Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. Long PP Banneker poster. Glad to see I’m not on an island. Look, I get that it can be scary to be a first. But it’s done all the time. I get the sense that once a DC school gets to about 10% white, it seems ripe for gentrifying for white folk. They usually do this in an concerted, planned effort. (See CH schools and most recently Hardy middle school). Recent parents that have begun to gentrify Hardy are not your typical “racist”, sure. They wouldn’t even consider any DC schools if that were the case, yet alone one that is 80% black. But there is still something inherently racist about not considering one of the top schools in the country. Especially Banneker. I mean it’s not a Lean On Me type school. You’re DC is not going to be jumped for wearing the wrong colors.

Seriously, why haven’t a group of 10-20 families joined together to commit to Banneker the same way they did to Hardy 5 years ago?

Ok, so basically you're making sweeping judgments about all of DC school choice and racism based on ONE school which remains unpopular with white kids?

Let me concede that many families do not want to be able to count the other kids of their race on one hand at their school. Does this apply only to white children? In a prior post, another report was quoted which indicated that "same-group" preference was stronger among all races in middle and high school; in elementary school, only white families showed strong same group preferences. However, I do not think this is the end of the story. I think you need to look more carefully at what choices are being made by who and why.

I personally admit, we did not list our in-bound or another local charter (ward 5) partly because the percentage of white children was so very low, that our child would have been the only one. But, that was one of many considerations, and we did put her in a daycare and summer camp with similar proportions. I actually am now sad that her current school has fewer Black and Hispanic kids each year thanks to growing popularity among white families.

I think that most on here would love to have a great mix of several races, and income levels, at their child's school. A few schools more or less do achieve this balance. They may not be in Ward 3 (which should be studied separately, IMHO, due to its essentially suburban nature), but they ARE the schools most discussed here outside of W3.

DP. You're essentially saying, "well no one wants to be the lonely only" to absolve yourself while ignoring that this is a different issue for black kids in white schools, due to institutional racism throughout the history of our country.

DP. But no one is saying black kids “should” go to majority white schools to “prove” anything.

[Anonymous]

I'll just add:

It really really didn't help DCPS and integration that Bowser decided to pit Shaw parents and Banneker parents against each other to get just one school.

There was a way to build two schools and bring us all together. Instead Bowser embraced divisiveness. Glad Banneker got the school, but really we should have had two new schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry but I just can’t with this thread.

Until someone can give me a solid reason white folks in DC don’t flock to Banneker, I will not just swallow that we all want what is best for our children even if it happens to mean keeping our children segregated in schools that are 5% black.

1.) The most recent narrative that Banneker is just too precious of a school for the black community for white folks to mess up a good thing is bulls$&@. 20 years ago, Walls was 13% white and 73% black. Today it’s 50% white and 25% black. White folk had zero problems gentrifying Walls but won’t touch Banneker with a 10 foot pole.

2.) The other BS excuse that Banneker SAT scores are merely right above average don’t take into account that Banneker is an all black school. So its 1120 SAT scores should be measured against national averages for black students (946). Let’s not even get into income inequality. Did you know the average white student with family below poverty scores 130 points higher than the average black student? Anyone that has even the most basic understanding of statistics knows not to measure the SATs at Banneker to nationwide but they continue to site this as an excuse of not being interested in Banneker.

Banneker is top 100 high schools in the nation and is is tied for first in the nation for Math and Reading Performance Rank (How aggregated scores on state assessments compare to U.S. News' expectations given the proportions of students who are black, Hispanic and from low-income households). Imagine how your brilliant white student can excel there.

3.) Banneker is just too hard of a school - See Basis, TJ

4.) I plan to “look” at Banneker when my 1st grader is old enough - yeah we’ve heard that before.

5.) I don’t want my child to be an only - what did white patents 20 years ago think when they gentrified Walls, Deal, Wilson and are doing now on the Hill and at Shepherd?

6.) My child wants to play X sport - recent Banneker grad played football (and maybe track) at Roosevelt and was a super star gaining admissions to various Ivy League schools

Sure, Banneker is not for everyone. But certainly it’s a good fit for more than the 2 white kids that attend every year.

Supporting arguments: see Creative Minds popularity vs nearby Whittier, Barnard, Truesdell etc.

