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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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

Is your white kid off the hook behaviorally where you really care about the “discipline” of a school? Also, what have you done recently to inquire about the school’s “discipline” and intense homework? Private schools in DC and Basis has 2-3 hours of homework a day.

Next.

I don’t disagree that race is a factor, but I think a lot of DCUM parents say the same thing about discipline/workload wrt Basis. Also I don’t think the “Banneker as HBCU” is that far from the mark. Is the idea that we should all be considering Howard too? Banneker seems like a thriving Black space and I’m not sure an influx of white parents would be welcome. The most absurd & racist thing people do say about Banneker is when they pretend that it’s not an amazing school academically. Anyway, someone I really respect sends their kid there so it is absolutely on my list if I think my kid will be able to handle it (open question there.)

Banneker seems like a good school, but "amazing" is a stretch. Amazing schools send multiple kids to Harvard every single year. Thomas Jefferson is amazing. Banneker is not amazing.

But I thought Harvard was racist, so ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

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

Is your white kid off the hook behaviorally where you really care about the “discipline” of a school? Also, what have you done recently to inquire about the school’s “discipline” and intense homework? Private schools in DC and Basis has 2-3 hours of homework a day.

Next.

Dp. My kid was at a Hispanic majority elementary and he was harshly disciplined more than once for something that did not call for such punishment. Things like talking to a friend of trying to take a preferred seat and pushing each other with a friend.
So I believe that there is a tendency to nip things in the bud which may not always be the right approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait I don’t even understand this. How can any researcher put their name on something based on postings on an anonymous website?!?

First time on this 24 page thread so I’m sure what I’m about to say has been covered. Did Brookings take into account the fact that many of the posts on here are patently false? Sock-puppeting. People pretending their child attends a school that they really don’t. Posting things relating to the lottery that are intended to yield certain responses or intended to dissuade people from considering a school to cut down on competition. And of course the straight up trolls. You must take everything with a grain of salt on this site and linking it somehow to quantifiable data and statistics it’s just nuts

[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 I, though? This is the crux of it isn’t it. You want me to make a choice in order to prove something. That’s not a basis for choice.

Honestly, I do not want a strict traditional high discipline school. No matter the dominant race. But I also don’t care about proving something using my kids.

I agree re: discipline (DP)
Took me a while to realize that many majority minority schools are excessively strict with kids. Especially white kids for some reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t just a DC thing. Head over to the MD and VA forums. There is definitely a lot of discussion on what schools to avoid, etc. Not criticizing just saying it happens.

But no one says to avoid because there are too many (insert race) there. Of course people avoid failing schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t just a DC thing. Head over to the MD and VA forums. There is definitely a lot of discussion on what schools to avoid, etc. Not criticizing just saying it happens.

The is very much a nationwide thing. But DC liberals seem to like to place their kids in a place where they feels there’s a “comfortable” amount of diversity. But the reality is that most of those served by our public schools are poor children of color. Nice white parents need to accept that this reality.

accept it how? by enrolling our kids in failing schools? they could evenly distribute every white kid throughout dcps and not change the achievement gap. unless you think the mere presence of white kids is magic. you seem much more interested in bashing white parents than anything else.

[Anonymous]

1. I think Jeff did a good job in trying to respond to the flaws of the study.

2. Someone must have gotten banned from DCUM and been furious enough to decide this junk study was worth years of time.

3. This website and its anonymous ability to ask questions and speak freely is a godsend. It has helped me over and over on schools yes but a ton of other topics too. To tar it the way this study does is deeply unfair.

[Anonymous]

A "study" based on anonymous posters is pure trash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t just a DC thing. Head over to the MD and VA forums. There is definitely a lot of discussion on what schools to avoid, etc. Not criticizing just saying it happens.

But no one says to avoid because there are too many (insert race) there. Of course people avoid failing schools.

Ha!
I never come to the DC page since I have not lived there. Posting only since I read the Post piece and the odd inclusion of the DCUM response to the study in that article.
But yes the MD and VA pages talk frequently about FARMS and ESOL rates. As the study and article refused to acknowledge - what parents are segregating away from is not race but the high needs created by poverty and low English skills that dilute time teachers have left for other kids in the class. While I am sure some posters are racist the vast majority care about those item and not what color the non-FARMs and non-ESOL kids are that they are struggling to get into class with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t just a DC thing. Head over to the MD and VA forums. There is definitely a lot of discussion on what schools to avoid, etc. Not criticizing just saying it happens.

The is very much a nationwide thing. But DC liberals seem to like to place their kids in a place where they feels there’s a “comfortable” amount of diversity. But the reality is that most of those served by our public schools are poor children of color. Nice white parents need to accept that this reality.

