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

[Anonymous]

So basically, the two schools that prove the point of the research are Banneker and CMI. If you can't explain those, you must agree that white people are causing school segregation due to racism.

Where is a good analysis of these two schools, then? I do think that being in an under 5% minority at any school is going to turn a parent off, for better or worse. That rules out Banneker. Beyond that, CMI has been discussed on here ad nauseum, and I think that it has to do with education model and perhaps its facilities.

The real trend of parents of means (of all races) away from DCPS and toward a few select charters (outside UNW) is more interesting to analyze and would require a much better research plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

That only works if the overall student population for the district is 30/30/30/10 or whatever. When white kids make up 13% of the district but 50% of the students at certain schools, it means some schools are than 100% Black.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

That only works if the overall student population for the district is 30/30/30/10 or whatever. When white kids make up 13% of the district but 50% of the students at certain schools, it means some schools are than 100% Black.

Exactly. You can’t achieve meaningful integration across all schools with the given population. You can spread everyone out equally, which ultimately doesn’t accomplish anything. Or you can have meaningful integration at a subset of schools.

The posters (and the study, really) complaining about ‘whites clustering’ are missing the fact that that is the best outcome. There are only a couple of schools that are in the neighborhood of 75% white. They are outliers. Quite a few schools are optimal, if meaningful integration is the goal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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).

how is that segregation? those schools are manifestly not segregated.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:So basically, the two schools that prove the point of the research are Banneker and CMI. If you can't explain those, you must agree that white people are causing school segregation due to racism.

Where is a good analysis of these two schools, then? I do think that being in an under 5% minority at any school is going to turn a parent off, for better or worse. That rules out Banneker. Beyond that, CMI has been discussed on here ad nauseum, and I think that it has to do with education model and perhaps its facilities.

The real trend of parents of means (of all races) away from DCPS and toward a few select charters (outside UNW) is more interesting to analyze and would require a much better research plan.

I think if you want to find a DCUM blindspot, the "gotcha" is not Banneker, but McKinley.

Part of the discussion that can't be ignored is the geographic clustering of white families. If you subtract the number of white students enrolled in their inbounds DCPS from the total white students in DC Public schools (DCPS and charter), you have a very small number left with which to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

That only works if the overall student population for the district is 30/30/30/10 or whatever. When white kids make up 13% of the district but 50% of the students at certain schools, it means some schools are than 100% Black.

Exactly. You can’t achieve meaningful integration across all schools with the given population. You can spread everyone out equally, which ultimately doesn’t accomplish anything. Or you can have meaningful integration at a subset of schools.

The posters (and the study, really) complaining about ‘whites clustering’ are missing the fact that that is the best outcome. There are only a couple of schools that are in the neighborhood of 75% white. They are outliers. Quite a few schools are optimal, if meaningful integration is the goal.

blaming white parents for not enrolling their kids in failing schools - like Eastern High where zero, ZERO of the kids meed math targets, is a great way to deflect from the terrible education being given to black kids in DC. The poster obsessed with why Banneker doesn’t have more white kids needs to open their eyes.

[Anonymous]

White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

I hope so too, but am not holding my breath.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

again, are you willing to enroll your child in a high school where literally every single kid has failed the math PARCC? I’m not. The racism here is whatever is causing that failure, not white parents chosing not to enroll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

again, are you willing to enroll your child in a high school where literally every single kid has failed the math PARCC? I’m not. The racism here is whatever is causing that failure, not white parents chosing not to enroll.

oh and cute of you to throw in “pandemic pods.” so the anti-racist thing is to close schools for 2 years and let kids struggle. Ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

again, are you willing to enroll your child in a high school where literally every single kid has failed the math PARCC? I’m not. The racism here is whatever is causing that failure, not white parents chosing not to enroll.

oh and cute of you to throw in “pandemic pods.” so the anti-racist thing is to close schools for 2 years and let kids struggle. Ok.

Have you paused to think about why you are so defensive?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

Reflection by itself is meaningless. I reflect every time I eat an extra brownie. That doesn't stop me from eating it. At some point, the narrative will have to move beyond name-calling and shaming and start proposing ideas for changing things. If parents are faced with an inbound DCPS school in which over half the kids are not a grade level and you can't convince them that this is still a good opportunity for their child, they will avoid the school. Whether they avoid it by going OOB, charter, private, or moving probably doesn't matter much, but they will avoid it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

again, are you willing to enroll your child in a high school where literally every single kid has failed the math PARCC? I’m not. The racism here is whatever is causing that failure, not white parents chosing not to enroll.

oh and cute of you to throw in “pandemic pods.” so the anti-racist thing is to close schools for 2 years and let kids struggle. Ok.

Have you paused to think about why you are so defensive?

because you’re making absurd claims while ignoring the actual racism? have you stopped to think why you are more invested in proving white parents’ individual choices are racist as opposed to addressing the actual institutions failing black kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

again, are you willing to enroll your child in a high school where literally every single kid has failed the math PARCC? I’m not. The racism here is whatever is causing that failure, not white parents chosing not to enroll.

oh and cute of you to throw in “pandemic pods.” so the anti-racist thing is to close schools for 2 years and let kids struggle. Ok.

Have you paused to think about why you are so defensive?

heyo, people get defensive when you falsely accuse them of racism. this is kind of fundamental to human nature. if you actually had a bona fide interest in integrating schools (which depends on individual choice to a large degree) you’d have some consciousness of this. But your actual interest is to declare people racist instead of doing the hard work of fixing DC schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:White affluent parents do a lot of things that exacerbate racial inequities--moving to segregated neighborhoods, choosing schools w/larger white populations, redshirting, pandemic pods, etc., all in the name of "doing what's best for my kids." I hope with more recent scholarship on these issues (opportunity hoarding, etc.), this leads to some reflection.

I "reflect" on these issues all of the time. It doesn't change what I'll be doing. Which is not sending my kid to a school where the majority of kids aren't at grade level.

It's interesting that this is being framed as a something people can change with individual choices. It isn't. It needs action on the part of the system to change. Given that white parents getting involved in changing that system will be seen as racist....well....there's not a lot an individual white parent (or even a group of white parents) can do.