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Do DC Privates *really* strive for diversity?
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Anonymous
If you are the pp who posted that big 3 schools are not looking for kids of air-conditioning repairmen you are the idiot. That comment was far more offensive and insulting. The blue collar workers' children at my school are personable and intelligent and destined for greatness. |
Anonymous
I think you're ALL missing the point here. HOW would anyone know that these students are the children of "blue collar" workers? Do they walk around with labels? |
Anonymous
| The basic problem with this thread (and other similar ones) is that the folks who best know the facts (parents at DC privates) can only post generalities, which are then ridiculed or disbelieved. But the other option - to post specific personal details - would be even worse. So, apparently, no conclusion is possible. |
Anonymous
No that wasn't me. My first post was the one calling you an idiot for that insulting and offensive post about children of blue collar workers who happen to be personable and intelligent. And also saying that they are probably on FA. Your assumptions are ignorant as are you. I take it back... you are a fidiot. |
Anonymous
| I'm the idiot that said that top privates don't take kids of air-conditioning repairmen. If anything, the offense was directed at the schools, not the repairmen. The schools are playing to the test. They have to show diversity. And they managed to accomplish diversity, in a completely selective, controlled way. While you will have children of lesser means, you will rarely have a kid whose parents only have a high school education. They don't want "too much" diversity. |
Anonymous
Let's, see I know them and they aren't embarrassed by what they do for a living. And they have said without FA their kids could not attend the school. What point am I missing? |
Anonymous
I'm the other idiot. Thank you for clarifying your point about the repairmen comment. Sorry that I took the low road and didn't ask you to elaborate. I agree that the schools participate in a form of controlled diversity. Through the years I've only met one parent who told me that she only held a high school education. Nevertheless, her two eldest attended big 3s and are now college graduates. |
Anonymous
| Would US Mail carrier fall into this category? If so that is us and we will be starting K at Sidwell. Please be nice to us : ). We did get financial aid ($ 10k). We have alot of equity in our home and I assume that is why we did't get more and I'm totally fine with it. If need be we can take money out of the house. |
Anonymous
Doubtful that most will care what you do for a living or whether or not you receive FA. Good luck at Sidwell. |
Anonymous
There are studies to show that racial segregation exists at private institutions, despite the fact that these schools "strive" for diversity. It's great to encourage minority enrollment. That's only the beginning, however. I wonder just how much is done to then break down barriers once students are enrolled. What some PPs don't see in themselves is this need to label these students (FA recipients, children of blue collar workers). These parents are ultimately creating a division. In a truly diverse school, no one knows who's receiving FA, and what your parents do for a living is not necessarily common talk. ***** This is not a recent study, but the conclusion is interesting: http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu/research/deseg/private_schools02.php#fullreport Click on the pdf file at the bottom of the summary for the full report. Private School Racial Enrollments and Segregation Here are the implications of the study: From a civil rights perspective, several key points emerge from this report. First, the assumption that private schools enroll the greatest percentage of students in the South, where there has been the highest level of public school integration and by far the highest proportion of black students in the population, is simply wrong. Although the South has by far the highest proportion of black students in the public schools whites attend, it has a relatively small private school sector, just 8%, as does the West where almost half of the public school students are nonwhite. Moreover, white private school enrollment rates in the South (11%) are lower than the U.S. average (12%), suggesting that there is not (or no longer) any substantial ‘white flight’ to private schools in the South to avoid integrated public school systems. No Southern or Western state except Louisiana (a historic center of Catholic settlement) was among the 15 states with the highest share of students in private schools. Among metropolitan areas, New Orleans and New York had by far the highest share of white students in private schools. Second, the assumption that minority students experience higher levels of integration with whites in the private sector when compared to the public sector is simply not true, particularly for black students. The discussion about vouchers has often included claims that minority students would get access to schools like whites—a similar set of choices—if only they had greater access to the private sector. In fact, black students in the private sector are just as segregated from whites as in the public sector; white students in the private sector generally attend overwhelmingly white schools. In addition, while Latino private school students make up only a small fraction of private school enrollments, they still experience schools that typically have substantial non-white majorities. Since private schools typically provide no free transportation for students, an increase in the minority percentages in these schools would be likely to increase