Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:School segregation is not good.

In an ideal world, our neighborhoods and schools would be naturally diverse, with a mix of housing types and a population with a mix of income levels. This is true in some parts of D.C. -- there are neighborhoods and schools with natural diversity. Maybe that's the one situation where you can find white people who don't feel guilty about their choices.

School segregation is inextricably tied up with housing segregation.

Housing segregation has long-standing racist roots (redling, racially restrictive covenants). The segregation continues bc
people see that the schools in some areas are "better" and then move there and the schools get even better and the problem compounds.

At the root, we need to eliminate single-family zoning. Then this whole conversation will feel less insane and unsolvable.

Ha. White people in what are considered to be Historically Black neighborhoods are berated about their choices all the time. What DC (not VA or MD) neighborhoods are this Kumbaya land of racial harmony?

Redlining, existed. Racial covenants, existed. But don't anymore. Bloomingdale was one of those neighborhoods and at one point is was almost all Black, pre-gentrification. Just because a neighborhood had those things didn't mean that it kept out Black people forever amen. LeDroit Park was another such neighborhood, built for whites, then it became black.

I also fail to see how changing the zoning make the schools more integrated or better or anything. Childless roommates populate the new apartment buildings. I live in a townhouse and being surrounded by childless 20 and 30-somethings who go out at night & come back loudly or worse throw a party, and stomp around like drunken elephants, and I hear them. After a while, especially now, it gets on your nerves. My only revenge is my DS who decides that 6:30 AM is a great time to bang on the walls and turn on the loudest toy some evil relative gave us.

Maybe better school zones have quieter neighbors and in a SFH I don't have to try to keep my kid from being a loud, funny, stomping, goofy kid because the lady downstairs has complained several times already about the noise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.
BIG SNIP BC THIS WAS LONG -
If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

Yes, I have a real live brown boy whose hobby is finding mommy's buttons and her last nerve. I'm so thankful my DH has more patience for virtual learning, because I was already wistfully looking at AfAm mom homeschooling vlogs and websites. I'm done. We eventually found a daycare that did PreK and sent him there. We are more happier and sane.

I can't remember the exact quote but I saw a video of Malcolm X speaking and he said something along the lines that system turns Black people off from education, probably as a way to keep them ignorant. Now how DCPS plays a part is in the abysmal ELA PARCC scores of black boys (girls do better). When we were looking for schools for the lottery (our IB school was *shrug* okay but I wanted to see if we could do better) I took particular interest in 3rd grade scores for Black boys (even though he's bi-racial). The scores for the nearby schools or schools along our commutes were either unimpressive or klaxon blaring bad.

Why scores matter to me? They aren't the best metric, but they are an available metric. And I'm not going to do the 'if you just went and visited the school' gaslighting tour. And my DS is sensitive to peer pressure, positive and negative. If the other boys around him aren't excelling, he's gonna catch the stupid.

Lastly, on handicapping. My dad barely graduated high school is is barely literate. Thank God Almighty for the Army where he learned a skill and was able to take that skill and start a business. But I saw how having poor reading and math skills could keep you back, even when you are your own boss. Somehow I feel real Black Empowerment hasn't been tried yet (like socialism) because we Black people as a group have too many members can't read well or do complicated math and DCPS isn't treating the problem like it's a house on fire. The schools that have the worst scores, they just throw money at and it doesn't make things better. Several schools with lousy scores got expensive brand new buildings, but the scores still suck. DCPS doesn't care about real results.

well said, bravo. having seen what it took to teach my white boy to read, write and do math, “house on fire” is the ethos we need, especially after the disaster of school closures. sometimes it seems like the schools get so distracted from basic literacy. another thing I’ve noticed is that for writing and reading, the rigor and focus seems to have dropped way off in 3rd grade. not sure why.

what do you think about the “no excuses” charters like KIPP?

I don't know if KIPP is right for us. No, that's my honest answer. I don't know. We crossed them off our 20-21 Lottery pick list because like several charters they demanded that kids be completely potty trained. Our DS was not 100% there. He had regressed in his potty training. It was a good decision because it wasn't until a few months ago he became 98% potty trained (2% of the time he waits too long and there's an accident).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.
BIG SNIP BC THIS WAS LONG -
If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

Yes, I have a real live brown boy whose hobby is finding mommy's buttons and her last nerve. I'm so thankful my DH has more patience for virtual learning, because I was already wistfully looking at AfAm mom homeschooling vlogs and websites. I'm done. We eventually found a daycare that did PreK and sent him there. We are more happier and sane.

