New Report on Racial and Economic Diversity in DC public and charter schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is inevitable that DC will have to adopt a random lottery placement system for public schools, like in San Francisco. Neighborhood-based schools are inherently exclusionary. Only with a true DC-wide lottery (with diversity adjustments) will DC achieve equity.

Why not forced busing?

Hey bro, the Seventies are over.

Doesn't matter what era, if it's the only way to get DC schools integrated. Typically, people only object when it affects them personally.

Obviously.

If you put some kids zoned in the Janney cluster on some forced bus to Marion Barry High, you’d see a Brooks Brothers riot.

Actually, it's time to end this white savior complex.

What they should do is to bus the black students from Sidwell and other top privates to Marion Barry High.

BLM and all that stuff.

Please get a hobby other than injecting idiotic nonsense into threads on these forums. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

Why is she still around? She has the views of some Barry-era relic even though she’s not from DC. Didn’t she get her kid into Wilson by going around the lottery?

Why was she even hired, given her lack of relevant experience?

The previous principal was the real deal. This is just one of Bowser's puppets--which explains it all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I think most white parents fear poor minorities, like it is contagious. Studies have shown that wealthy white students do no worse with poor minorities peers or rich white peers. The difference is poor minority students improve with more diversity. In MS and HS white parents worry about their kids getting beat up by poor minorities but I feel like this fear would be resolved if we weren’t so segregated as a society. (If they actually knew some black teenagers and families.)

I think it offers little comfort for parents when studies show their kids will "do not worse" than their white peers. There are Type A parents all over DC. They don't want to settle for not doing worse than their peers. They want specialized attention and give their kids a leg up. These parents view charter schools with language immersion, Montessori, and other special programs as offering the extra that they think their kids need to move ahead. The only way that DCPS is going to compete with charter schools is if they too offer something (anything) that can be viewed as giving kids an advantage.

But those kids do not do any better in all white schools. There is NO leg up!

Are you going to tell me that a kid with a performing arts bent is not going to benefit from going to a performing arts focused school? Or that a family who wants Chinese immersion is not getting a leg up in a foreign language? When their neighborhood school does not make such offerings? Or a math and science wiz is not going to have more opportunities at a STEM school? Is that what you are telling me?

No, the studies show that wealthy white kids have the same learning outcomes regardless of peer cohort.

“Studies show”. Cite the studies because I don’t believe you. Parents and private schools are absolutely obsessed with peer cohorts and you’re saying they have no relationship to outcomes — that’s a claim that flies in the face of common sense and everyone’s lived experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Wilson is now white majority. Coincides with the rise in graduation rates and test scores

Wilson is not majority white, moron.

Ok Wilson isn’t 50% white but whites are the largest demographic there. It is a mostly white school in a white neighborhood. Don’t be bitter

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Wilson is now white majority. Coincides with the rise in graduation rates and test scores

Wilson is not majority white, moron.

Ok Wilson isn’t 50% white but whites are the largest demographic there. It is a mostly white school in a white neighborhood. Don’t be bitter

NP.

Just FYI: your opinions lose their value when they are based on easily debunked alternative facts.

Try harder. You can do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Wilson is now white majority. Coincides with the rise in graduation rates and test scores

Wilson is not majority white, moron.

Ok Wilson isn’t 50% white but whites are the largest demographic there. It is a mostly white school in a white neighborhood. Don’t be bitter

It's indeed a mostly white school in a mostly white neighborhood in a mostly white country.

Why this may be news is beyond me.

Chocolate City, a legacy of the violence in the 60s and 70s, is thankfully mostly over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

Why is she still around? She has the views of some Barry-era relic even though she’s not from DC. Didn’t she get her kid into Wilson by going around the lottery?

I think she would be happier being principal of Roosevelt, Coolidge, Dunbar, etc., given how much she complains about ward 3 parents. More disturbing to me, none of my kids teachers seem to like her or feel she is helpful to them.

+1.

Ward 3 parents should stop paying DC income taxes until our kids are taken seriously.

No taxation without representation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't ask the question at all. By implication, I guess your answer is there aren't enough white families in DC to effectively integrate schools outside of the areas that they actually live, and even in those areas the overall numbers of white students are not high. Assuming "integration" remains your goal (and I'd volunteer that "integration" as a goal is actually a red herring if you care about education) -- your solution is...?

