Reply to Getting the GDS mojo back

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]GDS has serious problems right now -- some structural and some related to leadership (both the top administrators and the Board).  [b]It's a school that is trading on its past rather than building on it and it risks losing its strongest African-American students (especially but not exclusively boys) if it doesn't make significant changes. [/b] It's also losing good teachers (especially younger ones) over some of these issues.

The events of this year have put the Board and the Administration on notice regarding the nature and severity of the problems.  And some  structures (e.g. a taskforce on discipline) have been put in place  to consider reforms.  Whether GDS does the soul searching and the hard work necessary to fix what's broken and to live up to its mission is really an open question at this point.  The need for massive fundraising to pull off the campus consolidation project complicates the picture because it seems to be producing a kind of desperate boosterism that's at odds with a candid assessment of what's going wrong (or not working) and why.  [/quote]

I am curious about the bolded statement. I think a lot of private schools (and public schools as well) have an issue with unfair discipline towards AA kids especially boys. I know GDS is a popular option for AA families, but is it doing something specific towards AA kids? I can see that maybe white kids because they have more money may get away things.[/quote]

Definitely a situation where kids whose parents are lawyers will not be (successfully) subjected to the same sorts of arbitrary and harsh discipline that has been inflicted on other kids.  As for the racial dimension, the perception is both that a disproportionate number of African American boys disappear from the high school and that AA children generally are less likely to have their grievances taken seriously by the school.  There's a tendency to cover up or downplay racialized aggression to protect the school's image.  GDS parents with kids in different schools have said publicly that some of the BS their kids have had to deal with at GDS would never be tolerated at other local privates.  Discipline at GDS is highly personalized and unchecked power is left in the hands of a few individuals.  The due process rights that students have in public school settings are missing and the 24/7 policies encompassing off campus conduct have created a situation in which only a few are punished for conduct that is widespread.

The problems aren't limited to discipline.  There appears to be a fairly significant achievement gap, especially in math.  Differentiation doesn't begin until middle school and it starts with individual teachers slipping accelerated work packets to some kids but not making them available to those who express an interest.  And the Diversity Office, which was once one of GDS's greatest strengths (both internally and externally), has been really gutted.  It's not the resource it once was -- for students, teachers, or parents.[/quote]

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