Reply to Wilson High -- Principal Selection Meeting/Anyone Go?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not all of us opted for private. There are high achieving AA students. I do agree though that Wilson is a divided school and even the kids understand it exists.[/quote]

ESPECIALLY the kids know it exists -- they are participating in it every day.

The implication is that this "divide" is an inherently bad thing that should stop and the Wilson would be better in some way if it did.  Not sure there's a good reason to think that.

Is it a deep divide that is causing problems for one group or the other?  Is there some academic or social benefit that we know would accrue from forcing a change?

How racial is it, really, or is it also more interest-based, or based on friendships built in grade or jr high school.  How similar/different is Alice Deal?

How important is this issue, really?  Is is something that needs tending to to make a major, needed improvement in Wilson, or is it something people enjoy whispering about as if it is important?[/quote]

The situation conflicts with the positive messages kids hear about valuing diversity. It would be interesting to get their take on how it affects them. At the same time though, most of the kids I know are really happy at Wilson.

On the importance of this issue - well I think it's important if one group is able to extract the best education out of a school and others are not able to - I think that is a problem that DCPS is fixated on. We can argue about whether or not it is important but the fact remains the next principal will have to address it.[/quote]

What if the value of diversity is over-rated, or misunderstood, or not well examined or defined differently be different people?  can we please understand what we all mean by diversity and what we really know about its value before we make assumptions about it being a problem?

[b]How do we know that one group (whites?) is really "extracting" a quality education[/b] that is not available to others in the school and how do we know that any difference in the quality of education that each kid is getting is the responsibility of  the school?  There are high-scoring black kids at the school -- how about actually talking to them and getting their experiences and attitudes about this.  Maybe get some past students too -- I bet they'd be eager and willing.  Any results from such conversations won't be definitive, but they certainly will be useful and add more substance to whatever plan evolves to address the needs of all students.

And it sure beats putting some diversity plan into effect that presumes to solve whatever problems exist at Wilson.  [/quote]

[b]We know from the data white students perform very well at Wilson[/b].  From my viewpoint this isn't an acessibility issue.  Some research on barriers might make sense.  Along the same lines, I love the idea of getting students thoughts on this too.
[/quote]

So instead of determining that there's something about Wilson that makes whites perform well, perhaps we should think a bit more deeply and consider that there's something about those kids (let's say SES) that would allow them do well just about anywhere -- assuming doing "very well" means getting high scores on AP tests and SATs?

Unless considering SES is against our belief system, which certainly has been the case with DCPS leadership since 2007.

When you say "research on barriers" - do you mean barriers at Wilson that keep AA's from performing well? If so, imo, it's a huge waste of time.  yes, there are barriers, but they aren't at Wilson -- they're at home and they are generational - and will take generations to change in effective long-term ways.

Frustrating, to be sure, but seems like it's worse to spend time and money denying it.  [/quote]

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