PARCC Scores for Grades 3-8

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will repeat my prior statement. Only someone who earns a paycheck from DCPS or WTU or has some equivalent vested interest could argue that the school system isn't better off now than it was before Rhee. In all honesty, I expected you WTU lackeys to try and argue that demographic shifts and gentrification would have happened anyway with the economic growth of DC and that, although things are better now, they'd have even better than they are now without Rhee. I mean, that'd be a BS argument, but it would at least play the cards as they lay. What you two are doing is just laughable and sad. You should get outside the teacher breakroom and WTU meetings and get some much needed perspective.[b]

The more of your BS and whining and "me, me, me" crap I read on DCUM the less sympathy I have for teachers. People like you have taken lefty liberals like me who grew up in houses with teachers and completely turned me the other way. The fewer of you teaching my kid, the better.

I posted the two posts you are referring to, one after the other, the first about Rhee's education campuses, destruction of MS, and her decision to vest feeder rights for OOB kids in 2009 that has caused tremendous overcrowding at Ward 3 schools from Janney to Deal to Wilson. I also posted about the cheating scandal, the snobbery towards SWW, and how the recession had more of an impact than Rhee (at least in Ward 3). In other places families may just be delaying moves to Moco.

I am not and have never been a teacher. I am white and live in Ward 3. I have several children who have been at one DCPS and two charter schools where for the most part they got excellent educations but still have had some bad teachers at our JKLM and the charters, but at least at the charters it is not all up to one teacher. I am not a fan of Rhee or Henderson and NEVER will be. I think Rhee was an unethical opportunist who has made money off her "success" in DC when actually she created more problems than she solved, and Kaya Henderson is not only following in her footsteps but is stupid to boot, and I am not alone in my opinions on these matters. I am, however, exceedingly grateful that their failures have increased the number, variety, and caliber of charter schools in this city.

Wow. You and your kind need to get your story straight. Was it her failure that led to charter schools, or was that her master plan and she succeeded in propping up charters?

People in Ward 3 JKLM-land have no concept of the improvement in the schools over the last 15 years because your schools haven't seen the dramatic improvement (they had less distance to close). But I get your objection to OOB kids in your schools. And your objections to spending money on any schools not in Ward 3. Things should have stayed as they were; and DCPS should only spend money on the schools in your neighborhood. I feel you, girl.

You do not feel me, chica, and you do not know me. Things in Ward 3 are not as they were pre 2008, when most upper SES families did not attend even their public elementary schools (unless it was Mann). The parents spend the money in Ward 3, not the school system. Mann fundraising puts an assistant teacher in every classroom, not DCPS.

Blame Kaya for your empty high schools and Duke Ellington bleeding money while its students commit residency fraud. We went to Mann because 40 years ago it was the only school kids attending my private school came from. Had no intention of staying in the public school system for the long haul. Were not victims of the recession, but rather attracted by a particular charter school that catered to our kids' strengths. And Mann until its recent renovation was an absolute dump physically so it had nothing to do with the building. My girl spent her first year at Latin in a trailer that confined the entire fifth grade so ditto. And my other kids had the experience of trailers during the Mann renovation.

My objection to OOB kids in overcrowded schools anywhere is that until Michelle Rhee came in on her broom there were no feeder rights. Pre 2009 kids had to lottery in to every new school up the chain. Instead of reducing the boundaries and diversity of Wilson, the DME should have had the guts to cut this off given that the 2008 recession had created a critical mass and there is a serious overcrowding problem. No skin in the game - none of my kids going to Wilson, sad about the budget cuts for Wilson's sake, same way sad about the no principal for Walls.........

Michelle Rhee was tasked with cleaning up DCPS. Had she done so, there would not have been the massive flight to charter schools for those who would not or could not move. Rhee's utter failure to do that is reflected by the rise in number, popularity, and diversity of charter schools - from KIPP and DC Prep to Yu Ying, LAMB and Mundo Verde, to Washington Latin and BASIS DC. She had no control over charter schools and their popularity and the fact that they now serve half of the DC population absolutely reflect her failures.

Feel me all you want, girl, but you getting on my last nerve because you don't have the least idea where I'm coming from, who my family is, or what school my kids are at now. We can't afford to discriminate because except for me ain't no one white in my family or anyone who comes close. We already started having talks with my boys about what you do if the cops ever stop you because it is life or death out there and my husband grew up on those mean streets in New York. Shit I never imagined or thought about that now scares me to death.

So our kids are most comfortable around other kids who are not white, and we at a charter that is not majority white, where they see kids of color like my husband making it every day. Very different and much better than being the token x unidentifiable mixed race kid in a Ward 3 school classroom. Far from Ward 3 in a school where kids of color are succeeding every day, but many speak the same way my MIL's family do and still get good grades. Interesting mixture of deliberate bad grammar and high academic achievement. They can be as ghetto as they want as long as they keep bringing home those A's. And they know the difference between joking around and the real thing, which is also inside the school sometimes, and stay far away from it. Proud of my kids, proud they succeeding in that environment, wasn't good for them to be tokens, and not have any high achieving friends but white kids.

