School Design and White Families

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It seems clear white families want other white families in their schools and are only willing to send their children so far from their segregated enclaves.
What can be done to design schools to bring in white families to schools that are not just "for" white families?

Lots of people besides whites live in "segregated enclaves" in this city. Most everyone would like to keep their kids as close to home, if possible, but black families or white families in mixed neighborhoods who value education are more willing to send their kids further away for school if that's where the good schools are. White families usually don't have to travel far to school, because the good schools are already in their neighborhoods. The schools are good, because they have more white kids than the other schools.

In the case of Duke Ellington, it's a majority black school in a majority white neighborhood and when given the chance to build a new school in a more central location, they preferred to stay in Georgetown. making it easier for the lower percentage of white kids who go there, who tend to live nearby.

[Anonymous]

We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

Oh, and so my 'ask' is this: bring back tracking, which was in vogue in the 70s and 80s. Offer a program like Latin-- or pre-AP type classes at Deal -- only to those students who score the very highest on a battery of national tests. Such as the SSAT, PSAT, OLSAT. Make the cut-off nice-n-high.

None of this School Without Walls / McKinley / Banneker stuff.

And if the resulting cohort is 80% of one race and not reflective of the One City? That's OK. See, e.g., Stuyvensant or Bronx Science in NYC, Blair in MoCo or, of course, TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

Your child would be fine at Latin. They have honors and regular classes, and in each the range is not that wide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

Your child would be fine at Latin. They have honors and regular classes, and in each the range is not that wide.

Stop with the Latin Boosterism already!! I'm a Latin parent and love the school, but there is a BIG difference between the top and bottom of the classes. Yes, they do have Honors and AP classes but don't be mistaken, they have students with perfect SATs and over 4.0 GPA as well as students with 1.0 GPA. Personally, I think a top student could thrive at Latin, but it is not full of college bound students.

[Anonymous]

Schools will become more racially integrated when cost of living rises even further throughout the District.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

Agree 100%. Latin definitely sounds a good deal better on paper, especially at the HS level, a problem which manifests itself when college admissions lists come out...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent - and honestly, I don't care what white parents want.

I care what upper middle class parents want. I wish you could sort by SES of 150+

+1. Pretty obvious, yet somehow very mysterious to OP and the race-obsession crew.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a white parent - and honestly, I don't care what white parents want.

I care what upper middle class parents want. I wish you could sort by SES of 150+

+1. Pretty obvious, yet somehow very mysterious to OP and the race-obsession crew.

Can't you get this by 1) moving to a wealthier neighborhood or 2) going private?

What's magical about $150k? Why do you assume that middle and working class families don't value education? All parents at your kid's school need to have graduate degrees?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We send our son to a progressive private in DC. Every time I think we might transfer him back to public (janney, later Deal), we balk. Why: the *** curriculum ** at his school is so much richer than what DCPS has to offer -- even at Janney, even at Deal.

So then we thought, why not Latin? because on paper, it sounds like DH's alma mater, which he loved so much (Columbia College). Close, but still not quite. Too wide a range of students, which has the effect of watering down the work assigned in classes that sound really good on paper.

Please describe the highlights of the curriculum that you believe is missing. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily.

I wanted to speak a bit to your second point.

I agree that variety is the spice of life. However, please keep in mind that it is helpful for kids to read things that they relate to. As a white parent, I am glad to see brown faces in the books my white daughter brings home. I am glad that the books she is reading in class reflect her life experiences and those of her friends. There are are more than enough books about blonde haired blue eyed girls. What books, specifically, do you believe put white students "in a bad light"? By "in a bad light" do you mean that the books address racism (a historical and contemporary reality that many students from various ethnic backgrounds experience)?

pp here -- I didn't say that they should only rad a books about "blonde haired blue eyed girls" (and really, what work of literature has that in the first place?), but I don't think that a steady diet of of only authors of color is right, either. Of course racism is to be discussed and understood, but not necessarily in EVERY book read by the class.

I completely agree with #2 and my kids are Hispanic. The mix of the population at BASIS (child #1 started when it was still a Title 1 school, still does not have very many Hispanic kids) combined with book after book in grade after grade about the experience of black oppression from "To Kill a Mockingbird" (which I also read in school) to a book about a black boycott of a store that was owned by member of the KKK to "As I Lay Dying," not only precludes any reading of the classics but also makes every other minority invisible and creates a kind of hierarchy of victimization which in this house has resulted in extremely cynical children. When they hear kids play the race card (like when the applications for National Junior Honor Society were being handed out which require a certain GPA) they come home and tell us (in this case my child overheard two girls saying it was racist) and they now view it as a pitiful excuse whatever the circumstances - even when it might be valid - even when it does not come from the kids with $500 dollar Jordans or the girls who say "I'm so ghetto" who are usually gone after 6th grade. My son does not yet understand that the police may put him in the same category, that when he gets to college the shopkeepers may follow him around thinking he will shoplift (happened to my friends). My kids have yet to feel the sting of discrimination.

