Do DC Privates *really* strive for diversity?

[Anonymous]

All of the schools say that they want diversity... but it seems to me that most people are making large sums of money.

I feel poor by saying that between my husband and I we only make $90,000.

And I believe that we might be one of the only families to walk to our local school... (I walk with my daughter from our apartment, and then walk another twenty-thirty minutes to the nearest metro station.)

Most of my daughter's friends live in two or three story homes... We live in an apartment building that's sixteen stories... and we only have two bedrooms.

Examples of "Diversity"

+Sidwell: "We believe in having a student body that represents a variety of economic backgrounds"
+Georgetown Day: "GDS students take an active role in addressing issues relating to diversity."

Any thoughts? To me it seems that schools aren't striving for the diversity.

[Anonymous]

Yes. Yes they do. Look at their financial aid contributions - although I admit I don't know where to find them. These schools work their tails off to make sure they can attract and subsidize (as needed) diversity of all kinds - socio-economic, racial, ethnic, etc. Some may think it's for PR reasons rather than the true mission of diversity, but either way they do make a significant effort.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they do. In my DC's class at a NW private, there are kids who live in huge houses, kids who live in small or row houses, and kids who live in apartments. Kids from a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds. Kids whose parents are lawyers or investment consultants, and kids whose parents are teachers or scientists. The huge house/lawyer types might be a plurality, but they're not a majority.

[Anonymous]

I actually put the "teachers" and "scientists" in 19:32's post in the middle class. In most parts of the US they are. And if some here wouldn't call them economically middle class in DC, they do belong in the middle class in terms of the instructional support and emotional encouragement they are likely to give their kids. So to me, a caucasian family with two parents who are teachers isn't really "diversity".

A question we seem to be skirting is, do they really want poor minorities from bad DC neighborhoods? Do they take their "low income" diversity from the teachers' kids?

[Anonymous]

19:50 - there is real low income diversity. I posted elsewhere yesterday that my class had kids who got on the bus in SE everyday. They felt like they were drawing dangerous attention to themselves by dressing in a way that met our dress code. There is more of that kind of diversity in most TT private schools than in your public schools due to the simple fact of georgraphy that doesn't bind the private schools.

[Anonymous]

I don't believe it. I know several minorities accepted at Sidwell this year and two at GDS. All of these familes have alot of money. Yes, I think they do accept both minorities and people with lower incomes but never both. For example the will accept a minority with money but not a minority asking for financial aid. I hate to say it but it's the truth. I've seen it over and over again.

[Anonymous]

9:40 Never both? I know several minority students who attend Sidwell on partial and full FA. Full as in 100% tuition. The full FA student is just brilliant, and very sweet, I cried when this student's mother told me the news. (This was several years ago.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe it. I know several minorities accepted at Sidwell this year and two at GDS. All of these familes have alot of money. Yes, I think they do accept both minorities and people with lower incomes but never both. For example the will accept a minority with money but not a minority asking for financial aid. I hate to say it but it's the truth. I've seen it over and over again.

My sense is that many of these schools accept minority families with a lot of money or minority families who are poor. It's the minority families that are "middle class" or "professional class" that have a difficult time. They make what might appear to be quite a bit on paper not taking into account hefty student loans and the absence of inter-generational wealth, so they don't typically qualify for aid, but frequently can't afford the high tuition either. This is the type of diversity that these schools are missing the mark on.

[Anonymous]

I believe that the schools make a genuine effort to have all kinds of diversity. I have helped with admissions tours and so forth and it seems to me that it is difficult to reach and encourage poor families (minority or not) to consider private schooling ... it is sort of off their radar and doesn't occur to them as a possibility as readily as for those of us with a bit more in resources. Also, many poor children are not provided the early opportunities such as nightly reading, good preschool, lots of interaction time with parents and so forth that helps a child be well prepared for the admissions process. I don't say this as a slam against poor parents ... I just think they genuinely have less time and resources as they must work much harder to provide food and shelter and basic medical care. Perhaps I am over-stereotyping, but I do think the above ideas at least contribute to the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't believe it. I know several minorities accepted at Sidwell this year and two at GDS. All of these familes have alot of money. Yes, I think they do accept both minorities and people with lower incomes but never both. For example the will accept a minority with money but not a minority asking for financial aid. I hate to say it but it's the truth. I've seen it over and over again.

Not true at St. Albans. I am an STA parent. Minority students come from a wide range of financial backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

They work harder on racial diversity, because that's what everyone can see for themselves, and it helps assuage the limousine liberal guilt.

They are not as driven to achieve economic diversity, because, let's face it, it is the rich folks who give the most money, and money makes the (private school) world go round.

[Anonymous]

PP is getting close on the real deal here.

"Diversity" is simply preferential treatment based on pigmentation.

For instance, a 5th generation American family with an hispanic surname is considered "diverse" while a caucasian family, just off the boat from, say, Denmark, is not diverse and is not given preferential admission consideration.

Sadly, the family from Denmark would actually contribute some actual 'diversity' to the makeup of the classroom , to the kids' experiences when they visited this family home...


As PP said, it's just BS to assuage liberal guilt. Diversity has nothing to do with REAL diversity, but everything to do with skin color.

[Anonymous]

If diversity is indeed embraced at the administrative level, how is it handled by the students?

Even at the public school level, self-segregation exists, as this has been my personal and professional experience. So I can only imagine that this type of behavior would be worse at the private level.

If, for example, a child from a poor section of DC is enrolled, how easy is it for him/her to belong? Uniforms aside (they do help to level the playing field somewhat), how can this child "compete" with others in wealthier leagues? Does the parent in the Lexus SUV ever drive home a child who lives in public housing? These are the issues I see with "striving toward diversity." It's not an end to discrimination.

any personal experiences with this?

[Anonymous]

Personal experience - the younger kids are indifferent to race. They just dont care.

When they're older, they begin to self-segregate, and this is painfully obvious in the cafeterias of private and public school.

In the privates, there are quite a lot of wealthy and super-wealthy "minority" families. I have never seen nor heard of any of these families contributing anything to the culture of the school - they just have different skin color and are given preferential admission.

It's been my experience that there are actually more poor caucasian families than minority families at private schools..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personal experience - the younger kids are indifferent to race. They just dont care.

When they're older, they begin to self-segregate, and this is painfully obvious in the cafeterias of private and public school.

In the privates, there are quite a lot of wealthy and super-wealthy "minority" families. I have never seen nor heard of any of these families contributing anything to the culture of the school - they just have different skin color and are given preferential admission.

It's been my experience that there are actually more poor caucasian families than minority families at private schools..

AA family and lower income, dd is in upper school at a private. Yes, the lower-income kids have their own clique. Though they are friendly with the wealthier kids (white & aa) only slightly so.