Basic urban planning, child development and evidence-based practice ignored in "policy options"

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, have you submitted these questions in writing to osse? I think you should. Who are the right people to send comments and questions to on these matters?

This process is being run by the Deputy Mayor for Education.

Thanks Jeff. This is a key point. Since Gray lost the primary, both he and the DME are walking lame ducks, and this "process" is going nowhere. What will be most interesting is how Muriel and Catania propose to solve the issues on the table.

[Anonymous]

And will Chancellor Henderson stay on? There are so many moving pieces here i need my own algorithm.

[Anonymous]

Something like only 25% of kids attend their in-boundary school. Many parents send their 11 year olds across town on public transportation to attend school. I'm not a fan of the controlled choice scenarios, but arguments against it need to be based in the realities of all families in DC, not just the Ward 3 bubble.

I do think the ideal toward which DCPS should strive is a system of neighborhood schools with limited OOB placement, for those families that choose so. Most of the strongest school districts follow this basic model. The right question to ask in my mind is how does DCPS get there.

I also think it's important to keep in mind that while only 25% of students may attend their in boundary school, they likely have good reason for doing so, whether it's the school community or limited commuting options. Similarly, most families do not pick schools other than their out-of-boundary school with no consideration of location. How close the school is obviously matters and is taken into consideration by the controlled choice scenario, but also is the school on public transportation, on the way to work, near grandma's house, carpooling with neighbors, etc.

Finally, I really dislike the "controlled choice" name for that scenario. From my perspective, as a family happy with the in boundary school, it takes away the guarantee of my first choice to replace it with greater uncertainty. Who benefits from this scenario, and does their benefit outweigh all of the families who dislike "controlled choice"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The logistics would be a mess.

Also--as some people have already pointed out, and I think it is a huge deal--what does it do to a community when kids who live on the same block all go to different schools?

Many communities like this in DC already.

They were, but they are turning around (yes, I used the taboo term "turning around"), with more and more families making the leap to trust their neighborhood elementary, but also rally together and be involved. Families on their evening stroll EOTP NW stopping to chat about upcoming school events and volunteer opportunities, right now often with babies so young they didn't even enter this latest lottery. This would all be wasted, and everyone will take a step back from caring, if we destroy the neighborhood school certainty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something like only 25% of kids attend their in-boundary school. Many parents send their 11 year olds across town on public transportation to attend school. I'm not a fan of the controlled choice scenarios, but arguments against it need to be based in the realities of all families in DC, not just the Ward 3 bubble.

something to consider -- currently, families who send their 11 year olds across town for school do it out of choice and/or the luck of the lottery draw. Schools haven't been imposed on them except to the extent they were unlucky in the lottery. Ward 3 and certain parts of Capitol hill are exceptions to this, and as parents from those areas will tell you, they worked hard to make their neighborhood schools desirable for their families.

[Anonymous]

My SN kid can't go to school on the subway. We moved close to our school so she can walk. Will the city provide buses?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here, and thanks to Jeff for reminding folks of the players involved. As I said, I believe the scope of what's been proposed is beyond the planning capacity of a Deputy Mayor of Education an and education think tank. I know the Urban Institute well, and while some branches of it would be well suited to analyze the effects of a far-reaching proposal like the ones floated here, I don't think they are involved in this process. I still maintain that a wholesale redistribution of students across the city needs careful study not just by education analysts and community members, but by people who will question the impacts from very different lines of thinking--such as traffic flow, public transportation, tax base, property values, and what has truly been proven to remediate the achievement gap for kids from disadvantaged backgrounds (apart from increasing access to high quality early education, which, to DC's credit, we do great in).

I see little in these proposals that answers these questions, and I plan to attend the public meetings to ask them.

I suspect that the Urban Institute has a bias towards "efficiency" as a public policy goal, which predisposes it to advocate for market-based solutions with "choice" in their title ...

[Anonymous]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/dc-releases-proposed-school-boundaries-and-far-reaching-student-assignment-policies/2014/04/05/368521e0-bc46-11e3-96ae-f2c36d2b1245_story.html

Interesting that "A" is the only one that has current in boundary numbers [potential to attend], in-boundary attending, building capacity, etc. There are no projections for out years. There should be an addendum with attendance locations [OOB, charter, private] of in-boundary not attending the DCPS by right school based on place of residence.

