DCPS Middle School problem in the Washington Post

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And it is not just about middle class parents not wanting to go to school with poor kids. It is more about the miserable academic preparation so many of those kids have gotten through DCPS. I would take a school full of poor kids if they were motivated, worked hard and had the basics down to move ahead.

If this was a true statement, more white people would apply to Banneker.

Possibly, my kids are too young now, but frankly I am really put off by the unimpressive SAT scores that Banneker students get year after year.

[Anonymous]

+1
Banneker students score, on average, below the national average on SATs. So, while they do well by DC-CAS standards, on even a metric as watered down as the SAT, they do not do well. However, if more of those students could be attracted into a more integrated environment with even higher achieving students, perhaps they would do better.

Magnet MS/HS options are DCPS' only hope to hold onto/attract middle and high income families in any ward that is not 80%+ white/high income. And DCPS is currently just throwing away that card, their one advantage over charter schools, through clueless inaction. Perhaps its "political," but I don't understand how disadvantaging motivated higher achieving black kids through lack of appropriate school programming is more politically acceptable than giving them a magnet program suited to their talents. I feel, I truly hope, that DCPS may be on the brink of this realization. The magnet middle in 7/8 seems promising. MacFarland will surely be the location for such a thing, as Ward 4 has NO MIDDLE SCHOOL, PERIOD.

[Anonymous]

@22:49 you want Banneker students to integrated to get better test scores? Your stats say they don't do well with the SAT but what does your stats say about their college acceptance rate. If they are not attending an integrated college/universityl of your liking, I gather they are destined to be failures. Where do you all come from and why in the hell did you select DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:@22:49 you want Banneker students to integrated to get better test scores? Your stats say they don't do well with the SAT but what does your stats say about their college acceptance rate. If they are not attending an integrated college/universityl of your liking, I gather they are destined to be failures. Where do you all come from and why in the hell did you select DC?

Come on. A beanbag could get "accept[ed]" to a college these days if it applied; so, Banneker's college acceptance rate is probably not the correct factor to emphasize when analyzing whether dcps's flagship test-in high school is of highest quality, using best practices, or admitting (yes, I'm about to go there) the objectively smartest kids.

[Anonymous]

Articles like this one frustrate me, because they interview individual participants but future actions to combat the problem have not been identified, either in DCPS or in other urban jurisdictions.

[Anonymous]

Yep. Another missed opportunity by the WP to be relevant. A thoughtful examination of DCPS in the post-Rhee era in which Gray, Catania, et al. were pushed to lay out a vision with specific policies might actually contribute to the process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Articles like this one frustrate me, because they interview individual participants but future actions to combat the problem have not been identified, either in DCPS or in other urban jurisdictions.

That's Emma Brown's stock in trade: interview a few friends and acquaintances on the Hill; attend a public dcps meeting; scan DCUM for story ideas, trends, the pulse of the educated classes. Repeat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:@22:49 you want Banneker students to integrated to get better test scores? Your stats say they don't do well with the SAT but what does your stats say about their college acceptance rate. If they are not attending an integrated college/universityl of your liking, I gather they are destined to be failures. Where do you all come from and why in the hell did you select DC?

I'm sorry, but DC has three test-in HS. The same students applying to the test-in HS, will be the same students applying to any test-in MS. There is a reason other than Banneker's SAT scores that are preventing many of you from allowing your children to apply to these HS. It will be the same reasons you will prevent your children from applying to the MS. Banneker, McKinely, and SWW have AP, IB, and advanced classes. Those schools are only as good as the applicants. They accept the best applicants who apply. If your DC is a better applicant and attended, the classes are there for them to take and excel.

I agree with you PP, why the hell did these people come to DC if they don't want their snowflakes integrated with all those Black kids. You really are no different that the generation before you. You know the ones that ran to the suburbs and privates to get away from those nigras.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know if you've noticed, but many long-term DCPS teachers drive German Luxury sedans to school.

Oh, come one. Maybe if they have a wealthy partner. They ain't doing it on their $70k DCPS salary.

[Anonymous]

School librarian makes around $90K a year-- drives really nice car.

[Anonymous]

^^ driving a nice car doesn't mean anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with the previous posters who say charters are only attended by kids whose parents self-selected in. I know of many families at MANY charters who chose the charter without looking at it, thinking about it, or investigating it simply because it was near their house or near a care-provider's location. You would be amazed at how many families at language immersion schools have no idea their kid is learning chinese in an immersion model or french or spanish at LAMB or Elsie Whitlow Stokes.

Shenanigans.

At least with respect to YY, I defy you to produce any parent unaware that their child is learning Mandarin in an immersion model. Not possible, period. The entire PreK year is full immersion Chinese, no English whatsoever. Any child who enters the school after PreK gets in from the WL, and to be at the top of the WL, you probably camped out at the school the day the lottery opened. Furthermore, the child has to attend the summer camp prior to entering, which will include Chinese and plenty of conversation with you, the parent, about Chinese immersion.

I cannot speak with authority to the experiences at other charter language immersion schools. However, through my friendship with parents at LAMB and MV, I find the claim regarding those schools to be equally dubious.

I could believe there are parents with children at several of DCPS's language programs who are unaware of the specifics of those immersion models. Your claim regarding the charters however, is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Welcome back, DCUM Snowflake Troll.

[Anonymous]

09:57, thanks. I forgot to respond to that when I saw it earlier, but I would not be amazed by that stament because I can confidently say that the number is zero at the immersion school my children attend and have no reason to believe it would be different elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Articles like this one frustrate me, because they interview individual participants but future actions to combat the problem have not been identified, either in DCPS or in other urban jurisdictions.

That's Emma Brown's stock in trade: interview a few friends and acquaintances on the Hill; attend a public dcps meeting; scan DCUM for story ideas, trends, the pulse of the educated classes. Repeat.

Isn't that the truth! She's just pathetic. Remember Bill Turque? Investigative reporting? He was the first to uncover the testing erasure scandal, long before anyone else paid attention. He was also unafraid to pander, and didn't kowtow to the WaPo's editorial board. I've often thought that's why he left. Jay Matthews is in bed with the testing companies who coincidentally are (or were) part of the same conglomerate as the WaPo itself. Valerie Strauss has little of interest to say to anyone not a member of the WTU. Emma takes the cake though, she subtracts value from the reportage in her simple echoing of whomever she's spoken to most recently.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2010/01/28/washington-post-editorial-board-livid-over-turque-blog-post/

http://takingnote.learningmatters.tv/?p=6374