Reply to Northwest current article on school boundaries

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Northwest current article on school boundaries"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Boundaries aside, does anyone else see the problem in this scenario?  Why is it that so many families are clamoring to send their children to Deal? Upper income, middle class and lower income families are coming from all over the city.

Shouldn't the real focus be on developing high quality middle schools across the city so that this becomes a non-issue?[/quote]
[quote=Anonymous]The problem is that everyone wants a middle school with lots of high SES families - and there isn't a school with enough of them concentrated in one area (Hardy aside) to make another Deal.[/quote]
[quote=Anonymous]Yes, but there are enough middle class families that make active investments in the education of their children to have a well-rounded, high-performing school.  Anyone can tell you that simply sitting your child in a room full of upper income children won't make them smarter or better behaved, the same way sitting next to a lower-income child won't have the opposite effect.    Wards 4 and 5 in particular have enough middle income (and more and more upper income) families to sustain strong middle schools, if developed properly.  Not sure if DCPS is up for it, but its possible.[/quote]
DCPS, and perhaps more significantly, the government/people of DC are not up to it.  Schools west of the park did not improve because city government made a point of doing it.  It was the residents who forced change and enrolled their kids - and they did it in spite of the obstacles in front of them.  Until this city becomes significantly more efficient and effective in its governance, I don't see how it can quickly make immediate large-scale change.

If you took a map of the city and plotted out where students live and then drew an arrow to where kids enroll in public schools, most arrows would point west and north.  Families (rich and poor) gravitate to more affluent areas.  It's not a new phenomenon, it isn't just a DC thing, and it's not hard to understand.  But it is puzzling to hear the refrain that DC should simply make more high quality middle schools.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics