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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just end feeder rights.  That should allow Deal’s and Wilson’s enrollments to stabilize.  It will also focus needed attention on schools EOTP.  A win-win.[/quote]

You will loose diversity. As housing increases in Ward 3 you will see a less diverse area. This will sound bad but I will say it. Wilson and Deal will go from have the number 1 athletic programs to being last. If you think I am exaggerating go to a basketball and football game. [/quote]

Honestly, who cares. I'd wager that in-boundary parents wouldn't really mind if Wilson were to lose every darn football game henceforth in a less diverse area if the academics were to improve by leaps and bounds.  We need strong public schools to afford to stay in the city while ensuring that our children have a bright future.  The City needs to prioritize creating neighborhood high schools most in-boundary parents are excited about, vs. cramming droves of OOB students into the one by-right DCPS HS most IB parents will use.[/quote]

+ 100[/quote]

But if most DCPS kids are from disadvantaged background--77%, based on recent data--why should they cater to one (albeit growing) demographic?  Even on its face, that just seems like a bad idea.  I'd imagine this is the perspective from which DCPS is operating--i.e., how to best serve the majority.

https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/DCPS%20Fast%20Facts%202017-18.pdf[/quote]

Totally disagree, as a low-income minority who grew up in NYC and attended high-powered neighborhood schools (in Queens). [b]You sound like a white bleeding heart, PP. [/b]In NYC, few school system leaders have been troubled by "bad ideas" like GT programs and prioritizing high-octane academics. They've understood that one good way to serve the majority is to keep as many affluent and ambitious parents in the system as possible.  I was darn lucky that the NYC public schools catered to advanced students across the board, regardless of background. My cousins in Chicago, who attended Michelle Obama's alma mater, had similar experiences in school.

DCPS is simply poorly run and low-ambition by comparison. Voters should demand more.

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PP, I'm black.  I'm not opposed to programs like G&T; I benefited from these myself.  I was only calling out the somewhat myopic focus on their own interests that a few WOTP posters here seem to have.  Note several PPs who've essentially said here and in the other similar thread that they don't care at all about [b]diversity, and simply want their kids in a high-performing (affluent, mostly white) cohort[/b].  I am saying that DCPS presumably does not share their vision re: the best way forward for DCPS.

I would actually love to see more options for high-achieving kids of all backgrounds, especially on the elementary level.  However, DCPS must balance the needs of the majority too.  [b]I'd imagine anything that looks like it's catering to the former and/or increasing segregation won't have legs.[/b]
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1) That’s not what they said. You added the “affluent, white” part. They want the focus on academic quality. Diversity for diversity’s sake — especially if it compromises academic quality—is folly.

2)  That’s precisely the point made above — that DC shies away from serving high-achieving kids due to a fear of optics, even if the substance would be fundamentally sound.[/quote]

PP here again.  I added the white, affluent part in describing a high-achieving cohort because 1) let's face it, that's what some posters here have intimated they want, and 2) even if not specifically desired by most white families, that's what would happen if there weren't efforts to balance things out a bit, just given the demographics in a city where most white residents are affluent/well-educated and most non-white families are poor and minority.

I agree that there should be a focus on academic quality, however defined.  Where we disagree is on exactly how much focus to put on ensuring options for high-achieving families relative to other priorities.  Diversity--being educated/socializing with other kids who may not share your same economic/racial/ethnic background--is considered a good thing for functioning in the increasingly diverse US, and for other reasons, IMO.  But this is sort of a separate discussion.

You misunderstood the second point, or perhaps I didn't state it well.  I don't think DC shies away from serving high-achieving kids merely due to optics.  I think they want to avoid the appearance/reality of prioritizing this small group (who again, will be mostly white and affluent) [u]above other stakeholders[/u], because that would be fundamentally unfair to the majority of DCPS' poor, minority population.  Not a lawyer, but I imagine increasingly segregated schools/programs could bring about some legal trouble, too.  In other words, the problem with optics is secondary to the inequity that this would create/perpetuate.

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