Reply to The Promise of Socio-Economically Integrated Schools in DC

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Reply to "The Promise of Socio-Economically Integrated Schools in DC"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some questions about your data, PP. What is the SES makeup of all school age children in DC? Is it possible that every school in DC can be made up of 80% high SES kids and 20% FARMS? If so, what do we do to get this magical combination in schools? If we cannot have that magical combination in every school, realistically, what percentage of schools can that combination be created in?

If there are only a few schools where that magical combination can be created, then we still have the problem of how to create excellent educational opportunities for all the children in every school. If we can create that magical combination in all schools, the problem merely becomes how to create boundaries that preserve this combination.

This all presumes, and I don't, that your one factor analysis of school success is as critical as you think it is.[/quote]

There are virtually no public schools anywhere in DC that have 80% high-SES and there are not enough high-SES students to make it work.  But that's not really the point here.

The bottom line is that the proposals out there to push more low-SES students into higher-performing schools is a deeply flawed and deeply misguided one.  Unless those golden (but for DC, impossible) numbers can be met, messing with boundaries or restricting choice is only going to breed resentment, increase flight, make schools and educational achievement worse, not better - and that's what all the data speaks to.

Lots of excellent educational opportunities already exist.  The far bigger challenge and opportunity is in educating families to get them to understand the importance and necessity of good education - that's the real longterm fix and that's where the real gains are to be had.  Look at what reformers are doing in Harlem as an example.[/quote]

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