We doing well, girl !!!!!!!!! And we not in Ward 3 anymore. You feel me????????

Slow clap! This could have come straight from a Rosa Guy novel!

You think Rosa Guy would have tried to keep minority kids out of Deal and Wilson???!!! Ignorance knows no bounds, apparently.

Time to give it up

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will repeat my prior statement. Only someone who earns a paycheck from DCPS or WTU or has some equivalent vested interest could argue that the school system isn't better off now than it was before Rhee. In all honesty, I expected you WTU lackeys to try and argue that demographic shifts and gentrification would have happened anyway with the economic growth of DC and that, although things are better now, they'd have even better than they are now without Rhee. I mean, that'd be a BS argument, but it would at least play the cards as they lay. What you two are doing is just laughable and sad. You should get outside the teacher breakroom and WTU meetings and get some much needed perspective.[b]

The more of your BS and whining and "me, me, me" crap I read on DCUM the less sympathy I have for teachers. People like you have taken lefty liberals like me who grew up in houses with teachers and completely turned me the other way. The fewer of you teaching my kid, the better.

I posted the two posts you are referring to, one after the other, the first about Rhee's education campuses, destruction of MS, and her decision to vest feeder rights for OOB kids in 2009 that has caused tremendous overcrowding at Ward 3 schools from Janney to Deal to Wilson. I also posted about the cheating scandal, the snobbery towards SWW, and how the recession had more of an impact than Rhee (at least in Ward 3). In other places families may just be delaying moves to Moco.

I am not and have never been a teacher. I am white and live in Ward 3. I have several children who have been at one DCPS and two charter schools where for the most part they got excellent educations but still have had some bad teachers at our JKLM and the charters, but at least at the charters it is not all up to one teacher. I am not a fan of Rhee or Henderson and NEVER will be. I think Rhee was an unethical opportunist who has made money off her "success" in DC when actually she created more problems than she solved, and Kaya Henderson is not only following in her footsteps but is stupid to boot, and I am not alone in my opinions on these matters. I am, however, exceedingly grateful that their failures have increased the number, variety, and caliber of charter schools in this city.

Wow. You and your kind need to get your story straight. Was it her failure that led to charter schools, or was that her master plan and she succeeded in propping up charters?

People in Ward 3 JKLM-land have no concept of the improvement in the schools over the last 15 years because your schools haven't seen the dramatic improvement (they had less distance to close). But I get your objection to OOB kids in your schools. And your objections to spending money on any schools not in Ward 3. Things should have stayed as they were; and DCPS should only spend money on the schools in your neighborhood. I feel you, girl.

You do not feel me, chica, and you do not know me. Things in Ward 3 are not as they were pre 2008, when most upper SES families did not attend even their public elementary schools (unless it was Mann). The parents spend the money in Ward 3, not the school system. Mann fundraising puts an assistant teacher in every classroom, not DCPS.

Blame Kaya for your empty high schools and Duke Ellington bleeding money while its students commit residency fraud. We went to Mann because 40 years ago it was the only school kids attending my private school came from. Had no intention of staying in the public school system for the long haul. Were not victims of the recession, but rather attracted by a particular charter school that catered to our kids' strengths. And Mann until its recent renovation was an absolute dump physically so it had nothing to do with the building. My girl spent her first year at Latin in a trailer that confined the entire fifth grade so ditto. And my other kids had the experience of trailers during the Mann renovation.

My objection to OOB kids in overcrowded schools anywhere is that until Michelle Rhee came in on her broom there were no feeder rights. Pre 2009 kids had to lottery in to every new school up the chain. Instead of reducing the boundaries and diversity of Wilson, the DME should have had the guts to cut this off given that the 2008 recession had created a critical mass and there is a serious overcrowding problem. No skin in the game - none of my kids going to Wilson, sad about the budget cuts for Wilson's sake, same way sad about the no principal for Walls.........

Michelle Rhee was tasked with cleaning up DCPS. Had she done so, there would not have been the massive flight to charter schools for those who would not or could not move. Rhee's utter failure to do that is reflected by the rise in number, popularity, and diversity of charter schools - from KIPP and DC Prep to Yu Ying, LAMB and Mundo Verde, to Washington Latin and BASIS DC. She had no control over charter schools and their popularity and the fact that they now serve half of the DC population absolutely reflect her failures.

Feel me all you want, girl, but you getting on my last nerve because you don't have the least idea where I'm coming from, who my family is, or what school my kids are at now. We can't afford to discriminate because except for me ain't no one white in my family or anyone who comes close. We already started having talks with my boys about what you do if the cops ever stop you because it is life or death out there and my husband grew up on those mean streets in New York. Shit I never imagined or thought about that now scares me to death.

