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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Not really.  Building fantastic middle schools in other wards that would allow kids to stay in their own neighborhoods would probably increase segregation. Should we avoid that action?  Be honest in your terms.  Racial segregation isn't the issue here.  The big issue is segregated access to quality education seeing everything in terms of race and racism is holding dc back.[/quote]
Missing from this line of thought is that the desirable schools – elementary, middle or high schools – have a majority of students at grade level.  Generally, unless a school has mostly proficient students, it will not be sought after.  And no one, with a reasonable amount of money, can simply create a desirable school east of the park.  That’s what makes DC so darn tough – there are not enough proficient students to go around and make every school attractive to parents.  It’s a deficit model.  East of the park I’d bet DCPS is about 25% proficient.

Parents instinctively want their child to be surrounded by smart and well behaved kids.  Parents don’t want long-range planning for their child; they want to see a school working before their child enrolls.  Parents don’t want their child to be an agent of social change, they want their children simply join an already existing strong cohort.

Parents of non-proficient also want to send their kids to schools that are majority proficient – it stretches their kid upward.

If parents instinctively want a school that is majority proficient, there’s no way to give them that without selective enrollment/admission.

The quickest way to improve DCPS is create as many majority proficient schools as possible.  Doing so helps more struggling students than is currently the case.  And creating more majority proficient and desirable schools will attract/retain proficient students – creating a positive feedback loop that strengthens the system.

Additionally, the higher a school’s proficiency and the larger its enrollment, the less expensive a school is to operate.  And that savings should be used to fund the best remediation schools possible for whatever students cannot enroll in majority proficient schools.

As a parent, I feel like DCPS can monkey around all they want with buildings, with programs, with this and that, but for me, the disqualifier is a cohort that is mostly below grade level.

It ain’t pretty, but the quickest way to improve DCPS is create as many majority proficient schools as possible.

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