The higher the demand, the lower the percent of economically disadvantaged students.
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Anonymous
They certainly aren't doing outreach targeting economically disadvantaged DC Chinese speakers. I speak two Chinese dialects and work for an NGO helping low-income dialect-speaking families access city services. YY gave up on that sort of outreach 8 or 9 years back. But then why should they diversity economically, unless the goal is to attract poor Chinese-speaking families? The Chinese doesn't pay off unless parents who don't speak Chinese at home pay tutors, au pairs, summer immersion camps, DVDs from China etc. The Chinese YY can teach isn't enough for it to stick. Poor kids are better off in other programs. |
Anonymous
The charter system is obviously a success. The least advantaged students in charters outperform the least advantaged students in DCPS. This has been documented in DC for years. Seriously - for years. Don't throw out BS about nationwide trends. In DC it has been well-proven that charters do a better job than DCPS at educating the most vulnerable students. Why do you need other people to do your homework for you? |
Anonymous
successful at segregation it would seem |
Anonymous
DD,3 hasn't started school yet, but she has befriended a few older (5-9yo) black and Latina kids in the neighborhood. By some tragic coincidence, all of the kids have had a tough life already: one's father and uncle were murdered, another's mom was in prison, the other kids were four siblings being raised by a single mother and grandma. Two of the sweetest girls we met yesterday said they moved around and lived with different people all the time. Then there's the family of 8 kids who have always lived at or close to poverty. These are the low income brown kids people avoid. Then I stop and think about each kid individually, how bright and sweet they are and it's so sad that the general advice is "keep your kid away from these troublemakers if you want him to do well in life." Yesterday, about anything I said to the 7 year old who moves often and lives with different people, she took a minute to reason out loud, to make sure that she understood fully what we were talking about. She is a bright kid and definitely sees the world clearly. The young single mom of four was incredibly proud of her 9 year old daughter, that the girl is very kind and perseveres to do what she set her mind on. The 9 year old whose dad and uncle (gang related) were murdered was distrustful but clearly very thoughtful and bright. The girl from the poor family of 10 is a talented artist, winning competitions against kids several years older. I could go on about how wonderful each of the kids were, and how glad I am that they like and play with my daughter. It's sad to think that: 1) that their situation is what it is 2) that we are advised to avoid them because they will be a bad influence on DD 3) that people ignorantly stereotype these kids and then go out of their way to avoid them, instead of helping even just a little. Considering that DCUM folks claim to be so smart, rich better than everyone else, I think your attitude to treat these kids like the plague is sick and shameful. |
Anonymous
Can you read? Can you comprehend what you read? We're talking about the at-risk students. Those with poverty, family disunity, homelessness, special needs, and other complications involved - and the charters still outperform DCPS. The students have multiple excuses for not understanding the obvious data, you don't. You're willfully stupid. |
Anonymous
Probably true. Your Cantonese is irrelevant. YY is about Mandarin. |
Anonymous
At-risk covers a lot of ground. Not all at-risk kids are the same. The following first graders are both considered at risk: Student A lives with her mom and grandmother. Grandma retired from a job in the DC government and the home she bought in the 80s is now paid off and worth a lot of money; she can tap its equity to make repairs, and one day plans to use it to help her granddaughter go to college. Mom works is taking classes in accounting at UDC. They qualify for a small amount of food stamps during the school year (Mom's income from her summer internship puts them over the limit a few months of the year) and also rely on Grandma's pension and Social Security benefits. Student B was just placed with her father after 6 months in foster care. He has never been a full-time parent her before, but her mother is severely mentally ill and currently at St. Elizabeth's. He stays with her at DC General and their only income is $336 a month in TANF. He is looking for work, but he didn't finish high school and has a criminal record, so that process is difficult. Sme days, he would be unable to pass a drug test required for employment. Which of these kids is more likely to have been entered in the MSDC lottery, and which one will go to the IB DCPS? Which one is going to be brought to school on time each day (remember, kids get free Metro to and from school but the adults who bring them do not)? Who is going to have a clean uniform so she isn't suspended or put in detention? Who's going to get help with her homework and score well on the PARCC? |
Anonymous
Huh. So you can't just quote broad statistical numbers without any understanding of the underlying data and nuance? That sounds very un-'murican. |
Anonymous
I speak Mandarin pretty well, though with a strong Southern accent. I took a couple years of Mandarin-for-Chinese-regional-dialect-speakers classes at UCLA (we'd would move through two semesters of Mandarin for non-dialect speakers each semester). I also lived in China for several years after college. If you're seriously arguing that speaking one Chinese dialect is irrelevant to learning Mandarin, you speak no Chinese dialects. |
Anonymous
" I know this is about the dialects (sic) of South China, but for a moment there I was thinking "gong xi fa cai, y'all" |
Anonymous
there is segregation within the charter system. and the charter system definitely hasn't done any favors to the public schools. |
Anonymous
The charter system exists to serve the students, not the public schools. "Serving the public schools" seems to be a euphemism for serving the teacher's unions - but those interests don't always align with the those of actual students. |