Reply to Autonomy considered as way to improve struggling Dunbar High School

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thought this was an interesting article in the question of selective schools and the history of Dunbar.

Learning Why the Caged Bird Sings
First Class: The Legacy of Dunbar, America’s First Black Public High School
 by Alison Stewart
 Chicago Review Press, 2013, $26.95, 352 pages
 
The story of DC’s Dunbar High School, told brilliantly by Alison Stewart in First Class, is equal parts uplifting and maddening.
 
The school’s story from its opening in 1870 to the 1960s is a testament to the indomitable spirit of the African-American community of the District at that time.  Though relegated to second-class status and stifled at every turn, Dunbar produced a coterie of graduates that the most elite schools in the country would envy.  Doctors, lawyers, Ivy League professors, generals, and titans of business all graced and were graced by Dunbar’s faculty and community
http://educationnext.org/learning-why-the-caged-bird-sings/[/quote]

Check out the article: DC could not have a school today that, to paraphrase, had selective admissions by an 8th grade exam, one hour of homework per class per night, failed out huge numbers of students, tracked students by academic levels, and even pushed nonperformers into Cardozo.

I think some people would be willing to go along with this, but I would be very, very careful in screening for a school with hyper-accelerated standards and easy flunk-out.  DC has very few students ready for this, and it would be a tiny school.  Not one that deserves a huge $122 million building.

Perhaps more realistically you would start the Banneker "Double Down" Academy, which would draw from the Banneker and other selective DCPS student body to create a small academy with admissions requirements, ultra-advanced classes, lots of homework and the possibility of failing out and getting sent back to the Banneker main student body.

And DC certainly has some parents who believe their very own children are exactly the ones who deserve that kind of school yet would be SHOCKED to see their children fail a class, get sent back to regular school, etc.
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