Reply to S/O High SES students will perform well no matter their peer group

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Reply to "S/O High SES students will perform well no matter their peer group"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are no studies that would show what would happen to your specific child under specific different scenarios.  We only have general studies and averages.  Your child could end up with the "wrong crowd" at Wilson, could end up a "star pupil" at Coolidge, or "hate school" at McKinley.  We cannot see the future, or any number of given circumstances that could impact the way your child turns out.

Generally speaking, your child will be "fine."  Fine means a happy, healthy, fully functioning adult with a college education, capable of supporting themselves/their family and contributing to society.  For most people, this scenario is all you could want for a child.

[b]If you want "more" than that, then yes, you probably need to figure out some different ways to give your kids more of an advantage.  [/b]Maybe that is private tutoring, sports coaching, art lessons, music school, etc. Maybe that is a different High School, Private School, Homeschool, etc. Maybe it is Harvard or bust.  Maybe it is the Olympics or failure. [b]But those types of goals are not what most people expect for their kids. [/b]And therefore, most studies will not tell you whether your future Harvard/Olympian/Presidential candidate/Supreme Court Justice/etc will be "fine" at any high school in DC.

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I would venture to say that for the majority of WOTP families, "more" is what they expect. They aren't just looking for a  happy, healthy, fully functioning adult with a college education, capable of supporting themselves/their family and contributing to society. They are looking for an education that can open up the pathways to a career and income level of the kid's choosing. They are looking for access to the same level of education for their child as they had themselves -- which is generally from very competitive colleges and grad schools. They are looking at the chances of their kid doing that at all types of schools. Looking at a high poverty school, I know my kid would need to fight to get the education I want them to have. That risk is too high for me.[/quote]

In that case, you have to recognize that you are an outlier.  While there might be a bunch in your surrounding area, you are not representative of the people these studies are made for.  Additionally, you have to recognize that public schools are generally made for the average person.  Government funded schools cannot cater to such a small subset of the population. What works for most everyone else, will not work for you.

For people in this category, I would recommend pursuing a private school that meets all your desires.  This isn't snark.  It is just accepting that the DC public school system is perhaps not going to meet your needs.  And that is ok.  Please remember, however, that for most people the DC school system will meet the needs of their child- and that too is ok.
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You are almost exactly correct -- the part you get wrong is that we who live in WOTP D.C. are not "outliers," but are the actual residents of our neighborhoods, with very high levels of education -- and almost all of DCPS is not a good fit for my family.  I say this as a dedicated participant in my DCPS P.T.A., where I was (to be clear, past tense) able to observe first-hand the then-jaw-dropping incompetence of DCPS.  No wonder these schools suck terribly, as if the low-income population was not challenging enough.  Needless to say, my kids are no longer attending.  I know what it takes to achieve in competitive graduate-level University programs, and the majority of DCPS schools simply cannot prepare these kids.  Cannot.  Thank you for acknowledging the state of the problem for my family, and I appreciate that you can see my perspective.[/quote]

Many kids from Wilson and SWW are doing it though. Anecdotally, all my neighbors' kids went to or are currently enrolled at very competitive colleges and are doing very well. [/quote]

You are not making any point at all.  SWW and Banneker, and perhaps still Wilson, are the only decent DCPS HS in the entire city.  [/quote]

Right- but PP was saying that DCPS can't do it at all. She went private. I'm saying it can from the decent schools.[/quote]

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