Reply to Why (traditional) gifted education doesn't make sense

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The biggest drivers behind school segregation in DC are a. ) the overreliance on the neighborhood school model, and b. ) the failure of DCPS to provide the adequately robust level of school environment that families expect, thus driving those with the ability to seek out alternatives to leave.

That includes flaccid support for advanced learners and overconfidence in in-class differentiation.  DCPS really needs to wrap its head around the fundamental concept that it actually needs to attract and retain students.[/quote]

But DCPS doesn't in fact need to attract and retain students unless the DC City Council requires this, which isn't happening.  As long as council members, and the mayor, are not paying the price at the pols on education issues, inaction remains tenable.  Upper middle-income voters can vote with their feet in droves, and nearly half the low-income students can drop out before completing high school, without consequences for DCPS.  
 
For example, Mary Cheh's been lobbying to persuade DCPS to build/open more high performing schools in Upper NW for many years to reduce crowding, and head off catastrophic crowding, in vain because she and Jack Evans have been voices in the wilderness on the council on the issue.  You can still get elected in Ward 6--easily--and win the mayoral vote there, term after term, without so much as outlining a plan to deliver a single high-performing DCPS school after 5th grade.  Catania continues to poll well in Ward 6 without having objected to the dead-ended mayor's recommendations on middle school feeds.

If voters aren't going to demand more, more won't be delivered.
[/quote]

Then, the anti-charter crowd needs to stop whining about charters skimming off high performing students, because you've just said DCPS has no statutory mandate from Council for retaining them.[/quote]

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