ludlow-taylor

[Anonymous]

I'd say all groups are getting "punk'd" - just in different ways.

The poor folks are getting their schools closed and the rich folks are having to apply to multiple schools and drive their kids all over town to try to get them a good public education.

DCPS is doing a great job of playing on the weaknesses of both groups. They know how to screw all their customers.

Only the super-elites in Ward 3 are spared and I suspect that won't last forever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well that is what being stated by the DCPS officials to the black community. Get real, how is it that there's such dislike and hatred are for whites when they infiltrate the local schools? Don'y worry about our "plan" you need to worry about DCPS plan. The Plan is to get the whites excited about public education in the primary grades only. Education has become a tourist attraction and money bonanza at white peoples' expense. The Rhee and Henderson years has pretty much patent and trademarked this plan. More white tax base money that is helping a black majority run and populated school system. One city, one group punk'd.

Who is saying that, which DCPS officials?

And, if that's really "the plan" that these DCPS officials have, do you really think it's reasonable to think they can just "punk" white folks? "White flight" is over, demographics are changing fast, neighborhood after neighborhood is changing, massive investments are going into new development, and whites are flooding back in to DC in droves, and once they "infiltrate" as you amusingly put it, they will demand change and unlike just shutting up and putting up with bad schools and nonsense as the black community has done for decades, they will work to drive out any DCPS officials who resist change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

And, if that's really "the plan" that these DCPS officials have, do you really think it's reasonable to think they can just "punk" white folks? "White flight" is over, demographics are changing fast, neighborhood after neighborhood is changing, massive investments are going into new development, and whites are flooding back in to DC in droves, and once they "infiltrate" as you amusingly put it, they will demand change and unlike just shutting up and putting up with bad schools and nonsense as the black community has done for decades, they will work to drive out any DCPS officials who resist change.

I wish you were right -- but I don't see it happening so far. I saw a lot of hope when Michelle Rhee arrived to perform her miracles. Now I see a slow realization that there will be no miracle and no meaningful improvement as long the current "reforms" are perpetuated.

Yet I see no effective work to "demand change" or to "drive out" change resistant DCPS officials. I just see parents taking blows and complaining.

[Anonymous]

Michelle Rhee is not indicative of "current" reforms and isn't really relevant in current discussion. Michelle Rhee was only here for a short while and her efforts have largely been abandoned. She was trying to take too much on in too short of a time.

But meanwhile, there are many things happening at the grassroots level with schools being taken over by engaged and proactive PTAs that are demanding more. And likewise, the charters are ever more putting the pressure on DC public schools to either fight for their relevance and survival by improving or facing closure. DCPS officials are not doing themselves any favors if they cannot recognize the tide of change happening all around them and if it isn't dawning on them that they need to rethink their approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Michelle Rhee is not indicative of "current" reforms and isn't really relevant in current discussion. Michelle Rhee was only here for a short while and her efforts have largely been abandoned. She was trying to take too much on in too short of a time.

But meanwhile, there are many things happening at the grassroots level with schools being taken over by engaged and proactive PTAs that are demanding more. And likewise, the charters are ever more putting the pressure on DC public schools to either fight for their relevance and survival by improving or facing closure. DCPS officials are not doing themselves any favors if they cannot recognize the tide of change happening all around them and if it isn't dawning on them that they need to rethink their approach.

The only things that have been abandoned since Rhee left are management supported humiliation of teachers and national speeches on how horrible the teachers in DCPS are and how reform is going to change all that. Her reforms are in place and continuing -- IMPACT, merit pay, bonus pay, TFA, school closures and charter growth, teacher and principal churn, continued low standardized test scores and a widening achievement gap.

[Anonymous]

13:37 - you clearly have no understanding of cause and effect.

[Anonymous]

15:26 sounds like you're out of arguments and are just throwing stones.

[Anonymous]

17:53: You seem oblivious to the fact that charters are booming not because there's some "plan" out there promoting them, they are booming because parents can see that many of the DCPS schools suck, and accordingly are rejecting their DCPS schools in favor of other choices.

Cause and effect. As soon as you start figuring that out, the rest will start making a whole lot more sense.

And, the ONLY way to reverse that is to improve DCPS schools and start raising expectations - exactly the thing that you are rejecting.

