Reply to Do you think that the Mundo Verde's demographics will change because of the move?

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Reply to "Do you think that the Mundo Verde's demographics will change because of the move?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Really tough to call this one. My money is on:

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Bloomingdale demographics have changed quite dramatically since the 2010 census even though it's only been 4 years.  I personally know several Latino families in Bloomingdale so it's certainly not "zero".[/quote]

I'm the PP to whom you're responding. Sure, fair point, not zero, but not very many at all, and many fewer than Mt Pleasant / Columbia Heights / Petworth / Adams Morgan in both absolute and relative terms.

This thread has unfortunately descended into a flame-war, which is too bad, because the title of the thread remains an interesting question. Mundo Verde is a bilingual program. It is currently 45% hispanic. What will happen to that number following the move?

I predict that number will steadily drop over the years, unless MV institutes some kind of dual lottery like Oyster (can charters do that?).

When they were situated right in the middle of the largest concentration of latinos in the District, they went to 45%. Now that they are moving to one of the lower concentrations, you would expect that number to fall, because there is a limit to how far most families can travel for preschool and elementary school, and the overall hispanic percentage of the DC school population is around 13%. There seem to be many on DCUM who are willing and able to drive long distances for PK3. I would be curious to see how often that is observed among latino families in the district.

Yes, I am using hispanic and latino interchangeably here which is wrong from a census perspective but I think they overlap reasonably well in DC. Apologies to all you non-latino hispanics.

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OP here, sigh, finally someone has gotten back to the central question, which is, what does the move mean for the demographics?  Anyway, I am signing off here because I am sure my posting will only generate more over the top assumptions that will have nothing to do with the first question.  I am done being entertained for the day.[/quote]

I'[m PP.

First off, I thought that people were being unnecessarily mean, so bravo for putting your name down and calling the bluff of all the anonymous detractors who were insulting you. You indeed win DCUM today.

Second, yes, I think the move presents a real challenge, and I suspect that one reason why most PPs have ignored my analysis above is that this is an uncomfortable truth, about MV and about dual-language charters in general.

Currently under the charter laws the charter schools have to hold blind city-wide lotteries. They are not allowed to control for income or race or language dominance, as far as I know. This issue has come up regarding the low FARMs percentage at Creative Minds.

For MV, it's not FARMs that is most important, it's the hispanic percentage, because it's really hard to sustain a quality bilingual program when you don't have a critical mass of spanish-speaking families attending. Oyster recognized this years ago, saw the writing on the wall in terms of Woodley Park/Kalorama demographics, and instituted a dual lottery. Meanwhile some DCPS schools mentioned in this thread, Bancroft for example, have a large latino IB population and therefore don't need a dual lottery. I believe Powell and Marie Reed also have a decent IB percentage? Less sure about Marie Reed, maybe someone there can comment.

I am interested to see what happens and how MV responds to it, but would we be surprised if we saw the hispanic percentage drop below 30% for the incoming PK3 classes, given the new location? I believe Cleveland is the closest dual language DCPS to the new MV location? Cleveland has 30% hispanic.

Now, on the other hand, LAMB is maintaining a decent percentage so far, and neither LAMB location is an especially hispanic neighborhood.

We'll see.

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This ignores the fact that A) as a DCPS school, Oyster is allowed to hold different lotteries and MV is not.  B)  Despite that, MV is widely regarded as a better school than Bancroft.  MV is bilingual by design.  Bancroft is bilingual by default.  AND it has the legacy staff from DCPS.

SO sad.

The reference to LAMB is relevant though.  Also, Yu Ying?  It doesn't have a majority Asian population, yet has managed to become a high-performing school within 5 years.

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