Piggybacking on Obama's remarks....

[Anonymous]

09:43...umm...if Deal were a magnet school it would mean testing in, right? So you don't need to worry about your kids mixing with kids who might take the teaching down a notch...as for the money from DCPS, well, many physical improvements have taken place across town but the facts support that in many upper NW facilities the money spent is about a great deal less per sq. ft than across town. Also, consider that Wilson kids are housed in decent quarters at the university during renovation, while Anacostia kids have to learn in the same building where the demo, dust, and construction takes place. You've been served...

[Anonymous]

21:43 here...sorry, the $$ per sq. foot is much HIGHER in NW, and LOWER across town

[Anonymous]

http://www.21csf.org/csf%2Dhome/images/Comparison-of-DCPS-Cap-Spending-GSF-Ward-2000-06-and-07-09_large.gif

[Anonymous]

14:49: I'm a liberal, and quite pleased with Obama's remarks. He was candid, honest and didn't kiss the ass of Michelle Rhee like every other entertainment seeker does (now that she's a movie star, "acting" in a film). Bush deserved a lot of criticism for taking a United America after 9/11 and allowing his henchmen to twist us into a vengeful war on Iraq to please Papa Bush's peeps. Anyway, Obama is absolutely right, the average DCPS can't possibly offer what a good private can today.

[Anonymous]

Um, so all those people who think Obama was dinging Michelle Rhee? Don't you realize that he was speaking at events sponsored by NBC focused on "education nation" that were planned and timed to occur the two weeks following the release of Waiting for Superman? And that Rhee has a lot of support from the Sec of Education, Duncan? And that Duncan's people are the ones who briefed the President for his appearance to talk about schools? Don't you see how this is all connected? This isn't a knock on Rhee - their further messaging is that Rhee has done what she could with a bad system and we need to keep pushing more and more reforms.

Listen, say what you will about Rhee and he poor people skills and her mis-steps. But if you think DCPS isn't BETTER now (whether from her or as the Rhee haters like to say the hard work of the people who came before her) DCPS is a hell of a lot better, overall, than it was in the past. When I moved to DC, pre-kids, schools weren't opening on time to start the school year because they weren't ready, or when they did open on time there were no books, teachers were hired without being paid for months...it was chaos and disorganization and no one was accountable.

[Anonymous]

@21:43 Not all magnet schools use the "testing in" philosophy. Many use a lottery approach, often weighted by race and sex to ensure the magnet school looks like the community it serves. That kind of approach would certainly alter the face of Deal.

For what it's worth, even magnet schools that simply use a lottery approach still do much better than the average public school in their community, because only children with parents who care enough about the child's education to enter them in the lottery are even in the pool...it is the parent caring about education that makes the biggest difference. (I was told this by the principal of a magnet school that operated using the lottery weighted by race and sex system to populate its classes.)

[Anonymous]

Obama is just terrible on education, as bad or worse that Bush.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're pissed off that I pointed out the basic educational fact that socio-economic demographics greatly influence the quality of a school? I think it is horrible that only 20% of kids in SE are proficient in reading and writing, but moving them to Deal isn't going to fix that.

And the claim that upper NW schools are better because they get more money or better treatment from DCPS is just really not supported by the facts.

Oh, and BTW, facts are different from "rhetoric."

Who is talking about SE. Why do people on this forum think that there are only two wards in this city, eight and three. There are six other wards. If you read the post correctly, it has nothing to do with socio-economic influence and more about what DCPS offers to Deal students and deny to students in the remaining wards. Please name another middle school in the city that offer small insular academies, state of the art science facilities, and multiple selections of foreign language classes. And before you spout that Deal students deserve more because their parents pay more taxes, think again. There are parents with high HHI residing in every ward of the city. They may not necessarily have the generational wealth of many in ward 3, but they have worked and climbed the income ladder and thus pay equal, if not more, on income taxes as many in ward 3.

[Anonymous]

Rhee has done nothing to level the playing field among the wards. If she were really the warrior she thinks she is the high performing teachers at great schools should have been placed in the struggling schools to make a point, and put the 1st year TFA types in the schools who so many claim do well by the nature of the Socio Economic level, after all they don't need great teachers if their success is so assured. And as for Obama, if he were such a fan of Rhee's he wouldn't hesitate to mention her by name. I've never heard the words "Michelle Rhee" or "Chancellor Rhee" or "Rhee" uttered from his lips. You've never heard Michelle Obama, who has been intimately involved with DCPS kids since her arrival, mention Michelle Rhee, either, a glaring ommission.