If I were to wager a guess, the most obvious conclusion would be that you are part of the DCPS establishment who doesn't want to be held to higher expectations. If that's the case, then you are part of the problem. If you don't want to be part of the problem, then you need to either lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way, but whining about what everyone else is doing isn't going to cut it.

[Anonymous]

If I were to wager a guess, I'd say that you're a part of the DCPS reform establishment that just revels in accusing people of not having high enough expectations while overlooking that fact that current reforms haven't helped the neediest kids at all.

If there's any plan (and I'm not the "plan" person), it's to let DCPS fail so charters can take over - whether or not they are any better. (and most of them are not)

DCPS schools filled with high SES kids in ward 3 are not failing and never have been. I figure they will stick around until DCPS is so small it won't be able to justify a central office staff.

[Anonymous]

I'm just a pissed off parent. But if that makes me a "reformer" then guess what - it's rapidly getting to where there's a whole lot more of us than there are of those who think the status quo is just fine. Ward 3 isn't enough for those of us who don't live there.

Nobody's "letting" DCPS fail - there has been one thing after another tried, yet the entrenched establishment has resisted change and persists in defending low expectations, a lack of accountability, and a grotesquely bloated system that spends more per student than any district in the nation. They still haven't gotten the message that they are failing everyone.

[Anonymous]

The biggest challenge is assembling a school that is sufficiently proficient or whatever metric one wants to use so that a god culture and climate is created. DCPS can do it in upper NW, and they can do it elsewhere if they have the right mix of students.

[Anonymous]

god = good

[Anonymous]

You all are moving in but you all are not having babies. We will become the One Gay City before we will become the One White City. Case in point David Catania.... You want names, then you should be black and in attendance with the DCPS officials when they make their statements. Many DCPS officials take a gander at the room before they talk. Jus think how Rhee as minority herself would sit in the living rooms of whites and listen to their anecdotal remedies on how to handle the other races. As you see Kaya doesn't even go or even cater to whites in their living rooms.

As poster said that the biggest challenge is assembling the right mix of students. There you have it. What is the right mix?

Look familiarity brings comfort black principal corps, black instructional superintendents, black chancellor, black student population, black mayor and black voters that your white politicians need.

[Anonymous]

What keeps ward 3 going is the kids and parents in it -- not DCPS.

The "status quo" is the reform that's existed for the last six years and what the mayor and chancellor are calling to "stay the course."

The only "entrenched establishment" in DCPS is the one that the reformers created when they fired huge numbers of administrative staff, principals and teachers and hired their own kind. Thanks to IMPACT, all teachers know exactly what's expected of them and if they don't measure up, they are fired at the end of the year.

The great majority of teachers are now "effective" according to the standards DCPS reform has set - and still the schools are "failing."

It almost sounds like you're in a time warp -- making the same kind of accusations that the reformers were making when they arrived 6 years ago.

I hope you're right that there is a growing number of pissed off parents outside of ward 3 who want decent DCPS education for their kids in their own neighborhoods. It's my feeling that it's only the parents who can force the city to make changes to benefit your children.

The taxpayers are the city's customers after all. The city should be working for you - not throwing good money after bad while your kids' education suffers (unless you're lucky enough to get a charter or OOB spot and willing and able to haul your kids across town.)

But remember when you organize yourselves, that you're taking on the reformers who have had the power under two very different mayors to make DCPS into the dysfunctional system it is today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You all are moving in but you all are not having babies. We will become the One Gay City before we will become the One White City. Case in point David Catania.... You want names, then you should be black and in attendance with the DCPS officials when they make their statements. Many DCPS officials take a gander at the room before they talk. Jus think how Rhee as minority herself would sit in the living rooms of whites and listen to their anecdotal remedies on how to handle the other races. As you see Kaya doesn't even go or even cater to whites in their living rooms.

As poster said that the biggest challenge is assembling the right mix of students. There you have it. What is the right mix?

Look familiarity brings comfort black principal corps, black instructional superintendents, black chancellor, black student population, black mayor and black voters that your white politicians need.

I'd wager that most white parents don't want DC to become One White City. They like the diversity and it's one reason why they want to avoid moving to the suburbs.