When should we listen to those small, nagging doubts?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long have you lived in the District, PP above? We've been here 30 years now. We were mugged in Petworth during the HW Bush administration. Each generation of gentrifiers talks exactly like you (in 10 years, it will all be very different). Yet hardly any high SES parents stick with Title 1/overwhelmingly low SES schools past around 2nd grade. Same situation all over the country. Would love to be wrong. Dead wrong.

I’m not trying to say it’s perfect here, but your stereotype from 10 years ago is out of date.

Also, people who introduce themselves like you have been moving the goal posts as long as I’ve been here. First it was “Pk3 is ok but you’ll be gone by K”, then K was ok but not numbered grades, etc. yes, some people leave. Other people come in. It’s ok.

You sound naive. Right, a dozen neighborhood elementary schools have improved dramatically EotP in the last decade. Middle schools, a little. High schools, hardly at all. It's still not OK after ES. Too many of our longtime EotP friends have moved to the burbs because they couldn't crack Washington Latin, or even Hardy, BASIS, DCI or Stuart Hobson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How long have you lived in the District, PP above? We've been here 30 years now. We were mugged in Petworth during the HW Bush administration. Each generation of gentrifiers talks exactly like you (in 10 years, it will all be very different). Yet hardly any high SES parents stick with Title 1/overwhelmingly low SES schools past around 2nd grade. Same situation all over the country. Would love to be wrong. Dead wrong.

I’m not trying to say it’s perfect here, but your stereotype from 10 years ago is out of date.

Also, people who introduce themselves like you have been moving the goal posts as long as I’ve been here. First it was “Pk3 is ok but you’ll be gone by K”, then K was ok but not numbered grades, etc. yes, some people leave. Other people come in. It’s ok.

You sound naive. Right, a dozen neighborhood elementary schools have improved dramatically EotP in the last decade. Middle schools, a little. High schools, hardly at all. It's still not OK after ES. Too many of our longtime EotP friends have moved to the burbs because they couldn't crack Washington Latin, or even Hardy, BASIS, DCI or Stuart Hobson.

And then the goal posts move again to middle school or high school. It used to be K.

I don’t know enough about MS and HS but I’m just done listening to your advice.

[Anonymous]

DCUM's got memes now: "you're naive to stay" poster who got mugged in Petworth in the 90s.

[Anonymous]

My child is in a private school and I don't think they are challenging him. It's really not a clear question of public vs private or title one vs not title one or even class size. It's whether the particular teachers are managing to differentiate enough to keep all the kids challenged and supported. You could ask the teachers what they do to make sure everyone is challenged, you can ask your child if he/she is learning new things all the time. You can look at the CCSS to see what students at your child's grade level are expected to know. A pp was right that third grade is considered a time when most kids should have caught up to grade level, despite uneven early development.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in a private school and I don't think they are challenging him. It's really not a clear question of public vs private or title one vs not title one or even class size. It's whether the particular teachers are managing to differentiate enough to keep all the kids challenged and supported. You could ask the teachers what they do to make sure everyone is challenged, you can ask your child if he/she is learning new things all the time. You can look at the CCSS to see what students at your child's grade level are expected to know. A pp was right that third grade is considered a time when most kids should have caught up to grade level, despite uneven early development.

Interesting perspective on privates too.

One thing I disagree with. In DC, there's pretty good early childhood support with really solid PK3/4 especially in the areas that need it most. I think there are a lot of other environmental and systemic factor that create differences even after 3rd grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child is in a private school and I don't think they are challenging him. It's really not a clear question of public vs private or title one vs not title one or even class size. It's whether the particular teachers are managing to differentiate enough to keep all the kids challenged and supported. You could ask the teachers what they do to make sure everyone is challenged, you can ask your child if he/she is learning new things all the time. You can look at the CCSS to see what students at your child's grade level are expected to know. A pp was right that third grade is considered a time when most kids should have caught up to grade level, despite uneven early development.

+1. When we made the move to private for 1st, kid was ahead in both reading in math coming from DCPS. I think the early grades are often pretty play-based in many privates. Also, I think a lot of it in public or private is the luck of the draw--the teacher your kid gets in a given year, the classroom dynamics, etc.

[Anonymous]

Fomo.
You wiii have doubts everywhere. Stop looking for greener grass

[Anonymous]

What? PP who moved from a T1 school to much greener grass here. Our new DCPS isn't perfect, it's crowded, the building is crumbling, and the school and suffered from years of poor leadership before the current principal arrived. But we don't have doubts about moving on. I value being part of a school offering 21st century international diversity to my children, not just the American variant furnished by the con-mingling of low SES minorities and mostly white high SES families. The school attracts professional immigrants from around the world. There are also children whose parents grew up in a large and awful housing project that stood a few blocks away until the late 90s. It was replaced by a mixed-income housing townhouse project. Good mix, thanks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child is in a private school and I don't think they are challenging him. It's really not a clear question of public vs private or title one vs not title one or even class size. It's whether the particular teachers are managing to differentiate enough to keep all the kids challenged and supported. You could ask the teachers what they do to make sure everyone is challenged, you can ask your child if he/she is learning new things all the time. You can look at the CCSS to see what students at your child's grade level are expected to know. A pp was right that third grade is considered a time when most kids should have caught up to grade level, despite uneven early development.

