School Within a School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SWS has been separarte from Peabody for ten years - the sibling preference of the original white famillies is not the reason for the school's continued lack of racial diversity.

The 4th and 5th grade has a ton of youngest siblings of IB peabody families who had the preference. 3rd and below looks a lot different. The PK3/PK4 has a ton of Black children and FWIW, from talking to their parents they all seem very happy.

This is absolutely true, plus 5th grade is half the size of 4th enrollment. The number of upper ES kids connected to Peabody/Cluster boundary is small. Those families have mostly aged out. The younger grades are far more diverse.

This feels contradictory. If it is only the 4th and 5th grades that retain the Peabody preference siblings (and thus, by your logic, tend to be whiter), and the 5th grade class is small, why is the school still 60% white? If PK3-3rd is diverse, this would be reflected in the numbers, right?

I'm the PP who originally brought this up and this conversation is why I say no one has ever sufficiently explained this to me. The Peabody connection really cannot explain on its own why the school has remained so white. I think blaming it on Peabody and sibling preference at this point sort of proves why this is an issue -- if 10 years on, the school is still so predominantly white, that it really looks like the community has not tried that hard to diversify. It also raises the question as to why this weird DCPS school (remember SWS is not a charter) exists to essentially serve a small, affluent, white community. Particularly when so few SWS students go on to Stuart Hobson.

It just gives me an unpleasant impression. I'm sure everyone there is well meaning, but this seems bad.

[Anonymous]

Great news guys, this is totally fixable! All DCPS has to do is give SWS an at-risk preference just like at Stevens Early Learning Center. Ta-da!

[Anonymous]

Obvious reason SWS is so white. The hippie leanings of admins and the curriculum aren’t to the taste of many parents of color, regardless of SES. That’s been true from the get go at SWS. The kids do art like crazy. Black parents tend to want more traditional academics. Same tendency with immigrant parents regardless of race. Not all non-white parents are out off by the SWS curriculum of course, but that’s been the trend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SWS has been separarte from Peabody for ten years - the sibling preference of the original white famillies is not the reason for the school's continued lack of racial diversity.

The 4th and 5th grade has a ton of youngest siblings of IB peabody families who had the preference. 3rd and below looks a lot different. The PK3/PK4 has a ton of Black children and FWIW, from talking to their parents they all seem very happy.

This is absolutely true, plus 5th grade is half the size of 4th enrollment. The number of upper ES kids connected to Peabody/Cluster boundary is small. Those families have mostly aged out. The younger grades are far more diverse.

This feels contradictory. If it is only the 4th and 5th grades that retain the Peabody preference siblings (and thus, by your logic, tend to be whiter), and the 5th grade class is small, why is the school still 60% white? If PK3-3rd is diverse, this would be reflected in the numbers, right?

I'm the PP who originally brought this up and this conversation is why I say no one has ever sufficiently explained this to me. The Peabody connection really cannot explain on its own why the school has remained so white. I think blaming it on Peabody and sibling preference at this point sort of proves why this is an issue -- if 10 years on, the school is still so predominantly white, that it really looks like the community has not tried that hard to diversify. It also raises the question as to why this weird DCPS school (remember SWS is not a charter) exists to essentially serve a small, affluent, white community. Particularly when so few SWS students go on to Stuart Hobson.

It just gives me an unpleasant impression. I'm sure everyone there is well meaning, but this seems bad.

There's nothing contradictory. 4/5 is about 1/6 of overall enrollment. Some of those families have younger siblings too. There's not high turnover until 5th and even then it doesn't equal new seats. It takes time for EC/lower ES spaces to open. It's a small school Those spaces are gradually being filled by more diverse families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SWS has been separarte from Peabody for ten years - the sibling preference of the original white famillies is not the reason for the school's continued lack of racial diversity.

The 4th and 5th grade has a ton of youngest siblings of IB peabody families who had the preference. 3rd and below looks a lot different. The PK3/PK4 has a ton of Black children and FWIW, from talking to their parents they all seem very happy.

