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DC Public and Public Charter Schools
84% of DC charter students are AA?
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Anonymous
Compared to, say, Cardozo, Wilson is much better. |
Anonymous
Not really. PK has been widely available for a long time in DC in all quadrants. Preschool for 3 year olds is limited and in mostly nonwhite areas. |
Anonymous
| Not so much on the PK3 this year, and yes, I'm slow to figure this out. As a DCPS parent, I cannot wait until this nightmare that is Rhee ends. |
Anonymous
| Yesss! |
Anonymous
I think your information is 5 years out of date. I know a lot of "east of the park" parents with kids at publics (Ross, Cooke, Shepherd, West) |
Anonymous
According to the numbers I've seen, Ross is about 46% FARMS and 34% ELL; 46% got a passing grade on the DC-CAS and about 63% in reading. This is pretty clearly a borderline school at best. Cooke has a new building and dismal numbers; 85% FARMS, 43% math 32% reading. A number of families gave the new school a look last summer and expressed interest but ultimately backed out. Shepherd is by far the most middle class school with only 16% FARMS. Clearly a number of east of the park families are choosing it and that's why I mentioned it as a possibility. Unfortunately, the two families I know who gave it try, left because they weren't happy. West is 64% FARMS, but is better known as the school the Fenty boys were zoned for and chose to avoid: first by going private, and then getting a special dispensation to go OOB to Lafayette. If the "east of the park" families you know are happy there, then that's wonderful they've found a choice they like. The ones I know are still saying no. |
Anonymous
Folks could spend lots of time going back & forth like this: I know people who go to these schools/I don't know anyone! For my part, I'm much more interested in stories from folks whose kids do attend these schools that many parents scorn. Sure, if I could I'd send my son to the best school in the city. But we don't have the money to buy in-boundary, and we can't count on the lottery. Our chances of getting into West are excellent; if folks have first-hand knowledge about it, so much the better. |
Anonymous
Those numbers reflect the school overall but do not reflect the students entering at the lower grades. The PK classes at Ross are nearly all white -- they might all be FARMS and ELL students, but I kind of doubt it. At Cooke the PS and PK classes are very diverse -- I don't know, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the white kids in those classes are not FARMS or ELL. Cooke's new building has been open only since September. No one ever discusses Brent ES on the Hill, but I think you'll see similar demographic shifts there. Middle class parents in boundary (or near-by) these schools are starting to show an interest in the schools. By the time the kids in PK and PS hit testing in third grade, the test results could be quite different (both because the middle class kids are better prepared and because going to school with better prepared kids IS going to help those FARM and ELL kids (PTW FARM and ELL does not equal stupid or unable to learn) meet higher standards too. |
Anonymous
If you are interested in getting real information about an east of the park school, come to HD Cooke's open house. HD Cooke's rescheduled open house is Thurs 2/25 9-11 AM. Hope to see you there! |
Anonymous
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Those numbers reflect the school overall but do not reflect the students entering at the lower grades. The PK classes at Ross are nearly all white -- they might all be FARMS and ELL students, but I kind of doubt it. At Cooke the PS and PK classes are very diverse -- I don't know, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the white kids in those classes are not FARMS or ELL. Cooke's new building has been open only since September. No one ever discusses Brent ES on the Hill, but I think you'll see similar demographic shifts there. Middle class parents in boundary (or near-by) these schools are starting to show an interest in the schools. By the time the kids in PK and PS hit testing in third grade, the test results could be quite different (both because the middle class kids are better prepared and because going to school with better prepared kids IS going to help those FARM and ELL kids (PTW FARM and ELL does not equal stupid or unable to learn) meet higher standards too. Very well said. |
Anonymous
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Sorry that should say
"BTW FARM and ELL does not equal stupid or unable to learn." The implication that it does is one of the most annoying things about these discussions. |
Anonymous
Remember, being white does not equal being smart or motivated. I think some DC parents look at the % of white students and try to equate it.
Very well said. |
Anonymous
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All of these recent posts are very well put.
I was just looking through the data on the charter school site (dismal lottery numbers!): http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/PCSB-Publications/School-Performance-Reports.aspx And I was struck by the number of charters that were nearly exclusively African American: Alta, ATA, Bethune, DC Prep, etc. And then you look at Cap City, for example, with a near perfect balance of African American, Hispanic, and Causcasian. Scores are not great at those AA schools I quickly pulled out as examples - but they have good retention of students. I don't know what I'm asking, here, as I hopefully delicately and respectfully navigate the school system in DC - are there some schools that African Americans are just more drawn to, even with lower scores? I get that a school in a predominantly African American neighborhood, with modest test scores, would draw from a more local community than if the test scores were really great people might be willing to drive longer distances to get there. But these schools in NW and NE aren't attracting a more diverse group of applicants? |
Anonymous
I don't think the issue is that AA parents are more drawn to those lower performing schools. As someone pointed out earlier, there are only a few schools that "attract" any applications from white families (not because these schools are specifically trying to attract whites, necessarily). If the pool of applicants demographically reflects DC, then you'd expect the random lottery to produce a schools that reflects those demographics. If you are a white middle class parent (and there are very few whites in DC who are not middle class or more) then you are only going to apply to the schools with good test scores and diverse student bodies. If you don't get in, you move, go private, etc.). If you are a poor AA family with a terrible local school, you might apply to Cap City, Haynes etc. and apply to Alta also. If you don't get in to Cap City, you always have Alta as a fall back. Hence, the Altas are going to be nearly 100% AA because most of the folks in DC without other options are AA. AAs with the income to have other options are probably acting just like the white families -- target Cap City etc. and then bail from the system of that doesn't work. Also, the "good" charters tend to be concentrated in the Ward 1/Greenline corridor and Brookland. So, the even split between the three large demographic groups in DC probably reflects the demographics of those center city neighborhoods, which are the most diverse neighborhoods in the city from a race and economic stand point. |
Anonymous
Here's an on-line tool that helps look at scores on a "fruit to fruit", if not apples to oranges, for DCPS and charters. You can view by system, school, over time, etc. Basically, for low income kids at mostly AA schools, the standouts for growth and proficiency are the KIPP charter middle schools. http://focusdc.org/schoolquality.html |