Not sure which PP you're responding to, but I don't think the issue is identical for every area of the city and every school. For example, many Ward 6 elementary schools are admirably integrated, as white families are willing to send their kids to neighborhood schools; so are some charters. The issue there is integration of the MS and HS. Any place white parents are opting out of their feeder pattern is an issue to be addressed (if you care about diversity!). And, it can't be addressed by just calling white parents racist (I'm looking at you Nikole Hannah Jones). You have to proactively bring in the UMC families with programming and engagement. At the same time, some Ward 6 elementary schools still to not reflect the neighborhood except in PK (Payne, Miner, JOW, Tyler, eventually Amidon-Bowen.) That's also a diversity issue to be addressed through engaging white parents productively. A thornier issue is re-zoning overcrowded HS and MS like Deal and Wilson. There, white parents are basically totally against "losing" what they think they have the right to. I'm not sure how to deal with that issue. Where integration doesn't seem to be an answer is the all-black high at-risk schools in all-black neighborhoods. At-risk set aside seats in integrated schools is a partial answer; but not the whole answer. There, I don't think you can expect "integration" to do all the work.

I'm not sure this is quite what she says. Also, just FYI she is half-white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Interesting that Wilson is now white majority. Coincides with the rise in graduation rates and test scores

Wilson is not majority white, moron.

Ok Wilson isn’t 50% white but whites are the largest demographic there. It is a mostly white school in a white neighborhood. Don’t be bitter

I'm annoyed at the amount of petty racist trolling on these boards EVERY SINGLE TIME my kid's school is mentioned. Can't you people get a hobby? Really -- it seems that some people are somehow threatened by the existence of a large diverse public school. I get it -- you think only white kids are smart and can graduate or test well. OK, you've proved that you are a racist moron. Box checked. Move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't ask the question at all. By implication, I guess your answer is there aren't enough white families in DC to effectively integrate schools outside of the areas that they actually live, and even in those areas the overall numbers of white students are not high. Assuming "integration" remains your goal (and I'd volunteer that "integration" as a goal is actually a red herring if you care about education) -- your solution is...?

Not sure which PP you're responding to, but I don't think the issue is identical for every area of the city and every school. For example, many Ward 6 elementary schools are admirably integrated, as white families are willing to send their kids to neighborhood schools; so are some charters. The issue there is integration of the MS and HS. Any place white parents are opting out of their feeder pattern is an issue to be addressed (if you care about diversity!). And, it can't be addressed by just calling white parents racist (I'm looking at you Nikole Hannah Jones). You have to proactively bring in the UMC families with programming and engagement. At the same time, some Ward 6 elementary schools still to not reflect the neighborhood except in PK (Payne, Miner, JOW, Tyler, eventually Amidon-Bowen.) That's also a diversity issue to be addressed through engaging white parents productively. A thornier issue is re-zoning overcrowded HS and MS like Deal and Wilson. There, white parents are basically totally against "losing" what they think they have the right to. I'm not sure how to deal with that issue. Where integration doesn't seem to be an answer is the all-black high at-risk schools in all-black neighborhoods. At-risk set aside seats in integrated schools is a partial answer; but not the whole answer. There, I don't think you can expect "integration" to do all the work.

I'm not sure this is quite what she says. Also, just FYI she is half-white.

Sure, I am exaggerating a bit, but it seems to be one of her main tropes. Here's one quote: "In fact, Hannah-Jones concluded, “We’ve decided that separate but equal is OK. We sustain the system here in New Haven and all over the country,” she said. “You can’t leave here and ignore that you’re making a choice. Ride a few blocks over to a segregated black and Latino school, walk in there and see what it looks like. And ask yourself if you can make that choice. If you don’t, just admit it: You don’t actually believe in equality at all.”

https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/school_segregation_nikole_hannah-jones/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

I did read the newsletters. Saying that she's concerned about shrinking boundaries because of the segregating effect that would have is not the same thing as calling ward 3 parents entitled and annoying. The fact that you take "entitled and annoying" from that concern makes me think that you may have an entitled and annoying attitude. The school boundaries are what our (all of our) elected officials have determined them to be. Literally by definition upper NW parents aren't any more entitled to have their kids attend Wilson than any other group currently part of the feeder structure. You assume that you are more entitled based on proximity, but by definition you are not. If you would like to enshrine some "more entitled" status into the rules, you're welcome to lobby elected officials for that, but that's a political argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

I did read the newsletters. Saying that she's concerned about shrinking boundaries because of the segregating effect that would have is not the same thing as calling ward 3 parents entitled and annoying. The fact that you take "entitled and annoying" from that concern makes me think that you may have an entitled and annoying attitude. The school boundaries are what our (all of our) elected officials have determined them to be. Literally by definition upper NW parents aren't any more entitled to have their kids attend Wilson than any other group currently part of the feeder structure. You assume that you are more entitled based on proximity, but by definition you are not. If you would like to enshrine some "more entitled" status into the rules, you're welcome to lobby elected officials for that, but that's a political argument.

