Has anyone decided to give up on DCPS and move to Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When we first moved to the area almost two years ago, our realtor wouldn't even show us homes in DC, assuring us that the schools were so bad it would be irresponsible for us to move there with three kids, so we bought in Alexandria. After a year we couldn't stand it and moved to DC. Our children attended Fairfax schools and they were really mediocre. I know there are great fairfax schools, but there are also average and below average fairfax schools. The driving, weird social politics, and lawn care bills! That's just my experience, but I would never leave DC for Virginia or Maryland, even Arlington.

It seems really odd to me that you would let someone (who was obviously under-informed) make this decision for you, though I guess I'm glad you were able to recover from the bad advice.

I'm guessing you've never moved across the country to an area where you know no one and in spite of months of research, and two house hunting visits, could find little consistent information about the various and extremely diverse areas. If I ever have to do it again, I will definitely rent first. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that the Washington DC area is culturally complex, and outside of this forum, too politically correct to give anyone the real skinny on what the differences are between Nova, Md, and DC. No, I don't let people make decisions for me thank you very much. But for the tens of thousands of dollars a realtor makes off your purchase, I would hope they would give you SOME advice.

[Anonymous]

Even JKLM don't compare to the good suburban ES on test scores. Others can refine this, but broadly speaking it's sort of like the DCPS star ES have 90% proficient at grade level and 25-35% operating above grade level. The strong suburban ES schools have 90+% testing above grade level. And have expensive houses, of course.

That's a silly comparison. Even the JKLM schools have a sizable out-of-boundary population. If the "strong suburban ES schools" were required to carry 15-20% of poor and disadvantaged students the test scores would be adversely affected, but the educational experience to the middle-class child would be the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate agents should never tell you where to live based on school performance. This is called steering. It's illegal and should be reported to the real estate commission.

Agree agree agree. As someone whoever works in housing oversight, that comment made me cringe.

What? Are you sure about this? One of the main reasons people use real estate agencies is to find them a house inside a particular school zone - a good school zone.

Are you confusing school issues with this:

"Racial steering refers to the practice in which real estate brokers guide prospective home buyers towards or away from certain neighborhoods based on their race. Racial steering is often divided into two broad classes of conduct; Advising customers to purchase homes in particular neighborhoods on the basis of race. Failing, on the basis of race, to show, or to inform buyers of homes that meet their specifications.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I assume OP means those not attending JKLM, Deal... Because those scools are as good and for many kids better than anything in VA. Plus, in VA you will be cheek and jowl with the very worst elements of GOP/teabag/racists. If that is something you are comfortable with, then we're well rid of you here in DCPS.

Is this something you would say if OP asked you the same question, say,...on the playground: "then we're well rid of you here in DCPS." Your answer makes many assumptions and is simply rude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Even JKLM don't compare to the good suburban ES on test scores. Others can refine this, but broadly speaking it's sort of like the DCPS star ES have 90% proficient at grade level and 25-35% operating above grade level. The strong suburban ES schools have 90+% testing above grade level. And have expensive houses, of course.

That's a silly comparison. Even the JKLM schools have a sizable out-of-boundary population. If the "strong suburban ES schools" were required to carry 15-20% of poor and disadvantaged students the test scores would be adversely affected, but the educational experience to the middle-class child would be the same.

Some OOB yes, sizable no. I am a JKLM parent, 15-20% of the student population is not OOB, let alone poor and disadvantaged. Not all OOB students are poor and disadvantaged. Most of the them have parents who live OOB but have the wherewithal to move them into a good school and transport them too and fro every day, so I would not say disadvantaged at all really. Also, DC housing also is expensive, I do not think people stay in DC for the bargain housing.

That said, I think that the education my DD is getting is very good at her JKLM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate agents should never tell you where to live based on school performance. This is called steering. It's illegal and should be reported to the real estate commission.

Agree agree agree. As someone whoever works in housing oversight, that comment made me cringe.

That's ridiculous. Steering that is based on race is illegal. Asking to be shown houses in good school districts is not illegal, and is just responsibel parenting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate agents should never tell you where to live based on school performance. This is called steering. It's illegal and should be reported to the real estate commission.

Agree agree agree. As someone whoever works in housing oversight, that comment made me cringe.

That's ridiculous. Steering that is based on race is illegal. Asking to be shown houses in good school districts is not illegal, and is just responsibel parenting.

Sure the realtor used "schools" as a reference but let's be honest we all know that all too often the poorest performing schools are in the areas with the hghest minority representation. I know the agent knows the law and interjects words like "schools" to remain legal. These are the same agents that don't even know there are good charter options...he may not even know about jklm. People like that are a dime a dozen, I meet them all the time. They look at me with sympathy when I tell them I live in DC and wonder how I made it to work alive. They live 20 miles from DC but are ignorant to the happenings in DC. All they know is that DC is a scary place (prob more so because it's high percentage black) and less on actual facts....ok sorry I'm getting off base.

You'd be surprised to know the workarounds of breaking actual laws such as steering and redlining. It happens all the time. So while I said it made me cringe, you notice I didn't say I was opening an investigation. That's because I know there's nothing I can do about it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate agents should never tell you where to live based on school performance. This is called steering. It's illegal and should be reported to the real estate commission.