So our kids are most comfortable around other kids who are not white, and we at a charter that is not majority white, where they see kids of color like my husband making it every day. Very different and much better than being the token x unidentifiable mixed race kid in a Ward 3 school classroom. Far from Ward 3 in a school where kids of color are succeeding every day, but many speak the same way my MIL's family do and still get good grades. Interesting mixture of deliberate bad grammar and high academic achievement. They can be as ghetto as they want as long as they keep bringing home those A's. And they know the difference between joking around and the real thing, which is also inside the school sometimes, and stay far away from it. Proud of my kids, proud they succeeding in that environment, wasn't good for them to be tokens, and not have any high achieving friends but white kids.

We doing well, girl !!!!!!!!! And we not in Ward 3 anymore. You feel me????????

Where do you live now, by the way? (" your empty high schools") Sounds like it isn't even DC. Especially love that you have all these opinions about the DC schools and what wasn't done and how mismanaged they were but you admit that you were never going to stay in the DC schools long term. I invested in the schools and I am for the long haul. So we're to take seriously the opinions of someone who sees this as an intellectual construct or is invested in the anti-Rhee crusade.

Given how removed you are from the DC schools it isn't surprising, but your post makes no sense. I mean, you used lots of words, but they aren't logical or correct. Your assertion that only Mann had high SES is just an inaccurate statement. JK&L were also there in 2008. You said, "She had no control over charter schools and their popularity" The law doesn't grant her authority over charters. And how could she impact popularity? And the schools you named didn't exist in the mid 2000's. So...very...ignorant.

OOB kids at upper NW schools with snowflakes is something many people think is the right thing. Not you and your recession proof high SES cohort, but many who believe that kids in poor areas deserve a shot at a good education as well. And many people believe that those kids should be able to stay with their classmates beyond ES. Disagree if you want, but this isn't black or white to thinking people who live in reality.

What confuses me about your post (and rest of "your kind" that predominate DCUM) is that you cannot see that there might be more than one side to how things work or for certain policies. Very little in public education or government is black and white. And I will say it again. Your inability to see grey and your vitriol for Rhee and Kaya destroy your credibility.

P.S. I don't know whether to be amused or offended by your dalliance into your cliched version of "black speak". It's kind of funny. Sad, but funny. Did someone tell you that makes you "blacker" or that you can hang with your husband of color if you "speak black"? They were messing with you. And did you really just end your post with a dimwitted cliched threat on an anonymous board? I'd invite to meet you in person, but you'd have to come back to DC to do that.

Talk about "lots of words!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When are they releasing individual scores?

They are mailing the scores home this month.

We had our W3EdNet meeting with DCPS and the DME's office last night. DCPS person said that they *hoped* that individual results would be sent to schools before the break. Then schools would send out individual results. The implication was that individual results would likely not get home until *after* the winter break. Folks should be attentive to how scores are sent home (i.e. mailed or placed in backpacks). The DCPS rep said that was up to the school as to how to do it.

Brian Doyle
W3EdNet

Do the schools have the individual results, and if so what are they doing with it? Will teachers see the data, or is it all for naught?

My understanding is that the schools get the individual results. I further was led to believe that access to those results will be a little compartmentalized, i.e. not everyone in the school will be able to see them. But your child's current teacher and their teacher from the previous year will have access to your child's results from last year, as well as any teacher who has a "need to know".

Moreover, the DCPS rep on Wednesday suggested that schools will have more detailed data to look at what specific skills kids are struggling with or excelling at. Hopefully this kind of detailed data will help teachers address specific needs of kids and whole classes, and help the school systems (both DCPS and charters) think about how to adjust curriculums. We pressed her on whether aggregate versions of this type of information -- i.e. 3rd graders can handle place value when adding but for some reason have difficulty when it comes to subtraction (I made this up) -- could be released to the public. The impression I had was it was pretty unlikely, but it might be conversation that LSATs could have with their principals.

Brian Doyle
W3EdNet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will repeat my prior statement. Only someone who earns a paycheck from DCPS or WTU or has some equivalent vested interest could argue that the school system isn't better off now than it was before Rhee. In all honesty, I expected you WTU lackeys to try and argue that demographic shifts and gentrification would have happened anyway with the economic growth of DC and that, although things are better now, they'd have even better than they are now without Rhee. I mean, that'd be a BS argument, but it would at least play the cards as they lay. What you two are doing is just laughable and sad. You should get outside the teacher breakroom and WTU meetings and get some much needed perspective.[b]

The more of your BS and whining and "me, me, me" crap I read on DCUM the less sympathy I have for teachers. People like you have taken lefty liberals like me who grew up in houses with teachers and completely turned me the other way. The fewer of you teaching my kid, the better.

I posted the two posts you are referring to, one after the other, the first about Rhee's education campuses, destruction of MS, and her decision to vest feeder rights for OOB kids in 2009 that has caused tremendous overcrowding at Ward 3 schools from Janney to Deal to Wilson. I also posted about the cheating scandal, the snobbery towards SWW, and how the recession had more of an impact than Rhee (at least in Ward 3). In other places families may just be delaying moves to Moco.