I can't remember the exact quote but I saw a video of Malcolm X speaking and he said something along the lines that system turns Black people off from education, probably as a way to keep them ignorant. Now how DCPS plays a part is in the abysmal ELA PARCC scores of black boys (girls do better). When we were looking for schools for the lottery (our IB school was *shrug* okay but I wanted to see if we could do better) I took particular interest in 3rd grade scores for Black boys (even though he's bi-racial). The scores for the nearby schools or schools along our commutes were either unimpressive or klaxon blaring bad.

Why scores matter to me? They aren't the best metric, but they are an available metric. And I'm not going to do the 'if you just went and visited the school' gaslighting tour. And my DS is sensitive to peer pressure, positive and negative. If the other boys around him aren't excelling, he's gonna catch the stupid.

Lastly, on handicapping. My dad barely graduated high school is is barely literate. Thank God Almighty for the Army where he learned a skill and was able to take that skill and start a business. But I saw how having poor reading and math skills could keep you back, even when you are your own boss. Somehow I feel real Black Empowerment hasn't been tried yet (like socialism) because we Black people as a group have too many members can't read well or do complicated math and DCPS isn't treating the problem like it's a house on fire. The schools that have the worst scores, they just throw money at and it doesn't make things better. Several schools with lousy scores got expensive brand new buildings, but the scores still suck. DCPS doesn't care about real results.

well said, bravo. having seen what it took to teach my white boy to read, write and do math, “house on fire” is the ethos we need, especially after the disaster of school closures. sometimes it seems like the schools get so distracted from basic literacy. another thing I’ve noticed is that for writing and reading, the rigor and focus seems to have dropped way off in 3rd grade. not sure why.

what do you think about the “no excuses” charters like KIPP?

I don't know if KIPP is right for us. No, that's my honest answer. I don't know. We crossed them off our 20-21 Lottery pick list because like several charters they demanded that kids be completely potty trained. Our DS was not 100% there. He had regressed in his potty training. It was a good decision because it wasn't until a few months ago he became 98% potty trained (2% of the time he waits too long and there's an accident).

I fear my question sounds inflammatory but it’s not meant to be I really am just seeking information. What do you think about white families who do the same thought process is you and make the same types of choices as you do re dcps? There are times I feel I (white) receive a lot of judgment from my choice which is the same one you’re making, but the judgment comes from other white parents not from my black friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best thing about the anonymity of this board is that it allows the rich white prestige-obsessed and guilt-driven parents (who work too hard to be good parents) of the DMV to express their true feelings without fear of being outcast. They talk the talk in public, but this forum shows that in private they don't walk the walk.

I think it shows that everybody is just doing the best they can, and that some people vastly overestimate the time, money, energy, and clout that posters here have.

Without a doubt, stereotyping and judging others is rampant here.

Especially the kind of stereotyping and judging PP did.

Only in DC is a parent called a racist for sending their child to a school that is 39% white.

It absolutely is not that simple. If Wilson were as black as the other DC high schools, virtually no parent on DCUM would send their kids there. Banneker is the prime example. DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson because it has "enough" white students for them to feel comfortable. Clearly, they're making a race-conscious decision.

This would be fine except Wilson is not an integrated school and anyone pushing that is full of BS. I say this as Black parent that sent two kids through Wilson. Glad to be done with that place and all of the stressful racial dynamics.

Disgusting if White parents are proud that they send their kids there because its a majority-minority school - it is not some racial kumbaya place and anyone who believes this is nuts. The micro-aggressions that Black teachers and Black high achievers have to deal with, the out-right racism surrounding AP for all and the name change. Just please stop it.

It was a horrible experience in this regard and really made me re-think how racism/bias moves in White liberal circles.

[Anonymous]

The private equity firms that are buying houses and driving up prices and charging high rents ARE EXPLICITLY SAYING the cause of high housing prices is that we don’t build enough housing.

And housing cost is intimately tied up with why Ward 3 schools are different than other parts of DCPS.

Upzone all of Ward 3. Build more housing for middle class families. Fix the schools. These are closely related goals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The best thing about the anonymity of this board is that it allows the rich white prestige-obsessed and guilt-driven parents (who work too hard to be good parents) of the DMV to express their true feelings without fear of being outcast. They talk the talk in public, but this forum shows that in private they don't walk the walk.

