Reply to Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)

Forum Index » DC Public and Public Charter Schools

Reply to "Study: "Discussions of D.C. public school options in an online forum" (yes, this one)"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I haven't read the full paper, but its conclusions don't seem very controversial as they're in line with other research, as the authors themselves have noted.  Jeff may take issue with some of the methodology or research ethics, but it's been shown in other work that when white parents have a choice, they tend to choose schools with more white students.  This of course won't apply to *every* white family; we're talking about general trends in the data.  I've certainly seen this myself as a black parent IB for Shepherd, but anecdata aside, it's been found in other research even when adjusting for other factors.

For example, anyone recall this "revealed preferences" Mathematica study of the DC lottery a few years ago?

"The researchers tested a broad range of factors that could explain why parents choose a school: its proximity to a family’s home, test scores, after-school activities, uniform policies, class size, the crime and income levels of the surrounding neighborhood, and the racial and socio-economic makeup of the school’s student body. Only three of these factors significantly drove parental choice. [b]Parents preferred high test scores, schools closer to home, and schools where their own child would be alongside more peers of his or her same race and class.[/b]

Across race and class, a middle-school parent was 12 percent more likely to choose a school where his child’s race made up 20 percent of the study body, compared with a school with similar test scores where his child’s race made up only 10 percent of the study body. [b]White and higher-income applicants had the strongest preferences for their children to remain in-group, while black elementary school parents were essentially “indifferent” to a school’s racial makeup, the researchers found. [/b]The findings for Hispanic elementary and middle school parents were not statistically significant.

https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/07/when-white-parents-have-a-choice-they-choose-segregated-schools.html
[/quote]

Someone finally engaging with the substance of the article instead of trying to do mental gymnastics to avoid considering their role in the perpetuation of systemic racism. I look forward to the next article recapping this thread about the article about the threads. I’m sure the thread about that article will be similarly enlightening.

So, what’s more productive? Maybe read the article first before commenting and reading a whole critical thread about it. It’s 48 pages but there are a bunch of pictures, so it only took 20 minutes or so to get it. Maybe try learning more about your neighborhood school even if (especially if?) it’s not one captured in the highly esteemed, Ward 6, or 145 clusters? Try looking beyond the test scores and STAR ratings since both are correlated strongly with race and try to find out what makes schools special beyond the things you mostly hear about on this forum. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics