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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

It seems clear white families want other white families in their schools and are only willing to send their children so far from their segregated enclaves. There is a hard chicken and egg logic to this, but it's not just this.

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My child is at one of the charters on that chart of most diverse schools.  It's not only white families who want "other white families" in their schools.  Almost every middle class black and Hispanic parent I have spoken with has specifically mentioned the diversity of the school being important for their children.  There's a lot of research about how richer black families live in much poorer neighborhoods than whites at the same income level.  White families aren't the only ones who don't want their kids in classes dominated by children from low income homes and the problems that they bring with them (generally, of course not all).

[quote=Anonymous] no, white families want their kids around other committed children who come from stable, middle to high SES families. Im DC that correlates with race. [/quote]

That's actually much less true in DC than in most other big cities.  [b]DC has probably the largest number of middle and upper middle class black families of any city in the country, except maybe Atlanta.  Convincing those families, who have traditionally mostly moved out of the city or gone private (discussed in another discussion) to come back to DCPS and charters would be a huge benefit for diversity of both race and income.[/b][/quote]

I'm going to ignore OP's clarion call to white families exclusively and respond re: the above, which I really, really agree with.  DCPS should focus on attracting high SES/educated AA families back into DCPS.  We are a black family, both with doctoral degrees and middle/upper-middle class.  However, most of our peers have their kids in private, both in DC and MD.  Yes, there are a few such families scattered at schools like Eaton and Shepherd, but there's the potential for many more.  (I'd say the same for educated Latino and Asian families, although it seems there are smaller numbers of these in DC--hopefully that will change in the future.)

I don't think simply introducing the touchy-feely curriculum du jour, organic farms, etc., will be enough to lure these families back to DCPS without a guarantee of the academic rigor they demand.  Focusing on STEM, gifted and talented programs, etc. and specific outreach to these communities might make a difference--if such changes could ever be implemented.[/quote]

Actually there are quite a few kids like that in the middle school at BASIS, and in the early grades at Mann - but the ones at Mann tend to leave for privates in the big admission years - 4th for NCS and STA for example.  My child lost their two best friends that year to STA.

The privates are really focused on "diversity," but only a certain kind - kids who are well behaved and can hack it academically.  As parents of high performing minoritykids at BASIS, we have thought about going that route for high school - plenty do, because if you have good grades, at that point the only hook diversity plus high performance gets the private school is probably better college admission stats.... and it gets you a ton of financial aid.[/quote]

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