I think it shows that everybody is just doing the best they can, and that some people vastly overestimate the time, money, energy, and clout that posters here have.

Without a doubt, stereotyping and judging others is rampant here.

Especially the kind of stereotyping and judging PP did.

Only in DC is a parent called a racist for sending their child to a school that is 39% white.

It absolutely is not that simple. If Wilson were as black as the other DC high schools, virtually no parent on DCUM would send their kids there. Banneker is the prime example. DCUM parents send their kids to Wilson because it has "enough" white students for them to feel comfortable. Clearly, they're making a race-conscious decision.

This would be fine except Wilson is not an integrated school and anyone pushing that is full of BS. I say this as Black parent that sent two kids through Wilson. Glad to be done with that place and all of the stressful racial dynamics.

Disgusting if White parents are proud that they send their kids there because its a majority-minority school - it is not some racial kumbaya place and anyone who believes this is nuts. The micro-aggressions that Black teachers and Black high achievers have to deal with, the out-right racism surrounding AP for all and the name change. Just please stop it.

It was a horrible experience in this regard and really made me re-think how racism/bias moves in White liberal circles.

But aren’t DC, DCPS and Wilson run by Black people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.
BIG SNIP BC THIS WAS LONG -
If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

Yes, I have a real live brown boy whose hobby is finding mommy's buttons and her last nerve. I'm so thankful my DH has more patience for virtual learning, because I was already wistfully looking at AfAm mom homeschooling vlogs and websites. I'm done. We eventually found a daycare that did PreK and sent him there. We are more happier and sane.

I can't remember the exact quote but I saw a video of Malcolm X speaking and he said something along the lines that system turns Black people off from education, probably as a way to keep them ignorant. Now how DCPS plays a part is in the abysmal ELA PARCC scores of black boys (girls do better). When we were looking for schools for the lottery (our IB school was *shrug* okay but I wanted to see if we could do better) I took particular interest in 3rd grade scores for Black boys (even though he's bi-racial). The scores for the nearby schools or schools along our commutes were either unimpressive or klaxon blaring bad.

Why scores matter to me? They aren't the best metric, but they are an available metric. And I'm not going to do the 'if you just went and visited the school' gaslighting tour. And my DS is sensitive to peer pressure, positive and negative. If the other boys around him aren't excelling, he's gonna catch the stupid.

Lastly, on handicapping. My dad barely graduated high school is is barely literate. Thank God Almighty for the Army where he learned a skill and was able to take that skill and start a business. But I saw how having poor reading and math skills could keep you back, even when you are your own boss. Somehow I feel real Black Empowerment hasn't been tried yet (like socialism) because we Black people as a group have too many members can't read well or do complicated math and DCPS isn't treating the problem like it's a house on fire. The schools that have the worst scores, they just throw money at and it doesn't make things better. Several schools with lousy scores got expensive brand new buildings, but the scores still suck. DCPS doesn't care about real results.

well said, bravo. having seen what it took to teach my white boy to read, write and do math, “house on fire” is the ethos we need, especially after the disaster of school closures. sometimes it seems like the schools get so distracted from basic literacy. another thing I’ve noticed is that for writing and reading, the rigor and focus seems to have dropped way off in 3rd grade. not sure why.

what do you think about the “no excuses” charters like KIPP?

I don't know if KIPP is right for us. No, that's my honest answer. I don't know. We crossed them off our 20-21 Lottery pick list because like several charters they demanded that kids be completely potty trained. Our DS was not 100% there. He had regressed in his potty training. It was a good decision because it wasn't until a few months ago he became 98% potty trained (2% of the time he waits too long and there's an accident).

I fear my question sounds inflammatory but it’s not meant to be I really am just seeking information. What do you think about white families who do the same thought process is you and make the same types of choices as you do re dcps? There are times I feel I (white) receive a lot of judgment from my choice which is the same one you’re making, but the judgment comes from other white parents not from my black friends.

As a parent I really don't give a lot of thought to white parents. I acknowledge it more with a 'huh, that's interesting,' when I spotted a white dad walking his white daughter to KIPP. The potty training was the big thing for us. We didn't want him regressing because of an accident, and when he has an accident he can get pretty worked up. This is what we wanted to avoid. And if the teachers there have a low tolerance for wetting accidents, it's just downhill from there. There were some other things, such as what little influence parents seemed to have which made me less enthusiastic, but still willing to give it a go. Then the pandemic happened and something changed in us as parents.

