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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
It's obviously not fine. If it were, the high-performing suburban schools in this Metro area would go with 9th and 10th grade Honors for Al. They manifestly do not.

That is a ridiculous response.

Why is it ridiculous? You can't invent your own best practices to best serve your most advanced students like this. When you dumb down your curriculum for students who could reasonably aspire to attend the nation's top universities and liberal arts colleges, these kids will obviously struggle to compete down the track. Nobody would argue that banning traveling sports teams for DC teenagers would constitute best practices in preparing students to play college ball. By the same token, Honors for All constitutes weak prep for the strongest students.

I think that logic requires that we agree with your assessment of the academic trajectory of Wilson's policy; however, most DC parents would probably disagree with your assessment of HOW bad the result is. I believe most studies show that the strongest students are not noticeably adversely affected, academically, by mainstream classrooms; the only question is what opportunities to improve are they losing by being mainstreamed. I think most parents, in DC anyway, won't think that "undefined academic loss" is harmful enough to flee...at least with respect to Wilson HS, anyway. [b]That undefined loss also does not account for the social benefit that kids gain from being in a mainstream class, especially in an urban environment.[/b][/quote]

What planet do you live on?  Obviously NOT one where you have ever had a high schooler in a gen-ed DC class.  Let me tell you about the "social benefits" of shoving kids who have no interest in learning into a class where the other students DO want to learn.  It means that the class is endlessly disrupted by disrespectful teenagers who talk loudly with their friends, watch videos on their phones (sound on . . ) and have absolutely no interest in listening to the teacher when the teacher tells them to cease and desist such behaviors.  And why should they?  OSSE changed the disciplinary rules to make out of school suspensions virtually impossible, so the disruptive kids have no reason to change their behavior at all.    And what do you mean that most parents in DC won't think that these losses are harmful enough to flee?  They do and they have.  There is a reason why charter schools now educate 45% of the DC public school population.  It is because any parent paying attention knows that these types of practices do not create positive educational environments.[/quote]

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