I am not and have never been a teacher. I am white and live in Ward 3. I have several children who have been at one DCPS and two charter schools where for the most part they got excellent educations but still have had some bad teachers at our JKLM and the charters, but at least at the charters it is not all up to one teacher. I am not a fan of Rhee or Henderson and NEVER will be. I think Rhee was an unethical opportunist who has made money off her "success" in DC when actually she created more problems than she solved, and Kaya Henderson is not only following in her footsteps but is stupid to boot, and I am not alone in my opinions on these matters. I am, however, exceedingly grateful that their failures have increased the number, variety, and caliber of charter schools in this city.

Wow. You and your kind need to get your story straight. Was it her failure that led to charter schools, or was that her master plan and she succeeded in propping up charters?

People in Ward 3 JKLM-land have no concept of the improvement in the schools over the last 15 years because your schools haven't seen the dramatic improvement (they had less distance to close). But I get your objection to OOB kids in your schools. And your objections to spending money on any schools not in Ward 3. Things should have stayed as they were; and DCPS should only spend money on the schools in your neighborhood. I feel you, girl.

You do not feel me, chica, and you do not know me. Things in Ward 3 are not as they were pre 2008, when most upper SES families did not attend even their public elementary schools (unless it was Mann). The parents spend the money in Ward 3, not the school system. Mann fundraising puts an assistant teacher in every classroom, not DCPS.

Blame Kaya for your empty high schools and Duke Ellington bleeding money while its students commit residency fraud. We went to Mann because 40 years ago it was the only school kids attending my private school came from. Had no intention of staying in the public school system for the long haul. Were not victims of the recession, but rather attracted by a particular charter school that catered to our kids' strengths. And Mann until its recent renovation was an absolute dump physically so it had nothing to do with the building. My girl spent her first year at Latin in a trailer that confined the entire fifth grade so ditto. And my other kids had the experience of trailers during the Mann renovation.

My objection to OOB kids in overcrowded schools anywhere is that until Michelle Rhee came in on her broom there were no feeder rights. Pre 2009 kids had to lottery in to every new school up the chain. Instead of reducing the boundaries and diversity of Wilson, the DME should have had the guts to cut this off given that the 2008 recession had created a critical mass and there is a serious overcrowding problem. No skin in the game - none of my kids going to Wilson, sad about the budget cuts for Wilson's sake, same way sad about the no principal for Walls.........

Michelle Rhee was tasked with cleaning up DCPS. Had she done so, there would not have been the massive flight to charter schools for those who would not or could not move. Rhee's utter failure to do that is reflected by the rise in number, popularity, and diversity of charter schools - from KIPP and DC Prep to Yu Ying, LAMB and Mundo Verde, to Washington Latin and BASIS DC. She had no control over charter schools and their popularity and the fact that they now serve half of the DC population absolutely reflect her failures.

Feel me all you want, girl, but you getting on my last nerve because you don't have the least idea where I'm coming from, who my family is, or what school my kids are at now. We can't afford to discriminate because except for me ain't no one white in my family or anyone who comes close. We already started having talks with my boys about what you do if the cops ever stop you because it is life or death out there and my husband grew up on those mean streets in New York. Shit I never imagined or thought about that now scares me to death.

So our kids are most comfortable around other kids who are not white, and we at a charter that is not majority white, where they see kids of color like my husband making it every day. Very different and much better than being the token x unidentifiable mixed race kid in a Ward 3 school classroom. Far from Ward 3 in a school where kids of color are succeeding every day, but many speak the same way my MIL's family do and still get good grades. Interesting mixture of deliberate bad grammar and high academic achievement. They can be as ghetto as they want as long as they keep bringing home those A's. And they know the difference between joking around and the real thing, which is also inside the school sometimes, and stay far away from it. Proud of my kids, proud they succeeding in that environment, wasn't good for them to be tokens, and not have any high achieving friends but white kids.

We doing well, girl !!!!!!!!! And we not in Ward 3 anymore. You feel me????????

Where do you live now, by the way? (" your empty high schools") Sounds like it isn't even DC. Especially love that you have all these opinions about the DC schools and what wasn't done and how mismanaged they were but you admit that you were never going to stay in the DC schools long term. I invested in the schools and I am for the long haul. So we're to take seriously the opinions of someone who sees this as an intellectual construct or is invested in the anti-Rhee crusade.

Given how removed you are from the DC schools it isn't surprising, but your post makes no sense. I mean, you used lots of words, but they aren't logical or correct. Your assertion that only Mann had high SES is just an inaccurate statement. JK&L were also there in 2008. You said, "She had no control over charter schools and their popularity" The law doesn't grant her authority over charters. And how could she impact popularity? And the schools you named didn't exist in the mid 2000's. So...very...ignorant.