Agree agree agree. As someone whoever works in housing oversight, that comment made me cringe.

That's ridiculous. Steering that is based on race is illegal. Asking to be shown houses in good school districts is not illegal, and is just responsibel parenting.

Sure the realtor used "schools" as a reference but let's be honest we all know that all too often the poorest performing schools are in the areas with the hghest minority representation. I know the agent knows the law and interjects words like "schools" to remain legal. These are the same agents that don't even know there are good charter options...he may not even know about jklm. People like that are a dime a dozen, I meet them all the time. They look at me with sympathy when I tell them I live in DC and wonder how I made it to work alive. They live 20 miles from DC but are ignorant to the happenings in DC. All they know is that DC is a scary place (prob more so because it's high percentage black) and less on actual facts....ok sorry I'm getting off base.

You'd be surprised to know the workarounds of breaking actual laws such as steering and redlining. It happens all the time. So while I said it made me cringe, you notice I didn't say I was opening an investigation. That's because I know there's nothing I can do about it.

Boy are you reading a lot into that realtor's advice. A large percentage of schools in DC are crappy and they were not better a couple of years ago. Also, there are no guarantees of getting into a great charter so a realtor should not be saying that is an option you can count on. Perhaps that realtor went overboard on her description of DCPS and was not knowledgeable about the ins and outs, but if you are looked to for good advice for public schools most people who do not have kids in the systems are not knowledgeable about what is good and bad and would veer towards NoVA or MoCo (but likely not Alexandria, that is a little odd). DCPS is an urban school district and there is nothing racist about stating that fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real estate agents should never tell you where to live based on school performance. This is called steering. It's illegal and should be reported to the real estate commission.

Agree agree agree. As someone whoever works in housing oversight, that comment made me cringe.

That's ridiculous. Steering that is based on race is illegal. Asking to be shown houses in good school districts is not illegal, and is just responsibel parenting.

Sure the realtor used "schools" as a reference but let's be honest we all know that all too often the poorest performing schools are in the areas with the hghest minority representation. I know the agent knows the law and interjects words like "schools" to remain legal. These are the same agents that don't even know there are good charter options...he may not even know about jklm. People like that are a dime a dozen, I meet them all the time. They look at me with sympathy when I tell them I live in DC and wonder how I made it to work alive. They live 20 miles from DC but are ignorant to the happenings in DC. All they know is that DC is a scary place (prob more so because it's high percentage black) and less on actual facts....ok sorry I'm getting off base.

You'd be surprised to know the workarounds of breaking actual laws such as steering and redlining. It happens all the time. So while I said it made me cringe, you notice I didn't say I was opening an investigation. That's because I know there's nothing I can do about it.

Boy are you reading a lot into that realtor's advice. A large percentage of schools in DC are crappy and they were not better a couple of years ago. Also, there are no guarantees of getting into a great charter so a realtor should not be saying that is an option you can count on. Perhaps that realtor went overboard on her description of DCPS and was not knowledgeable about the ins and outs, but if you are looked to for good advice for public schools most people who do not have kids in the systems are not knowledgeable about what is good and bad and would veer towards NoVA or MoCo (but likely not Alexandria, that is a little odd). DCPS is an urban school district and there is nothing racist about stating that fact.

But the realtor didn't just give advice - the pp wrote that the realtor REFUSED to show them houses in DC - IMO that's totally different than just giving advice about schools.

[Anonymous]

@21:20 exactly!

[Anonymous]

But the question (a total sideline from the topic) is whether the realtor's statements re the schools are racist. Uninformed yes, but racist? Are suburban residents that are scared of the big city racists or just idiots?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the question (a total sideline from the topic) is whether the realtor's statements re the schools are racist. Uninformed yes, but racist? Are suburban residents that are scared of the big city racists or just idiots?

Sadly, a little bit of both. I too have coworkers that commute as far as WV and look down their noses on DC residents thinking it's nothing but a butch of hoodlums and Marion Berry style crackheads. Unfortunately, a lot of it stems from racial stereotypes. Racist probably isn't the right term, more like prejudice.

[Anonymous]

I think it can just be hard for some folks to deal with diversity economic, racial whatever. I had a friend who worked in the city lived in Alexandria and then moved way out past Ashburn and is a SAHM. She said that it was such a relief not to come into the city because she felt constant hostility whether it was the crazy homeless guy by her work, terrible drivers especially cab drivers and issues that were at work. Some people are just not able to go with the flow. I know that when I visit home a much smaller place I annoy people because I am always trying to connect out. It may be that certain personality types work best in different areas.

[Anonymous]

Agree with pp for most points...but in all honesty, 90% of the hostile drivers in DC have VA or MD plates...mostly VA in downtown. They should be banned from driving in the city. Even the cab drivers that drop of fares from VA and MD account for crazy drivers. Now the metro bus drivers, I'll assume most of them live in MD (lol).

[Anonymous]

Just fucking move already. You can't afford to live in the JKLMM school districts, DC is not for you. I'm tired of people acting like DC is the 7th gate of hell.