I really have no clue what i'm doing-5 or more questions inside

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, don't worry about PARCC scores - the test is poorly designed and mainly just measures demographics/parents' income. Note: every state that adopted the PARCC a decade back, two dozen, has scrapped it by now. Only DC clings to it to this crappy test.

Very few Upper Middle Class parents will go with a DC public school that isn't majority high SES (socio-economic status) past 1st grade. For PreK, you're just looking for a spot that works with your commute. For K and 1st, you're looking for more. From 2nd-5th, you probably want a majority, or even overwhelmingly (read Brent, SWS, Maury, possibly LT) high SES school. Call me racist, but white percentages count for a lot in a majority white neighborhood like Capitol Hill. Look at them on the DCPS school profiles pages and try to lottery accordingly in the coming years.

I'm not on the Hill so maybe this is why (but EOTP), but what I want is a school that's solidly middle class. Not upper, or at least not too upper, just regular middle. Then include perhaps a few high and some low income as well. This is what doesn't exist in DC. I'm part of the problem because I'm UMC but I don't want my kids going to school with too many people that have as much or more money than us, or much much less. Perhaps that's controversial, I'm not sure, but I just haven't found this so we're in a charter with a lot of wealthy/UMC people and a significant number of low income and probably not a whole lot in between. It's close as I have seen though.

It depends on what you mean by (solidly) middle class. Rapidly prices and gentrification in DC make it tough for many people who fit my idea of middle class (teachers, fire fighters, GS-10s to 12s) to buy or stay. DC is actually the only city where gentrification is actually happening — people leaving the city en masse and whole neighborhoods turning. At the other extreme, DC has some of the most generous safety net programs in the country (free PK, less restrictive Medicaid requirements for example). So really poor people can hang on and are somewhat better off here than in Maryland or Virginia.

Because charters are citywide, they are more economically diverse. But you see few upper NW families in them. So long as the city is economically segregated the neighborhood schools will be too.

[Anonymous]

(Rapidly rising housing prices)