OOB kids at upper NW schools with snowflakes is something many people think is the right thing. Not you and your recession proof high SES cohort, but many who believe that kids in poor areas deserve a shot at a good education as well. And many people believe that those kids should be able to stay with their classmates beyond ES. Disagree if you want, but this isn't black or white to thinking people who live in reality.

What confuses me about your post (and rest of "your kind" that predominate DCUM) is that you cannot see that there might be more than one side to how things work or for certain policies. Very little in public education or government is black and white. And I will say it again. Your inability to see grey and your vitriol for Rhee and Kaya destroy your credibility.

P.S. I don't know whether to be amused or offended by your dalliance into your cliched version of "black speak". It's kind of funny. Sad, but funny. Did someone tell you that makes you "blacker" or that you can hang with your husband of color if you "speak black"? They were messing with you. And did you really just end your post with a dimwitted cliched threat on an anonymous board? I'd invite to meet you in person, but you'd have to come back to DC to do that.

+ 1. Pathetic. Ebonics is so 1999. plus your rants are F@#$ing annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This presentation is pretty good:

http://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/OSSE%20PARCC%203-8%20ReleasePresentation_finalv14.pdf

What I find most interesting are the bar charts of aggregated test results by grade, which show a clear progression -- 3rd graders performed better than fourth-graders, fourth graders performed better than fifth-graders, etc. These results imply that DC's early childhood interventions *are working*, as well as improvements in elementary school education. It is expected that those younger students who have had more exposure to these changes would perform better.

My child attends a Title I preschool, where she is one of two white children in her class. And at this stage, honestly, all the kids are about the same. At three years-old, they are all writing their names, telling stories, counting objects, etc. I would not be surprised at all if that by the time this class takes the 3rd grade PARCC, their scores would be on par not just with the rest of the country, but that the gap between races would merge as well.

As for the PARCC itself -- The presentation also has a nice comparison between a DC CAS math question and a PARCC question. It is just so obvious why the PARCC exam is superior and why teaching to this kind of test would be very different than teaching to the kinds of tests we grew up with. I have taken some of the practice exams to see what all the fuss is about and have been very pleasantly surprised by the level of critical thinking and skills that would be required to do well. We know that previous standardized exam systems have been failing our students -- and maybe even our own generation. I agree with the administration that this is a good baseline upon which to measure students' progress, rather than the CAS. Using the PARCC also frees up resources that had been devoted to the DC exam's design to more useful purposes. Maybe states can afford their own bureaucracies for designing their own unique standards and exams, but DC cannot.

So. (1) Results show that DC actions to improve early childhood and elementary education are working, and that the more exposure students have to these changes, the better they perform; and (2) The PARCC is not just a more meaningful exam than the DC CAS, its adoption frees up District resources for other uses.

Parents, please stop trying to tear this down. My family is willing to give this system a shot, and we hope you do, too.

These are really nice thoughts and I hope you are right. I do think that the achievement gap will narrow over time in DC.

But the economically disadvantaged 3 year olds are not the same, as a group, as those with higher incomes: not in terms of the number of the words they hear and the percentage of things said to them that are positive/instructional vs. scolding; how much they're read to; how much screen time they get and what they watch; access to creative toys like blocks and crayons; whether they're exposed to traumatic experiences like eviction, witnessing violence, involvement in the child welfare system, or absence/incarceration of a parent; how much sleep they get; risk of asthma, lead poisoning, and mental illness; nutrition and obesity; and probably a million other factors that are all compounded by racism (stereotype threat, disparate suspension rates, etc.). Those things are not as obvious at age 3 as they will be at 6 or 12 or 17 but they exist now and the effects, and thus the gap, grows over time. Not for all kids, but comparing groups to groups.

Also, you assume that the 30ish kids in your kid's PK3 class will be the same 30 in their 3rd grade class. This isn't true. Some kids will move out, with higher-income kids more likely to move to wealthy suburbs and private schools and higher-ranked charters and DCPS. Some kids will move in, including kids whose family sees your school as an improvement over a lower-performing DC schools or kids who didn't do any PK anywhere. The fact that 3rd grade performance is better than 4th which is better than 5th is not just because younger kids have had more early childhood interventions. It's because the trend is that higher-performing kids leave and lower-performing ones stay or join the school.

Most "improvements" schools saw under the DC CAS were demographic changes--the school went from 98% poor to 90% poor and proficiency rates went from 32% to 40%. Few schools actually seem to be good at reaching kids who are academically behind, and those that are seem either to be too punitive and regimented for most middle-class families (Achievement Prep, KIPP) or very focused on low achievers with little focus on kids who are on target or ahead.

So I hope things work out for your family, and for all the families who are taking a chance with kids in early grades at Title I schools. Diversity is good. Increasing neighborhood support for neighborhood schools is good (for the schools themselves, for property values, and to reduce traffic as fewer people drive their kids across town). But only time will tell whether kids who scored a 1 on the PARCC this year will ever move up to 3s and 4s, and which schools are good at getting them there.

