. Schools in the places you are talking about barely meet anyone's needs at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.

130K is close to the median household income for DC, but not nationally. It's actually more than 50% higher than the median income in many states. Whether or not it's middle class is a different conversation, but it's certainly upper middle class in many, many places. DC just doesn't happen to be one of those places.

Here's a chart of median household income for each state:
https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20220401/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

As you said, words have meanings and your words:

"It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally."

may or may not be true depending on what we define as middle class, but they are not in the middle of the income graph nationally.

It's middle income in DC and also for the US as a whole. No, it may not be middle income in certain states or areas that are very economically depressed.

No one claimed that 130k was middle class in rural Mississippi. You can live like a king in a place like that on 53k, but the schools are pretty bad and the test scores are abysmal. So it's pretty irrelevant to this conversation about SWS in Washington DC, and it's test scores and academic quality, and whether it meets the needs of families of different incomes and races. Schools in the places you are talking about barely meet anyone's needs at all.

I mean next someone's going to pipe up that 130k is 200x the median income in Malawi (I just made this up to make a point, please don't fact check, it's not a fact) and therefore SWS should be shut down and moved to Malawi. Like what are we even talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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."

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR IS NOT LOWER MIDDLE CLASS!!! What planet are you people on???

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.

You literally just said you're not wealthy. You are wealthy. You make almost twice the median income for black families in DC. You need to get some perspective.

Lol this thread is hilarious. We have some people arguing that even though they own homes worth over a million dollars, they are't UMC, and conversely we have people like this saying that if you make over 100k a year, you are "wealthy".

130k is middle class in DC. It's right in the middle. The point you are trying to make is that black DC residents are more likely to be poor or lower middle class, and white residents more likely to be UMC or upper class. That's all true! It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally. That's a middle class income by almost any metric, and unless the family in question has family money, significant real estate holdings, or other sources of wealth, they are middle class.

Perspective is useful but also words have meanings.

130K is close to the median household income for DC, but not nationally. It's actually more than 50% higher than the median income in many states. Whether or not it's middle class is a different conversation, but it's certainly upper middle class in many, many places. DC just doesn't happen to be one of those places.

Here's a chart of median household income for each state:
https://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20220401/bci_data/median_income_table.htm

As you said, words have meanings and your words:

"It doesn't change the fact that 130k is middle class, both in DC and nationally."

may or may not be true depending on what we define as middle class, but they are not in the middle of the income graph nationally.

that table seems inaccurate specifically for DC as the values for 2 people and 3 people are the same whereas those values vary appropriately for other locations. Something got copied/pasted incorrectly there?

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Anonymous wrote:No. I-Ready probably asks some questions on subject matter that has not been taught yet at the beginning of the year so lots of kids miss those questions early on and answer them correctly later. But that is not really self-serving. It is certainly possible to test above grade level at the start of the year on I-Ready and then just stagnate.

That’s what happened with both my kids. Worked with them over the summer. They were above grade level coming in this year. Then slowly slid backwards. Thanks SWS!

SWS has among the best math PARCC scores on the Hill excluding Brent which is a higher SES population. Don't think you're getting much better anywhere else in DCPS. Everything taught was appropriate grade level and they got a math worksheet for homework every week which had the same kinds of grade appropriate questions as Khan academy, etc.

You are certainly going to get better at JKLMM schools. The math worksheets are a joke. They’re maybe 8 problems for the entire week. I’m not a big advocate for more homework, but the math instruction is weak.

[bActually better or just find a higher percentage of very high SES kids with type A parents who freak out about test scores and immediately/automatically ensure their kid has tutoring on top of 7 extracurriculars? SWS is a bit different in that SES may be lower across ALL ethnicities.[/b] It's a city wide school so many people are there because they cannot afford to live in a school district with better performing scores. Take the median SES at SWS even among the caucasian ethnicity and I promise you, it's going to be lower than Maury.

However, DCUM talks like 100% of parents could have chosen Brent or JKLMM. Do you understand the wealth bubble you live in to make that type of claim?

You’re asserting that there are LMC or poor white kids at SWS? Seriously? That is laughable.

PARCC scores are broken out by race. Compare the SWS UMC white kid scores to the NW or Brent UMC white kid scores. And yes, they are UMC by any metric.

Yes, I'm asserting there are more regular MC/LMC white folks at SWS who can't afford to live in bounds for something more desirable and lottery in. I'd also assert that people who live in bounds for Brent are over the top rich, not just UMC. If you are affording a $1M+ home, you are rich. Not everyone lives in your (apparently rich?) bubble? Not everyone has choices the way you think they do.

There are virtually no LMC white families in DC, much less all at SWS. I live on a street with 3 SWS families and every one of them has a house that would sell for over $1 million. They pass about 10 other families en route to drop off; all of them live in $1 million+ houses too. Are there going to be some families who don’t? Of course, but much of the Maury zone has houses well under that range (16th st & east, e.g.)… and even the Brent zone has apartments. Brent is also only 65% IB, so nearly 1/3rd exactly the same types of folks you’re describing st SWS.

How is Brent only 65% IB if it waitlists IB kids?

It obviously only waitlists IB kids for PK (since that's the only time IB kids can ever be waitlisted for their IB). It also takes truckloads of kids for K recently (look at last year's numbers & then this year's already).