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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Problem is that it's the in-boundary/high SES kids who leave, not the OOB/low SES.  So your kid's first grade class is half low SES, but the 4th grade class is 3/4 low SES.  It's a problem.[/quote]

God, this type of comment must be SO frustrating to Watkins parents who aren't jerks about equality in DC.  Sorry you have to deal with this, evolved Watkins parents.  [/quote]

The first comment is true but incomplete. In and of itself, it is not a problem that the share of low SES grows - that is, there are schools at which that is not a problem. As a previous poster said, however, at Watkins "the academics after 3rd grade are rough". That is not unrelated to the facts that 1) the share of children from families that are less frequently able to provide academic and social supports grows with each grade, and 2) the share of those children who struggle academically, and therefore demand more from the teachers, is higher than the share from families with, for example, graduate degrees. I also believe that a larger share have behavioral issues. (Yes: there are plenty of great parents who aren't rich, plenty of smart and well behaved kids who don't have great parents, kids with rich parents who act up, etc., etc. But as the many discussions about the achievement gap at Watkins have clearly demonstrated, SES is [i]on average[/i] correlated with academic achievement.)

I'm a veteran Watkins parent who has been impressed with most of the teachers and whose children have generally done well at Watkins. But the kids also report being frustrated by the slow pace of the academics and also complain about "bad" kids who disrupt class regularly, though I we never know how much credence to give those reports.

You're welcome to think I'm a jerk or not evolved, but name-calling is not going to help the discussion. But if you disagree with me and have experiences or knowledge to share, I'd honestly love to hear them.[/quote]

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