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

[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!

And the easiest way to get affluent parents leaving the district in droves, eroding the tax base and making schools worse.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I listened to Dep. Mayor Smith yesterday on Kojo. It did not sound like geography was a particularly important boundary criteria for her (ironic, yes). Diversity, on the other hand, seems to be what the majority of parents are crying out for so that our kids will be able to compete in the 21st Century. Also, Kojo could not get a straight answer about grandfather provision. It sounded like younger siblings could be out of luck though. There was another education expert guest on the show who kept referring to Greek philosophers who advocated for a society where parents did not know the identities of their true children so that all kids would be loved equally. Scary.

OMG, this is hilarious! Can you imagine how that would go over in DC?

<I can't resist>

A similar situation is not exactly foreign in many households in DC.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:And what's you child and school status? Are all of your eggs in the charter basket, or are you clamoring for the Upper NW schools to be opened up to your precious?

I think we should have a moratorium on sarcastic remarks about other people's children unless you stipulate before hand that you consider your own children to be worthless wastes of space not deserving of a quality education.

[Anonymous]

That was for 13:52. The poster indicated that they deliberately chose against upper NW. That's fine. But it's a problem if this is another person demanding that the upper NW area open up their schools.

[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!

And the easiest way to get affluent parents leaving the district in droves, eroding the tax base and making schools worse.

Seriously. This is not going to happen. Please stop perpetuating this myth. To continue to do so is just shi* stirring.

[Anonymous]

Check out this link about the effect of SES on academic results:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html

Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature. ("Race Report's Influence Felt 40 Years Later," this issue.) In 2005, for example, University of California, Santa Barbara, professor Russell W. Rumberger and his colleague Gregory J. Palardy of the University of Georgia found that a school’s socioeconomic status had as much impact on the achievement growth of high school students as a student’s individual economic status. Scores from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress among 4th grade students in math indicate that low-income students in more-affluent schools score at levels a year and a half more advanced than low-income students in high-poverty schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out this link about the effect of SES on academic results:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html

Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature. ("Race Report's Influence Felt 40 Years Later," this issue.) In 2005, for example, University of California, Santa Barbara, professor Russell W. Rumberger and his colleague Gregory J. Palardy of the University of Georgia found that a school’s socioeconomic status had as much impact on the achievement growth of high school students as a student’s individual economic status. Scores from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress among 4th grade students in math indicate that low-income students in more-affluent schools score at levels a year and a half more advanced than low-income students in high-poverty schools.

Not exactly a newsflash. What's you point?

[Anonymous]

Yup, that's pretty much what many educated parents feel is at stake here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And what's you child and school status? Are all of your eggs in the charter basket, or are you clamoring for the Upper NW schools to be opened up to your precious?

Well, since you ask so nicely . . .

I have virtually no dog in this fight. Of all the schooling options for my first grader, DCPS is the least likely. She's in a charter now, and we like it fine. If (or more accurately, when) we decide we need to move her, DCPS probably won't be a realistic option because (i) we have a vanishingly small chance of getting in OOB to an acceptable school, and (ii) although we could afford it, it makes no sense for us to buy to elsewhere in DC, because even if the elementary/middle school is fine, I am unconvinced that high school options will be good for her. I suppose we coudl rent, but then we'd just rent someplace that was squarely IB for our preferred option, so these border fussing discussions really don't impact us. So, it's either off to the burbs <shudder> or private.

I should add that although we are very fortunate to have this many options, we are by no means unusual in DC. Lots of parents have options. So when people spout nonsense about a universal lottery, no IB schools, or other similar silliness, remember that parents with options will do what they think is best for their kids. That does not include trucking them down to 5th grade in Ward 8.

[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!

And the easiest way to get affluent parents leaving the district in droves, eroding the tax base and making schools worse.

