Reply to Catania's Statement on Boundary/Feeder Changes

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Reply to "Catania's Statement on Boundary/Feeder Changes"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][b]"I have maintained all along that I cannot support a plan that moves students from higher performing schools to lower performing ones."[/b]

So, "never", as he's maintained from the start.  But he took 700 words to say it so it makes him look smart to some people.[/quote]

Look at this part more closely:

"In order to secure the confidence of our public school families, we must focus on the issue of school quality in tandem with the proposed recommendations so that all our students – regardless of where they live – can succeed.  Among other things, we must work with the community to create open and transparent school-specific quality improvement plans.  Much more work is needed in this regard."

He is saying that if you want to move families to lower performing schools, you must work with them to address the issue of school quality. He wants school-specific quality improvement plans. He will support moving students to a lower performing school if the school has a realistic chance of improving. That's the only realistic way to address the chicken and egg problem of getting high-performing kids into a lower-performing school.

[/quote]

Thats nice (though it makes the whole proposal dependent on a lot of moving parts of DCPS IIUC) but it is not consistent with

" I cannot support a plan that moves students from higher performing schools to lower performing ones."

A lower performing school with a plan is still a lower performing school.  [/quote]

"Cannot" is present tense. The rest of the statement makes clear that the future is not the present.
[/quote]

That could mean that either he is capable of changing his mind (which is banal, and is hardly a resounding statement of resolve - I cannot tell a lie, but don't hold me to that tomorrow) or it means  He currently can support a plan to move kids from higher performing schools to low performing schools that will become higher performing schools. The latter is not expressed properly (that is not what his words actually mean in English) and even reading his words as you do, its vague - do they have to actually be a higher performing, or is a solid plan enough?  Does McFarland's plan have to actually make is high performing as Deal?   Is that realistic? Over what time frame?  [/quote]

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