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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Those who are hired to reform the school are not worth their weight unless the rich and educated from Capitol Hill provide their $$$ and expertise.[/quote]

Scratch "expertise", and II think you're right, actually. Because no one knows how to educate a homogeneously poor population of kids.

Look. Time for some real talk. Being poor is awful. Hopefully this isn't a surprise to anyone. That's why we want to alleviate poverty through social safety net, education, etc, etc...  Why does being poor suck? Because it has all sorts of negative socioeconomic consequences. Poor kids are more likely to have developmental problems. Often poor kids are often malnourished. Poor kids' parents tend to be less involved in their kids' education, either because they're working 16 hour days, or because they're substance abusers. Any of this stuff ringing a bell?

These things are all unjust, and they're all incredibly corrosive, and they're not the fault of poor kids (or their parents, for the most part). Again, that's why ending poverty is something that we all want to do.

But because all of the above, a school with very high numbers of poor children just doesn't work.

[quote]There's no win/win situation here as you can see the poor have moved out of the city and rich have moved in and there's still problems.[/quote]

The overwhelming percentage of kids in DCPS (and charters) are poor. With few exceptions, the DCPS schools in which the number of poor kids is below 50% are successful. The DCPS schools in which the number of poor kids is above 50% are not. So the solution to DC middle schools in general, and to any single DCPS middle school in particular, is to get to the point where at least a solid majority of the student population is middle-class, with all the benefits that entails. How you get there is the question.

And it has nothing to do with "the rich" being education experts. It has everything to do with *middle-class* families leading to positive social outcomes--and poverty leading to poor ones.[/quote]

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