Let me say first, I have rarely seen the disparities quotient explained so neatly and so depressingly. Very good points. It is not the schools however that are going to bring up the parcc scores (or any other measure of school success) but the caretakers. The schools can only do so much. The folks who spend time with, or the lack thereof is where this movement begins and ends.

I am an optimist and yet, I have to agree; the disparity between what goes on at home and what gets done at school is astounding between different SES groups.
We are a family who had one year at a title one school for our Pre-K er. My child and my family looked the same as the other kids and families at school. She rarely had things to discuss about events in her and our lives on the weekends or after school with those friends at school. The things we like to spend our leisure time on (art, lessons, reading, travelling) were not the same as my child's classmates. We know this not because we assumed it but because saw it ourselves.
Pick up and drop off had multiple children in cars with loud inappropriate music or kids not really of age to do so, just meandering in themselves. We had play at our house and at my childs friends houses' several times with different friends even and not once was there an activity that did not involve television. It's difficult to watch the capital in these young, fresh minds being squandered, or perhaps if not squandered, get neglected.
My kids love TV like most other kids.... and we watch probably more than is healthy, especially on weekends. But we also play with toys together and build things and visit places in town and out of town. Basic enrichment, often just at home playtime, is where the yawning gap begins. And before the pile on happens, I know "basic" is a relative term and that having time energy and money to provide the basics is the difference.......

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I am an optimist and yet, I have to agree; the disparity between what goes on at home and what gets done at school is astounding between different SES groups.
We are a family who had one year at a title one school for our Pre-K er. My child and my family looked the same as the other kids and families at school. She rarely had things to discuss about events in her and our lives on the weekends or after school with those friends at school. The things we like to spend our leisure time on (art, lessons, reading, travelling) were not the same as my child's classmates. We know this not because we assumed it but because saw it ourselves.
Pick up and drop off had multiple children in cars with loud inappropriate music or kids not really of age to do so, just meandering in themselves. We had play at our house and at my childs friends houses' several times with different friends even and not once was there an activity that did not involve television. It's difficult to watch the capital in these young, fresh minds being squandered, or perhaps if not squandered, get neglected.
My kids love TV like most other kids.... and we watch probably more than is healthy, especially on weekends. But we also play with toys together and build things and visit places in town and out of town. Basic enrichment, often just at home playtime, is where the yawning gap begins. And before the pile on happens, I know "basic" is a relative term and that having time energy and money to provide the basics is the difference.......

This is the post others should be reading. This is the crux of the problem. It is why the gap will persist, or even widen, as more families learn about the benefits of parental involvement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I am an optimist and yet, I have to agree; the disparity between what goes on at home and what gets done at school is astounding between different SES groups.
We are a family who had one year at a title one school for our Pre-K er. My child and my family looked the same as the other kids and families at school. She rarely had things to discuss about events in her and our lives on the weekends or after school with those friends at school. The things we like to spend our leisure time on (art, lessons, reading, travelling) were not the same as my child's classmates. We know this not because we assumed it but because saw it ourselves.
Pick up and drop off had multiple children in cars with loud inappropriate music or kids not really of age to do so, just meandering in themselves. We had play at our house and at my childs friends houses' several times with different friends even and not once was there an activity that did not involve television. It's difficult to watch the capital in these young, fresh minds being squandered, or perhaps if not squandered, get neglected.
My kids love TV like most other kids.... and we watch probably more than is healthy, especially on weekends. But we also play with toys together and build things and visit places in town and out of town. Basic enrichment, often just at home playtime, is where the yawning gap begins. And before the pile on happens, I know "basic" is a relative term and that having time energy and money to provide the basics is the difference.......

This is the post others should be reading. This is the crux of the problem. It is why the gap will persist, or even widen, as more families learn about the benefits of parental involvement.

Whahhhhhh!!!??? So the gap will widen because more parents understand the importance of engagement and more kids move up the spectrum? I'm confused. Help me out here.

[Anonymous]

A large disparity is now apparent in terms of {success, educational attainment, college readiness, wages} between the children of involved and uninvolved parents. There is a clear feedback mechanism: the involved parents see the returns to their involvement and decide to increase their role in their children's lives. (I think this is an adequate explanation of the Tiger Mom phenomenon. Parents learned about the returns to good college placements for their children and that a boat-load of extracurriculars could help their children gain admittance, prompting them to enroll little Suzi in mandarin, piano and 4H.)

The only way this feedback mechanism doesn't exacerbate the disparity is if uninvolved parents suddenly increased their involvement from the onset of their child's life. Now, do you honestly believe that the uninvolved parents are uninvolved because they're unaware of the benefits of parental involvement? If only they'd known, I'm sure they would have turned off the electronic babysitter and read a book to junior...

