“We need to preserve diversity and mitigate the projected whitening of the feeder pattern”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of white kids in the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern here: I don't have a problem with this language. It's a little clumsy, obviously, but I'm fine with the goal of diverse schools.

OP here:
If you want to promote equity, you discuss the positives - seats for OOB, at risk preferences, benefits for those populations, etc.
You don’t talk about an entire ethnicity as if it’s a “problem” to be solved. This isn’t clumsy; it’s hostile.

So now, what, we're going to be all up in arms about whatever proposal they make because of some dumb language in a PowerPoint? I don't think it's hostile, anyway.

Substitute black for white here and you’d be all over this. Hypocrite.

Gee, can you think of any reasons why, in a majority-white country that allowed black people to be owned and sold as property for hundreds of years and still has massive race-driven structural inequities in place, it would seem worse to talk about growth of a minority black population in schools as a problem than it is to talk about the opposite of that? If not, perhaps you should talk to whoever ran the history classes in whatever school district you attended for high school.

DCPS is not minority Black.

The solution to racism is not racism. You know, two wrongs don’t make a right....

Of course DCPS is not minority Black, but DCPS doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's a school district in a country that's 13 percent Black -- so no matter what the demographics of the city are, it's obviously more fraught to see an increased Black population in the handful of already-majority-White schools in the city as a problem than it is to see an increased White population in those schools as a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the issue is the word whitening. I’ve never heard that and it does sound hostile or just offensive even if trie. You’d never be caught dead saying blackening that’s for sure.

Right — concentration of white students would have been less awkward

But the problem isn’t the white students (who are IB and just following the rules and attending thei IB schools.) The problem is that black kids’ IB schools are failing.

This is it exactly.

This "problem" is the result of DCPS completely abdicating its responsibility to work to improve schools for kids all over the city. Instead of putting in the work, it was just much more expedient, and easier, to send kids of color from across the city to Wilson and it's feeders, which were perceived as "good" schools already, and adding feeder rights on top of it. This is the inevitable result. But since there isn't a cadre of strong schools Quite obviously, those schools across the city, DCPS is left with no choice but to try to preserve what OOB access they can.

The result, of course, is more and more poor kids have to trek across the city to go to school. It's idiotic.

This is it, and it's really sad. It's worse than a bandaid because it takes powerful voices out of the communities that need help (those families that have the means to get their kids across town), allows affluent families to ignore the housing segregation that is so prevalent, instead patting themselves on the back for sending their own kids to diverse schools, and pools resources in the place that already has the most. If this were part of a broader plan that would actually address segregation in the schools, the language would be fine. But it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of white kids in the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern here: I don't have a problem with this language. It's a little clumsy, obviously, but I'm fine with the goal of diverse schools.

OP here:
If you want to promote equity, you discuss the positives - seats for OOB, at risk preferences, benefits for those populations, etc.
You don’t talk about an entire ethnicity as if it’s a “problem” to be solved. This isn’t clumsy; it’s hostile.

So now, what, we're going to be all up in arms about whatever proposal they make because of some dumb language in a PowerPoint? I don't think it's hostile, anyway.

Substitute black for white here and you’d be all over this. Hypocrite.

Gee, can you think of any reasons why, in a majority-white country that allowed black people to be owned and sold as property for hundreds of years and still has massive race-driven structural inequities in place, it would seem worse to talk about growth of a minority black population in schools as a problem than it is to talk about the opposite of that? If not, perhaps you should talk to whoever ran the history classes in whatever school district you attended for high school.

DCPS is not minority Black.

The solution to racism is not racism. You know, two wrongs don’t make a right....

Of course DCPS is not minority Black, but DCPS doesn't exist in a vacuum, it's a school district in a country that's 13 percent Black -- so no matter what the demographics of the city are, it's obviously more fraught to see an increased Black population in the handful of already-majority-White schools in the city as a problem than it is to see an increased White population in those schools as a problem.

But DCPS does exist in a vacuum when it comes to its student population and the levers it has control over. If DCPS’s best solution for providing quality education is sending OOB kids to upper NW schools, then it’s got a serious problem, because it’s got too much of one ingredient and too little of the other to make that recipe go very far.

[Anonymous]

Here’s my take:
-Segregation in schools is inherently bad. It’s also extremely difficult to fix.
-Allowing schools that are populated by low SES and minority students fail is a huge problem that is difficult to fix.

IMHO we need to be trying to solve both. I think on the second point it has a lot to do with investing in families and trying to solve issues related to pervasive poverty - schools are part of a solution that should also involve EIC, quality childcare, food assistance, job programs etc. basically, what Biden is proposing in his family plan. In the meantime, trying to toggle between solutions attempting to solve the first point can help some students, maybe? My gut says it’s more of a bandaid, but worth trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the issue is the word whitening. I’ve never heard that and it does sound hostile or just offensive even if trie. You’d never be caught dead saying blackening that’s for sure.

Right — concentration of white students would have been less awkward

But the problem isn’t the white students (who are IB and just following the rules and attending thei IB schools.) The problem is that black kids’ IB schools are failing.

