Reply to Deal or Basis for DCs? Advice Needed.

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[quote=Anonymous][/quote]
What I'd like to see public school parents of advanced learners do is to move beyond the "we're going to turn this or that school around" approach to reform in favor of thinking in terms of organizing, like the MoCo parents do, to vote candidates supporting a pro-academic tracking policy and curriculae in and out.  The DCPS-DC charter divide need not pose an obstacle to systemic change.

If Ward 6 parents were, for example, to put the heat on Wells to offer the sort of pulllout groups that Brent is running at Watkins and Tyler, as well as honors classes beyond 8th grade algebra, at Stuart Hobson, other DC Council Members might take notice. And if a potent city-wide coaltion for MS ability grouping were to emerge, the Council couldn't ignore it.  As demand for public school challenge increases steadily with ever greater middle-class participation, supply must follow suit or politicians will go down over the matter eventually.

A test-in DCPS MS would be welcome anytime, as would amending the DC charter law to permit selective admissions.  I don't think that it would be too late to start a DCPS test-in MS, even five years from now, if standards were high enough (e.g. the MoCo schools taking less than 20% of applicants), partly because the charters can only do so much to provide challenge via lottery admissions.  If lottery admissions were optimal in providing challenge to advanced learners, cities with higher-performing school systems than ours--NYC, Boston, Chicago etc.--would surely have embraced them system-wide long ago.  Thoughts?

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^ Point taken, pp, but without TAG programs in the elementary grades, finding an acceptable pro rata of competitive low-SES (both AA and Latino) kids to fill seats in a DCPS test-in MS will be all but impossible, no?  Therein lies the danger for the pols, allow such a program to go forward without necessarily having anywhere to take cover when the cohort served is largely white.  Maybe a K-12 GT coalition is what's needed, with home-grown ES TAG in diverse schools like Brent as a stepping stone.  It is exciting that elementary challenge is spilling out of Wards 2 and 3.  The Gtown and Friendship Heights parents clearly need the Hill, Columbia Heights, Brookland etc. to make common cause to advance a city-wide agenda for advanced learners.  Basis & Latin can only do so much on their own!

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