DCPS and “Equity”

[Anonymous]

could dc schools do better? yes. are they half as bad as a lot of people think? no. is the money completed wasted? no. is it important to pay teachers well in a high col area? yes. is 22.5 if accurate a substantially increased pandemic recovery figure? yes. is funding summer school and other recovery programs mostly a good thing? i think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Schools in DC are lavishly funded, including the terrible ones. The facilities are gorgeous; teachers' salaries are very, very generous. Money isn't the problem.

+1

This is just completely untrue. As someone typing this from an ES where we still don't have an elevator, functioning water fountains, consistent heat/ac, among others

Per pupil spending is 22.5k which is more than almost anywhere else in the country.

You know the # but not what it means or why it is so high. DC has to fund all schools within a single, high cost city environment. Contrast that with states like CA where there are rural districts and Alabama where they would rather pray than do book learning.

But by all means, continue to repeat a meaningless stat.

Interesting story. DC outspends LA, Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta, Seattle... Boston and NYC are the only districts that spend more. I guess you consider San Francisco rural and low cost?

CA has a State Board of Education an other statewide resources that are cost shared by all districts and students in the entire state. All of DC's expenses are absorbed by DC directly. SF has only as many students as DCPS, and half as many as the combined DCPS/DCPS population. DC's economically a risk population is also 50% more than SF's. If you had a basic understanding of pubic education you'd understand that this drives interventions and specialists. The per pupil funding delta between DC, SF and those other cities is nominal and more than explained by these factors.

I would be more inclined to have this discussion with someone who had both the intellectual curiosity to understand the issues and a genuine interest in improving public education. You have neither.

NP ... Step down from your high horse. You failed to mention that SF has a much higher population of ELL students (27% vs 16%) and if you are in the know then you know that ELL students receive more funding per pupil than At-Risk students. And your claim that DC has 50% more "economically a [sic] risk population" is wrong. The proper comparison is DC "At-Risk" students (45%) versus what SF calls "Socioeconomically Disadvantaged" (53%). In your calculation you mistakenly use DC's "Economically Disadvantaged" students metric which is not definitionally equivalent to SF's metric. The DC metric you used artificially inflates the count of disadvantaged students (and this is a well-known issue to those of us in DC that are curious) because it includes all students who attend a school where DCPS has decided to provide FRL to all students even though not all students in the school qualify. Since you have such a high level of intellectual curiosity, you probably already knew that. Why you chose to intentionally compare apples-to-oranges is only a question you can answer. Those of us who have a genuine interest in improving public education would not do such a thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:charter schools are a big political issue. nationwide, over the past several years, mainstream democratic party support for charter schools has dried up. there is a view that investing in neighborhood publicly run schools is better and that charters remove funding from and weaken the public school system.

This is like a post from a decade ago. The pendulum is swinging the other way. I got used to being called a hypocrite for being D and sending my kids to a charter school, but it’s mainstream now.

[Anonymous]

i think some of the posters on this board are pro-charter advocates outside dc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i think some of the posters on this board are pro-charter advocates outside dc

The manner in which you structure this is fundamentally flawed. People who want quality education for their kids and don't give a hoot whether it is charter or public are not "pro-charter", they are pro-quality education for their kids. This construct and pro/con thing is a figment of the imagination of a very small number of people, DCUM and WTU members.

[Anonymous]

no no you misunderstand. there is a big distinction between dc families who want quality education and choose a charter school and pro-charter school advocates who arent dc families who appear to sometimes also post on this board.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:no no you misunderstand. there is a big distinction between dc families who want quality education and choose a charter school and pro-charter school advocates who arent dc families who appear to sometimes also post on this board.

DP. That’s delusional.

[Anonymous]

look up DFER

[Anonymous]

Much of the problem in schools is behavioral. If you don’t have order in the classroom, it’s difficult to create a good educational environment.

A lot of the problems come from lack of discipline at home. But there are things that dcps can do to make their schools a more serious academic environment- and put kids in the right mindset that when they enter the school, there is a focus on academics and good behavior.

