what have Hill parents demanded of middle schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I forgot to list a third option: continue to open charters whose school culture alienates poor parents. If you want start a charter that is *guaranteed* to have the highest test scores in the city, open a "Pro-Gay Arabic Immersion PCS". Your FARM eligible student population should be around 1%.

The charter schools actually serve more FARMs students than DCPS does. And they outperform them too. It's not just the Mandarin Immersion/Latin/Hebrew crowd, it's also KIPP, DC Prep, Howard Math & Science, etc. Those schools serve a very high percentage of FARMs students, and they do it well. Perhaps someone has cracked the code, you just haven't bothered to look and don't care because it doesn't affect your lily-white world.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From August 2013

"The overall picture in DC is that charter schools are disproportionately African-American. In a city that is just barely majority black, the percentage of black students in charter schools is 79%. In DCPS schools, the percentage is 69%."


http://greatergreatereducation.org/post/19691/dcs-most-diverse-charter-schools/

That has more to do with the lack of charters west of Rock Creek Park than anything else.

Umm...it has to do with the fact that the white population of DC is mostly happy with their DCPS schools.

Umm... Shenanigans. The white populations of Wards 4, 5, and 6 are heavily invested in charter schools because their neighborhood DCPSs are dumps which they're not happy with at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is allowing a low-income or low-performing student to attend SH serve as an escape route? Seriously. In sll liklihood they will continue to live with a single parent in poverty, require multiple family supports, and ultimately drop out before graduating from HS. Very few will ever attend college. The odds are stacked.

The air is pretty thin up where you live, not enough oxygen. Or else you're just a condescending ass. Apparently it's completely escaped your attention that many poor parents care about their children's educations too - which is why they send them to OOB schools in the first place. You seem to be automatically assuming that all students who aren't performing at or above grade level are lower SES whereas all higher SES students are doing so. And while it's true that the higher SES students are born with advantages that set them up for success from the very outset, the public education system is nonetheless dedicated to giving all of them a chance. If you want an exclusive education, then pay for private school. Oh, what's that? You're not wealthy enough to afford it? Good. The private schools are just as determined to avoid you and your offspring as you are to avoid the poor. The difference is, they're putting their money where their mouths are and paying for private. You're just trying to get it for free. Try moving to the suburbs, you really don't belong in the city. Bumpkin.

I did not assert that all low performing students are low income. You likewise cannot dipute the well-documented achievement gap that correlates with SES. And I did not posit that no low income parents care about educating their children. There would not be over 100 charters and vigorous competition for OOB spaces at many DCPS schools if this is not the case. The reality is however that it is not always top priority when you have to work two jobs just to put food on the table and a roof over your head, all while trying to keep your kids off the street after school.

With this in mind, I urge you to go back and read PP from 11:32 in which the proposition that it would be unfair to take away the relatively recent automatic feed to SH for low income OOB kids because it provides an "escape route" from poverty. I was perhaps less than artful in my effort to challenge what I believe to be a faulty premise and apologize if you were offended about something neither stated

By the way, I am more than able to afford private for my children should DCPS give me no other viable option for middle school years and beyond. I suppose that I could resort to name callingor similar juvenile behavior in responding to your screed but try to act in the manner that I expect from my five year old.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, should have read neither stared nor implied