Reply to Creative Minds - Unified Lottery?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Look, what is the point of questioning their marketing, I seriously doubt it is a subversive and strategic decision. Do people think AA families will go to the website, see the picture, ignore good scores and move on to lower performing school? Probably they will still apply.[/quote]

As an AA parent who only moved to DC 2 school years' ago, I can definitely say that as I researched DC schools from many states away, the images on the websites had an impact.  It didn't make us not apply to a school that was really highly rated, but it raised a red flag that stayed a red flag as I finally got to meet school staff at Expos and go to open houses.

Interestingly... those red flags often played out to real impressions when I visited.  One school I read enough glowing things that I pretty much pushed the doubts out of my mind... until I went to an open house.  A combination of the school's principal, the way the school answered a lot of questions about their curriculum and culture, and the way I was treated as I walked classroom to classroom... it all made me reflect back on the impression I had looking at their website and thought "Yeah, figures!"  I had a similar experience with a 2nd school as well, and have met other parents who had the exact same experiences.

So in the end we did not apply, although that wasn't solely based on their marketing obviously.  It was based on all the things a family should consider: what the school feels like, whether we think it would be a good match for our kid(s), and how we feel treated by the staff (which is obviously the best indicator you can get in advance of how your kid will be treated).  But frankly, marketing gave a good indication of what that school prioritized, and I didn't feel like our family was the type of family the school wanted to serve, honestly.  I'm sure all the people who want a less diverse, quality, free school option are thrilled that maybe people are turned off and don't apply... and we know they're out there, because they've spoken up on DCUM many times with the "Which public schools are mostly white?" type of threads.[/quote]

This is sad. I'm sorry that was your experience.[/quote]

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