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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'll give you the view of a White parent who's committed to going all the way through Title I schools with both kids, one is already in middle school now.

Background re: lens to view me through: people would probably call me woke, liberal, not focused on "what's best for my child." Both parents work white collar jobs with moderate-high income, making us overall higher income than many of our neighbors who send their kids to the local DCPS.

The Choice Regime is real. At every grade kids leave. The ones most likely to leave are the flaky status-conscious White people. You know who. But it does include every type of family. And it generally only ratchets one direction - people don't go to a "desired" school then come back to Title I schools.

There is the kind of general expectation that the Title I families move less and that the upper quartile-income families increasingly leave. It's noticeable in 4th grade probably most for families who are moving for in-boundary fancy schools, either outside DC or in Ward 3, and moreso before 5th grade when kids disappear to go to the 5th-grade-starting-charters which are all higher status than the local middle school.

There is a belief that the kids aren't challenged who are able to test above average for the school. That's only true if you think that the teachers can't engage your kid in material that they don't have fully secure or keep them interested with side work. Judge that on the evidence, in my opinion, rather than assuming your child is a genius surrounded by drooling incipient criminals. And the teachers generally can offer side things to do if your kid is advancing unevenly, as is the case for our older kid - good at some subjects, way ahead in others, this kid was always engaged and had friends in elementary school.

If you think that in schools in Ward 3 or high-status PCS your kids are somehow going to get way beyond the basic scope and sequence for DCPS you're probably wrong. If they're real real smart and you're able to check that out and verify they're going to get pushed, good on you. Otherwise, I just think being engaged in a Title I school is all you need.

My opinion is based on my being raised in a really heterogeneous school as a child with kids basically sorting themselves out based on how engaged THEY were and THEIR level of effort. I think the idea that the parents have to sort the kids in advance of schooling to get good outcomes from their kids is just not true. I believe that that is not true, but not what commonly is done by people of "our class" and of course, as I mentioned, I'm some kind of radical liberal by DC standards.

But let me just say this - if you take my views skeptically - and you should - please also do the same for those views who say you need to "move for the schools" or that it's bad to be an "only" in DCPS or even more bluntly (but not publicly) that White kids are not challenged in schools where they are surrounded by black or Hispanic children and teachers "cater to the lowest common denominator."

All the best, enjoy your children's schooling and your time in DC.[/quote]

This is a great comment and I think I would like this person, as Ive found that I really like the higher-income people who have stuck around our Title 1 past preK.

People definitely leave every year and that is a bummer for my kids. However, the people who leave tend to be, as this PP mentioned, status-conscious. The people who stay are just awesome -- they have confidence in their kids, they are comfortable being a racial minority as a white person, they are almost universally super smart (maybe this is why they have confidence in their kids.) the cohort of families who are sticking with our school for the duration are just awesome, and my kid is very bonded to those friends. [/quote]

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