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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Here are a few ideas:

1. Strong girls sports, such as soccer, swimming, softball, and volleyball, not just basketball and bowling (seriously, this is offered in DCPS)

2. English/literature classes that don't JUST focus on authors of color, which must be the new way to supposedly get students of color to read. However,an sole focus on this can become off-putting to white students, as they are always in a bad light. There should be a variety of books read and discussed.

3. No social promotion in any grade. Nothing like accountability to get all students up to speed.

4. Foreign language classes daily. [/quote]

Very good ideas...[/quote]

+1 .  In general, a very strong focus on academic preparation and accountability for bad behavior.[/quote]

Is this really what white or high SES families want?

My son attends a rising DCPS elementary school in the center of the city.  It is diverse in every possible way: racially, religiously socioeconomically.  We certainly offer girls' sports (soccer, track), as do the elementary schools surrounding us.  However, after a certain age, high SES kids are in club soccer, so school soccer doesn't really matter

Retaining kids has been shown by the research not to help.  If your child didn't do well in fourth grade, you need to figure out what's wrong, not just repeat the same approach that didn't work the first time.

Our program is dual language.  DCPS offers seven language immersion programs at the elementary level, and two at the middle school level.  There are four charters with immersion.  These schools do attract more high SES families, but the offerings are already there.  I agree that language every day in every school would be great, but most private schools and schools in the suburbs don't offer that at the elementary level.  Attracting bilingual teachers generally requires more resources than small schools have.

I see mixed evidence that white or high SES families want lots of academics in the lower grades.  The research really supports play-based preschools and discourages early literacy, especially when it comes at the expense of social skills.  Private schools are generally known to be less academically rigorous in the lower grades.

I see no evidence that white high SES families demand more accountability for behavior among their kids.  Quite a few high SES white families at our school have badly behaved boys in preschool.  The parents do not seem to lean on them very hard. So why do white high SES kids end up behaving well?  One is expectations from faculty.  The Washington Post article last year on the tendency to suspend boys of color from pre-school made it clear that teachers treat the same behaviors differently, depending on the student.

Another difference, however, is exposure.  High SES families have routines that are imposed by the parents' work schedules.  They take their children to theater performances, where the children observe other people sitting quietly and listening to the artists.  They take their children on planes, where the children observe adults sitting quietly and taking directions from flight attendants. They see their parents having calm give and take conversations with other adults. Their parents have time to be patient with them if they melt down in the morning, because they have professional jobs from which they won't be fired for being ten minutes late.  The kids internalize these behaviors.

That's why KIPP only works so far. They impose standards externally.  The kids don't get to internalize the standards unless they reap the benefits of things like a quiet classroom, meeting, or performance.  KIPP schools also have a broken windows theory of education.  They punish kids for things that would be ignored or even encouraged in a progressive or high SES school, where kids are being raised to see themselves as future leaders.    [/quote]

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