Graduates from low-performing D.C. schools face tough college road

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what point does the community get involved and condemn the violence, sex abuse, drugs, neglect, poor parenting, et cetera? The exact opposite is what's out there, these low income kids are plugged into lyrics in fact glorifying all the wrong things - thug life, violence, crime, drugs, misogyny, and irresponsibility. They are basically being programmed into a self-perpetuating cycle of all the wrong things.

DCPS response has been to make good teachers the sole cure for overcoming the many negative effects of poverty and bad teachers the reason these effects continue.

How has the "community" responded? Hard to tell. There's complaining about how reform has not worked, but I don't see parents taking action about it. In other cities, parents are rising up against standardized testing. Don't see that happening here.

And how exactly does rising up against standardized testing address or improve the horrible, self-defeating social paradigm mentioned above? If anything, it just perpetuates the status quo rather than lifting anyone up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
At what point does the community get involved and condemn the violence, sex abuse, drugs, neglect, poor parenting, et cetera? The exact opposite is what's out there, these low income kids are plugged into lyrics in fact glorifying all the wrong things - thug life, violence, crime, drugs, misogyny, and irresponsibility. They are basically being programmed into a self-perpetuating cycle of all the wrong things.

DCPS response has been to make good teachers the sole cure for overcoming the many negative effects of poverty and bad teachers the reason these effects continue.

How has the "community" responded? Hard to tell. There's complaining about how reform has not worked, but I don't see parents taking action about it. In other cities, parents are rising up against standardized testing. Don't see that happening here.

And how exactly does rising up against standardized testing address or improve the horrible, self-defeating social paradigm mentioned above? If anything, it just perpetuates the status quo rather than lifting anyone up.

It's a start -- that other communities that suffer from the effects of poverty have taken. It says -teach our kids instead of having them regurgitate facts.

Standardized testing in DC has done nothing to lift people up -- the achievement gap has widened since the extreme emphasis on getting the scores up - and the scores aren't up - they are stagnating, rising more slowly than before or going down -- so why continue to tacitly support testing? Why are engaged parents in DC willing to put up with so much?

I dont know, but as long as they do, you can bet DCPS will take advantage of the complacency.

[Anonymous]

What do you mean, "it's a start"?

PP, how do you know your kids are actually being taught anything at all if you throw away assessment and metrics?

Basically, all I'm hearing with that is "don't hold these kids to any standards, because they are poor". It's the same type of lame complacency and handwaving excuse making that defends rape culture by saying "boys will be boys".

You're going to have to try a lot harder with your argument against standardized testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean, "it's a start"?

PP, how do you know your kids are actually being taught anything at all if you throw away assessment and metrics?

Basically, all I'm hearing with that is "don't hold these kids to any standards, because they are poor". It's the same type of lame complacency and handwaving excuse making that defends rape culture by saying "boys will be boys".

You're going to have to try a lot harder with your argument against standardized testing.

who said anything about "throw[ing] away testing and metrics?" I'm referring to the kill and drill preparation for DC-CAS that serves mainly to assess teachers, not students.

Teachers are assessing students everyday without standardized testing and could have much more quality time to teach kids if so much preparation for DC-CAS was not required.

The kind of standardized testing I support is the kind that President Obama referred to that his kids got at Sidwell -- the kids weren't even informed in advance that they would be taking a test - no preparation, no bribes, no anxiety, and no threats to school community that their jobs were on the line based on the outcome of kids' tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think SES is waived around as an excuse, but if your family history and trajectory is missing some key pieces (stable employment, college attendance, safe neighborhood, stable family structure) its more difficult to overcome and be successful - you have to work that much harder, without any guide on how to do so. And there is no magic bullet to makeup for it.

The "community" has condemned all of the negative aspects and behaviors going on - but you have to understand that our voice and opinion doesn't have any sway or impact.

Really? Then how Bill Cosby is dissed any time he tries to encourage the black community to pull themselves up???