Since having DS I'm more aware of Black MC judgement (local relatives) that I was able to ignore before DS. We get judged for other things and so far we haven't gotten a lot of pushback, even from the retired teachers, on educational choices. Funny thing, that's when some AfAm co-workers come out and crow about putting their kids in private (could be parochial) school. I can sympathize with your situation, because in these discussions that used to take place at work, the only acceptable solution (from the white co-workers) was be to move to the suburbs. But then again these were nice white co-workers who live in MoCo, Annapolis and Howard Co. I guess it depends on who you are talking to and where they live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The private equity firms that are buying houses and driving up prices and charging high rents ARE EXPLICITLY SAYING the cause of high housing prices is that we don’t build enough housing.

And housing cost is intimately tied up with why Ward 3 schools are different than other parts of DCPS.

Upzone all of Ward 3. Build more housing for middle class families. Fix the schools. These are closely related goals.

“Fix the schools” in this way and you are ‘fixing’ the bulk of the few functional schools in city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.

If you are EOTP, go to your IB. No charters. Mouths shut, wallets open.

Charters should for BIPOC children only.
Language immersion for BIPOC only.
TAG programming for BIPOC only.

Celebrate BIPOC excellence.
Acknowledge white mediocrity.
Coach your children to accept their own mediocrity and acknowledge BIPOC excellence.

If you play the lottery, you are a racist and segregationist.

If you go to school OOB to go to school WOTP, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you allow your child to go to an IB WOTP school, and your child is white, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go private, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you move to MoCo or NoVa, obvi racist and segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school. and advocate for TAG, immersion, special programming - you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school and do not adhere to "mouths shut, wallets open" you are a racist and segregationist.

If you encourage others to attend high-performing schools dominated by BIPOC children, you are resource hoarding, because you are racist.

If you use the phrase "hidden gems," you are racist and encourage resource hoarding.

If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

Yes, I have a real live brown boy whose hobby is finding mommy's buttons and her last nerve. I'm so thankful my DH has more patience for virtual learning, because I was already wistfully looking at AfAm mom homeschooling vlogs and websites. I'm done. We eventually found a daycare that did PreK and sent him there. We are more happier and sane.

I can't remember the exact quote but I saw a video of Malcolm X speaking and he said something along the lines that system turns Black people off from education, probably as a way to keep them ignorant. Now how DCPS plays a part is in the abysmal ELA PARCC scores of black boys (girls do better). When we were looking for schools for the lottery (our IB school was *shrug* okay but I wanted to see if we could do better) I took particular interest in 3rd grade scores for Black boys (even though he's bi-racial). The scores for the nearby schools or schools along our commutes were either unimpressive or klaxon blaring bad.

Why scores matter to me? They aren't the best metric, but they are an available metric. And I'm not going to do the 'if you just went and visited the school' gaslighting tour. And my DS is sensitive to peer pressure, positive and negative. If the other boys around him aren't excelling, he's gonna catch the stupid.

Lastly, on handicapping. My dad barely graduated high school is is barely literate. Thank God Almighty for the Army where he learned a skill and was able to take that skill and start a business. But I saw how having poor reading and math skills could keep you back, even when you are your own boss. Somehow I feel real Black Empowerment hasn't been tried yet (like socialism) because we Black people as a group have too many members can't read well or do complicated math and DCPS isn't treating the problem like it's a house on fire. The schools that have the worst scores, they just throw money at and it doesn't make things better. Several schools with lousy scores got expensive brand new buildings, but the scores still suck. DCPS doesn't care about real results.

Do you recall the Malcolm X source? I’m interested in reading more on what he said on this. I think people are too all or nothing on so many things instead of trying to find the right balance (ie, to improve everyone as best as we can, while hurting the fewest).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

I am a native African American Washingtonian and what do you mean if white families went to Banneker they would "Negatively impact the school?" What are you talking about? When white families moved into a over 80% African American city and bought houses in our communities did they "destroy that culture?" I am 43 years old and the DC I know had many Middle class African Americans who did move to the suburbs because our communities were not safe due to the Crack epidemic that destroyed our communities. By the the way our communities were targeted and drugs put there on purpose. Do you research! Our families bought these properties for twice the price because banks had discriminatory loan practices. My family was the first family of color to live on 13th street in Petworth and then all the white families fled to the suburbs to get away from people of color. When gentrification came we sold for lower to leave these communities because they were unsafe. When white families came in everything changed more policing and services. Eventually if the cities demographics continue more families of color will be priced out and Banneker will in fact become majority white.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