[Anonymous]

They often can't read very well, as products of DCPS, so they are not comfortable reading out loud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They often can't read very well, as products of DCPS, so they are not comfortable reading out loud.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but, yes, this is an intergenerational problem. It will not be solved quickly or easily, but the solution does begin at home.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I will repeat my prior statement. Only someone who earns a paycheck from DCPS or WTU or has some equivalent vested interest could argue that the school system isn't better off now than it was before Rhee. In all honesty, I expected you WTU lackeys to try and argue that demographic shifts and gentrification would have happened anyway with the economic growth of DC and that, although things are better now, they'd have even better than they are now without Rhee. I mean, that'd be a BS argument, but it would at least play the cards as they lay. What you two are doing is just laughable and sad. You should get outside the teacher breakroom and WTU meetings and get some much needed perspective.[b]

The more of your BS and whining and "me, me, me" crap I read on DCUM the less sympathy I have for teachers. People like you have taken lefty liberals like me who grew up in houses with teachers and completely turned me the other way. The fewer of you teaching my kid, the better.

I posted the two posts you are referring to, one after the other, the first about Rhee's education campuses, destruction of MS, and her decision to vest feeder rights for OOB kids in 2009 that has caused tremendous overcrowding at Ward 3 schools from Janney to Deal to Wilson. I also posted about the cheating scandal, the snobbery towards SWW, and how the recession had more of an impact than Rhee (at least in Ward 3). In other places families may just be delaying moves to Moco.

I am not and have never been a teacher. I am white and live in Ward 3. I have several children who have been at one DCPS and two charter schools where for the most part they got excellent educations but still have had some bad teachers at our JKLM and the charters, but at least at the charters it is not all up to one teacher. I am not a fan of Rhee or Henderson and NEVER will be. I think Rhee was an unethical opportunist who has made money off her "success" in DC when actually she created more problems than she solved, and Kaya Henderson is not only following in her footsteps but is stupid to boot, and I am not alone in my opinions on these matters. I am, however, exceedingly grateful that their failures have increased the number, variety, and caliber of charter schools in this city.

Wow. You and your kind need to get your story straight. Was it her failure that led to charter schools, or was that her master plan and she succeeded in propping up charters?

People in Ward 3 JKLM-land have no concept of the improvement in the schools over the last 15 years because your schools haven't seen the dramatic improvement (they had less distance to close). But I get your objection to OOB kids in your schools. And your objections to spending money on any schools not in Ward 3. Things should have stayed as they were; and DCPS should only spend money on the schools in your neighborhood. I feel you, girl.

You do not feel me, chica, and you do not know me. Things in Ward 3 are not as they were pre 2008, when most upper SES families did not attend even their public elementary schools (unless it was Mann). The parents spend the money in Ward 3, not the school system. Mann fundraising puts an assistant teacher in every classroom, not DCPS.

Blame Kaya for your empty high schools and Duke Ellington bleeding money while its students commit residency fraud. We went to Mann because 40 years ago it was the only school kids attending my private school came from. Had no intention of staying in the public school system for the long haul. Were not victims of the recession, but rather attracted by a particular charter school that catered to our kids' strengths. And Mann until its recent renovation was an absolute dump physically so it had nothing to do with the building. My girl spent her first year at Latin in a trailer that confined the entire fifth grade so ditto. And my other kids had the experience of trailers during the Mann renovation.

My objection to OOB kids in overcrowded schools anywhere is that until Michelle Rhee came in on her broom there were no feeder rights. Pre 2009 kids had to lottery in to every new school up the chain. Instead of reducing the boundaries and diversity of Wilson, the DME should have had the guts to cut this off given that the 2008 recession had created a critical mass and there is a serious overcrowding problem. No skin in the game - none of my kids going to Wilson, sad about the budget cuts for Wilson's sake, same way sad about the no principal for Walls.........

Michelle Rhee was tasked with cleaning up DCPS. Had she done so, there would not have been the massive flight to charter schools for those who would not or could not move. Rhee's utter failure to do that is reflected by the rise in number, popularity, and diversity of charter schools - from KIPP and DC Prep to Yu Ying, LAMB and Mundo Verde, to Washington Latin and BASIS DC. She had no control over charter schools and their popularity and the fact that they now serve half of the DC population absolutely reflect her failures.

Feel me all you want, girl, but you getting on my last nerve because you don't have the least idea where I'm coming from, who my family is, or what school my kids are at now. We can't afford to discriminate because except for me ain't no one white in my family or anyone who comes close. We already started having talks with my boys about what you do if the cops ever stop you because it is life or death out there and my husband grew up on those mean streets in New York. Shit I never imagined or thought about that now scares me to death.

So our kids are most comfortable around other kids who are not white, and we at a charter that is not majority white, where they see kids of color like my husband making it every day. Very different and much better than being the token x unidentifiable mixed race kid in a Ward 3 school classroom. Far from Ward 3 in a school where kids of color are succeeding every day, but many speak the same way my MIL's family do and still get good grades. Interesting mixture of deliberate bad grammar and high academic achievement. They can be as ghetto as they want as long as they keep bringing home those A's. And they know the difference between joking around and the real thing, which is also inside the school sometimes, and stay far away from it. Proud of my kids, proud they succeeding in that environment, wasn't good for them to be tokens, and not have any high achieving friends but white kids.

