Reply to Expectations for Future MS Differentiation EOTP

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m one where if the charters were true alternative schools and not tainted by segregation and privilege maintenance I’d love to have my kids there seeing as they’re about to exit elementary school way ahead of their peers. But I’m trying to not just look out for me and mine. So I really feel conflicted. [/quote]

How are charter schools tainted by segregation when DC's charter elementary schools are pretty much the only ones with a balanced diversity that doesn't reflect the city's segregation or the city's demographic imbalance?[/quote]

When the city's student population is 15% white, your ward's student population is 5% white, and and your school's white percentage is above 30%, I'd start to explain what you mean when you say your school is 'diverse.'

Basically, if these schools weren't a route to separation of communities, I'd be less concerned. We don't live in 1910s Alabama but we could definitely do better at helping children of privilege and children of poor communities mingle and grow together into the country we want. But we separate ourselves and then get defensive about it. [/quote]

The schools are a route to "separation of communities" partly, perhaps mainly, because DC public balks at tracking nearly enough in MS to attract good cohorts of children of privilege to all but half a dozen schools.  By contrast, many other US cities support highly diverse middle schools offering 2, even 3 different levels of the main academic subjects.  When most of our public middle schools don't offer above grade-level courses for any subject but math, or even at-grade-level subjects, they inadvertently promote segregation.

Without academic tracking across the board, white and upper middle-class parents become motivated to band together in neighborhoods and schools, as at Deal. Yes, we could better at helping children of various backgrounds mingle and grow together if politicians would support the creation of schools most parents would be happy to send their children to together.  Well off and poor kids wouldn't necessarily be in most MS classes together in large numbers under this paradigm for practical reasons, but many more of them would at least attend school together. The kids would be in the same hallways, on the same playing fields, in the same performance spaces.  To my mind, that arrangement would represent a vast improvement over the sweeping segregation we see now in city schools. [/quote]

Agreed! But middle class African-American parents fled DCPS decades ago. So it’s not a racial issue like most believe. Highly educated parents won’t allow their kid’s education to suffer when they don’t have to. There are many AA families that will only consider private schools. DCPS needs incentives to bring those families back. Pressure by parents is the only way they get results![/quote]

Ding ding ding. We have a winner. As a white parent it has zero to do with race and everything to do with knowing that with so many kids that are below grade level, the teachers and administrators are busy focused on getting them to grade level. Unfortunately, that means no time or resources devoted to the kids above grade level. They are bored and disengaged and I don’t value diversity over my kid getting a good education. FWIW neither do my AA neighbors who thought I was nuts sending my kids to the local dcps elementary and all send their children to private. Let’s get some test in magnets in MS and ES, get rid of this “honors for all” bs, etc.[/quote]

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