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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele]

This is the challenge. Gentrifying families saying that they want their kids to separated into challenging classes will be heard at least two ways: 1) I want my child to have a rigorous academic environment; and 2) I don't want my child to associate with "those people". If you have read the Hardy threads over the years, you will understand this. I would hope that the second interpretation is not generally true, but I've seen enough posts on DCUM to know that it is not totally false.

I absolutely believe that the new middle school needs to have rigorous course offerings that will challenge the brightest kids. Similarly, I believe the school must be able to address the needs of those kids who have fallen behind. Based on my experience, it is impossible to meet both of those goals in a single classroom (though perhaps this is an assumption worth challenging). The question becomes how do you have this type of separation while still maintaining a unified body? I think a situation in which separate groups are constantly worried that another group is getting an advantage not awarded to the others is a recipe for disaster.

I don't have a solution, but I think this issue addressing a variety of constituencies while not creating antagonistic factions is important. Hopefully, someone smarter than me has some good ideas how to address it.
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What if we added enrichment support to the largely minority feeder schools?  Get the smarter kids from those schools performing at advanced levels such that the composition of the honors track at the middle school was more mixed?

That would weed out the second type of person you listed, and cater to the first.[/quote]

That would be a very good step in the right direction. That is sort of what Christopher is doing with his Saturday academy.  The earlier that educational disparities are addressed the better.

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