We doing well, girl !!!!!!!!! And we not in Ward 3 anymore. You feel me????????

Where do you live now, by the way? (" your empty high schools") Sounds like it isn't even DC. Especially love that you have all these opinions about the DC schools and what wasn't done and how mismanaged they were but you admit that you were never going to stay in the DC schools long term. I invested in the schools and I am for the long haul. So we're to take seriously the opinions of someone who sees this as an intellectual construct or is invested in the anti-Rhee crusade.

Given how removed you are from the DC schools it isn't surprising, but your post makes no sense. I mean, you used lots of words, but they aren't logical or correct. Your assertion that only Mann had high SES is just an inaccurate statement. JK&L were also there in 2008. You said, "She had no control over charter schools and their popularity" The law doesn't grant her authority over charters. And how could she impact popularity? And the schools you named didn't exist in the mid 2000's. So...very...ignorant.

OOB kids at upper NW schools with snowflakes is something many people think is the right thing. Not you and your recession proof high SES cohort, but many who believe that kids in poor areas deserve a shot at a good education as well. And many people believe that those kids should be able to stay with their classmates beyond ES. Disagree if you want, but this isn't black or white to thinking people who live in reality.

What confuses me about your post (and rest of "your kind" that predominate DCUM) is that you cannot see that there might be more than one side to how things work or for certain policies. Very little in public education or government is black and white. And I will say it again. Your inability to see grey and your vitriol for Rhee and Kaya destroy your credibility.

P.S. I don't know whether to be amused or offended by your dalliance into your cliched version of "black speak". It's kind of funny. Sad, but funny. Did someone tell you that makes you "blacker" or that you can hang with your husband of color if you "speak black"? They were messing with you. And did you really just end your post with a dimwitted cliched threat on an anonymous board? I'd invite to meet you in person, but you'd have to come back to DC to do that.

+ 1. Pathetic. Ebonics is so 1999. plus your rants are F@#$ing annoying.

Please stop, both of you.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:They often can't read very well, as products of DCPS, so they are not comfortable reading out loud.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but, yes, this is an intergenerational problem. It will not be solved quickly or easily, but the solution does begin at home.

Not a joke. I have sadly witnessed.

[Anonymous]

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We disagree. I think the schools are much better than they were 10 or 15 years ago. There are many more schools that I'd want my kid attending. Some charters, some DCPS that weren't good options when I moved to DC. Perhaps you feel the system was just the same before Brent, Murch, Maury and the charters were viable options. I simply don't.

NP. It's interesting that the school's you named are all on capital hill. The notion that Rhee made the DCPS schools better is an asinine notion. At least for the schools in Brookland and Woodridge, Rhee decimated them. What Rehee did do was provide the remaining middle class families in the area who were giving DCPS a go a valid, guilt-free reason for abandoning these schools to the families who had neither the financial or political will to improve the schools. Rhee took a Blue ribbon, momtessorie elementary school with good numerical stats and provided five hours of weekly Spanish and tuned into a school for PS3 to 8. She removed the entire Spanish curriculum and called the school a stem school. Interesting, since the school had absolutely no facilities for science experiments, computer labs, etc. The school was without a gym, or even an acceptable playing field for the older children to exercise and release energy. I, and apparently many other families, had no desire for my 4-year old DC to be in an environment among teenagers and their raging only reason to send your DC to said school was because of lack of options. Guess what, the middle class families exercised their options. Kaya 's administration put the nail in the coffin when momtessorie was taken away from the school. A couple of years ago, out of curiosity, I looked up the school's scores and was not surprised that they had plummeted. DCPS has a very hard job in getting Brookland and Woodridge parents to return to DCPS. They started with recreating two middle schools, McKinley and Brookland. I don't know if it's enough for the middle class parents, but surely DCPS can do something for the other children.

And yes, I am one of many who believes that Rhee's primary job was to decimate a tenuously struggling public school system and push it off the cliff for privatilization. She did hire private companies to take over some DCPS high schools. Her protégée, Ms Henderson, readily testified that the middle schools should be privatized. And now, Ms Rhee is making her living off of the privatization of public schools. How quaint.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For the person here obsessed with the WTU - I've been teaching for 10 years and I could count on one hand the number of times I've heard teachers bring up the union. Most teachers I know (who mostly work in Title 1 schools) are just as upset as the rest of DC about the PARCC scores.

Seriously! No one bothers with the union because they are as entrenched in the is political mess as everyone else.

Where

Serious question. Would you sharing (since it is anonymous) if you opted out of tenure for the higher pay?

Tenure? Where are you from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They often can't read very well, as products of DCPS, so they are not comfortable reading out loud.

Lots of "products of DCPS" read just fine -- probably because they had parental involvement, as well as decent teachers.