DME Kicks Off DCPS Boundary Review; Changes Expected for 2015-16 School Year

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
This is a very important point. I know several AA parents from Ward 3 who would not consider sending their kids to Wilson. All send their kids to St. Johns. They don't want their kids exposed to low SES AA kids is how they explained it.

If true, that is a troubling attitude. No better than white families who are afraid of exposing their children to low SES AA kids.

If environment didn't matter would this forum even exist?

[Anonymous]

"Troubling attitude?"

Please. Talk about liberal apologists.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:"Troubling attitude?"

Please. Talk about liberal apologists.

Can you elucidate on this a bit? I'm missing your point.

[Anonymous]

I heard someone on the radio today who said the fairest proposed system would be to randomly assign students to particular DCPS schools, to assure a mixture of more affluent students and disadvantaged students. So a student in AU Park (and their siblings) might be assigned a spot in Ward 8 and a kid from Barry Farm could go to Janney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love all these "urban pioneers". They move to Shaw, Logan, Bloomy, Trux and hang out at the cool bars, ride their bikes, do lots of unpermitted renovations to their row house. They think they are making a difference. Could not imagine living in boring upper NW. THEN the babies come along and look out! God forbid they do some real pioneering and do the dirty work. No, that's too much work. Besides, there is that new beer garden opening up soon. Instead, they impose on the grownups west of the park to come bail them out with the good schools. How very millennial of you! But it's not for them they say, it's really about the poor kids. So. Awesome.

Courtland Milloy of the Post termed them "myopic little twits.". He shoud have won a Pulitzer for that.

[Anonymous]

The boundary issue is interesting. Yet, the more critical issue is that people are clamoring for Deal boundary because of the quality option that it provides for our children. We would not be fighting to get into Deal if the academic and social programming wasn't revamped. Deal is now doing incredibly well and attracting a lot of families because it made this change. I would suggest that if it were not for the overcrowding that has been caused by the success of Deal, we probably would not be even in this discussion of redrawing boundaries because people would have continued the flight out of DC after ES. What is the plan to improve other such schools? We are lacking a comprehensive strategy to turn other schools around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let the fun begin! Who chimes in first, Lafayette or Brent?

Or, "we need to stay IB for Deal" from the Bancroft and Sheperd addresses

That's why I won't buy in the Shepherd Park, or Crestwood neighborhoods right now. Too unpredictable.

I would agree that Crestwood is on the chopping block.

are there any DCPS families there?

Not only are there DCPS families there, but a lot of DC's AA political nomenklatura lives there. Bowser will never let DCPS cut off access to WOTP schools. It's the political reality.

[Anonymous]

The word is that Eaton will be be dropped from the Deal cluster. The political thinking is that it's substantial OOB population won't protest too much if it gets assigned to Hardy. The Cleveland Park parents will squawk (and some are world class activists) but there are fewer of them than the many Lafayette parents who would be energized as mad hornets if their school were dropped from the Deal cluster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I heard someone on the radio today who said the fairest proposed system would be to randomly assign students to particular DCPS schools, to assure a mixture of more affluent students and disadvantaged students. So a student in AU Park (and their siblings) might be assigned a spot in Ward 8 and a kid from Barry Farm could go to Janney.

I really, really hope they do it. It is the fairest thing!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The boundary issue is interesting. Yet, the more critical issue is that people are clamoring for Deal boundary because of the quality option that it provides for our children. We would not be fighting to get into Deal if the academic and social programming wasn't revamped. Deal is now doing incredibly well and attracting a lot of families because it made this change. I would suggest that if it were not for the overcrowding that has been caused by the success of Deal, we probably would not be even in this discussion of redrawing boundaries because people would have continued the flight out of DC after ES. What is the plan to improve other such schools? We are lacking a comprehensive strategy to turn other schools around.

When Deal was still a "junior high" five years ago, it had a good reputation. The school had some pretty advanced courses courtesy of the PTA like robotics, and a few longtime teachers had been there since the 60s. It may not have been as wildly popular as today however.

My guess is that DC will eventually do away with high school boundaries like other large cities, San Fransisco for example. It is a successful model that has been proven to work, but only if parents are willing to separate the high schools from any notions of "neighborhood identity."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard someone on the radio today who said the fairest proposed system would be to randomly assign students to particular DCPS schools, to assure a mixture of more affluent students and disadvantaged students. So a student in AU Park (and their siblings) might be assigned a spot in Ward 8 and a kid from Barry Farm could go to Janney.

I really, really hope they do it. It is the fairest thing!

This is truly a moronic sentiment. Do you think this will result in improved schools anywhere? Do you think?

The high-performing schools will be cratered and will collapse. The low-performing school will see no change most likely, or a negative change as the motivated families from the low-performing schools replace the fleeing families from the high-performing schools.

I don't understand how this is not immediately obvious.

By the way, do you also think the quarter-million that the PTA at Murch has in the bank, or the quarter-million that Mann raises each year should be redistributed too? It is the fairest thing!

[Anonymous]

Getting rid of boundaries and randomly assigning children to schools miles away from their homes will only serve to overcrowd the private schools in NW. And then the flight to the suburbs will begin in earnest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard someone on the radio today who said the fairest proposed system would be to randomly assign students to particular DCPS schools, to assure a mixture of more affluent students and disadvantaged students. So a student in AU Park (and their siblings) might be assigned a spot in Ward 8 and a kid from Barry Farm could go to Janney.

I really, really hope they do it. It is the fairest thing!

This is truly a moronic sentiment. Do you think this will result in improved schools anywhere? Do you think?

The high-performing schools will be cratered and will collapse. The low-performing school will see no change most likely, or a negative change as the motivated families from the low-performing schools replace the fleeing families from the high-performing schools.

I don't understand how this is not immediately obvious.

By the way, do you also think the quarter-million that the PTA at Murch has in the bank, or the quarter-million that Mann raises each year should be redistributed too? It is the fairest thing!

Agree and also believe there is zero chance that they will do this.

[Anonymous]

If I moved to AU Park to be IB for Deal, then the city MS and HS became boundary-less, why would I stay in those pricier areas in the hopes that my child got into Deal? A 3br house in AU costs a million dollars and they're not big at that price, and due to recent goings on de to metro proximity, not free of theft either. I would move WOTP and do a cheap-ish Catholic Private School.. that school is where my PTA dues, my family's dedicated volunteering and my motivated honors student would go also. A boundary-less DC is a terrible idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Getting rid of boundaries and randomly assigning children to schools miles away from their homes will only serve to overcrowd the private schools in NW. And then the flight to the suburbs will begin in earnest.

+1. If you're a homeowner in N. Arlington thinking of selling in teh next few years, you are VERY interested in this process.