My family lives in the FCPS’ Herndon MS/HS zone, which takes a lot of heat. Number 2 resonates with me because people assume that the teaching at “poorly performing” schools is bad when the schools have some great teachers. The problem here is often low student expectations, which drive me bananas. It’s like FCPS thinks some students are too stupid to learn, and lowers expectations further to make people feel better. I don’t know much about Banneker, it seems to take the opposite approach and students are succeeding in spite of the system. On the whole Banneker students may come out ahead of their counterparts in other DC schools because they seemingly learned more than what’s in a book.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the Banneker poster is pointing out is that in DC's successful process of getting more white students to stay in DC public high schools, Banneker is next on the agenda. Parents who chose Wilson and Walls are not segregating, they were integrating Wilson and Walls, and have done so, and DC will work to sustain that presence. Now, instead of those schools shifting to majority white (SWW has tipped, Wilson is far off yet), the next schools to increase the share of the very small pool of white high school students are Banneker, DE, and McKinley, and to encourage that, Banneker, at least, has made some changes by adding more APs, focusing on their problem keeping boys in the school, allowing kids to play sports at other high schools, etc. It's the next step in the process. DC is moving in the right direction.

Adding #8 (spin off from #4).

Don’t worry, soon enough, as soon as XYZ is done to appease me, us white folks will come and save your Banneker. This one might be neck in neck with #1 (I don’t want to mess up your sacred HBCU feeling school) on the ridiculous meter. Banneker doesn’t have to do XYX to attract you, just like Hardy didn’t have to get rid of uniforms to attract rich white folks. They don’t need saving. You need to prove that you’re not afraid of black 14 year olds. But keep clamoring to Creative Minds and Inspired Teaching because you want “play-based” learning. 🙄

[Anonymous]

I am sorry if I missed the initial post but why should anyone enroll their kids into Banneker if they don’t want to? Or rather, why doesn’t a simple “I don’t want to” suffice? Or to any school, really. I don’t think any school is doing worse if some people aren’t choosing it. It will get other kids, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am sorry if I missed the initial post but why should anyone enroll their kids into Banneker if they don’t want to? Or rather, why doesn’t a simple “I don’t want to” suffice? Or to any school, really. I don’t think any school is doing worse if some people aren’t choosing it. It will get other kids, no?

because it's obvious that you're a racist if you don't according to PP's helpful list of excuses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the Banneker poster is pointing out is that in DC's successful process of getting more white students to stay in DC public high schools, Banneker is next on the agenda. Parents who chose Wilson and Walls are not segregating, they were integrating Wilson and Walls, and have done so, and DC will work to sustain that presence. Now, instead of those schools shifting to majority white (SWW has tipped, Wilson is far off yet), the next schools to increase the share of the very small pool of white high school students are Banneker, DE, and McKinley, and to encourage that, Banneker, at least, has made some changes by adding more APs, focusing on their problem keeping boys in the school, allowing kids to play sports at other high schools, etc. It's the next step in the process. DC is moving in the right direction.

Adding #8 (spin off from #4).

Don’t worry, soon enough, as soon as XYZ is done to appease me, us white folks will come and save your Banneker. This one might be neck in neck with #1 (I don’t want to mess up your sacred HBCU feeling school) on the ridiculous meter. Banneker doesn’t have to do XYX to attract you, just like Hardy didn’t have to get rid of uniforms to attract rich white folks. They don’t need saving. You need to prove that you’re not afraid of black 14 year olds. But keep clamoring to Creative Minds and Inspired Teaching because you want “play-based” learning. 🙄

Do you want Banneker to have more white students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thanks. Long PP Banneker poster. Glad to see I’m not on an island. Look, I get that it can be scary to be a first. But it’s done all the time. I get the sense that once a DC school gets to about 10% white, it seems ripe for gentrifying for white folk. They usually do this in an concerted, planned effort. (See CH schools and most recently Hardy middle school). Recent parents that have begun to gentrify Hardy are not your typical “racist”, sure. They wouldn’t even consider any DC schools if that were the case, yet alone one that is 80% black. But there is still something inherently racist about not considering one of the top schools in the country. Especially Banneker. I mean it’s not a Lean On Me type school. You’re DC is not going to be jumped for wearing the wrong colors.

Seriously, why haven’t a group of 10-20 families joined together to commit to Banneker the same way they did to Hardy 5 years ago?

Ok, so basically you're making sweeping judgments about all of DC school choice and racism based on ONE school which remains unpopular with white kids?

Let me concede that many families do not want to be able to count the other kids of their race on one hand at their school. Does this apply only to white children? In a prior post, another report was quoted which indicated that "same-group" preference was stronger among all races in middle and high school; in elementary school, only white families showed strong same group preferences. However, I do not think this is the end of the story. I think you need to look more carefully at what choices are being made by who and why.

I personally admit, we did not list our in-bound or another local charter (ward 5) partly because the percentage of white children was so very low, that our child would have been the only one. But, that was one of many considerations, and we did put her in a daycare and summer camp with similar proportions. I actually am now sad that her current school has fewer Black and Hispanic kids each year thanks to growing popularity among white families.

