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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yet somehow white students account for the following at all city schools:

45% at Basis
45% at Latin
50% at Walls
44% at Inspired
34% at Creative Minds (3 start school)
...
1% at Banneker (higher ranked nationally than Latin and Basis)

You still argue DC white folk don’t intentionally self-segregate? One would think Banneker would at least have 16% white to match city’s demographics.

[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.

This is well-put, thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yet somehow white students account for the following at all city schools:

45% at Basis
45% at Latin
50% at Walls
44% at Inspired
34% at Creative Minds (3 start school)
...
1% at Banneker (higher ranked nationally than Latin and Basis)

You still argue DC white folk don’t intentionally self-segregate? One would think Banneker would at least have 16% white to match city’s demographics.

Come on, the Banneker situation, discussed many times on DCUM, is the HS equivalent of an HBC (Historically Black College). Banneker has never tried to draw in a cohort of white students, nor does it exclude white students. As Jeff explained earlier in the thread, Banneker is a special space for minority students that white families respectfully leave alone. That may change with the new, larger Banneker building. The District is more than 40% white in this century, and minority Black, so it's no surprise that we see white numbers percentages rising above 40% various public schools.

[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.

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.

Where's the evidence that UMC families are are fleeing DC and DCPS en masse? This sounds like an urban myth.

Our children attend one of the half dozen public elementary schools with an at-risk population in the single digits. At a recent school community meeting, admins said that enrollment numbers appear to be holding steady. The school has only lost two dozen students since the start of the school year, and applications to private schools on the part of families appear to have nudged up only slightly over last year (the school knows who's applying to privates because admins send out transcripts and teachers provide recommendations).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

"Great Q! And having been paid the Brookings $$ to be the troll that is just trying to get a rise out of DC parents with my descriptive study of public communications, I can absolutely relate!"

[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.

I’m surprised they focused on the DC forum. I feel like the suburbs have a lot more self segregating to avoid certain schools. Go look at the Langley vs Herndon debate on a thread. That’s worse than anything in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yet somehow white students account for the following at all city schools:

45% at Basis
45% at Latin
50% at Walls
44% at Inspired
34% at Creative Minds (3 start school)
...
1% at Banneker (higher ranked nationally than Latin and Basis)

You still argue DC white folk don’t intentionally self-segregate? One would think Banneker would at least have 16% white to match city’s demographics.

oh ffs. white kids are actually the minority at CMI.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:This is their conclusion:

The conversations on DC Urban Moms illustrate what other research has also shown: When privileged parents choose, they tend to choose segregation

This is an extremely unfair characterization that completely misses the nuanced and complex reality. It is extremely disappointing to see such drivel presented as serious research.

Unfortunately, the Post increasingly publishes simplistic (and divisive) click-bait articles about complex cultural issues.

If this were my site, I'd push back hard on this slander. I'm glad you are doing so.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:This is their conclusion:

The conversations on DC Urban Moms illustrate what other research has also shown: When privileged parents choose, they tend to choose segregation

This is an extremely unfair characterization that completely misses the nuanced and complex reality. It is extremely disappointing to see such drivel presented as serious research.

Unfortunately, the Post increasingly publishes simplistic (and divisive) click-bait articles about complex cultural issues.

If this were my site, I'd push back hard on this slander. I'm glad you are doing so.

It's not the Post that is the problem. The Post article gave a fair presentation of my views. The issue is the Brookings report which is utter garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:This is their conclusion:

The conversations on DC Urban Moms illustrate what other research has also shown: When privileged parents choose, they tend to choose segregation

This is an extremely unfair characterization that completely misses the nuanced and complex reality. It is extremely disappointing to see such drivel presented as serious research.

Unfortunately, the Post increasingly publishes simplistic (and divisive) click-bait articles about complex cultural issues.

If this were my site, I'd push back hard on this slander. I'm glad you are doing so.

exactly. I mean, schools with a lot of DCUM buzz like CMI are **majority minority**. how in the world is this chosing segregation? A lot of times I dislike how schools are discussed on DCUM, but this entire analysis seems to hinge on the fact that DCUM doesn’t discuss schools in Wards 7 and 8 ... but that’s because nobody is IB there on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yet somehow white students account for the following at all city schools:

45% at Basis
45% at Latin
50% at Walls
44% at Inspired
34% at Creative Minds (3 start school)
...
1% at Banneker (higher ranked nationally than Latin and Basis)

You still argue DC white folk don’t intentionally self-segregate? One would think Banneker would at least have 16% white to match city’s demographics.

Come on, the Banneker situation, discussed many times on DCUM, is the HS equivalent of an HBC (Historically Black College). Banneker has never tried to draw in a cohort of white students, nor does it exclude white students. As Jeff explained earlier in the thread, Banneker is a special space for minority students that white families respectfully leave alone. That may change with the new, larger Banneker building. The District is more than 40% white in this century, and minority Black, so it's no surprise that we see white numbers percentages rising above 40% various public schools.

If there's anything that white people are known for, it is respectfully allowing Black majority cultural spaces to proceed without gentrification, colonization, or appropriation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:is your wife's named karen? its so so so odd how white people want to be persecuted. Karen is in no way shape or form similar to the N word.

Its not a racial slur, its calling white bigots by a nickname.

If white people refuse to look at how their actions affect BIPOC people - even their school choice in the name of doing the best for their children - then the system perpetuates.

I have no idea why people think Wilson and Deal are so great other than it has a lot of white kids.

As a white parent, I should prioritize the interests of your "BIPOC" children over my own? That is counter not only to good parenting, but to human nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:This is their conclusion:

The conversations on DC Urban Moms illustrate what other research has also shown: When privileged parents choose, they tend to choose segregation

This is an extremely unfair characterization that completely misses the nuanced and complex reality. It is extremely disappointing to see such drivel presented as serious research.

Unfortunately, the Post increasingly publishes simplistic (and divisive) click-bait articles about complex cultural issues.

If this were my site, I'd push back hard on this slander. I'm glad you are doing so.

exactly. I mean, schools with a lot of DCUM buzz like CMI are **majority minority**. how in the world is this chosing segregation? A lot of times I dislike how schools are discussed on DCUM, but this entire analysis seems to hinge on the fact that DCUM doesn’t discuss schools in Wards 7 and 8 ... but that’s because nobody is IB there on DCUM.

The point is that white parents cluster in a small number of schools where they are overrepresented relative to the general population in DCPS. Some of these schools are still majority minority, but people tend to go for those w/the highest % of white students since it’s seen as a marker of better schools. I’ve been to the open houses for CMI and others years ago—the white parents were all looking around at each other approvingly and asking CMI how they managed to drum up such high interest (unspoken: high interest from white parents).

[Anonymous]

But if the white/Asian/other students were spread equally across schools, their presence would be insignificant to any given school. Whatever the supposed benefits of diversity by race or SES or whatever wouldn’t exist.

If integration is the goal, having a number of schools where major groups are each 30%-50% of the student population is great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The second author, Jackson Gode, graduated in 2014 from The Seattle Academy, a “top-rated private” high school in Seattle.
Its tuition is $38,000 per year.

https://facebook.com/seattleacademy/posts/2363749686994407

Not sure about Mr. Gode’s parents, or his role in his schooling decisions, but (at least for now) I’m a parent sending my kids to DCPS and putting my money where my mouth is.

Maybe when (very) young Mr. Gode has children in the 3rd grade -- or has children at all -- his priorities will evolve.