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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]15:58 I don't think I'm being cynical at all.

The OP claimed that boundaries should be changed because students need to go to school with other students from different economic groups so that they can relate to these groups later in the workforce. I am merely pointing out that this position is false because the the workforce is not an integration of highSES/highly educated and low SES/low education. This is the reality of our current economy. The divide is only going to get much more extreme as more automation removes even more low skill jobs along with mid level administrative jobs. Furthermore economic diversity in school polarizes groups and dilutes resources that could go to economically disadvantaged students.

When we make false or erroneous statements that someone will reduce the achievement gap or help students, we are just wasting an opportunity to solve the problem. Lets say you are given a budget of $1000 to solve a critical problem. You're job is on the line. You are creating something that people depend on. If you fail, you have wasted your $1000 and won't get more money. The people who went through your widget first will be irreversibly harmed. What do you do? Do you choose a set of actions that have no basis for success and do not address the core of the problem? Do you choose what sounds politically correct or what you wish were true? Do you confuse correlation with causation because its convenient? Hope fully not.

I'll play this out in terms specific to MCPS. MCPS has a limited budget. Let's say that MCPS can either afford to a. ) roll out wrap around services, summer school, tutoring for both remedial and advanced low income students at 10 schools with no further bussing b.) increase bus and transportation costs to bus a portion of students to further away schools and then roll out services to only 5 schools or c.) bus everywhere until SES is perfectly balanced but then afford no wrap around services. In option A the low SES kids are concentrated in the 10 schools that have funding for extra services. In option B, students bussed to wealthy schools get no services and consequently do worse while fewer students are helped and in option c) low income kids get no extra services and do even worse.

My point is that the only solid way to help low SES kids jump into the high SES lane is for the school to provide the opportunities that wealthy parents provide outside of school. This takes money and it is money well spent. It may not fit our narrative to think its better to concentrate low SES kids into several schools but if you can refocus all your resources better doing this then you have a better shot at achieving some success. M[b]CPS should be focusing on the low income schools in terms of putting more services and resources there. Not watering them down by moving everyone around. 
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One of the BIGGEST failures of Curriculum 2.0 was that it relied on too much background knowledge to access the material. Teachers saw this every day in low income schools and did what they could in limited time to address it but it was a monumental failure that led to low income kids falling further behind not moving forward. MCPS incorrectly defined the achievement gap as wealthy students getting to move too far ahead as one of the problems for the gap. Hold back the top while you raise the bottom was a huge initiative in MCPS. By focusing on holding back the top, they completely failed to understand how to raise the bottom.

Diversity bussing or diversity boundary changing is more of the same and it will fail too.

+1 You are right but this would take more hard work on the part of MCPS. Busing is easy. They might have to eliminate jobs like the one they just  put the former Assistant Principal in with two DUI's.

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