WaPo magazine article on the lottery

[Anonymous]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/magazine/wp/2019/03/20/feature/the-lottery-thats-revolutionizing-d-c-schools/?utm_term=.8d436c7a71f9

[Anonymous]

"Only 27% are enrolled in their IB school."

So despite hundreds of millions in renovations, expansion of Pk3, students returning to DCPS for HS ... the percentage of students attending their IB has only increased 2% since the last boundary review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Only 27% are enrolled in their IB school."

So despite hundreds of millions in renovations, expansion of Pk3, students returning to DCPS for HS ... the percentage of students attending their IB has only increased 2% since the last boundary review.

But the absolute number has increased a lot.

I think given the extreme overcrowding in Ward 3 it's not such a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Wish there would be a citation for this stat.

... "That majority white Ward 3 has no charter schools — with their mandate to take applications from throughout the city — compounds the problem. So does the fact that white students make up only 15 percent of the city’s public school enrollment, while studies estimate that about half the city’s white students attend private schools. So one path to desegregating the city’s schools is persuading more white students to stay in the public sector. “There are choices white families are making that are reinforcing the status quo racially,” says Smith, the former deputy mayor for education...."

[Anonymous]

Eyeroll. There are choices DCPS is making that cause people to leave if they can. Do something about the widespread incompetence and corruption and maybe more people would stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll. There are choices DCPS is making that cause people to leave if they can. Do something about the widespread incompetence and corruption and maybe more people would stay.

That’s what fuels your choice, sure, but her point stands that individual choices of white families perpetuate the status quo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish there would be a citation for this stat.

... "That majority white Ward 3 has no charter schools — with their mandate to take applications from throughout the city — compounds the problem. So does the fact that white students make up only 15 percent of the city’s public school enrollment, while studies estimate that about half the city’s white students attend private schools. So one path to desegregating the city’s schools is persuading more white students to stay in the public sector. “There are choices white families are making that are reinforcing the status quo racially,” says Smith, the former deputy mayor for education...."

Umm, if DCPS wants wealthy parents to stay in the system, they have choices they can make to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wish there would be a citation for this stat.

... "That majority white Ward 3 has no charter schools — with their mandate to take applications from throughout the city — compounds the problem. So does the fact that white students make up only 15 percent of the city’s public school enrollment, while studies estimate that about half the city’s white students attend private schools. So one path to desegregating the city’s schools is persuading more white students to stay in the public sector. “There are choices white families are making that are reinforcing the status quo racially,” says Smith, the former deputy mayor for education...."

I've looked into this a bit, and what's interesting is that nobody really knows how many kids in DC go to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Eyeroll. There are choices DCPS is making that cause people to leave if they can. Do something about the widespread incompetence and corruption and maybe more people would stay.

That’s what fuels your choice, sure, but her point stands that individual choices of white families perpetuate the status quo.

Almost nobody who has choices is buying what DCPS is selling.

Consider this: only 27% of kids attend their in-boundary school. Wilson and its feeders is over 10,000 students, almost a quarter of DCPS. Those schools have a large concentration of in-boundary kids, and of white kids. It would not surprise me at all if white kids are more likely than DCPS overall to attend their in-boundary school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Only 27% are enrolled in their IB school."

So despite hundreds of millions in renovations, expansion of Pk3, students returning to DCPS for HS ... the percentage of students attending their IB has only increased 2% since the last boundary review.

Are you saying that DC should not renovate the buildings or have PK3? They are still filled with DC students? Do OOB students not deserve to attend a school that’s in decent shape?

[Anonymous]

Also, a large number of DCPS PK3 rooms are filled with IB students. Trends are changing.

[Anonymous]

I love this line:
"Because My School DC’s software places students, the system levels the playing field for families who lack political connections or the time and resources to stand in lines, lobby school principals and complete scores of applications."

The implication being that families who don't lack political connections don't have to deal with this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love this line:
"Because My School DC’s software places students, the system levels the playing field for families who lack political connections or the time and resources to stand in lines, lobby school principals and complete scores of applications."

The implication being that families who don't lack political connections don't have to deal with this nonsense.

Not sure I read it the same way.

Pre-Common lottery, when every single school ran its own enrollment process and/or lottery, if you knew (or were) a politically connected person or the principal or registrar at a school, you could enroll, regardless of being IB or OOB or what your number was.

If you weren’t connected and you had time, you would sleep out to submit your apps for school-level lottery because you got a preference based on when you turned your app in. There was a one block line of tents outside Oyster one year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love this line:
"Because My School DC’s software places students, the system levels the playing field for families who lack political connections or the time and resources to stand in lines, lobby school principals and complete scores of applications."

The implication being that families who don't lack political connections don't have to deal with this nonsense.

Not sure I read it the same way.

Pre-Common lottery, when every single school ran its own enrollment process and/or lottery, if you knew (or were) a politically connected person or the principal or registrar at a school, you could enroll, regardless of being IB or OOB or what your number was.

If you weren’t connected and you had time, you would sleep out to submit your apps for school-level lottery because you got a preference based on when you turned your app in. There was a one block line of tents outside Oyster one year.

+1 - the real nonsense was the way it used to be. No PK, no alternative to boundary schools. We have those now and entrance is determined by lottery. That they’ve done a good job with it is one of the few bright spots in city gov.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love this line:
"Because My School DC’s software places students, the system levels the playing field for families who lack political connections or the time and resources to stand in lines, lobby school principals and complete scores of applications."

The implication being that families who don't lack political connections don't have to deal with this nonsense.

Not sure I read it the same way.

Pre-Common lottery, when every single school ran its own enrollment process and/or lottery, if you knew (or were) a politically connected person or the principal or registrar at a school, you could enroll, regardless of being IB or OOB or what your number was.

If you weren’t connected and you had time, you would sleep out to submit your apps for school-level lottery because you got a preference based on when you turned your app in. There was a one block line of tents outside Oyster one year.

+1 - the real nonsense was the way it used to be. No PK, no alternative to boundary schools. We have those now and entrance is determined by lottery. That they’ve done a good job with it is one of the few bright spots in city gov.

Agreed. It's not a coincidence they had to set up a new office to run it- no way it could have been run as well as it has been by the existing agencies and their sclerotic hierarchies.