I think that most on here would love to have a great mix of several races, and income levels, at their child's school. A few schools more or less do achieve this balance. They may not be in Ward 3 (which should be studied separately, IMHO, due to its essentially suburban nature), but they ARE the schools most discussed here outside of W3.

DP. You're essentially saying, "well no one wants to be the lonely only" to absolve yourself while ignoring that this is a different issue for black kids in white schools, due to institutional racism throughout the history of our country.

DP. But no one is saying black kids “should” go to majority white schools to “prove” anything.

Right. I don’t really understand PP point about absolution. But you know everything I do in life is to absolve myself so thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the Banneker poster is pointing out is that in DC's successful process of getting more white students to stay in DC public high schools, Banneker is next on the agenda. Parents who chose Wilson and Walls are not segregating, they were integrating Wilson and Walls, and have done so, and DC will work to sustain that presence. Now, instead of those schools shifting to majority white (SWW has tipped, Wilson is far off yet), the next schools to increase the share of the very small pool of white high school students are Banneker, DE, and McKinley, and to encourage that, Banneker, at least, has made some changes by adding more APs, focusing on their problem keeping boys in the school, allowing kids to play sports at other high schools, etc. It's the next step in the process. DC is moving in the right direction.

Adding #8 (spin off from #4).

Don’t worry, soon enough, as soon as XYZ is done to appease me, us white folks will come and save your Banneker. This one might be neck in neck with #1 (I don’t want to mess up your sacred HBCU feeling school) on the ridiculous meter. Banneker doesn’t have to do XYX to attract you, just like Hardy didn’t have to get rid of uniforms to attract rich white folks. They don’t need saving. You need to prove that you’re not afraid of black 14 year olds. But keep clamoring to Creative Minds and Inspired Teaching because you want “play-based” learning. 🙄

Do you want Banneker to have more white students?

I couldn’t care less but that fact that you don’t even consider it speaks more about you than me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the Banneker poster is pointing out is that in DC's successful process of getting more white students to stay in DC public high schools, Banneker is next on the agenda. Parents who chose Wilson and Walls are not segregating, they were integrating Wilson and Walls, and have done so, and DC will work to sustain that presence. Now, instead of those schools shifting to majority white (SWW has tipped, Wilson is far off yet), the next schools to increase the share of the very small pool of white high school students are Banneker, DE, and McKinley, and to encourage that, Banneker, at least, has made some changes by adding more APs, focusing on their problem keeping boys in the school, allowing kids to play sports at other high schools, etc. It's the next step in the process. DC is moving in the right direction.

Adding #8 (spin off from #4).

Don’t worry, soon enough, as soon as XYZ is done to appease me, us white folks will come and save your Banneker. This one might be neck in neck with #1 (I don’t want to mess up your sacred HBCU feeling school) on the ridiculous meter. Banneker doesn’t have to do XYX to attract you, just like Hardy didn’t have to get rid of uniforms to attract rich white folks. They don’t need saving. You need to prove that you’re not afraid of black 14 year olds. But keep clamoring to Creative Minds and Inspired Teaching because you want “play-based” learning. 🙄

Do you want Banneker to have more white students?

I couldn’t care less but that fact that you don’t even consider it speaks more about you than me.

I didn’t say I wouldn’t. I didn’t even say I have kids. But you do seem to have a lot to say about something you don’t care about. And if you don’t care, why should I?

[Anonymous]

DC liberals are like no other. They rally for X rights like their life depends on it, but when it comes down to walk the walk, they will opt for a lesser school to be around more of their own even if it’s not in the best interests of their DC. They will twist abs turn the narrative to make it appear that it’s not racially motivated. Just call a spade a space and admit you’re afraid of one of two possibilities, 1) you don’t want your kid to be around 99% black kids and/or 2) you clamor for vigorS As . They probably support Gay and Trans rights and maybe even donate to their worthy causes, but ish will hit the fan when their DC comes out of the closet.

[Anonymous]

I do know that many white families have visited our in bounds school on an official tour day (not some special I'll-save-you crusade) and basically been told to go away. "You don't want to be here." Admin assumes (with some good historical precedence) that white families will bail after early elementary. What should those families do? Attend a school that does not welcome them?

[Anonymous]

but do you go to those meetings and say "do you serve gluten-free food in your honors classes?" or do you seek to join the community that exists there?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:but do you go to those meetings and say "do you serve gluten-free food in your honors classes?" or do you seek to join the community that exists there?

At the one I was at didn't even get to ask questions. Nothing offensive has happened yet.

[Anonymous]

I actually do think many liberals in DC are racist with school selection, but as far as Banneker the loads of homework and intense discipline really do put me off a bit. A good friend went there over 20 years ago and that was their M.O. then and doesn't seem to have changed much. It's a school for prepping for college but there's not (wasn't then, at least) much social fun. Has that dynamic changed?