You're reinforcing my exact point. Bill Cosby speaks about what many of us believe, but understand that this voice and opinion does not make a difference to those who need to hear it most. So that's why Bill Cosby gets "dissed". Got it now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean, "it's a start"?

PP, how do you know your kids are actually being taught anything at all if you throw away assessment and metrics?

Basically, all I'm hearing with that is "don't hold these kids to any standards, because they are poor". It's the same type of lame complacency and handwaving excuse making that defends rape culture by saying "boys will be boys".

You're going to have to try a lot harder with your argument against standardized testing.

who said anything about "throw[ing] away testing and metrics?" I'm referring to the kill and drill preparation for DC-CAS that serves mainly to assess teachers, not students.

Teachers are assessing students everyday without standardized testing and could have much more quality time to teach kids if so much preparation for DC-CAS was not required.

The kind of standardized testing I support is the kind that President Obama referred to that his kids got at Sidwell -- the kids weren't even informed in advance that they would be taking a test - no preparation, no bribes, no anxiety, and no threats to school community that their jobs were on the line based on the outcome of kids' tests.

I don't get that argument at all. Why is it "drill and kill"? The material on the standardized tests should be incidental to and a subset of what kids are supposed to be learning anyways regardless of standardized testing. For example, at certain grade levels, you need to know your grammar facts, you need to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations and so on. Why is it that everyone seems to act as though standardized testing is forcing kids into doing something different from the things they would ordinarily be expected to have learned anyways? The only reason why it would be "drill and kill" is if teaching of all of the prior material was horribly botched the first time around, creating the need for cramming to make up for it. In which case, ALL you have left is botched teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't think SES is waived around as an excuse, but if your family history and trajectory is missing some key pieces (stable employment, college attendance, safe neighborhood, stable family structure) its more difficult to overcome and be successful - you have to work that much harder, without any guide on how to do so. And there is no magic bullet to makeup for it.

The "community" has condemned all of the negative aspects and behaviors going on - but you have to understand that our voice and opinion doesn't have any sway or impact.

Really? Then how Bill Cosby is dissed any time he tries to encourage the black community to pull themselves up???

You're reinforcing my exact point. Bill Cosby speaks about what many of us believe, but understand that this voice and opinion does not make a difference to those who need to hear it most. So that's why Bill Cosby gets "dissed". Got it now?

Bill Cosby speaks truth, but those who need to hear it don't want to hear it because they'd rather blame everyone else and stay dependent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[
I don't get that argument at all. Why is it "drill and kill"? The material on the standardized tests should be incidental to and a subset of what kids are supposed to be learning anyways regardless of standardized testing. For example, at certain grade levels, you need to know your grammar facts, you need to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations and so on. Why is it that everyone seems to act as though standardized testing is forcing kids into doing something different from the things they would ordinarily be expected to have learned anyways? The only reason why it would be "drill and kill" is if teaching of all of the prior material was horribly botched the first time around, creating the need for cramming to make up for it. In which case, ALL you have left is botched teaching.

It's not an argument - it's a fact. Perhaps it "shouldn't" be drill and kill, but that's what it is, because that's what the administration requires. Teachers don't like it. Many parents who are involved with their child's education don't like it, either, but they put up with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[
I don't get that argument at all. Why is it "drill and kill"? The material on the standardized tests should be incidental to and a subset of what kids are supposed to be learning anyways regardless of standardized testing. For example, at certain grade levels, you need to know your grammar facts, you need to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations and so on. Why is it that everyone seems to act as though standardized testing is forcing kids into doing something different from the things they would ordinarily be expected to have learned anyways? The only reason why it would be "drill and kill" is if teaching of all of the prior material was horribly botched the first time around, creating the need for cramming to make up for it. In which case, ALL you have left is botched teaching.

It's not an argument - it's a fact. Perhaps it "shouldn't" be drill and kill, but that's what it is, because that's what the administration requires. Teachers don't like it. Many parents who are involved with their child's education don't like it, either, but they put up with it.

