Importance of classmates being at grade levels for reading/math

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, my definitely-ahead-of-grade-level kid was not challenged in DCPS elementary.

Yeah, I fundamentally disagree with the earlier poster. I think the kids who are exactly on/just ahead of grade level and can stay there w/o additional intervention are very well served by DCPSes in general. The kids way behind also tend to be well-served (or at least as well served as they can be; DCPS makes a huge effort/focuses intentionally on these kids). The kids who are well-behaved, quiet kids from the 25-45%iles are the ones who get ignored and could end up totally left behind. The true 1%ers usually end up with DCPS catering to them because the need is just so apparent (e.g., kids taking math 2 levels up or whatever), but the 95-99% kids typically aren't particularly academically pushed or challenged in the classroom. What you have to hope is that your school has a big enough cohort of those (or is willing to intentionally group them into one class) to support an advanced small group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We live in DC (Capitol Hill area) and are the parents of a 15 month old. We won't be able to enter the PK3 lottery until 2025, so this is still some time off for us, but the big question that I have been wondering about as we look at DC public schools and decide whether we should stay or move to the suburbs is this--

How much does it really matter what percentage of a school's students are at grade level for reading/math?

I ask because I noticed that even the better schools in DC have large percentages of students not at grade level. We are in-bound to Ludlow-Taylor which has maybe 40-60% at grade level. Nearby Maury seems to be at about 75% I might be off somewhat with the precise percentages but the point is that these are not the 90-95%+ figures at a number of schools in the suburbs.

I've taught, though only at the college level, and even then it was pretty difficult for me to manage dealing with a class that not had obviously bright students but also students who obviously lacked the foundation to be in college (and mixing them together wasn't good for anyone). I know primary/secondary education is not college. I know that tracking is bad for students who are then stuck in the lower tracks (and in my own experience attending a racially mixed school district in suburban NJ, the higher tracks were almost all white while the lower tracks were almost all minorities, which was also not good).

I've also seen various articles/studies saying that it doesn't really matter where one goes to college. Taking my home state of NJ, there was once a study showing that controlling for SAT scores, etc., folks who went to Rutgers earned just as much as those who went to Princeton. I wonder if the same is true for elementary schools through high schools generally (controlling for all factors that schools can't control such as socioeconomic factors, the parents' degree of education, etc., etc.).

Putting my question again--how much is it going to matter if my child goes to a school in DC where say 50% are at grade level vs. a school in the suburbs where 95% are at grade level?

I know socioeconomic factors is the big elephant in the room, and I should also mention that in addition to having our child having solid academics, we also want him to learn from a wide diversity of folks from all sorts of backgrounds (he is himself a mixed kid, and his mother is an immigrant).

Thanks for any thoughts/comments you can share!

My math living kid actually benefited from having kids below his level in hid grade. He was always helped his teacher and peers which gave him extra practice, confidence and social advantage. I don't think he would've benefited from being in a group where he was at similar level with others.

[Anonymous]

In higher grades, mathy kids take classes with higher grades. Mine was taking math classes with high school students in middle school and college classes with community college students, in high school years. Summers doing Khan Academy and occasional tutoring also gave him a boost.