DC School Rankings are Abysmal - Charters Too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When ranked with other urban school systems, DC is around the national average, which I think would surprise a lot of people. For example, NAEP’s 2013 ranking of 4th grade reading scores for urban school systems showed that DC scored worse than NYC, Atlanta, and Boston, but better than Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Dallas, Milwaukee, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Fresno, Cleveland, and Detroit. The rankings also showed -- aside from what other posters have correctly noted about DC's high SES students outscoring the rest of the nation -- that DC's overall concentration of high-scoring students is above the national average. 8 percent of DC students have advanced reading scores, compared to only 7 percent for NYC and 6 percent for Boston. Indeed, DC’s percentage of advanced scoring students put it in the same company with some of the highest scoring urban school systems in the country, including Hillsborough County FL (10 percent), San Diego (8 percent), Austin, Texas (11 percent), and Charlotte NC (11 percent). http://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_math_tuda_2013/#/tuda-performance

People really need to ignore this false advertising slogan about DC as “the worst school system in the county”. As mentioned again and again, DC gets inappropriately ranked “51st” among states – when it’s idiotic to compare one single school system to 50 averages of scores of school systems (plural) in other states. This not only matches up two entirely different data sets, but allows every other urban school system in the country the unfair advantage of hiding behind the artificially high test scores of rural and affluent suburban school systems. The closest measure of DC “as a state” would involve lumping it in with MD or VA, which would put DC somewhere between 3rd (Maryland’s ranking) and 7th (Virginia’s ranking). But how useful is that comparison, really?

NP - I haven't seen anyone respond to this post, and it's excellent, so just wanted to say thank you to this PP. This info is the key to the whole ranking conversation.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a little confused -- people claim that there are good public and public charter schools in DC, but the National Center for Education Statistics ranks DC public schools (including the 109 charters) below national averages in math, reading, science and writing.

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/

The only report that ranks DC charter schools separately is issued by the DC Public Charter School Board, which is hardly an independent source.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm actually looking for real facts -- where are people getting their data to support assertions that these public schools are high performing?

Yea its not fair to compare DC to STATES...but because its a district thats what usually happens, even so DC is bad when compared to other cities as well, a lot of the charter schools are a sham, even the elite one's in NorthWest that all the affluent whites are trying to get their kids into are subpar

Where do you live and where are your children enrolled?

Mitchellville/woodmore area

Did you miss this part?


"DC has a 50-point gap between eligible/not eligible for free lunch and the highest scores in the country for those in the "not eligible" category."

I would hardly call that subpar.

make sense, but is that due to the school system or just the highly educated majority white population in certain sections of the city? I always judge a system on how it does with its poorer residents. I"m curious to see the racial breakdown of those scores

What woudlbt racial breakdown do for you? Are you assuming there are not any educated black families in DC? The schools aren't failing the non-poverty kids and based on a recent DCUM survey, most people aren't supplementing their students via tutoring.

No not all, schools like shepherd park i'm sure test well, like the white highly educated kids in other parts of NW. But how many communities are like that? As a AA myself when I judge a certain school I like to look at the minority ie Black kids test scores because they can lag behind others even if the school produces great test results. What good is a great school with great test results if ur child isn't benefiting.

What are you saying? That because your child is black he/she would lag behind? You might want to rephrase because that's how your post reads.

No but there is an "race gap" when it comes to testing. MD is very honest about that and breaks down test scores by gender & RACE in each individual school. That way you can better judge how the the community is doing better as a whole. People talk about lack of black achievement and the lower HS grad rate but in MD 80 percent of Black students Graduate within 4 years, which is the national average overall. They also produce very good test scores, I feel its because MD looks at EVERYTHING whether its PC or Not

DC breaks it down as well. However, they can't (don't) break it down if there are less than 25 students in that grade and demographic.

[Anonymous]

Even with the charters, DC is a highly dysfunctional district Most charters (even the HQ ones) are test-prep centers, teaching to master a test.
So thankful my children do not have to attend a school in DC.