What you describe will never happen, so don't be such an alarmist. However, those on the opposite side who talk about white flight should check themselves at the door too. There are plenty of wealthy, educated people WITHOUT children who would be happy to move into DC and take up a lot of the vacated real estate. We parents need to not be so headstrong about our supposed value to this city. And I say that as a 20 year DC resident and parent of two young children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Check out this link about the effect of SES on academic results:

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2006/06/21/41kahlenberg.h25.html

Research has long found that a given student will perform better in a middle-class school than in a high-poverty school. The highly regarded Coleman Report of the 1960s found that, after the influence of the family, the socioeconomic status of a school is the single most important determinant of a student’s academic success. The basic findings of the report—including that all children do better in middle-class schools—have been affirmed again and again in the research literature. ("Race Report's Influence Felt 40 Years Later," this issue.) In 2005, for example, University of California, Santa Barbara, professor Russell W. Rumberger and his colleague Gregory J. Palardy of the University of Georgia found that a school’s socioeconomic status had as much impact on the achievement growth of high school students as a student’s individual economic status. Scores from the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress among 4th grade students in math indicate that low-income students in more-affluent schools score at levels a year and a half more advanced than low-income students in high-poverty schools.

Really? I had no idea.

[Anonymous]

I don't think the poster posted the link for you then. It was posted for the people that say "all you rich white people are being so racist saying that you don't want little Hayden to be mingling with DeShawn." Maybe it's not animus motivating them.

The next level of poster say that upper NW posters who say "I'm not racist, it's about SES that I care" are actually closet racists. Maybe not.

This, I presume, is why the link was shared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Without any knowledge of Milloy, I find the argument pertaining to the "urban pioneers" amusing and, somewhat on-point.

There is a whole lot of "Boring. Boring. Boring. I could never live in upper NW. B-O-R-I-N-G." But then kids come along and all of the sudden we see why forward-looking parents moved to upper NW. So now the chant becomes Unfair. Unfair. Unfair.

What these people don't realize, among countless other things, is that, perhaps, many of the parents in upper NW have a similar outlook to the parents in Bloomy and Petworth and Columbia Heights. Maybe they'd have liked to stay in a more urban setting (may not, to be fair), but they chose to look further down the line than "what's on tap this week" and chose the Boring area for exactly the reasons the urban pioneers are not decreeing Unfair.

Real-estate prices and a desire for a more diverse community were among my reasons for not buying a home in upper NW. I didn't really prioritize "what's on tap this week."

But did schools factor in? I think that is the real point. It is no big secret that many schools are challenged and people with choices took a chance when buying in a crappy DCPS neighborhood. We bought in JKLMM 9 years ago before our children were born because I thought schools had to be a factor at that point. Other people make other choices. If I could not have afforded our house we would be in an area we could afford with good schools (meaning nova or moco).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

And the easiest way to get affluent parents leaving the district in droves, eroding the tax base and making schools worse.

What you describe will never happen, so don't be such an alarmist. However, those on the opposite side who talk about white flight should check themselves at the door too. There are plenty of wealthy, educated people WITHOUT children who would be happy to move into DC and take up a lot of the vacated real estate. We parents need to not be so headstrong about our supposed value to this city. And I say that as a 20 year DC resident and parent of two young children.

Of course this would happen. DC is unique to many other cities in that it is flanked by two other states/counties with VERY strong school districts that are in close proximity to the city so making the move is relatively easy. If DCPS suddenly decided to upend the system totally, creating a ton of uncertainty about upper NW/upper SES kids' schooling, you can bet we'd be back to white flight. And you can bet you'd see a very dramatic change to real estate prices very quickly. (childless adults cannot fill up all the 4-6 bedroom houses in Ward 3, sorry.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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!

And the easiest way to get affluent parents leaving the district in droves, eroding the tax base and making schools worse.

What you describe will never happen, so don't be such an alarmist. However, those on the opposite side who talk about white flight should check themselves at the door too. There are plenty of wealthy, educated people WITHOUT children who would be happy to move into DC and take up a lot of the vacated real estate. We parents need to not be so headstrong about our supposed value to this city. And I say that as a 20 year DC resident and parent of two young children.

Yes, this. Thank you. The city is booming, and public school enrollment is up, up, up overall. If people no longer like their DCPS feed, some will move to charters, some will go private, and some will move away. Their houses are not going to sit vacant. It's certainly possible that a few areas will see a small drop in their property values; it's also possible that there will be a concurrent "Deal" premium.

Look at the Hill in recent years. Young parents used to move away when they had kids, or send their kids to Catholic school. Now they go to Brent, Maury and various charters. Brent families used to OOB up to Deal and Hardy, now they send their kids to Latin and Basis. People want to stay in the city and they will find a way.