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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The article on Washington Latin and related issues mentions a very important point about "diversity" in DC: White students are highly concentrated:
[b]White students, who made up 12 percent of traditional school students and 5 percent of those in charter schools, were concentrated in a relatively small number of schools: at 10 traditional schools and two charter schools, more than half of students were white.[/b] and
Less explicitly - white students are highly in demand.  The article posits, like most of us do, the damaging effects of racial isolation and the benefits of diversity.  In a city with such a strong majority of low-income African-American students and small minority of white, high-income families, there are only some schools that are getting that diversity.

DCPS has recently established a new middle school, is on the hook to do another one and is redoing 2, maybe 3? high schools.  Charters keep popping up that are oriented toward the school yearnings of "diverse" families with the belief that serving "diverse" families well would serve "everyone" well. Let's be honest and explicit - if these schools do enough to attract white (and more broadly, "majority-culture-assimilated") families, they will be seen as successful.

So - what do you think white families are shopping for?  What have the schools they attend shown about their preferences?

It seems clear white families want other white families in their schools and are only willing to send their children so far from their segregated enclaves. There is a hard chicken and egg logic to this, but it's not just this.

It doesn't seem like the academic offerings have to fit a cookie cutter like IB, though that's out there - the offerings just need to make parents think their child is taking courses at a nationwide grade level or "advanced" classes rather than being stuck in "mainstream" or "remedial" courses.  This seems straightforward, but look at the NAEP and PARCC disparities across backgrounds and you'll see that what "first-time" 9th graders realistically need to progress toward graduation are probably not the things that most white students are set to tackle at the same point in their educations.

Can we really get more schools or new schools with truly integrated student bodies with joint classes and students that are the same age and moving at the same speed?

I feel like DCUM can write a lot of snark or BS about this, BUT the folks here are some of the most capable of answering these questions realistically. We are black and white, Hispanic, Asian, and all/none-of-the-above people who are opinionated, educated, thoughtful parents who are participating in DCPS and DCPCS, see the real problems, and want the system to improve.

What do you all think?

What can be done to design schools to bring in white families to schools that are not just "for" white families? [/quote]

no, white families want their kids around other committed children who come from stable, middle to high SES families. Im DC that correlates with race.  [/quote]

Yes. One important reason is that I want my kids to go beyond the basics. I welcome corrections from people with direct experience, but my impression is that some of the high performing schools with high low SES populations (such as KIPP) need to spend a lot of time and effort on reading and writing basics, whereas many kids from higher SES homes get much of that learning outside of the formal classroom setting. (Please note my many qualifiers; I know there are exceptions all over the place.) Therefore they have less time for deeper subject matter exploration, essay and fiction writing, etc.[/quote]

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