segregation. Third, the data presented here suggest that a number of frequent generalizations about public and private education in the U.S. are not accurate. In particular, the data indicate that, in spite of local variations, private schools provide education for only a small minority of American students. The fact that the large metropolitan areas—including the New York and Los Angeles metropolitan areas, which dominate the nation's media—have among the highest proportions of white students in private schools may well account for the inaccurate perception that public schools are threatened by private school growth. Fourth, this report suggests several interesting things about the theory that desegregation produces white flight to private schools. On the one hand, much of this research shows little evidence of white flight from desegregation. For example, private schools enroll the most students in regions (the Northeast and Midwest) where public schools enroll the fewest minorities, and the fewest in the regions (the South and West) where the most interracial contact in public schools takes place. In addition, white private school enrollment rates peaked from 1950 to 1965, before there was any significant attempt at desegregation; then, after declining sharply in the late 1960s, white private school enrollments were relatively stable through the 1970s, the period of greatest desegregation. Moreover, in the last decade, as segregation has increased among public schools, white private school enrollment rates have increased gradually. Although many other factors contribute to these trends—including national declines in Catholic school enrollments, economic cycles, tuition trends, and perceptions of public school quality—these trends are nonetheless exactly the opposite of what white flight from desegregation would be expected to produce. On the other hand, some of the evidence suggests that some whites may seek private schooling in part to avoid schools with large minority enrollments. In school districts and metropolitan areas with higher shares of black students in the population, a higher proportion of whites attend private schools. In many large districts and in many metropolitan areas with high proportions of black students, white students are enrolled in private schools at rates far greater than black and Latino students. Moreover, it appears that this pattern cannot be attributed to white avoidance of public schools where poverty rates are high, since the strong association between white private enrollments and black student populations persists after we take local poverty rates into account. In all of our models, the strongest predictor of white private enrollment is the proportion of black students in the area. Finally, it is important to note that this report cannot definitively ascertain the causes of these patterns of racial enrollment. The data do, however, suggest that private schools, as now operated, are not a significant answer to the problems caused by intensifying racial isolation in public schools as desegregation is abandoned. Other recent research from The Civil Rights Project has shown strong academic and adult life benefits of education in racially diverse schools. We recommend that the leaders of the nation's religious and secular private schools examine these patterns and the isolation of their significant minority enrollments as well as the serious segregation of white students and consider recruitment and transportation policies that could produce more diverse educational experiences for students of all racial and ethnic groups. |
Anonymous
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Actually, there wasn't any labeling going on. My comment was in response to another poster's comment that schools aren't seeking the children of repairmen. At the time, the remark struck me as quite negative. As the majority of parents at my school are employed in positions that are commonly considered "professional" white collar. The term blue collar worker was a simple, non-judgemental description of the type of industry the parents are employed nothing more. I meant absolutely nothing deragatory nor was I labeling the family. Furthermore, there was no labeling of FA recipients at our school, I was told by the family that they receive aid.
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Anonymous
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Financial aid is supposed to be confidential.
Why do people go around telling others they recieve aid? I mean, somewhere like here, where it's completely confidential is one thing... But someone you know? You shouldn't be saying that. |
Anonymous
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I went to a Big 3. To be honest, there was clear divisions along racial lines but kids of all economic brackets hung out together. Apartments, single moms, ga-gillionaires, middle-upper class, professionals, govt workers.
There were a ton of kids with parents who were lawyers and who lived in nice houses in NW and Montgomery Cty. BUT there was some variety. Only the new money, flashy, materialistic kids (parents) cared about how rich or poor people were. And they were shitty people anyway! |
Anonymous
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My father was a lawyer...
Made near the poverty line. Lawyers don't always make money. *hpmh* |
Anonymous
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Just fwiw, racial division unfortunately continues to be common in well-diversified educational environments - whether you're talking about public or private.
I went to a very diverse high school (about 40% black, 10% latino, 10% asian, and 40% white) and well recall how the cafeteria was always racially divided - a situation which, according to my niece and nephew, continues to this day. |