I was raised in a white family in Washington DC to believe that the only kind of elitism that was acceptable was intellectual and moral - not the color of someone's skin but the content of their character, and while my parents may have been shocked that I ended up coming home from my Ivy League University with a boyfriend who was definitely not white, and definitely could not pass, he was definitely smart, had with help pulled himself out of an inner city to an Ivy, and they never said anything even when we decided to marry. Compared to me and my parents my kids are racist and all of this has to do with their experience at BASIS, and I don't feel like I have anything to say about it because I went to private school here and by the time I met a poor non-white kid I was in college. And my kids feel this way even though the majority of their friends are black and two of their favorite teachers are black - cognitive dissonance anyone? Makes no sense to me except that some AA kids have learned to cry racism at every turn to blame teachers (the excellent new British Latin teacher got fired early in the term because of such unfounded accusations) and my kids are learning from them - and the books they are reading just make it worse because it sounds like yes there was a time..... but no longer. And they see what I saw in DC - only black and white. I don't think it has ever even occurred to them that they are a minority, or to think about where they fit in, because they are top of their class and that is the way they choose their friends - in THAT they are colorblind. But the troublemakers tend to be AA and someone has taught them to cry racism, which makes all claims sound false to them at least at school, and they are learning that the AA kids are the troublemakers. Every time they hear about the oppression of African Americans in church they squirm, and I squirm for them. The police are not going to be friendly to my son. Finally I am in absolute agreement with #3, no social promotion, but BASIS takes care of that starting in 6th.

[Anonymous]

^^ No Basis Latin teacher has been fired this year. Both still there as of this am.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is one of two white kids in her class at a charter school. She is doing well and is happy. That's all I care about.

My son is the only white kid in his grade at our school. He has made good friends, is learning a lot, and loves going to school. He also has incredible, dedicated teachers and has every year. I love the school, it's a great fit for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We need to be able to have a frank discussion of race. There's too much crap from all directions to be able to do that, so I don't think much is going to change very quickly.

Well, it would be short conversation and a tired one at that.

The majority of non-white people in DC are poor.
The majority of white people in DC are rich.

The majority of rich, white people are very likely to be just fine with diversity as long it is racial diversity and not economic diversity.
Economic diversity brings too many challenges with it to the classroom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It seems clear white families want other white families in their schools and are only willing to send their children so far from their segregated enclaves. There is a hard chicken and egg logic to this, but it's not just this.

My child is at one of the charters on that chart of most diverse schools. It's not only white families who want "other white families" in their schools. Almost every middle class black and Hispanic parent I have spoken with has specifically mentioned the diversity of the school being important for their children. There's a lot of research about how richer black families live in much poorer neighborhoods than whites at the same income level. White families aren't the only ones who don't want their kids in classes dominated by children from low income homes and the problems that they bring with them (generally, of course not all).

Anonymous wrote: no, white families want their kids around other committed children who come from stable, middle to high SES families. Im DC that correlates with race.

That's actually much less true in DC than in most other big cities. DC has probably the largest number of middle and upper middle class black families of any city in the country, except maybe Atlanta. Convincing those families, who have traditionally mostly moved out of the city or gone private (discussed in another discussion) to come back to DCPS and charters would be a huge benefit for diversity of both race and income.

I'm going to ignore OP's clarion call to white families exclusively and respond re: the above, which I really, really agree with. DCPS should focus on attracting high SES/educated AA families back into DCPS. We are a black family, both with doctoral degrees and middle/upper-middle class. However, most of our peers have their kids in private, both in DC and MD. Yes, there are a few such families scattered at schools like Eaton and Shepherd, but there's the potential for many more. (I'd say the same for educated Latino and Asian families, although it seems there are smaller numbers of these in DC--hopefully that will change in the future.)

I don't think simply introducing the touchy-feely curriculum du jour, organic farms, etc., will be enough to lure these families back to DCPS without a guarantee of the academic rigor they demand. Focusing on STEM, gifted and talented programs, etc. and specific outreach to these communities might make a difference--if such changes could ever be implemented.