[Anonymous]

I have a feeling someone just got busted for residency cheating and is taking it out on DCUM. Just a theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even with the charters, DC is a highly dysfunctional district Most charters (even the HQ ones) are test-prep centers, teaching to master a test.
So thankful my children do not have to attend a school in DC.

So glad not to have you. One less person applying to the great schools. Wouldn't have my kid anywhere in the country compared to where he is today. Isn't it great that I'm happy and you're happy at the same time?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The way to see how income plays into this particularly strongly in DC is to filter the NCES data by National School Lunch Eligibility.

Select 4th grade, reading, national school lunch eligibility, 2013.

DC has a 50-point gap between eligible/not eligible for free lunch and the highest scores in the country for those in the "not eligible" category.

That said, at most DC private schools and better MoCo publics, the majority of the students test above proficient in the basic categories. Teachers can't teach just to the advanced students in a class while ignoring the ones lagging behind. They usually end up somewhere in the middle, or if the majority of the class isn't getting it, slowing things down a bit. The more "advanced" students (in this case the ones not eligible for free lunch) will always get As, but you have to wonder if you're doing your "advanced" child a disservice if a quality education is your priority. Are they really being challenged academically? What could they be learning if most of their classmates were beyond the basic level?

Your statement is laughable. I can personally attest that MoCo does no better at teaching advanced kids than DCPS. Also, where do you get test scores for privates?

Your denial is laughable. MoCo has a higher number of kids testing above basic levels -- this is data you can look up -- so the class as a whole can at least move beyond that. For the better DC privates, if your child isn't passing they will work with them, but if they don't bring their grades up they are asked to leave. They don't allow consistently failing students to stay there indefinitely.

MoCo has become a very poor school district. Have you seen the FARMs rates and test scores of the county outside of CC, Bethesda and Potomac. Scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even with the charters, DC is a highly dysfunctional district Most charters (even the HQ ones) are test-prep centers, teaching to master a test.
So thankful my children do not have to attend a school in DC.

Then why the hell are you posting. Bye Felicia! (Oh, that's negro vernacular you learn going to DC public schools).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I'm a little confused -- people claim that there are good public and public charter schools in DC, but the National Center for Education Statistics ranks DC public schools (including the 109 charters) below national averages in math, reading, science and writing.

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/

The only report that ranks DC charter schools separately is issued by the DC Public Charter School Board, which is hardly an independent source.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm actually looking for real facts -- where are people getting their data to support assertions that these public schools are high performing?

Yea its not fair to compare DC to STATES...but because its a district thats what usually happens, even so DC is bad when compared to other cities as well, a lot of the charter schools are a sham, even the elite one's in NorthWest that all the affluent whites are trying to get their kids into are subpar

Where do you live and where are your children enrolled?

Mitchellville/woodmore area

Then why are you posting? The schools in Woodmore suck.

Soooo not true...very good testing scores and majority minority as well, though not poverty stricken

No one said poverty stricken. Woodmore is great, however, everyone I know who lives there sends there kids to private school. One friend with a kid at Douglas. OMG - they are dying that they made the wrong decision. What school is doing well in PG besides Roosevelt? Bowie is just ok. What else is there? Enlighten me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:He or she might have roots in DC.. or might have friends with kids in DC ... its perfectly acceptable to have a opinion about something that doesn't DIRECTLY affect you. *shrug*

No, it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He or she might have roots in DC.. or might have friends with kids in DC ... its perfectly acceptable to have a opinion about something that doesn't DIRECTLY affect you. *shrug*

No, it's not.

She just wants to compare DC schools with PG County schools because she lives in either Ward 9/DC or PG County, Md. She still has roots in DC and there are schools on the way to work in DC that (if they were "good enough") she would have her child(ren) attending, using the old DC address.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way to see how income plays into this particularly strongly in DC is to filter the NCES data by National School Lunch Eligibility.

Select 4th grade, reading, national school lunch eligibility, 2013.

