Black parent -- does school ranking matter?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Go private.

+100

[Anonymous]

That's not always necessary and an option for everyone.

[Anonymous]

OP, I have the same concerns as you. Since you are both working in VA, have you concerned moving inbounds to a good DCPS, Eaton, Stoddert, Shepherd, and then trying for the lottery as a backup. There are other DCPSs with great scores but you have to check their stats when it comes to diversity.

[Anonymous]

Try Lorton,Va area schools. The achievement gap is much less.

[Anonymous]

OP, thank you for getting this discussion started. My kids are not even school age and this is a topic that I think about daily. I feel so much pressure to make the right decision as I know the stakes. I am from DC and went to a top 3 private but I don't know that that is the answer. I hope we can continue this topic as I am eager to hear/learn what has worked for others.

To the pp with the great k-8 private that lives in PG, will you share the school? I am happy to give you my email if you don't want to post here. Good luck to us all!!

[Anonymous]

Maryland International Day school -dual language Spanish
We have people coming from other counties to attend and I have noticed at least one carpool that has formed to drop students off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Go private.

+100

[Anonymous]

Op again. Wow. I thought my family was completely alone in this! Thank you all for the constructive comments.

I'm still at a loss. My practice is in VA and my partner also works in VA, so we are either looking there (like other posters) or someplace that can get us to Arlington/Tysons fairly quickly.

When we started house hunting things looked great until I, like all of you noticed the achievement gap in districts that were raved about.

I honestly don't know what I am going to do for my kids (except my best of course). Any insights are always appreciated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

OP, you are not the only person looking at this and shaking your head. Your concerns are valid and something that I think most AA parents take into account.

I'm an AA single mom, I come from a STEM family in terms of academic strengths and careers chosen. I lucked out and lotteried my DD into an HRCS here in the district that I'm very happy with overall -- love the learning model and curriculum; great diversity SES and culture-wise among the parents/students; great diversity among the staff; warm, welcoming involved parent community that cares a great deal about their kids and what they are learning.

All these things cover one of my big concerns, which is overall atmosphere and peer group -- I think the kids at DD's school come from environments where learning is important. Most students are not coming from environments that are challenged enough to make learning difficult, and for those that are we have SE services and the staff does an excellent job of helping families access other programs and city services. The reason I know this so well is that I have accessed some of these services during a period of unemployment.

I am not sure yet if our charter addresses my other big concern, which is challenging DD enough -- our teaching staff overall are some of the best in the city, but some teachers obviously will be a better fit than others for DD's learning style and interests. Also, she is just starting K, so the preschool years are not a time where you expect your child to be winning a Nobel peace prize . That said, it is a concern going forward and something I'll be keeping an eye on.

I know already though, that my solution will be supplementing with Khan Academy or some other online service. We could qualify for scholarships to some of the well-known privates in DC, but having experienced that myself I know that a private school education can also be a bad fit and is not a one-stop solution.

Good luck OP. Finding the school that is the right fit for your kids is a true headache, and as AA parents who want a good learning model, diversity, and for our kids to associate with other kids who look like them and value education, it's truly a long haul.

I could have written this. We are in the same boat. Not sure if the DC Charter is the same, but it's Inspired Teaching.

If I were you, I would look into BASIS DC. My ds is surround with like minded children from all types of backgrounds.

[Anonymous]

How far out in VA are you looking? The Post did a feature a few years back about an group of middle-class black families in Loudoun County who came together to advocate for their children and support them in doing well in school. I'm not sure if it's still going on but it seems the group was successful.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/2012/06/13/gJQAnEdZcV_story.html

[Anonymous]

PP, this is exactly what I am looking for! (This is OP). I can't live that far out (my schedule is too hectic and my patients' need me within 20 minutes of the hospital), but if there is anything like this in Arlington or Falls Church or Alexandria or Fairfax, please let me know!

[Anonymous]

I am in the same situation as OP. We can't afford a private and are trying to make public work. Does anyone have a successful story navigating a "good" public school with the sort of achievement gap I've seen at Yorktown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I can't speak to your school district specifically, but I do ed. research on achievement gap data (mostly for Latino kids, but the same trends apply).

In general:

achievement gaps track much more closely with SES than they do with race/ethnicity, but there is a very tight correlation between race/ethnicity and SES, *especially* in urban areas.

kids in at-risk* groups do better in schools where there are fewer numbers of at-risk kids. The worst outcomes are for poor kids in schools with high poverty populations in poor neighborhoods.

If I were you, I'd aim for the "better" middle class school, assuming that there's enough diversity in that school that your kids won't be one of only a few black kids in the class.

*I personally would not class a middle class black kid as an "at risk" kid, fwiw (and honestly, I really dislike the term as applied to individuals, anyway)

Great advice.

[Anonymous]

OP - thank you for posting this. I'm about to be the parent of a mixed raced (black and white) boy, and I worry about this already too. We live in South Arlington, but have discussed moving North when he's older.

My mother is in education and what people are discussing here, in terms of economic backgrounds and the correlation between achievement sounds right, from what she has told me. My concern too is whether my child will be "the one", like I was (I went to a mostly white prep school). I would prefer not to pay for private, since we can't really afford it, and Arlington is supposed to have some of the best schools.

I hope you'll let us know what you decide.

[Anonymous]

We went private and have been pretty happy overall -- with the education as well as the peer group.