I am a native African American Washingtonian and what do you mean if white families went to Banneker they would "Negatively impact the school?" What are you talking about? When white families moved into a over 80% African American city and bought houses in our communities did they "destroy that culture?" I am 43 years old and the DC I know had many Middle class African Americans who did move to the suburbs because our communities were not safe due to the Crack epidemic that destroyed our communities. By the the way our communities were targeted and drugs put there on purpose. Do you research! Our families bought these properties for twice the price because banks had discriminatory loan practices. My family was the first family of color to live on 13th street in Petworth and then all the white families fled to the suburbs to get away from people of color. When gentrification came we sold for lower to leave these communities because they were unsafe. When white families came in everything changed more policing and services. Eventually if the cities demographics continue more families of color will be priced out and Banneker will in fact become majority white.

You probably know my friends who stayed through the epidemic. It was a scary time. Mom still owns the home and lives in the burbs since her husband passed. Kids (my friend) all live in the burbs too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the article being bad.


The one question I have for everyone is if wealthy white parents don’t segregate then why is there such a low number of white kids at Banneker? In all my years of living in DC and reading DCUMs, this is the one school that supports the argument.

Glad you brought this up. No doubt some students/families don’t apply to Banneker for various reasons rooted in systemic racism, overt racism, etc. but I do wonder (my kid is many, many years away from high school) if we applied would we be negatively impacting the school. I mean, this is a pretty great school that now serves mostly Black and brown students and if all of us white families started going there, we’d kind of destroy that culture, right? I’d hate to be the white family cashing in on the good thing Black and brown families built. But I’d be curious what others thought. Maybe I’m over analyzing.

I am a native African American Washingtonian and what do you mean if white families went to Banneker they would "Negatively impact the school?" What are you talking about? When white families moved into a over 80% African American city and bought houses in our communities did they "destroy that culture?" I am 43 years old and the DC I know had many Middle class African Americans who did move to the suburbs because our communities were not safe due to the Crack epidemic that destroyed our communities. By the the way our communities were targeted and drugs put there on purpose. Do you research! Our families bought these properties for twice the price because banks had discriminatory loan practices. My family was the first family of color to live on 13th street in Petworth and then all the white families fled to the suburbs to get away from people of color. When gentrification came we sold for lower to leave these communities because they were unsafe. When white families came in everything changed more policing and services. Eventually if the cities demographics continue more families of color will be priced out and Banneker will in fact become majority white.

And yes know your history’s. Drives me crazy when I hear younger, newer folks go wow the neighborhood changed so much. I go yeah since the riots and the response is “what riots?”. Rage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.

If you are EOTP, go to your IB. No charters. Mouths shut, wallets open.

Charters should for BIPOC children only.
Language immersion for BIPOC only.
TAG programming for BIPOC only.

Celebrate BIPOC excellence.
Acknowledge white mediocrity.
Coach your children to accept their own mediocrity and acknowledge BIPOC excellence.

If you play the lottery, you are a racist and segregationist.

If you go to school OOB to go to school WOTP, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you allow your child to go to an IB WOTP school, and your child is white, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go private, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you move to MoCo or NoVa, obvi racist and segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school. and advocate for TAG, immersion, special programming - you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school and do not adhere to "mouths shut, wallets open" you are a racist and segregationist.

If you encourage others to attend high-performing schools dominated by BIPOC children, you are resource hoarding, because you are racist.

If you use the phrase "hidden gems," you are racist and encourage resource hoarding.

If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

Yes, I have a real live brown boy whose hobby is finding mommy's buttons and her last nerve. I'm so thankful my DH has more patience for virtual learning, because I was already wistfully looking at AfAm mom homeschooling vlogs and websites. I'm done. We eventually found a daycare that did PreK and sent him there. We are more happier and sane.

I can't remember the exact quote but I saw a video of Malcolm X speaking and he said something along the lines that system turns Black people off from education, probably as a way to keep them ignorant. Now how DCPS plays a part is in the abysmal ELA PARCC scores of black boys (girls do better). When we were looking for schools for the lottery (our IB school was *shrug* okay but I wanted to see if we could do better) I took particular interest in 3rd grade scores for Black boys (even though he's bi-racial). The scores for the nearby schools or schools along our commutes were either unimpressive or klaxon blaring bad.

Why scores matter to me? They aren't the best metric, but they are an available metric. And I'm not going to do the 'if you just went and visited the school' gaslighting tour. And my DS is sensitive to peer pressure, positive and negative. If the other boys around him aren't excelling, he's gonna catch the stupid.