I am actually starting to realize it.
It will even be more so with covid/after covid. There is a lot of UMC flight happening.
Add to this the influx of unaccompanied minors and yes you are right.
I am ok with this per se, the problem might be lowering the bar for academics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn’t just a DC thing. Head over to the MD and VA forums. There is definitely a lot of discussion on what schools to avoid, etc. Not criticizing just saying it happens.

But no one says to avoid because there are too many (insert race) there. Of course people avoid failing schools.

Ha!
I never come to the DC page since I have not lived there. Posting only since I read the Post piece and the odd inclusion of the DCUM response to the study in that article.
But yes the MD and VA pages talk frequently about FARMS and ESOL rates. As the study and article refused to acknowledge - what parents are segregating away from is not race but the high needs created by poverty and low English skills that dilute time teachers have left for other kids in the class. While I am sure some posters are racist the vast majority care about those item and not what color the non-FARMs and non-ESOL kids are that they are struggling to get into class with.

Exactly. But that’s too much common sense for modern times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here is the link and the summary. I haven't read beyond the summary and won't comment until I do.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/we-all-want-whats-best-for-our-kids/

Combining data from the online parent forum, commonly known as “DC Urban Moms,” and publicly available school data, this paper explores how an online community, one that appears to be dominated by privileged parents, discusses its local school system.

The results suggest that if there is a market for schools in the District, the commenters on DC Urban Moms are participating in a highly segregated version of it. A large percentage of schools in the District are almost never discussed on the forum, and those rarely mentioned schools have higher rates of poverty and serve students that are almost exclusively Black. The inattention to these schools can be explained only in part by the city’s neighborhood segregation. Moreover, the wealthiest and whitest schools not only have more thorough consideration of their academic and extracurricular offerings, but conversations about these schools are also more likely to refer, rather than to demographic categories, to the people that make up the schools, using words like “moms,” “children,” “families,” and “teachers.” The individuals attending lesser-attention schools are thus doubly invisible to the DC Urban Moms participants. Finally, much of the discussion on the forum focuses on how to gain access to the relatively narrow band of preferred schools. The two mechanisms of school access, residence and the lottery, are not seen as competing strategies, but rather as systems to be used in tandem, in ways that give well-off parents repeated opportunities to self-segregate.

Though school diversity is no panacea for the societal ills that stem from centuries of systemic racism and economic exploitation, the findings present a challenge for opponents of school segregation—and its attendant resource hoarding—and for the hope of a more equal and integrated society.

Mental masturb*tion masquerading as a rigorous academic analysis to spur policy discussions. What would you expect from a Harvard Government grad? She gets paid for this? I’m in the wrong profession.

[Anonymous]

White students represent 12% of all DCPS+charter students and 16% of DCPS students. But yes, let's contract an expensive study to mine a discussion forum and blame those moms for not doing more to integrate schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait I don’t even understand this. How can any researcher put their name on something based on postings on an anonymous website?!?

First time on this 24 page thread so I’m sure what I’m about to say has been covered. Did Brookings take into account the fact that many of the posts on here are patently false? Sock-puppeting. People pretending their child attends a school that they really don’t. Posting things relating to the lottery that are intended to yield certain responses or intended to dissuade people from considering a school to cut down on competition. And of course the straight up trolls. You must take everything with a grain of salt on this site and linking it somehow to quantifiable data and statistics it’s just nuts

No, the report does not account for any sort of potential manipulation, and takes every post as totally true.

And when asked, the author dismissed that concern with "Not possible to determine" and "can't assess the intent of individual (posters)".

(When your answer is effectively "Yes, you're right, that's a limitation of the data", that's not a good sign.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wait I don’t even understand this. How can any researcher put their name on something based on postings on an anonymous website?!?

First time on this 24 page thread so I’m sure what I’m about to say has been covered. Did Brookings take into account the fact that many of the posts on here are patently false? Sock-puppeting. People pretending their child attends a school that they really don’t. Posting things relating to the lottery that are intended to yield certain responses or intended to dissuade people from considering a school to cut down on competition. And of course the straight up trolls. You must take everything with a grain of salt on this site and linking it somehow to quantifiable data and statistics it’s just nuts

No, the report does not account for any sort of potential manipulation, and takes every post as totally true.

And when asked, the author dismissed that concern with "Not possible to determine" and "can't assess the intent of individual (posters)".

(When your answer is effectively "Yes, you're right, that's a limitation of the data", that's not a good sign.)

Yikes. That is pretty bad.