I have low tolerance for people on DCUM complaining about specific administrators & teachers, but she doesn't seem like she's that great. Why would she be taking positions on hot-button issues like boundaries in monthly school newsletters? Her job as principal is to guide discussion and make sure all voices are heard, at least in the beginning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

I did read the newsletters. Saying that she's concerned about shrinking boundaries because of the segregating effect that would have is not the same thing as calling ward 3 parents entitled and annoying. The fact that you take "entitled and annoying" from that concern makes me think that you may have an entitled and annoying attitude. The school boundaries are what our (all of our) elected officials have determined them to be. Literally by definition upper NW parents aren't any more entitled to have their kids attend Wilson than any other group currently part of the feeder structure. You assume that you are more entitled based on proximity, but by definition you are not. If you would like to enshrine some "more entitled" status into the rules, you're welcome to lobby elected officials for that, but that's a political argument.

I have low tolerance for people on DCUM complaining about specific administrators & teachers, but she doesn't seem like she's that great. Why would she be taking positions on hot-button issues like boundaries in monthly school newsletters? Her job as principal is to guide discussion and make sure all voices are heard, at least in the beginning.

Her job is relentlessly to drive academic quality and educational achievement higher. If she wants to advocate her private political views, then she should leave DCPS and try punditry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wilson may be “diverse” but for the most part, the white kids and the black kids do not socialise together. There is some mixing but not as much as you would expect. I don’t think you can force this stuff. Also, the principal seems to hate that Wilson is supposedly a neighborhood school as she is always complaining about all the entitled white kids. She keeps wanting to create more on-level (not challenging) classes for the lowest performing kids and has no interest in more advanced options for kids who need more than what Wilson is offering.

Much of what you wrote is just not true.
Signed, current Wilson parent

Another Wilson parent here and I don’t think it is wrong at all. Principal has communicated many times that she has no issues with overcrowding as she wants Wilson to be open to students from all wards. That is not her decision to make. Wilson is supposed to be a neighborhood school. She often refers to the ward 3 parents as annoying and entitled. I don’t think that is cool.

No, Wilson is supposed to comply with feeder and boundary policies set by our elected officials, which the schools is doing. Nowhere is it written that Wilson is "supposed to be a neighborhood school."

Also, in what context does the Wilson principal "often refer to ward 3 parents as entitled and annoying"? I've never heard that, and I can't imagine in what situation I would heard that. Did you just pull that out of your @ss?

Nope. I read all her newsletters from August to December and she is always scolding the neighborhood parents. Do you read them? She pretty much said that overcrowding is not something she wants to do anything about as she does not want to reduce the number of AA kids at the school. Also, that other principals always tell her that they would never want to be at Wilson because of the annoying and hyper parents, etc.

I did read the newsletters. Saying that she's concerned about shrinking boundaries because of the segregating effect that would have is not the same thing as calling ward 3 parents entitled and annoying. The fact that you take "entitled and annoying" from that concern makes me think that you may have an entitled and annoying attitude. The school boundaries are what our (all of our) elected officials have determined them to be. Literally by definition upper NW parents aren't any more entitled to have their kids attend Wilson than any other group currently part of the feeder structure. You assume that you are more entitled based on proximity, but by definition you are not. If you would like to enshrine some "more entitled" status into the rules, you're welcome to lobby elected officials for that, but that's a political argument.

I have low tolerance for people on DCUM complaining about specific administrators & teachers, but she doesn't seem like she's that great. Why would she be taking positions on hot-button issues like boundaries in monthly school newsletters? Her job as principal is to guide discussion and make sure all voices are heard, at least in the beginning.

Her job is relentlessly to drive academic quality and educational achievement higher. If she wants to advocate her private political views, then she should leave DCPS and try punditry.

This.

But she's doing a quite poor job at it, and she knows it, so she prefers to distract our attention by raising other topics that have little to do with the school.

Next time she'll whine about colonialism and the English language.

[Anonymous]

The Principal's opinion about the segregating effect of trimming Wilson's boundaries does not change the FACT that trimming the boundaries is the most logical, effective way to relieving the overcrowding at Wilson (and Deal). Rather, her opinion (shared by many, obviously), should lead one to consider WHICH boundaries should be trimmed. Therefore, if increasing the percentage of "white" students at Wilson is a significant concern when discussing the prospect of boundary review (as it obviously is for her, and many others), then what you have to do is trim the number of white students with access to Wilson, as part of the boundary review process.

That's clearly hard to do when Deal is a main feeder school. Maybe what you do is trim the number of "white" elementary schools that feed into Deal, and instead send them over to Hardy. Of course, you would then have to then prevent the expanded white population at Hardy from feeding into Wilson; they would have to go somewhere else, to a different high school. Hence, the discussion about the "New Western" that crops up a lot in these boards. But a consequence of this kind of discussion is that it annoys the same people who don't want "white" people to benefit from the boundary review at Wilson, because a "New Western" would be perceived as giving the White People something they don't deserve.

In the end, everyone simply needs to cooperate and stop being so hung up on race, IF overcrowding at Deal and Wilson is a problem that needs to be addressed. Otherwise, the problem just keeps getting worse and worse.