What if “the rules” were changed to be less inclined to increasing levels of segregation? Eg, end by right high school, real set asides, synchronized middle and high school entry years. Would that fix every failing school? No. But it would address the inequalities that are unavoidable with segregated schools in America.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s my take:
-Segregation in schools is inherently bad. It’s also extremely difficult to fix.
-Allowing schools that are populated by low SES and minority students fail is a huge problem that is difficult to fix.

IMHO we need to be trying to solve both. I think on the second point it has a lot to do with investing in families and trying to solve issues related to pervasive poverty - schools are part of a solution that should also involve EIC, quality childcare, food assistance, job programs etc. basically, what Biden is proposing in his family plan. In the meantime, trying to toggle between solutions attempting to solve the first point can help some students, maybe? My gut says it’s more of a bandaid, but worth trying.

has the second one every been solved in this country?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the issue is the word whitening. I’ve never heard that and it does sound hostile or just offensive even if trie. You’d never be caught dead saying blackening that’s for sure.

Right — concentration of white students would have been less awkward

But the problem isn’t the white students (who are IB and just following the rules and attending thei IB schools.) The problem is that black kids’ IB schools are failing.

What if “the rules” were changed to be less inclined to increasing levels of segregation? Eg, end by right high school, real set asides, synchronized middle and high school entry years. Would that fix every failing school? No. But it would address the inequalities that are unavoidable with segregated schools in America.

if it was persistent enough, you'd just see a new generation of white flight schools. No parent in Chevy Chase is sending their kid to Ballou

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that quibbling over the word choice feels a bit like dodging the issue, though. A clumsy word choice is a small issue -- the educational inequities across the city are a big issue, and I'd encourage folks to keep that perspective.

I for one am glad to be parenting a (white) child in a school system that values equity and recognizes that there's work to do on that front.

This! No need to attack the language. Let’s fix the problem. The high performing schools are largely in white, high income neighborhoods, which also have large PTA funds. This is just fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of white kids in the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern here: I don't have a problem with this language. It's a little clumsy, obviously, but I'm fine with the goal of diverse schools.

OP here:
If you want to promote equity, you discuss the positives - seats for OOB, at risk preferences, benefits for those populations, etc.
You don’t talk about an entire ethnicity as if it’s a “problem” to be solved. This isn’t clumsy; it’s hostile.

So now, what, we're going to be all up in arms about whatever proposal they make because of some dumb language in a PowerPoint? I don't think it's hostile, anyway.

Substitute black for white here and you’d be all over this. Hypocrite.

Gee, can you think of any reasons why, in a majority-white country that allowed black people to be owned and sold as property for hundreds of years and still has massive race-driven structural inequities in place, it would seem worse to talk about growth of a minority black population in schools as a problem than it is to talk about the opposite of that? If not, perhaps you should talk to whoever ran the history classes in whatever school district you attended for high school.

Most people who work hard, and make tons of money, and live in NW, and send they’re kids to public schools, which in of itself is a good thing, don’t have the time to worry if their every step is focused on countering the “centering of whiteness” or to dismantle the horrifying legacy of slavery, the hangover of which permeates so many facets of Black existence in America today.

The simple matter of the fact is if DC public schools keeps up, or if social pressure from wokeness causes pressure to enact policies like ending AP classes, or lowers testing standards, or placing low performing cohorts with high performing cohorts in class room settings, which causes the high performing cohorts to retrogress academically, then wealthy parents, who are open minded enough to willingly put their children in the DCPS system to begin with, will simply pull them out and put them in private schools. This scenario will see the quality of dc public schools fall across the board. No one has time for their kids to be social experiments. America is too fast paced. There is too much pressure and no has time for this sht. That’s not racist. Normal people just want their kids to get into good schools and learn to read and write at level. There is no simple fix to any of this. I am just laying out the facts. We are in a time of racial reckoning and that is fantastic. Police reform would be great. School reform would be great as long as educational vigor is maintained.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the issue is the word whitening. I’ve never heard that and it does sound hostile or just offensive even if trie. You’d never be caught dead saying blackening that’s for sure.

Right — concentration of white students would have been less awkward

But the problem isn’t the white students (who are IB and just following the rules and attending thei IB schools.) The problem is that black kids’ IB schools are failing.

What if “the rules” were changed to be less inclined to increasing levels of segregation? Eg, end by right high school, real set asides, synchronized middle and high school entry years. Would that fix every failing school? No. But it would address the inequalities that are unavoidable with segregated schools in America.

if it was persistent enough, you'd just see a new generation of white flight schools. No parent in Chevy Chase is sending their kid to Ballou

Why go for the most hyperbolic scenario? The fact that white families get worked up over this recalls all the white people spitting on the kids who first integrated schools. There is nothing to fear, white people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of white kids in the Deal/Wilson feeder pattern here: I don't have a problem with this language. It's a little clumsy, obviously, but I'm fine with the goal of diverse schools.

OP here:
If you want to promote equity, you discuss the positives - seats for OOB, at risk preferences, benefits for those populations, etc.
You don’t talk about an entire ethnicity as if it’s a “problem” to be solved. This isn’t clumsy; it’s hostile.

