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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Try this for answers: stand by the front door between 8:00 and 8:30 AM on any school day. Watch dozens of MD plate cars pull up to drop kids off. Watch little yellow school buses roll in, bringing scores of OOB special needs kids. Watch a couple dozen tiny little white kids trickle in, and a handful of older ones. No fighting, little disruptive behavior, standard DCPS curriculum (which is challenging for the great majority of kids in lower grades, and around half the high-SES kids in upper grades) yet LT is far from a high-SES friendly neighborhood school in a mostly high-SES neighborhood. It's a Ward 7, 8 and PG County school in the Stanton Park neighborhood. [/quote]

I understand why "PG cheaters" are a drain on the school system as a whole, and in particular take spots at the PS-PK level away from legit DC residents.

What I don't understand is how PG County kids in the classroom affect the quality of a specific school. When I look at the kids and parents in my daughter's DCPS classroom, the PG kids are smart and well-behaved (they aren't all perfect little geniuses, but they don't stand out as challenging kids), and their parents participate in school events and are committed to their children's education.

So while I get the problem at the macro level, I just don't get how PG kids' presence can be something "wrong" with a school -- unless the issue is simply that they're black?

Similarly, it's one thing to look at a low-performing school and argue that a prevalence of low-SES families is a problem. (I believe every school ought to be able to educate every kid, but by definition high-SES families possess more resources to contribute to their child's school/education.)

It's another thing to acknowledge a school is doing just fine -- "No fighting, little disruptive behavior, standard DCPS curriculum," in your words -- but [b]still[/b] argue that low SES or PG County kids are a problem. It's hard for me to see that as anything other than racism.

It bugs me that Maury is more highly regarded by Hill parents than Ludlow-Taylor. Ludlow-Taylor has stronger scores, by rights it should be the preferred school -- but it also has fewer white kids, which I guess is the rub.

"Not wanting to be an only" makes sense in theory, but in practice it seems more like "wanting to be the majority" -- the Hill schools that get talked up are the ones that are 40-60% white. (Ludlow is 10% white.)[/quote]

Look, your rascist theories are bunk. DCPS is a terrible school system. Period. It is dysfunctional, unorganized, corrupt and for decades has failed to adequately educate the children of this city.  Individual schools where involved, educated and financially stable ( able to contribute big bucks to the PTA and school budget ) families end up tend to do better on scores and other measures of school success. Those parents have and enforce higher expectations in the classrooms and for extra curricular activities.  And therefore attract more families who have similar expectations and the school gets better despite the DCPS dysfunction.   ON CAPITOL HILL those families tend to be white.  Not all, but many. Add to that the fact that middle class, living in DC AA families are even more likely to shun a sub-standard DCPS.  You don't have white families avoiding black children. You have white families avoiding bad schools.  None of  the above is fair or just. It sucks that children in largely poor schools get the worst that DCPS has to offer, because they lack the buffer of an active and engaged and financially and politically potent school community. It shouldn't be that way. But it isn't racism either. It is dysfunctional government and social forces that sadly in the end end up turning us all against one another. [/quote]

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