Stats on how many white kids at each high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker is the only school on that list where you can make a reasonable case that white parents have avoided it because of the racial makeup.

The neighborhood high schools white kids avoid are the same ones with extremely low IB participation rates overall. They aren't good schools, and It's crazy that some of these numbers aren't even lower.

My sense with Banneker is that white parents have less enthusiasm for the school largely because of how the principal runs the school, less because of race. Principal is very strict with discipline and many classes have a drill and kill approach. Communication from the school is minimal. Sports teams are mostly weak. Extracurriculars are mostly weak. The split between IB and AP means that you don’t have a wide selection of AP or IB classes. STEM is also weak. Banneker does somethings very well but those things are not especially valued by white parents as a whole

Do you have any experience with Banneker? Or just a “sense”?

I work with DCPS high schools. I’m a central office employee. I also have friends with kids at Banneker.

I am also a DCPS employee and know several current and former teachers at Banneker. The principal is the number one reason I wouldn’t send my child to the school. It’s not just ridiculously strict rules, there are other things that I fundamentally disagree with (I would be more specific but really can’t with the things I’ve heard).

As a former football player, you get these old school coaches who have a lot of really old fashioned ideas that mix some bad and some good. There’s a lot of good you don’t find in some places, but a whole lot of bad. And the coach believes all that stuff is part of the secret sauce that makes the team great. Wouldn’t surprise me if Banneker’s principal is like those coaches.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker is the only school on that list where you can make a reasonable case that white parents have avoided it because of the racial makeup.

The neighborhood high schools white kids avoid are the same ones with extremely low IB participation rates overall. They aren't good schools, and It's crazy that some of these numbers aren't even lower.

My sense with Banneker is that white parents have less enthusiasm for the school largely because of how the principal runs the school, less because of race. Principal is very strict with discipline and many classes have a drill and kill approach. Communication from the school is minimal. Sports teams are mostly weak. Extracurriculars are mostly weak. The split between IB and AP means that you don’t have a wide selection of AP or IB classes. STEM is also weak. Banneker does somethings very well but those things are not especially valued by white parents as a whole

Do you have any experience with Banneker? Or just a “sense”?

I work with DCPS high schools. I’m a central office employee. I also have friends with kids at Banneker.

I am also a DCPS employee and know several current and former teachers at Banneker. The principal is the number one reason I wouldn’t send my child to the school. It’s not just ridiculously strict rules, there are other things that I fundamentally disagree with (I would be more specific but really can’t with the things I’ve heard).

I'd love a school with strict rules. Its about time.

Banneker works better for girls than boys. I believe it is 70% or higher female.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Banneker is the only school on that list where you can make a reasonable case that white parents have avoided it because of the racial makeup.

The neighborhood high schools white kids avoid are the same ones with extremely low IB participation rates overall. They aren't good schools, and It's crazy that some of these numbers aren't even lower.

My sense with Banneker is that white parents have less enthusiasm for the school largely because of how the principal runs the school, less because of race. Principal is very strict with discipline and many classes have a drill and kill approach. Communication from the school is minimal. Sports teams are mostly weak. Extracurriculars are mostly weak. The split between IB and AP means that you don’t have a wide selection of AP or IB classes. STEM is also weak. Banneker does somethings very well but those things are not especially valued by white parents as a whole

Do you have any experience with Banneker? Or just a “sense”?

I work with DCPS high schools. I’m a central office employee. I also have friends with kids at Banneker.

I am also a DCPS employee and know several current and former teachers at Banneker. The principal is the number one reason I wouldn’t send my child to the school. It’s not just ridiculously strict rules, there are other things that I fundamentally disagree with (I would be more specific but really can’t with the things I’ve heard).

I'd love a school with strict rules. It’s about time.

Some rules make sense while others don’t. I do love the strict cell phone policy. Wish all the high schools did that

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:School Year 2023-2024

Hadn't seen this before. Thought I'd share.

Ballou 0
Bard High School Early College 1
Anacostia 1
Maya Angelou 1
Statesman College Preparatory Academy 1
Luke C Moore 1
Woodson 1
Paul High School 2
Phelps 3
Roosevelt STAY 4
EL Haynes 4
Perry Street Prep 4
Washington Leadership Academy 5
Dunbar 3
Coolidge 6
Cap City 7
Roosevelt High School 9
CHEC 13
Eastern 21
Sojourner truth 25
Mc Kinley Tech 24
Banneker 37
MacArthur 52
Duke Ellington 92
Basis 116
DCI 173
Washington Latin 143
School Without Walls 283
Jackson-Reed 722

Old numbers and need percentages

These are the numbers from last year. There are, at this point, no newer numbers as the audit has not yet been released for this year. You are welcome to add percentages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. I hope all the people so “worried” about being at a school with a low white student population are doing everything in their power to bring back affirmative action at the college level. Black and Latine students have been dealing with this forever. And let me tell you, white students at elite schools are NOT kind to students of color. People really shouldn’t be surprised by majority Black public schools in a city known as Chocolate City.

I would not want to be the only black student at an otherwise white school. I would also not want to be the only white student at an otherwise black school. That's all people are saying -- it would just be very hard to be the only person of a specific race at a school because it makes you visible in a way that is specifically hard on kids who have a strong desire to fit in. I absolutely favor affirmative action or whatever method works to ensure that black and latino students attending elite schools are not "onlies". But I also would not send my white kid to a high school with literally no other white kids because I think it would place a spotlight on her that I know she'd hate.

