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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I personally would not place my child in a school that is 99% FARMS.  The social atmosphere will be  different.  Usually kids from these types of backgrounds come to school with lots of social, cognitive,emotional,  and behavoirial problems.    I'm not saying that all FARM students fit this profile.  However, in DC it's most likely that these children come from dysfunctional homes where there is child abuse, substance abuse issues, and a list of other problems.   It could be a cultural shock listening to a four year verbalizing profanity and misogynistic words, but can't even recite the alphabet.  It will be a cultural shock to witness how angry, maladjusted, and unstable these students are.  Most of these students never been read to, never been told the words, "I love you", or their emotional needs were never met from the time they were infants.   Teachers spend a great deal of time trying to diffuse negative social behavior that teaching sometimes take a backseat.  Which means your child's needs aren't going to get met because the priorities of the FARM students are so much more important.  The needs of the FARM students are a priority.  The entire educational setting will be focus on assisting those students with the various issues that they bring to school.  The fact of the matter is that many poor inner-city children in DC are born to parents who don't give a damn.   So, when unstable parents bring children into the world, it is up to the schools to provide some form of stability, love, attention, and other unmet needs to these children.   I think there are some phenomenal teachers and specialists out there who do an amazing job with these students.   However, it's a difficult task. It's the reason why so many DCPS are problematic.  We have  a culture of children who are born from generations of poverty, child abuse, and other issues.  Teachers are forced to take on the role of a parent in these classrooms.

Also, it will be extremely difficult for you to establish friendships with the parents.  There is a provincial attitude and a strong level of  resistance with some DC residents (especially those from the lower class black communities) against integration and diversity.  So, you may encounter some negative attitudes and behaviors from the parents as well.

You have to ask yourself do you want to take a risk and make your child the sacrificial lamb? [/quote] PP, your portrayal of the nature of poverty in DC suggests great ethnographic insight. How, prey tell, did you acquire this level of nuanced understanding?[/quote]

By being an AA inner city child growing up in DC.  Also, by 20 plus years working in social services. [/quote]

[b]Has there been a change since DC introduced two years of preschool?  Or are more 0-3 programs needed?[/b]  [/quote]

Well, both yes and no.  Yes, implementing great early childhood education programs is an enormous help.  DC definitely needs more ECE programs for impoverished families.    However, that is only a bandage for the actual real problems that exist.  You have to get to these kids before they're even born.  Poor nutrition, inadequate prenatal care, substance or alcohol abuse during the utero years, the mental health of the parents, the parent's age (typically  these children are born to unwed teenage mothers), and other factors  negatively effect the fetus and it's brain.  Many of these children are born into the world with a host of neurological problems.   I think the programs need to start during the utero years with the parents getting adequate healthcare, parental courses, and therapy.  Also, it will be a great idea and cost effective to prevent these types of pregnancies from occurring in the first place through a strong mandate for birth control and education about reproductive health.   Even with great prenatal programs, they still don't address the issues of: substance abuse, criminal behavior, the 80% out of wedlock rate, incarcerated fathers, fathers who abandoned their child's mother, aging grandparents on a fixed income raising their grandchildren because both parents are damaged beyond repair, a society that enables and coddles destructive behavior patterns, the numerous mental illnesses, the victim mentality, the anti-social mindset, the rampant physical or sexual abuse that these children encounter, and the  neglectful parenting of these children's parents.    So, until we really get to the root of the problem there is no way DCPS will be able to dismantled all of the issues that these students have.  DCPS  just like most urban schools in the country have external powers that are beyond their control.  I don't care how much money we spend on a program that child still has to return to their neighborhood and household at the end of the day.  It takes a real resilient and strong child to endure the horrors of abuse, neglect, poverty,lack of structure, and a community which doesn't support academic achievement to rise above the madness and escape.   Some escape through college, the military, or within the entertainment industry.  However, millions of these children enter into adulthood repeating the same cycle because that's all they know.

Even though I'm skeptical of some charter schools, there are some great ones out there. I really like what Geoffrey Canada has done with his school The Harlem Children's Zone http://www.hcz.org   The key is not just  assisting the students.  It's changing the communities that they come from and their households.   Mr. Canada gets where the root of the problem lies.        [/quote]

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