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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For 10:03

OSSE releases a DC-wide annual report card, that aggregates demographics and reports on PARCC proficiency for all DCPS and charter school students (obviously it excludes home schooled or private school students) http://results.osse.dc.gov/state/DC

There are 87,343 total students in public and public charter schools in DC. [b]79% of those students are economically disadvantaged.[/b] [b]Only 27% of all students are proficient or advanced in ELA and 25% in math.
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For every grade level, no more than 30% of all students are proficient or advanced on PARCC in ELA; for math the high water mark is 37% proficient or advanced in math for all 3rd graders. http://results.osse.dc.gov/state/DC

If you just look only at the performance of non-economically disadvantaged students, the proficient and advanced numbers are 59% for ELA and 56% for math.

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10:03 here--thanks for providing these data.  Wow, stark numbers here.  From what's presented here, I just don't see a very robust argument for creating more challenging programs when the vast majority of the kids are performing so far below where they need to be.  Why would any politician push these sorts of programs and risk alienating the rest of the voter base?  I don't see it happening, at least not on a large scale, in the near future.[/quote]

[b]The city has a HUGE incentive to try to get more of the 79% of economically disadvantaged kids to, or closer to proficiency and break the cycle of multi-generational poverty for as many as they can. [/b]The children of high SES families will be fine, whether they stay in the city of not. But if we don't provide more of the 79% with a decent education, they will not be employable and we will be trying to educate their economically disadvantaged kids 15-20 years from now.

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10:03 again.  And maybe this is the angle that needs to be pushed.  Considering the Michelle Obama example above, perhaps a multiracial group of high and low SES parents interested in stronger educational options for all kids could have some traction.  But if high SES/white families are seen as pushing such a curriculum to only benefit their own kids, it's probably easier to not take them seriously, since politicians may reason that they're only going to move to VA/MD/elsewhere or go private anyway.

Also, [b]if test-in/advanced options are on the table[/b], criteria for placement should probably *not* rely on test scores, since that will lead to segregated classes, which no politicians want.  Instead, other criteria need to be used to ensure that promising kids from low-SES backgrounds also get placed in these programs in sufficient numbers.

Just thinking out loud above.  I do think the perception that gentrifiers wanting de facto segregated test-in/advanced options needs to be challenged, though, and it seems relationships need to be formed with lower SES, longtime DC residents who also prioritize education.  The optics might go a long way politically, and there could be cross-fertilization of ideas re: integrated, test-in/advanced curricula.[/quote]

They're not on the table.

How new are you, anyway?[/quote]

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