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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a high-SES black parent and my kids would get destroyed at most of those schools. We have enough problems to worry about than subjecting our kids to that foolishness. It'll be Latin or private for us, so reallistically probably private starting in 6th.  [/quote]

Due to racism, low expectations from teachers? Overcrowding? Something else? Your voice is important for all to hear. I'm a parent of a young mixed kid and always seeking to listen to Black voices willing to share their lived experiences. [/quote]

My kids are mixed too (black and non-white). It's really about low expectations, which is really a problem [i]everywhere [/i]when it comes to black children. Most high-performing (on even grade level-performing) black children have few same race academic peers in public schools. This is a real drag on their academic performance as you get into middle, HS.

I would have a look at this:

https://washingtondc.momcollective.com/parenting-wisdom/tips/diverse-schools-dilemma-black-boys-in-school/

[/quote]

Here is the money quote from the link above

[i]School Solutions[/i][b]

[i]Diverse Schools Dilemma’s suggestions helped me envision a plan for my son’s education, up until middle school. After elementary school, things get tricky. The book has a suggestion to help middle-class parents of African-American boys overcome the cycle of low expectations, decide excelling academically is a Black thing, and be in a peer group that will push a young man to do and be his best. Unfortunately, the solution is not cheap, it’s a private school. Not just a private school, a private school with a critical mass of students of color. It isn’t the only solution, but a public school program the book highlights is so complex and nuanced I would not trust DCPS or a charter to be able to implement or maintain it. There are a number of predominately African-American private schools in the District of Columbia, but that would be another post for another time.[/i][/b][/quote]

Thank you for sharing. Raises so many more questions about how to curate the academic experience to support our POC kids. My well-intentioned white friends tell me not to worry about school choice-- that kids with educated parents will do fine even if the school is mediocre completely overlooking that my son has to figure out how to PROVE he is more competent just to be viewed (encouraged, and challenged) similarly by a teacher, not to mention other factors like making friends. We all know intrinsic biases work against POC kids but this is new territory for me and I'm trying to figure out how to navigate it. In the comments section, the author recommended finding mentors because learning how to navigate academics for POC is a skill to be learned and i will do that. Thanks again for your initial comment. [/quote]

The other issue is peer group. Many POC with means send their kids to private rather to even Deal or Wilson, because while the white kids tend to be uniformly higher SES and higher performing, that isn't the same of the kids of color. So there have been issues with being drawn into a crowd where there is pressure not to be seen as a nerd and to de-prioritize academics.[/quote]

This. As a parent of black children this is my concern and why we are planning on private starting in middle. It’s also my experience. I attended a high-performing HS, but was the ONLY black male in any of my honors/AP classes for all four years - in school that was 30% black! I found that my black middle class peers (and still good friends) did far worse than their SES status would have predicted versus white kids. It’s just anecdotal, but I always got the sense that the presence of an overwhelmingly low income black population (which was bussed in from nearby city) had a depressing impacts on the academic fortunes of the middle class blacks kids. And I wouldn’t even say behavior was a problem so much as expectations.

How did I manage to avoid the pull-down: my parents were well-eatablished/ respected in local education circles and I was the rare black kid that was expected to pull straight As, etc.  I didn’t always like that, but I see it as a true blessing…that my kids won’t enjoy. So they’ll need the peer group that I could do without.  Sadly, that means a private school…[/quote]

My experience is different from yours but my conclusion is very similar -- private and charter are often better for black students. I'm not questioning your perspective, just giving an alternate view from my own experience. For me, there wasn't a "pull-down" from the community; there was an attempted "push-down" from the system. I attended a mid-performing HS and was only one of two blacks in honors classes for all four years. We were assigned to the honors track from 9th grade and when I arrived at the school (from one of the predominantly white middle feeders), the administration re-assigned me to a lower track. My parents fought it, I was reassigned back to honors and graduated top of my class. I've always suspected there were other black students who could have benefited from the honors classes but they didn't get to choose. The school system did that for us.

That was some time ago but things aren't so different now. Just look at the middle school offerings on one side of town vs another. Which middle school students are getting access to Algebra, Biology, etc? If those courses aren't in the neighborhood middle school, are students being prepared for (or even assigned to) honors/AP courses once they reach high school?[/quote]

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