Put uniforms back in schools. It really does help “professionalize” the environment. Create a tiered discipline program for late elementary, middle school and high school. Could involve mandatory parent involvement, detention, timeouts, school counselor. Do more home visits. For older kids who misbehave- mandatory afterschool study hall where they get tutoring and homework help and keep them off the streets.

Take discipline seriously and create a more academically professional environment. Better teaching and education would result.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Much of the problem in schools is behavioral. If you don’t have order in the classroom, it’s difficult to create a good educational environment.

A lot of the problems come from lack of discipline at home. But there are things that dcps can do to make their schools a more serious academic environment- and put kids in the right mindset that when they enter the school, there is a focus on academics and good behavior.

Put uniforms back in schools. It really does help “professionalize” the environment. Create a tiered discipline program for late elementary, middle school and high school. Could involve mandatory parent involvement, detention, timeouts, school counselor. Do more home visits. For older kids who misbehave- mandatory afterschool study hall where they get tutoring and homework help and keep them off the streets.

Take discipline seriously and create a more academically professional environment. Better teaching and education would result.

I’ve worked in schools for over 10 years, and I promise you, uniforms have absolutely nothing to do with student behavior. Some of the schools with the worst behaviors use uniforms. Punitive consequences also don’t work, otherwise juvenile detention and jail would prove to be better scare tactics for preventing crime. The truth is that students model the behavior they see at home. If they are constantly being yelled at and beaten, they will think those are appropriate ways to communicate and handle conflict anywhere. Until parents and caregivers start raising children in a healthy way, student behaviors will not improve.

[Anonymous]

Have any of you attended DCPS’s latest budget hearings? The equity problems extend to the way DCPS treats schools in poorer areas. Are any NW DCPS schools dealing with the following issues: raw sewage in the cafeteria, asbestos removal without proper ventilation, no heat for weeks, etc?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you attended DCPS’s latest budget hearings? The equity problems extend to the way DCPS treats schools in poorer areas. Are any NW DCPS schools dealing with the following issues: raw sewage in the cafeteria, asbestos removal without proper ventilation, no heat for weeks, etc?

Which schools were those?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you attended DCPS’s latest budget hearings? The equity problems extend to the way DCPS treats schools in poorer areas. Are any NW DCPS schools dealing with the following issues: raw sewage in the cafeteria, asbestos removal without proper ventilation, no heat for weeks, etc?

Which schools were those?

The fact that you act surprised at this is the problem. I don't know all, but I know Stuart Hobson has constant problems with broken doors, and occasional hear issues. Powell has seemingly perpetual issues with the air conditioning and heat. Can't remember where the sewage was -maybe eastern high?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you attended DCPS’s latest budget hearings? The equity problems extend to the way DCPS treats schools in poorer areas. Are any NW DCPS schools dealing with the following issues: raw sewage in the cafeteria, asbestos removal without proper ventilation, no heat for weeks, etc?

Which schools were those?

The fact that you act surprised at this is the problem. I don't know all, but I know Stuart Hobson has constant problems with broken doors, and occasional hear issues. Powell has seemingly perpetual issues with the air conditioning and heat. Can't remember where the sewage was -maybe eastern high?

I am not acting surprised. I am asking which schools they were. You are overlaying some meaning where there is none.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have any of you attended DCPS’s latest budget hearings? The equity problems extend to the way DCPS treats schools in poorer areas. Are any NW DCPS schools dealing with the following issues: raw sewage in the cafeteria, asbestos removal without proper ventilation, no heat for weeks, etc?

Which schools were those?

The fact that you act surprised at this is the problem. I don't know all, but I know Stuart Hobson has constant problems with broken doors, and occasional hear issues. Powell has seemingly perpetual issues with the air conditioning and heat. Can't remember where the sewage was -maybe eastern high?

Powell is in NW.

Coolidge, also NW, is not known to have well-facilitated services.

I think you are probably referring to just the schools WOTP in NW, as not having problems with school facilities.