Reply to Ward 3 - Wilson feeders meeting last night: did anyone attend?

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Reply to "Ward 3 - Wilson feeders meeting last night: did anyone attend?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I don't think the repeat poster is being obtuse at all.  There is a real problem with the clarity of the language DCPS uses to justify its decisions.

Just look at the history of the boundary review and you will see that there are multiple reasons for refusing to create manageable boundaries for Wilson.  If it were ONLY about overcrowding, then the boundary on Wilson's west side would end somewhere around Connecticut Avenue.

If it were ONLY about access and expectations, then the boundaries would change -- again, ending around Connecticut Avenue -- only after a certain cutoff date, starting sometime around the age of current third graders or so.  But the Mayor's office only made a minimal effort at grandfathering and only made a tiny clip at the boundaries, which is effectively a meaningless clip because Wilson is not going to stop being overcrowded unless they try again at boundary review.

The MOST significant factor, imo, is race or "diversity" if you like, as the latter is a more milquetoast, politically acceptable term.  Non-white kids very strongly need better access to a cohort of academically-achieving fellow students, who happen to be mostly white (or asian) in this country, and Wilson is the only non-test-in DCPS school that provides that experience.  I do not think that this reason for our status quo at Wilson is in any way unreasonable or hard to understand, but it is surely also not a CLEARLY expressed reason.

I believe DCPS is afraid of the political backlash if it clearly expresses that "equity" means raising up students of color, and that this is admittedly not "fair" -- yes, they should admit "equity" is not fair -- to, predominantly, white kids.  Because "equity" and "fairness" are two different things, at least as how those words are used within the sphere of public education professionals.[/quote]

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