Reply to Creative Minds - Unified Lottery?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm also sad that was your experience - and honestly, a bit baffled that anything about the school would've made you feel that way. I'm an African American parent at CM and the reality is that the school is actually extraordinarily diverse. Indeed, it's comparable to many of the other similar, highly sought after charters (e.g., Inspired Teaching).

What I can say, based on personal experience, is that you absolutely cannot judge the diversity of the school based on who you see attending the open houses (or the parent events, for that matter). Furthermore, the family association president last year was an African American parent, and one of the co-chairs of the family association this year is African-American. I've volunteered at the open houses and led tours for prospective parents. I've honestly never felt a "vibe" that would make AA parents feel unwelcome and I'm pretty certain the principal would be deeply troubled that you would feel that this school was not welcoming to children from all backgrounds.  It's one thing to say that you didn't think the school was a good fit for your child because of your child and your family's needs/values -- but it's really another to claim that this is because the school doesn't welcome AA kids.

You are, of course, more than entitled to your feelings...but I just wanted to say that, as a parent of an AA child at CM, I have never felt my child wasn't welcomed and loved at that school.

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I'm the parent you're responding to, and I really do appreciate you writing all that.  Please note that I didn't generalize about all families, I just wrote what MY experience was and what it felt like for MY family.  I also didn't say CM isn't diverse, I'm just agreeing with a PP that marketing does plant a seed of impression.

Since it sounds like you have had a great experience there, and there are other AA families who not only feel welcome but are even in some leadership roles (like Family Association President), maybe you should mention to the school's leadership that it might be worth looking at updating the images on the website?  That's how this whole conversation started.  And I would reiterate that I've met other AA parents who also checked out CM and chose not to apply, or applied but didn't feel good about their visit.  Wish I could be more specific about their experiences but it's just worth noting that it's not just my experience.  ANd I don't think any of us were going just on who else was in the room looking at the school.  I met some uptight, overly-competitive parents at many open houses, including one fo the schools I fell in love with the most, but that didn't confuse me with the school itself because the school staff and environment was great and so welcoming.

I'm sincerely glad you're having a good experience there, and even though we didn't apply, I'm always happy to know that all families (but yes, I'm particularly sensitive to how things are for AA families) are welcome there and that AA families are having a great experience.  You can't have too many families happy with their schools![/quote]

Same poster, another thought re: diversity: I haven't looked at the numbers for SY12-13, but I am interested in how CM's diversity (specifically AA) compares to similarly popular charters.  Even though you say CM is "extraordinarily diverse", I will say that from my very UNscientific experience (on the playgrounds of Columbia Heights and 16th St NW), I haven't met any AA CM students, yet I've met many Caucausian CM students (and one Latino student).  Now that you've said CM is extraordinarily diverse, I'm going to check that out.  Not because we will apply, because we still are not, but this raises my curiosity and makes me realize that going into this lottery season, I haven't looked at last year's data to see how the schools compare on this issue.  I would never make a definitive statement about CM's diversity or comparable lack of it based on my little playground data, but you saying it's extraordinarily diverse I guess does surprise me and triggers a look, not just at CM but at all the schools we've considered in the last couple of years.
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My daughters class is extremely diverse, with Caucasian, Asian, AA, black, and Latino children.  I'm sure you aware that the playground is used by three different schools as well as parents from the neighborhood.  I'm not sure how you know which kids specifically belong to CM but you can check out the demographic make up on the pCS website.[/quote]

I think I said it in my post, I wasn't talking about the CM playground (I don't hang out there at all).  I was talking about the 3 Mount Pleasant/Columbia Heights/Petworth area playgrounds we use most frequently, and I know which kids go to CM because their parents tell me!  Parents talk about those things at the playgrounds ya know...  [/quote]

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