Reply to DCPS Policy on Talented & Gifted & Acaemic Magnet Middle School Programs...Questions for You

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Reply to "DCPS Policy on Talented & Gifted & Acaemic Magnet Middle School Programs...Questions for You"

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[quote=esevdali][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This still does little for the "advanced" students.[/quote]

The data uncludes proficient and advanced students.  With a magnet like the one described above you would have a concentration of advanced students, and the economy of scale to offer robust programs that challenge students at an affordable cost.[/quote]

Even so, what would be wrong with full-fledged MS programs with a city-wide draw for the students who test in the "advanced" bracket on the 5th grade DC-CAS?  There are hundreds of them District-wide, are there not?   Such programs could keep a great many movers and shakers of various races on PTAs, enabling kids at different places on the socioeconomic and academic spectrums to accrue the benefit, even if their own children couldn't attend "schools within schools" in every case.

Who wins when the affluent vote with their feet in droves after 5th grade - the poor kids?  Few Capitol Hill parents of tiny tots seem to be looking far down the track - by and large, they seem to assume that demographic changes will drive reform.  I'm far from convinced.   At this rate, most will surely drift out of neighgborhood schools along the way, keeping mum on the issues to avoid drawing attention to their ambitions for their children.  Many will hope in vain for lottery luck at Latin or wherever, angry that a brilliant, disciplined child cannot trump a low lottery number.   There is an achievement gap between mostly white upper-middle-class kids and mostlhy minority low-income kids, it is sizeable by the 6th grade overall and the PTAs at Brent, Watkins, Ludlow-Taylor, Maury, Tyler etc. can't wish it away despite good intentions.   The brightest poor kids in the District would obviously benefit from practical solutions geared at keeping well-educated and affluent parents in public schools circles in large numbers.  It seems that well-heeled parents committed to DCPS are too small a slice of the pie for now, with too few volices joining the chorus advocating for "test in" academic magnets.   DC MS charters are starting to look like bargain basement alternatives to suburban MS magnet programs serving the best students.

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