This is absolutely true, plus 5th grade is half the size of 4th enrollment. The number of upper ES kids connected to Peabody/Cluster boundary is small. Those families have mostly aged out. The younger grades are far more diverse.

This feels contradictory. If it is only the 4th and 5th grades that retain the Peabody preference siblings (and thus, by your logic, tend to be whiter), and the 5th grade class is small, why is the school still 60% white? If PK3-3rd is diverse, this would be reflected in the numbers, right?

I'm the PP who originally brought this up and this conversation is why I say no one has ever sufficiently explained this to me. The Peabody connection really cannot explain on its own why the school has remained so white. I think blaming it on Peabody and sibling preference at this point sort of proves why this is an issue -- if 10 years on, the school is still so predominantly white, that it really looks like the community has not tried that hard to diversify. It also raises the question as to why this weird DCPS school (remember SWS is not a charter) exists to essentially serve a small, affluent, white community. Particularly when so few SWS students go on to Stuart Hobson.

It just gives me an unpleasant impression. I'm sure everyone there is well meaning, but this seems bad.

It's really not that big a mystery. DC's black child population is 56%, so based on that alone, the school isn't that far off from the population citywide. The neighborhoods surrounding and accessible to SWS have a much higher population of white children than the city overall, so that's one factor. SWS's location is not particularly metro accessible, and there are a ton of charters in the surrounding wards, so people have a lot of more accessible options, with a lot longer runway than SWS, which doesn't have a great middle school feed. Plus the 4th and 5th grade have legacy inbound preference. All of those combined result in the school's demographics, which as stated above, are a lot more diverse in the lower grades.

Your ignorance of the school is really showing given that you think there's some vast racist conspiracy going on. SWS leans hard into diversity, equity and inclusion.

It is surprising for a school with no IB preference given the demographics of nearby elementariness like Ludlow-Taylor, JO Wilson, Miner, Payne, Tyler, etc. The demographics of the neighborhood explain the populations at Peabody, Brent, and Maury. But the Hill itself, and adjoining neighborhoods, is still very diverse. There is no obvious reason to me why more families from these other schools, including the many, many, POC families there, would not be putting SWS on their lottery list. Look at the demographics at Capital Hill Montessori at Logan and Two Rivers. SWS is an outlier for this kind of school in this neighborhood.

It's interesting to hear that it was as much as 80-90% white when the school started. I'm glad they've gotten more diverse with time but wow -- how that must have looked (and felt) when they created SWS. I now understand some of the racial politics at the Hill Cluster school a little better. We have friends there and some of the drama in the last few years has been weird to me based on my own DCPS experience. But no wonder there is so much tension. Basically a bunch of white families got together and created a special little school for themselves. I cannot even imagine.

Nice try, troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, Charles Allen’s kids do not attend.

For many political reasons, DCPS does not care what SWS does. Pros and cons to that.

The legacy white thing based on the school’s history is real. I wasn’t there and can’t speak to whether the racial divide was intentional, but it certainly was the result. My kids are much older now but when we joined the administration was very vocal about preferring families with a stay at home parent because the school, at least at the time, depended heavily on parent volunteers and made it very very difficult for working moms. Not overtly racial, but not low-income friendly for sure.

That said, I agree with others who have commented that a lot of this has changed over the years.

I’m sure Chuck sends his kids somewhere else that’s pretty fancy.

Uh …. they’re at JO Wilson. Allen is a lot of things (apologist for criminals, for example) but he’s using a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great news guys, this is totally fixable! All DCPS has to do is give SWS an at-risk preference just like at Stevens Early Learning Center. Ta-da!

This should happen at all high performing schools, especially those in Ward 3 where students would have a feed through Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SWS has been separarte from Peabody for ten years - the sibling preference of the original white famillies is not the reason for the school's continued lack of racial diversity.

