Reply to Redshirting consequences at Lafayette

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have a theory.

It used to be very rare for white or UMC people outside of upper NW to send their kids to their neighborhood DCPS. For a long time white and UMC people simply avoided living in any but upper NW neighborhoods, and if they did, they sent their kids to private or charters.

But over the last 15 years, som east side, or just east of the park, neighborhoods have both gentrified a lot AND gotten buy in from those new families for the neighborhood schools. As a school's white and UMC population increases, so too will interest in redshirting. It's an educational trend that is very concentrated among upper-income white people.

Well, what if families in, for instance, Capitol Hill started asking or trying to redshirt at their neighborhood schools? They are going to get a hard no, because the official policy of DCPS is that you are not allowed to do this and that kindergarten is delayed only if the school itself has evaluated the child and determined it is appropriate -- not at parental discretion.

But UMC talk. At work, with friends, here on DCUM. So if you are an UMC parent on Cap Hill who wants to redshirt, you might know for a fact that there are people in upper NW who have been allowed to do it. And that is very likely to be what you say to your principal when they give you a hard no on redshirting: "Well we know multiple families at Lafayette and Mann who have redshirted in recent years, so obviously it's allowed."

It would not take more than one or two such conversations with principals outside JKLM for this to get up to Central Office and force DCPS to realize that the situation has to be addressed, and that the politics and demographics of DC, and DCPS, are such that the only reasonable solution is to crack down on the "loop hole" in those upper NW schools.

It may just be coming to a head now because for so long there were simply not enough high income white people at schools outside of upper NW to press the issue. Gentrification/integration of DCPS schools requires that everyone follow the same rules.[/quote]

I'm aware of redshirters at Peabody/Watkins, so the practice wasn't exclusive to JKLM.[/quote]

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