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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My biggest regret is buying in DC. We are in bounds for allegedly the “best” elementary, middle and high school. We have found the elementary be be segregated racially and economically and at best “meh” for academics. If I had to do it all over again, I would have bought in Montgomery county, which admittedly has it’s own issues, but even the weakest schools seem to eclipse the strongest in DC.[/quote]

Same. I have turned into the exact parent I thought I wasn't - the kind who lives in DC and sends kids to private school until the time is right to move to the suburbs. The "good" public schools in DC would be considered mediocre at best everywhere else. My son was in a "good" charter at the top of his class. When we moved to a private, he was behind. He caught up, but it showed me just how low the bar is for DC public schools. It's unfair to everyone involved. I don't see how graduates of DCPS who aren't rich and supplementing are going to be prepared for college.

OP, don't move to DC. [/quote]

It kills me to say this, but I agree. We have had excellent lottery luck so we've been insulated, but had we not pulled a lottery rabbit out of our hat in PS3 and again in 5th we'd have been looking to move. I am a committed liberal but even I have had enough of the BS that holds back (and degrades) DC's public education. There's a loud contingent that seems to think that any effort to hold kids to account, demand acceptable behavior and provide academic rigor is somehow discriminatory or racist. Tracking kids at any grade=racist. True honors classes at any grade=racist. Failing kids who earn failing grades=racist. Holding kids back or requiring intervention to matriculate to the next grade=racist. On its face it is all offensive; it necessarily assumes that POC can't do the hard work or behave. It is maddening.

The irony of it all is that, in my experience, the parents who figure out these deficiencies first are almost always POC. They know their kids need to be better to get just an even chance so they don't suffer the liberal guilt or other BS that causes white parents to nod along when loud voices tell them that demanding classrooms without disruptions is white privilege. They also cringe when people protect their kids from standards and rigor and proudly equate back skin with low SES. Every single parent of color who is a doctor, lawyer, PhD or has senior level job in world of business opted out of the DC system long before I realized what was happening.    [/quote]

This.  DCPS is a master at playing the race card to make excuses of their abject failure to provide a good, quality rigorous education to all kids.  Their low expectation culture hurts all kids.

What is even sadder is all the middle class parents in these poorly performing schools who fall for this BS of low expectation and performance and whose kids otherwise had such potential that are not being met.[/quote]

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