The 4th and 5th grade has a ton of youngest siblings of IB peabody families who had the preference. 3rd and below looks a lot different. The PK3/PK4 has a ton of Black children and FWIW, from talking to their parents they all seem very happy.

+1 POC family here and we’re very happy with the school.

Also a very happy POC family here. There definitely is a difference between the upper and lower grades in terms of diversity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, Charles Allen’s kids do not attend.

For many political reasons, DCPS does not care what SWS does. Pros and cons to that.

The legacy white thing based on the school’s history is real. I wasn’t there and can’t speak to whether the racial divide was intentional, but it certainly was the result. My kids are much older now but when we joined the administration was very vocal about preferring families with a stay at home parent because the school, at least at the time, depended heavily on parent volunteers and made it very very difficult for working moms. Not overtly racial, but not low-income friendly for sure.

That said, I agree with others who have commented that a lot of this has changed over the years.

I’m sure Chuck sends his kids somewhere else that’s pretty fancy.

Not anymore. His daughter was at JO but they moved his daughter to Ludlow few years ago
Uh …. they’re at JO Wilson. Allen is a lot of things (apologist for criminals, for example) but he’s using a neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, Charles Allen’s kids do not attend.

For many political reasons, DCPS does not care what SWS does. Pros and cons to that.

The legacy white thing based on the school’s history is real. I wasn’t there and can’t speak to whether the racial divide was intentional, but it certainly was the result. My kids are much older now but when we joined the administration was very vocal about preferring families with a stay at home parent because the school, at least at the time, depended heavily on parent volunteers and made it very very difficult for working moms. Not overtly racial, but not low-income friendly for sure.

That said, I agree with others who have commented that a lot of this has changed over the years.

I’m sure Chuck sends his kids somewhere else that’s pretty fancy.

Uh …. they’re at JO Wilson. Allen is a lot of things (apologist for criminals, for example) but he’s using a neighborhood school.

Charles Allen’s kids both go to L-T now. I think they actually moved IB for the school when his son was in PK4. The kids attended JOW and Miner, respectively, before lotterying into L-T over a couple of years (they used to live IB for Miner).

[Anonymous]

Seriously people this thread is beyond ridiculous. Yes, SWS’s history is more than uncomfortable with respect to race but at the moment they are probably one of the most woke schools out there. They teach California math. Their “holiday concert” consists of no mainstream songs that are played on the radio. If you are extremely progressive you will find friends at SWS. It is hardly the conservative enclave that people on this forum describe it to be.

We left because we found the curriculum unchallenging and not meeting the needs of our children. We found the catering to medicated and disruptive kids, at the expense of well behaved kids who showed up to learn, nauseating. This is the one thing that has not changed, even while the culture has. I fail to understand why so many parents do not focus on that. But seriously if you love sws, more power to you! If you “lost” on the lottery, please don’t lose sleep bc it is not all that. It is mainly a place to avoid miner, Payne, etc.

[Anonymous]

Great post, PP above. We couldn't agree more.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seriously people this thread is beyond ridiculous. Yes, SWS’s history is more than uncomfortable with respect to race but at the moment they are probably one of the most woke schools out there. They teach California math. Their “holiday concert” consists of no mainstream songs that are played on the radio. If you are extremely progressive you will find friends at SWS. It is hardly the conservative enclave that people on this forum describe it to be.

We left because we found the curriculum unchallenging and not meeting the needs of our children. We found the catering to medicated and disruptive kids, at the expense of well behaved kids who showed up to learn, nauseating. This is the one thing that has not changed, even while the culture has. I fail to understand why so many parents do not focus on that. But seriously if you love sws, more power to you! If you “lost” on the lottery, please don’t lose sleep bc it is not all that. It is mainly a place to avoid miner, Payne, etc.

I love, love, love that these things are the measure of wokeness in SWS parents' eyes.

[Anonymous]

Huh? I don’t get the post above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Huh? I don’t get the post above.

Because it’s mindless trolling.