So much less frenzy these days - does that mean Common Lottery is really really working?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honeybun, when you are the absolute last one left in the school whose kids are reading at grade level you can call me a hypocrite, and not until then. Other parents bailed first and I was left holding the bag.

I have no problem with your doing what you think is right for your kids. It's your hypocrisy and self-righteous lecturing that I have a problem with. How about putting all that energy into your new school rather than lecturing those of us working to improve our neighborhood schools?

Some "neighborhood" schools are too big to ever improve. That's why you need GT or tracks, but DCPS is too stupid to realize this. So long live substandard. Hope you're happy experimenting with your kids.

Hope you're happy using your children as status symbols! My kids are perfectly happy with their "substandard" education and friends.

+ 100!

[Anonymous]

^^^ Great! Let's meet up in community college!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Great! Let's meet up in community college!

Right, because no one could ever get a good education at a neighborhood school that DCUMers don't universally see as a good option. I think I see what is really at play in yor comments.

[Anonymous]

Bear in mind that not everyone's standards are the same. For some schools, particularly where there's a very high FARMS percentage, there is an ingrained notion in the education community around Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, of the school's primary function being to serve first and foremost as a safe place to get kids off of the streets and get them fed. Education and behavior are secondary to that - and that primary function may even be to the detriment of that first (for example, we can't make the classwork too hard or the discipline too harsh, lest kids end up back on the streets).

That's important to some folks.

But to others, where kids skipping school and running wild on the streets is not an issue, where kids going hungry is not an issue, that doesn't meet their needs or standards. Those folks are far more interested in an education that IS challenging.

And then there's the in-between.

And then, there's folks who are blissfully unaware of any of these paradigms...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ Great! Let's meet up in community college!

Right, because no one could ever get a good education at a neighborhood school that DCUMers don't universally see as a good option. I think I see what is really at play in yor comments.

PP don't even bother with previous PP. Not worth it. They're set in their definitions and ideas of what it will take for their kid to be successful, and honestly it's probably better for the rest of us that people like that have such a narrow view. There are opportunities they'll miss, and that's ok, although I feel for their kids if they pass down that narrow definition of what it will take to do well in college and life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bear in mind that not everyone's standards are the same. For some schools, particularly where there's a very high FARMS percentage, there is an ingrained notion in the education community around Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, of the school's primary function being to serve first and foremost as a safe place to get kids off of the streets and get them fed. Education and behavior are secondary to that - and that primary function may even be to the detriment of that first (for example, we can't make the classwork too hard or the discipline too harsh, lest kids end up back on the streets).

That's important to some folks.

But to others, where kids skipping school and running wild on the streets is not an issue, where kids going hungry is not an issue, that doesn't meet their needs or standards. Those folks are far more interested in an education that IS challenging.

And then there's the in-between.

And then, there's folks who are blissfully unaware of any of these paradigms...

As someone working in a very high FARMS DCPS elementary, I just gotta say um, NO! What's your source for "the education community" in high FARMS schools somehow majority believing that safety and food are the primary purposes of school, and education and behavior are secondary? Where are you getting that from? I can tell you that in the 2 high FARMS DCPS schools I work and worked at, there was a very clear culture that educating the students was primary, and that to do that we had to make sure we did all we could to address the factors that most get in the way of them being "present and available for instruction": they've eaten, and as much as possible they're not being traumatized by other students or staff in school. And where that student is acting our or another student is creating a problem for other students, we do what we can to manage that behavior without detracting from instruction.

Of course these are incredibly difficult balances to strike, and no one I know actually working in a high FARMS DCPS feels they have all the resources they need to do all of this well - or even adequately. Our primary job is to educate each student to the best of our and their abilities. I strongly strongly disagree that somehow the majority mindset is that our primary job is safety and nutrition. Where are you getting that from, what is your source that this is the "mindset in the education commuity" re: high FARMS schools??

[Anonymous]

There are about the same number of seats at "sought-after" schools this year as there was last year, right? So arguably roughly the same percentage of people landed spots at "good" schools as last year. But with the new system, it seems like if you had good luck, as opposed to bad, it is more likely that you got in your first choice as opposed to your second choice, so that is a good thing. A I don't think much has changed for the families with bad luck, except there is more certainty in years past, so if you have bad luck you have bad luck and you aren't all year hoping you will eventually get off one of your various WLs. Overally I think the DCPS system where your child's educational future depends on luck is really crappy.

With a PK4 kid this year, I can say we had very bad luck last year and very good luck this year. So I am grateful. But we could have easily had very bad luck again this year, and would have been very unhappy about that. Not willing to wait until 2nd grade for things to work out. If we were in a different system, where once you got into second grade you were set through 12th, then I would be ok with that. When getting into a good school by second grade means you need to play your odds again a couple years later for 5th or 6th, it is a totally different ballgame. I also believe it is part of the reason so many spots seem to open up by 2nd or 3rd. People give up on the lottery by then and just move out of DC. If you are going to uproot your child in 2nd or 3rd grade, I bet most families would want to be somewhere they know they can stay at least thru middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are about the same number of seats at "sought-after" schools this year as there was last year, right? So arguably roughly the same percentage of people landed spots at "good" schools as last year. But with the new system, it seems like if you had good luck, as opposed to bad, it is more likely that you got in your first choice as opposed to your second choice, so that is a good thing. A I don't think much has changed for the families with bad luck, except there is more certainty in years past, so if you have bad luck you have bad luck and you aren't all year hoping you will eventually get off one of your various WLs. Overally I think the DCPS system where your child's educational future depends on luck is really crappy.

With a PK4 kid this year, I can say we had very bad luck last year and very good luck this year. So I am grateful. But we could have easily had very bad luck again this year, and would have been very unhappy about that. Not willing to wait until 2nd grade for things to work out. If we were in a different system, where once you got into second grade you were set through 12th, then I would be ok with that. When getting into a good school by second grade means you need to play your odds again a couple years later for 5th or 6th, it is a totally different ballgame. I also believe it is part of the reason so many spots seem to open up by 2nd or 3rd. People give up on the lottery by then and just move out of DC. If you are going to uproot your child in 2nd or 3rd grade, I bet most families would want to be somewhere they know they can stay at least thru middle school.

+1000