DC has a 50-point gap between eligible/not eligible for free lunch and the highest scores in the country for those in the "not eligible" category.

That said, at most DC private schools and better MoCo publics, the majority of the students test above proficient in the basic categories. Teachers can't teach just to the advanced students in a class while ignoring the ones lagging behind. They usually end up somewhere in the middle, or if the majority of the class isn't getting it, slowing things down a bit. The more "advanced" students (in this case the ones not eligible for free lunch) will always get As, but you have to wonder if you're doing your "advanced" child a disservice if a quality education is your priority. Are they really being challenged academically? What could they be learning if most of their classmates were beyond the basic level?

Your statement is laughable. I can personally attest that MoCo does no better at teaching advanced kids than DCPS. Also, where do you get test scores for privates?

Your denial is laughable. MoCo has a higher number of kids testing above basic levels -- this is data you can look up -- so the class as a whole can at least move beyond that. For the better DC privates, if your child isn't passing they will work with them, but if they don't bring their grades up they are asked to leave. They don't allow consistently failing students to stay there indefinitely.

MoCo has become a very poor school district. Have you seen the FARMs rates and test scores of the county outside of CC, Bethesda and Potomac. Scary.

That's why in the post right after that one I said only CERTAIN MoCo publics are good. The ones in the areas you listed being the best.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:As a black person it pains me to say its largely the percentage of poor blacks in DC that causes a lot of that last place finish. Many generations of low/no opportunity, discrimination etc. The fact is whites in DC have the highest score of all "states" on that website. So OP by your selection criteria (this website) DC has the best public schools in the country.

(Or maybe as others have said above, income and test performances correlate.)

Not entirely true...check the graduate rates for DCPS, and compare them to Baltimore City, BMORE tops DC in the Category...u telling me that DC is poorer than BMORE? Poor or not DCPS sucks regardless of income. Trust me those wealthy whites kids aren't getting a proper education either...I dont care what the school cheerleaders proclaim on this site

If you click on and go into District profiles you can compare DC to comparable cities. It is doing better than Cleveland, LA, Baltimore City and Detroit. It is lagging behind NYC, Chicago and Boston. I did not look at all the cities because I don't think some of them are comparable. I lived in Tampa, FL (Hillsborough County) and there is no way you can compare Tampa to DC. Therefore, some of the comparisons don't correlate. I don't know enough about Dallas, Houston, and others to have an opinion.

This also has a lot to do with income/educational level. Whites in DC tend to be better educated and rarely poor. Not so for African-Americans where there's some of everyone, including a large amount of low-income, undereducated individuals. Cities like Detroit, Cleveland and Baltimore don't have the same mix of incomes as DC, NYC or Chicago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a little confused -- people claim that there are good public and public charter schools in DC, but the National Center for Education Statistics ranks DC public schools (including the 109 charters) below national averages in math, reading, science and writing.

http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/states/

The only report that ranks DC charter schools separately is issued by the DC Public Charter School Board, which is hardly an independent source.

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm actually looking for real facts -- where are people getting their data to support assertions that these public schools are high performing?

Yea its not fair to compare DC to STATES...but because its a district thats what usually happens, even so DC is bad when compared to other cities as well, a lot of the charter schools are a sham, even the elite one's in NorthWest that all the affluent whites are trying to get their kids into are subpar

Where do you live and where are your children enrolled?

Mitchellville/woodmore area

Then why are you posting? The schools in Woodmore suck.

Soooo not true...very good testing scores and majority minority as well, though not poverty stricken

No one said poverty stricken. Woodmore is great, however, everyone I know who lives there sends there kids to private school. One friend with a kid at Douglas. OMG - they are dying that they made the wrong decision. What school is doing well in PG besides Roosevelt? Bowie is just ok. What else is there? Enlighten me.

Most of our associates in Prince George's County send their children to private school. Very unfortunate. The money they spend could turn some of the schools around and be tax deduction.

[Anonymous]

So, what are the better public and or charter schools in the district?

[Anonymous]

Can't say because it's a big secret.