Lastly, on handicapping. My dad barely graduated high school is is barely literate. Thank God Almighty for the Army where he learned a skill and was able to take that skill and start a business. But I saw how having poor reading and math skills could keep you back, even when you are your own boss. Somehow I feel real Black Empowerment hasn't been tried yet (like socialism) because we Black people as a group have too many members can't read well or do complicated math and DCPS isn't treating the problem like it's a house on fire. The schools that have the worst scores, they just throw money at and it doesn't make things better. Several schools with lousy scores got expensive brand new buildings, but the scores still suck. DCPS doesn't care about real results.

Do you recall the Malcolm X source? I’m interested in reading more on what he said on this. I think people are too all or nothing on so many things instead of trying to find the right balance (ie, to improve everyone as best as we can, while hurting the fewest).

Malcolm X clip- https://youtu.be/Imq5DS6PZMo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the point is that white parents should be seen and not heard. If you are WOTP, give up your IB preference and go EOTP to a DCPS. Don't join the PTA, but write large checks. Mouths shut, wallets open.

If you are EOTP, go to your IB. No charters. Mouths shut, wallets open.

Charters should for BIPOC children only.
Language immersion for BIPOC only.
TAG programming for BIPOC only.

Celebrate BIPOC excellence.
Acknowledge white mediocrity.
Coach your children to accept their own mediocrity and acknowledge BIPOC excellence.

If you play the lottery, you are a racist and segregationist.

If you go to school OOB to go to school WOTP, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you allow your child to go to an IB WOTP school, and your child is white, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go private, you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you move to MoCo or NoVa, obvi racist and segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school. and advocate for TAG, immersion, special programming - you are a racist and a segregationist.

If you go to a majority BIPOC school and do not adhere to "mouths shut, wallets open" you are a racist and segregationist.

If you encourage others to attend high-performing schools dominated by BIPOC children, you are resource hoarding, because you are racist.

If you use the phrase "hidden gems," you are racist and encourage resource hoarding.

If any of this seems unfair - your white fragility is a fatal condition.

Everything you do is racist.

I'm an AfAm mom of a Pre-K bi-racial kid and I'm not sending my DS to DCPS schools going forward.
What we got a taste of with virtual learning from our so-okay IB school turned me off. The more I learned and researched what DCPS has to offer middle class POC boys the more pissed off I got. The reading scores and the math scores for POC boys is horrifying. It doesn't matter if Nice White Parents (a podcast I've hate-listened to along with the Integrated Schools podcast) show up or don't show up to our IB the responsibility of the suckitude of the school falls on DCPS.

And "Resource Hoarding" is utter BS. Apparently failure to handicap your kids, like DCPS is handicapping Black boys, is resource hoarding.

A comment and a question (as always I’m assuming you’re a real parent and not one of the conservative trolls that come here to divide us.)

First, virtual PreK has been a total joke for everyone. Give in person K a shot before you throw DCPS out. That said I agree DCPS Central really does not do a good job.

Question: when you say “DCPS handicaps Black boys”, what do you mean? That they don’t care about creating and supporting top schools?

DCPS does such a poor job educating kids that parents need to take over their education. This means kids whose parents don't have time and resources to teach them are left behind. That's why you see huge disparities. If you are the parent of black children and you *do* have the time/resources to take over their education, you might be in the minority. How is your kid supposed to fit into his peers who do not have the same resources?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So basically, the two schools that prove the point of the research are Banneker and CMI. If you can't explain those, you must agree that white people are causing school segregation due to racism.

Where is a good analysis of these two schools, then? I do think that being in an under 5% minority at any school is going to turn a parent off, for better or worse. That rules out Banneker. Beyond that, CMI has been discussed on here ad nauseum, and I think that it has to do with education model and perhaps its facilities.

The real trend of parents of means (of all races) away from DCPS and toward a few select charters (outside UNW) is more interesting to analyze and would require a much better research plan.

The Waltons won’t fund research studying that question.

Because their goal is to help charters and harm DCPS (so rich people can profit.)

This is how Brookings taking money from anti-public-school people is distorting.

The Waltons will fund a study that divides DCPS based on race. They won’t fund studies that are likely to reflect poorly on charters.

Former CMI parent - I agree so much. None of the white parents who went there would admit it (so liberal), but many had good (if not better) IB schools, but because of the % of white kids, chose CMI.