So now, what, we're going to be all up in arms about whatever proposal they make because of some dumb language in a PowerPoint? I don't think it's hostile, anyway.

Substitute black for white here and you’d be all over this. Hypocrite.

Gee, can you think of any reasons why, in a majority-white country that allowed black people to be owned and sold as property for hundreds of years and still has massive race-driven structural inequities in place, it would seem worse to talk about growth of a minority black population in schools as a problem than it is to talk about the opposite of that? If not, perhaps you should talk to whoever ran the history classes in whatever school district you attended for high school.

Most people who work hard, and make tons of money, and live in NW, and send they’re kids to public schools, which in of itself is a good thing, don’t have the time to worry if their every step is focused on countering the “centering of whiteness” or to dismantle the horrifying legacy of slavery, the hangover of which permeates so many facets of Black existence in America today.

The simple matter of the fact is if DC public schools keeps up, or if social pressure from wokeness causes pressure to enact policies like ending AP classes, or lowers testing standards, or placing low performing cohorts with high performing cohorts in class room settings, which causes the high performing cohorts to retrogress academically, then wealthy parents, who are open minded enough to willingly put their children in the DCPS system to begin with, will simply pull them out and put them in private schools. This scenario will see the quality of dc public schools fall across the board. No one has time for their kids to be social experiments. America is too fast paced. There is too much pressure and no has time for this sht. That’s not racist. Normal people just want their kids to get into good schools and learn to read and write at level. There is no simple fix to any of this. I am just laying out the facts. We are in a time of racial reckoning and that is fantastic. Police reform would be great. School reform would be great as long as educational vigor is maintained.

Social experiment?! You think having your white child attend schools with black students is a social experiment?! You are insane. These are children and families who want the same things as you. Get outside of your toxic bubble dude.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On the one hand, DCPS criticizes white "segregation" as a problem, but on the other, City planners hate "gentrification" into historically non-white neighborhoods. There doesn't seem to be a way to NOT offend, these days. Maybe that's the way it's gotta be.

Well, there is one obvious fix that neither upholds white segregation nor moves white people into historically non-white neighborhoods, which is to build more (actually) affordable housing in historically white neighborhoods. Maybe THAT's the way it's gotta be.

From the perspective of the politicos, this will take too long. Further, if you build more multi family housing west of the park, you just drive up the cost of land in that area making it even more exclusive & wealthier.

Building more multifamily housing in Ward 3 would not make housing cost more in Ward 3. Also, if that’s your concern, easy solution: build public housing.

I don't think so. Do you propose tearing down 2 million dollar homes to build this "multifamily" housing? There are a ton of condos in Ward 3 - tons. Take a look at 36th street around R - lots of townhomes. You can easily tell if they are rentals or owner occupied.

Build better schools in Wards 7 and 8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe the issue is the word whitening. I’ve never heard that and it does sound hostile or just offensive even if trie. You’d never be caught dead saying blackening that’s for sure.

Right — concentration of white students would have been less awkward

But the problem isn’t the white students (who are IB and just following the rules and attending thei IB schools.) The problem is that black kids’ IB schools are failing.

What if “the rules” were changed to be less inclined to increasing levels of segregation? Eg, end by right high school, real set asides, synchronized middle and high school entry years. Would that fix every failing school? No. But it would address the inequalities that are unavoidable with segregated schools in America.

if it was persistent enough, you'd just see a new generation of white flight schools. No parent in Chevy Chase is sending their kid to Ballou

+1. And given the overcrowding and poor leadership of Wilson that we all have witnessed - why would anyone subject their child there? And those points are not about race.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds hostile to me. Wasn’t there also a DCPS career planning or college planning (something like that) town hall for HS students earlier this year that sent out invitations to students of color?

Yes there was and a parent complained about it. The text message and email invite said, "Students of color are invited to attend. . . ." It was a seminar for wellness during the pandemic and included a gift box with T shirt, other swag. One of the sponsored session during the event was about "magical melanin." So, yeah, it was exclusionary and in clear violation of the law. No equivalent activities for students who are not of color were offered, and the framing of this seminar was clearly meant to discourage white students from attending. Which is ironic b/c white students are the minority in many DCPS schools.

The parent who complained did force DCPS to note that in the future they must legally note that these seminars are open to students of all races (even as the content and focus caters exclusively to one race).

The real test of this sort of language: put the word "black" where "white" is (or vice versa) and read it again. If it sounds racist when you change the color of the people being discussed, it is racist. Imagine the (appropriate) uproar if DCPS sent out an invitation that read "White students are invited to register for this event."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think that quibbling over the word choice feels a bit like dodging the issue, though. A clumsy word choice is a small issue -- the educational inequities across the city are a big issue, and I'd encourage folks to keep that perspective.

I for one am glad to be parenting a (white) child in a school system that values equity and recognizes that there's work to do on that front.

If they valued equity they’d try to figure out what’s wrong with Ward 7 and 8 schools.

This.

Agree. But this is the whole theme - super easy to blame "whiteness" on all the problems of DCPS. Don't want to do the hard work and fix the harder problems.