What is the budget for DCPS to administer this elaborate maze? Any cost projections for the scenarios?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The logistics would be a mess.

Also--as some people have already pointed out, and I think it is a huge deal--what does it do to a community when kids who live on the same block all go to different schools?

Many communities like this in DC already.

Let me just point out, that on my block yes - of the 6 school aged kids, all 6 go to different schools. However, that being said, we are all within the same area of Ward 1/2/5/6.

No one is really driving their kids out to Wards 8, 7 or 3. They just seem like the other side of the planet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Point 1 is huge. As someone who does travel 3 miles to her school, it's a huge task every day. In a city like this we are not set up for this kind of travel, buses do not go from Ward to Ward, metro is super expensive and not close to many of the schools, so this forces parents to drive.

Right now, there are only a few parents making this horrific commute (yes, 3 miles can be about an hour each way or more daily). Imagine in 25% of the parents started taking on even 1/2 of that trip.

DCPS position - based on the data - is that this is already happening. Large proportion of kids at OOB /city wide schools. So any change would be at the margins.

but we all know there is poor data is the system. what family in upper NW is sending their child to Anacostia High School?
OTO - there are a lot if "IB" families at desireable schools that are really OOB and we know have gamed the system.

Folks - you know the discussions around would you turn in a family that you knew was cheating? Maybe now that this will impact you - your answer is different?
If you knew that there were 25 families lying about residency at Janney - and now your neighbors are going to be zoned for Hearst - does this change things?

Hearst is a great school and we would welcome families from Murch and Janney into our community.

But would you welcome kids from Walker Jones into your community?

[Anonymous]

I can't find the link at the moment, but DCPS or DME have an interactive map that shows the neighborhoods that students live for each school in the city. The desirable schools (i.e. Deal) have students from just about every neighborhood.

So to OP's #1 point....that's our current policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Point 1 is huge. As someone who does travel 3 miles to her school, it's a huge task every day. In a city like this we are not set up for this kind of travel, buses do not go from Ward to Ward, metro is super expensive and not close to many of the schools, so this forces parents to drive.

Right now, there are only a few parents making this horrific commute (yes, 3 miles can be about an hour each way or more daily). Imagine in 25% of the parents started taking on even 1/2 of that trip.

DCPS position - based on the data - is that this is already happening. Large proportion of kids at OOB /city wide schools. So any change would be at the margins.

but we all know there is poor data is the system. what family in upper NW is sending their child to Anacostia High School?
OTO - there are a lot if "IB" families at desireable schools that are really OOB and we know have gamed the system.

Folks - you know the discussions around would you turn in a family that you knew was cheating? Maybe now that this will impact you - your answer is different?
If you knew that there were 25 families lying about residency at Janney - and now your neighbors are going to be zoned for Hearst - does this change things?

Hearst is a great school and we would welcome families from Murch and Janney into our community.

But would you welcome kids from Walker Jones into your community?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something like only 25% of kids attend their in-boundary school. Many parents send their 11 year olds across town on public transportation to attend school. I'm not a fan of the controlled choice scenarios, but arguments against it need to be based in the realities of all families in DC, not just the Ward 3 bubble.

something to consider -- currently, families who send their 11 year olds across town for school do it out of choice and/or the luck of the lottery draw. Schools haven't been imposed on them except to the extent they were unlucky in the lottery. Ward 3 and certain parts of Capitol hill are exceptions to this, and as parents from those areas will tell you, they worked hard to make their neighborhood schools desirable for their families.

Ah, no. My in-bounds school was imposed on me. I worked hard to improve my IB school, but it was destroyed by a series of knuckleheaded moves by DCPS administrators. Don't go blaming me for my lack of choices.

[Anonymous]

The point is that DCPS seems to be going in the completely opposite direction of the Office of Planning and DDOT. The latter agencies for several years have been trying to discourage car use, limit parking and generally encourage walkability. The DCPS scheme completely flies in the face of that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The point is that DCPS seems to be going in the completely opposite direction of the Office of Planning and DDOT. The latter agencies for several years have been trying to discourage car use, limit parking and generally encourage walkability. The DCPS scheme completely flies in the face of that.

Great point! Some links to recent reports/presentations would be helpful too!