+1. When we made the move to private for 1st, kid was ahead in both reading in math coming from DCPS. I think the early grades are often pretty play-based in many privates. Also, I think a lot of it in public or private is the luck of the draw--the teacher your kid gets in a given year, the classroom dynamics, etc.

Agree! I prefer a play-based Kindergarten. We moved from private to DCPS because DCPS accelerates/differentiates much better than private in upper grades. But we were shocked at how nice the kids are! There is zero mean girl stuff unlike private (DD is in 5th and the only white kid in her grade). It is such a positive environment. I wasn’t aware of just how toxic the private school girls’ culture is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fomo.
You wiii have doubts everywhere. Stop looking for greener grass

Parents need to realize no school will be perfect. There are pros and cons to every school. Additionally, there are variables you cannot evaluate until you are there, like classmate dynamics, child’s coping/personality, teachers’ personalities. Opinions/experiences are completely individual.

[Anonymous]

Even so, white guilt and liberal prerogatives have a way of fueling naive optimism about school quality in DC's gentrifying neighborhoods. Kids often pay by jumping around between schools. I know well-meaning DCPS families who've gone with as many as four different public schools between PreS3 and 5th grade. Better to listen to those nagging doubts upfront. Hint: make an elementary school plan promoting stability.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Even so, white guilt and liberal prerogatives have a way of fueling naive optimism about school quality in DC's gentrifying neighborhoods. Kids often pay by jumping around between schools. I know well-meaning DCPS families who've gone with as many as four different public schools between PreS3 and 5th grade. Better to listen to those nagging doubts upfront. Hint: make an elementary school plan promoting stability.

Conversely, conservative hubris and racism have a way of fueling alarmist pessimism about school quality in DC’s neighborhood schools. Kids often pay by being sheltered in unnecessarily homogenized schools. I know well-meaning DCPS families who have helicoptered their kids and deprived them of great opportunities. Better to listen to the voice of reason up front. Hint: do more research and find out what’s really going on at the schools, then don’t listen to neighbors who just assume.

[Anonymous]

OK, find a middle road but don't blame parents for the rise of what you term unnecessarily homogenized schools. DC politicians and school system leaders made the decision to stuck with a neighborhood school system through the decades, even as a number of other large US cities jettisoned theirs (San Fran and Boston being the most notable examples). They also made the decision not to create or fund formal GT programs that could have motivated high SES parents to enroll their kids in certain T1 schools in large numbers, and stick with these programs.

DC parents buy pricey real estate to access strong by-right schools seem to have done their research. We bought in-boundary for Brent mainly for strong math for a math gifted child. We found that he would have ready access to math classes (led by a teacher and serving same-age peers) two years ahead of grade level from 3rd grade. We checked around and couldn't find another school EotP offering math even a year above grade level that wasn't taught by a computer. Robust PTA fundraising provides, um, great opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, find a middle road but don't blame parents for the rise of what you term unnecessarily homogenized schools. DC politicians and school system leaders made the decision to stuck with a neighborhood school system through the decades, even as a number of other large US cities jettisoned theirs (San Fran and Boston being the most notable examples). They also made the decision not to create or fund formal GT programs that could have motivated high SES parents to enroll their kids in certain T1 schools in large numbers, and stick with these programs.

DC parents buy pricey real estate to access strong by-right schools seem to have done their research. We bought in-boundary for Brent mainly for strong math for a math gifted child. We found that he would have ready access to math classes (led by a teacher and serving same-age peers) two years ahead of grade level from 3rd grade. We checked around and couldn't find another school EotP offering math even a year above grade level that wasn't taught by a computer. Robust PTA fundraising provides, um, great opportunities.

Your attitude depresses me. It begins from the position that rich families make the best classmates. It also suggests that teachers in other schools only teach to the slowest kids and by extension they aren’t good teachers. Get out of your snob bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even so, white guilt and liberal prerogatives have a way of fueling naive optimism about school quality in DC's gentrifying neighborhoods. Kids often pay by jumping around between schools. I know well-meaning DCPS families who've gone with as many as four different public schools between PreS3 and 5th grade. Better to listen to those nagging doubts upfront. Hint: make an elementary school plan promoting stability.

Conversely, conservative hubris and racism have a way of fueling alarmist pessimism about school quality in DC’s neighborhood schools. Kids often pay by being sheltered in unnecessarily homogenized schools. I know well-meaning DCPS families who have helicoptered their kids and deprived them of great opportunities. Better to listen to the voice of reason up front. Hint: do more research and find out what’s really going on at the schools, then don’t listen to neighbors who just assume.

This is because people are insecure about the future. There is economic insecurity with the disappearing middle class. It is this overwhelming fear that caused people to vote for Trump. Many of my white liberal friends avoid low performing schools because deep down they worry that poor is communicable. It’s really not a Republican or Democratic thing. It’s a white thing.