A.) The administration "requires" the drill and kill around standardized testing? Can you actually provide documentation of that? I find it baffling that they "require" it as that defeats the purpose of standardized testing.

B.) Even if they did turn out to require it - it'd probably be due to a recognition of the fact that many kids in DCPS are nowhere near as proficient as they should be for their grade level, and the "drill and kill" is actually a clumsy, reactive form of remediation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What did you think of today's new WashPo article? Even Wilson sounds unchallenging.

Honestly, I think it's just more third tier anecdotal "reporting" from WaPo.
Never underestimate how poor, biased, or based on "friends and family" their stories are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[
I don't get that argument at all. Why is it "drill and kill"? The material on the standardized tests should be incidental to and a subset of what kids are supposed to be learning anyways regardless of standardized testing. For example, at certain grade levels, you need to know your grammar facts, you need to know basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, order of operations and so on. Why is it that everyone seems to act as though standardized testing is forcing kids into doing something different from the things they would ordinarily be expected to have learned anyways? The only reason why it would be "drill and kill" is if teaching of all of the prior material was horribly botched the first time around, creating the need for cramming to make up for it. In which case, ALL you have left is botched teaching.

It's not an argument - it's a fact. Perhaps it "shouldn't" be drill and kill, but that's what it is, because that's what the administration requires. Teachers don't like it. Many parents who are involved with their child's education don't like it, either, but they put up with it.

A.) The administration "requires" the drill and kill around standardized testing? Can you actually provide documentation of that? I find it baffling that they "require" it as that defeats the purpose of standardized testing.

B.) Even if they did turn out to require it - it'd probably be due to a recognition of the fact that many kids in DCPS are nowhere near as proficient as they should be for their grade level, and the "drill and kill" is actually a clumsy, reactive form of remediation.

For documentation, ask parents, ask teacher and ask students -- depending on the school they have multiple preparation routines and everyone takes the DC-BAS, which is a test preceding the CAS to provide a baseline.

You're close to getting it right on your item B. The administration thinks the only way to get kids to pass the test is to drill them on the answers. There's also cheating, but that's gotten harder since the scores went up miraculously in numerous poor performing schools, then crashed the next year.

[Anonymous]

Wait Bill Cosby is the spokesperson for black people, where's Jesse Jackson? I might as well ask Paula Deen her thoughts on educating black children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait Bill Cosby is the spokesperson for black people, where's Jesse Jackson? I might as well ask Paula Deen her thoughts on educating black children.

Bill Cosby = Paula Deen?

You make ZERO sense.

[Anonymous]

10:59, loosen up already. Sheesh, it was sarcasm. If you can't read between the lines then you are the senseless one, sweetie. Bill Cosby tells AA to pull themselves up by the boot straps and Paula Deen tells the world that she uses the n-word.

[Anonymous]

Don't like what Bill Cosby had to say? Content to live a life of low expectations, playing the victim, blaming everyone else and letting everyone else define you instead of lifting yourself up?

How about what the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had to say:

"A nation or civilization that continues to produce soft-minded men purchases its own spiritual death on the installment plan."

We have an establishment in DC that, by continuing to push low academic expectations of the low-SES AA community, is bent on continuing to produce soft-minded people.

Or how about this quote of his, which also speaks directly against the culture of low expectations:

"Whatever your life's work is, do it well. A man should do his job so well that the living, the dead, and the unborn could do it no better."

Or, what Nelson Mandela said regarding the value of education:

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world."

George Washington Carver:

"Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom."

“Let it [racism] be a problem to someone else… Let it drag them down. Don’t use it as an excuse for your own shortcomings.” – Colin Powell

“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying to succeed.” – Booker T. Washington

“I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don’t believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn’t want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I’m not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn’t know how to return the treatment.” – Malcolm X

“Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I face.” – Carol Moseley-Braun