My DC was the only white child in their kindergarten class - there were seven others in the grade but the other kids ended up in the other two rooms (3 in one and 4 in the other). School overall was 15% white, 10% Hispanic, rest Black. I didn’t really care at the beginning of the year, but there was definitely something to what the PP is saying as we had some really weird things happen. Lots of comments to DC about their skin, hair, eyes. Some overt racism like “my mom said I shouldn’t be friends with white people.” I felt the teacher (also white) held my child to a higher standard and it wasn’t fair to any of them.

The next couple years had the kids more dispersed and we didn’t have those types of issues as often or at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Being one of few is a non-issue, being the only one is very very hard.

Speaking as a brown person who was the only one growing up, as the parent of half-white kids who have been the only non-white kid in the room, and as the parent of kids at a school that was 10 percent white. First two were tough, last one is not an issue for the kids. Some parents are uncomfortable, but the kids were fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is pointless!

I do kind of love the fact that a bunch of us parents are spending time on this, but meanwhile the kids DNGAF

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Do you think Banneker and Anacostia are similar schools with similar social dynamics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Do you think Banneker and Anacostia are similar schools with similar social dynamics?

No. I misread the original quote, did not catch that it was focused on schools with one white kid, vice very few. In any case, I shared my child’s/ family’s experience. Take that for what it’s worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Being one of few is a non-issue, being the only one is very very hard.

Speaking as a brown person who was the only one growing up, as the parent of half-white kids who have been the only non-white kid in the room, and as the parent of kids at a school that was 10 percent white. First two were tough, last one is not an issue for the kids. Some parents are uncomfortable, but the kids were fine.

This will probably be inflammatory but it's also true: it matter how different the outlier kid looks. And this is true whether you are talking about a black kid at a mostly white school or vice versa. Kids tend to fixate on appearance as a sign of similarity so the less contrast in skin tone and hair color the easier it is for the kid who is an only. This is also why greater diversity in the majority population can help too-- easier to be the one black kid in a school where the white kids have a variety of backgrounds, hair colors, skin tones, etc. than a school where everyone looks Nordic.

I know it's the third rail because it gets into colorism but kids who still don't not always understand all the politics just think a kid with curly dark hair and olive skin looks more "black" than a kid with very pale skin and very light hair. If the goal is fitting in sometimes that's enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Being one of few is a non-issue, being the only one is very very hard.

Speaking as a brown person who was the only one growing up, as the parent of half-white kids who have been the only non-white kid in the room, and as the parent of kids at a school that was 10 percent white. First two were tough, last one is not an issue for the kids. Some parents are uncomfortable, but the kids were fine.

This will probably be inflammatory but it's also true: it matter how different the outlier kid looks. And this is true whether you are talking about a black kid at a mostly white school or vice versa. Kids tend to fixate on appearance as a sign of similarity so the less contrast in skin tone and hair color the easier it is for the kid who is an only. This is also why greater diversity in the majority population can help too-- easier to be the one black kid in a school where the white kids have a variety of backgrounds, hair colors, skin tones, etc. than a school where everyone looks Nordic.

I know it's the third rail because it gets into colorism but kids who still don't not always understand all the politics just think a kid with curly dark hair and olive skin looks more "black" than a kid with very pale skin and very light hair. If the goal is fitting in sometimes that's enough.

As someone who spent time on various towns as the only white kid in a school, it mattered a lot less the older I got

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would really hate to be that one white kid at one of those schools. I imagine they are probably relentlessly singled out and teased.

My child (who is Caucasian) is at Banneker, and we were having a conversation about this earlier today. Being one of very few white kids is a non- issue.

Being one of few is a non-issue, being the only one is very very hard.

Speaking as a brown person who was the only one growing up, as the parent of half-white kids who have been the only non-white kid in the room, and as the parent of kids at a school that was 10 percent white. First two were tough, last one is not an issue for the kids. Some parents are uncomfortable, but the kids were fine.

This will probably be inflammatory but it's also true: it matter how different the outlier kid looks. And this is true whether you are talking about a black kid at a mostly white school or vice versa. Kids tend to fixate on appearance as a sign of similarity so the less contrast in skin tone and hair color the easier it is for the kid who is an only. This is also why greater diversity in the majority population can help too-- easier to be the one black kid in a school where the white kids have a variety of backgrounds, hair colors, skin tones, etc. than a school where everyone looks Nordic.

I know it's the third rail because it gets into colorism but kids who still don't not always understand all the politics just think a kid with curly dark hair and olive skin looks more "black" than a kid with very pale skin and very light hair. If the goal is fitting in sometimes that's enough.

As someone who spent time on various towns as the only white kid in a school, it mattered a lot less the older I got

You could probably say that about many things in life.

[Anonymous]

To me - the parallel fact set is how well these schools are doing in terms of preparing kids for the next level of life. And sometimes that means parental support and pressure on admins to do better. It would be nice to see DC tax money poured into all the schools with low performance and have parents support the schools. Better quality of life results all around - neighborhood schools stronger means kids don't need to commute on a 30 minute bus ride to a different Ward school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To me - the parallel fact set is how well these schools are doing in terms of preparing kids for the next level of life. And sometimes that means parental support and pressure on admins to do better. It would be nice to see DC tax money poured into all the schools with low performance and have parents support the schools. Better quality of life results all around - neighborhood schools stronger means kids don't need to commute on a 30 minute bus ride to a different Ward school.

Which schools?