Are we all fooling ourselves?

[Anonymous]

About DCPS? Its still the worst school system in the country, right?

[Anonymous]

I think Detroit, Philadelphia and Newark might have a thing to say about that.

But "not the worst" is a far cry from good.

[Anonymous]

Is it better than homeschool?

[Anonymous]

I think OP is right. I think the possibility of free preschool entices people to consider it when they otherwise would not.

[Anonymous]

Philly is a wreck. And Mississippi? Forget it.

I'm sure we're crazy, but we're giving it a shot.

[Anonymous]

Well it depends! If you look at the NAEP scores, the averages for the WoTP schools (by inference, according to their composition as per DCPS stats) are better than the 75th percentile of Mass, which is by far the best school system in the country. The 75th percentile here in DC is as good as the 90th percentile in MA. So, one can't entirely tar the system with the same brush. Now if you were to bring up the gap....well yes DC is perhaps the worst.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well it depends! If you look at the NAEP scores, the averages for the WoTP schools (by inference, according to their composition as per DCPS stats) are better than the 75th percentile of Mass, which is by far the best school system in the country. The 75th percentile here in DC is as good as the 90th percentile in MA. So, one can't entirely tar the system with the same brush. Now if you were to bring up the gap....well yes DC is perhaps the worst.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think OP is right. I think the possibility of free preschool entices people to consider it when they otherwise would not.

Of course. Who wants to pay a sitter if there's free sitting available somewhere else?

[Anonymous]

Yes. We are kidding ourselves. We fall from immersions, blended learning, or expoditinairy programs. When really you are going to pour your time and energy into a school- to realize 3-5 years later that it's not working . But until then, we spend a lot of nervous energy on working with/against the school system. Case in point: the van ness parents group. They will lose sleep/years off their life fighting for 'biundaries' (keeping out low SES) only to give up in frustration in just a few years.

[Anonymous]

Similar situation at SWWHS. They have a great school, and all they seem to want to do is ruin it with moronic ideas like merging it with a neighborhood school a mile away. DCPS can't even get out of its own way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes. We are kidding ourselves. We fall from immersions, blended learning, or expoditinairy programs. When really you are going to pour your time and energy into a school- to realize 3-5 years later that it's not working . But until then, we spend a lot of nervous energy on working with/against the school system. Case in point: the van ness parents group. They will lose sleep/years off their life fighting for 'biundaries' (keeping out low SES) only to give up in frustration in just a few years.

And yet your children will probably be fine, and their achievement levels will largely line up with the educational level of their mothers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well it depends! If you look at the NAEP scores, the averages for the WoTP schools (by inference, according to their composition as per DCPS stats) are better than the 75th percentile of Mass, which is by far the best school system in the country. The 75th percentile here in DC is as good as the 90th percentile in MA. So, one can't entirely tar the system with the same brush. Now if you were to bring up the gap....well yes DC is perhaps the worst.

+1

Agreed. And if you sort the scores by white students (an imperfect proxy for middle income and above in DC), DC's are #1 in the country.

To repeat: White kids in DC outscore--by a decent margin--white kids in every state in the country. Why? Because there are virtually no poor white kids in DC; in fact, the majority of white kids in DC are upper-middle income and above. Privileged kids do well pretty much no matter what. (It would be interesting to compare test scores based on income level--that would give a better view into how DCPS compares to other public school systems.)

This a socioeconomic issue that every education system has to grapple with but that is particularly stark in cities like DC, where you have a huge income gap that also happens to fall largely (but obviously not completely) along racial lines. Add to that the fact that DC's high profile attracts reformer types eager to make names for themselves, and you get a volatile system that applies untested quick fixes to schools that most need consistency and long-term investment.

So, yes, DCPS is a great school system for the kids who would do well pretty much anywhere, like my kids--I might even argue that for kids with such a smooth path in life it is character-building to be part of a system that is at times bumpy and unpredictable and arbitrary. But DCPS (like most large urban school systems) fails most kids without those advantages.

[Anonymous]

I think its all relative and yes we are fooling ourselves. The bar is SO LOW that any glimmer of hope makes us think "yes, its all on the upswing, Im soooo in love with our school"--I took a tour of my local elem and had the same excitement. But when I did a visit to my neices elem school in NC to eat lunch with her I was blown away at the activities and advanced curriculum (they do have test in GT but she did not make the cut). The science and math fair projects she was working on were really top notch (and she did make it to a state wide competition) in 3rd grade. There were also lots of things like "Parents Day" and "grandparents day" which I don't as much in DC, probably because that might be discrimantory. It helped give me some perspective that even the best elem schools (Janney probably the exception) are still really lagging when compared to high SES schools in other parts of the Country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well it depends! If you look at the NAEP scores, the averages for the WoTP schools (by inference, according to their composition as per DCPS stats) are better than the 75th percentile of Mass, which is by far the best school system in the country. The 75th percentile here in DC is as good as the 90th percentile in MA. So, one can't entirely tar the system with the same brush. Now if you were to bring up the gap....well yes DC is perhaps the worst.

+1

Agreed. And if you sort the scores by white students (an imperfect proxy for middle income and above in DC), DC's are #1 in the country.

To repeat: White kids in DC outscore--by a decent margin--white kids in every state in the country. Why? Because there are virtually no poor white kids in DC; in fact, the majority of white kids in DC are upper-middle income and above. Privileged kids do well pretty much no matter what. (It would be interesting to compare test scores based on income level--that would give a better view into how DCPS compares to other public school systems.)

This a socioeconomic issue that every education system has to grapple with but that is particularly stark in cities like DC, where you have a huge income gap that also happens to fall largely (but obviously not completely) along racial lines. Add to that the fact that DC's high profile attracts reformer types eager to make names for themselves, and you get a volatile system that applies untested quick fixes to schools that most need consistency and long-term investment.

So, yes, DCPS is a great school system for the kids who would do well pretty much anywhere, like my kids--I might even argue that for kids with such a smooth path in life it is character-building to be part of a system that is at times bumpy and unpredictable and arbitrary. But DCPS (like most large urban school systems) fails most kids without those advantages.

Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back.

[Anonymous]

It probably is, but my poor white kids are doing great at Wotp school.We are not leaving DC for suburbs even though our "friend" form VA keeps telling us that the best DC public school is worse than the worst VA public school.