Reply to Disadvantaged children can hurt achievement of others in their classrooms

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Also [b]I challenge your notion that parents all over the city equally involved.[/b] There are definitely many involved families in gentrifying neighborhoods, and I am sure many involved families in individual schools but just look at the focus group participation by ward. Generational poverty is a problem. Those are the kids that need the most help and whose parents do not have the knowledge re how to help. I do not doubt their love for their children, but if they were as involved as many other parents throughout the city then dcps would not be in the state it is in.[/quote]

Why do you challenge that?  How are you so certain that ONLY wealthy or gentrifying parents are involved?

When I taught at a failing ES on Capitol Hill years ago (way before charters), I had parents showing up in my classroom, calling me on my lunch break, following me to my car, showing up early and staying late for parent teacher conferences, grilling me about poor grades, insisting on more homework--so freaking involved I wanted to set up boundaries to keep them at bay.

But they could do nothing about broken and boarded up windows, rooms with no heat or air condtioning, inoperable toilet facilities for an entire floor, no music, art or PE classes; anything you needed was rusty, broken or missing.  Who could possibly learn there?  The place looked like a prison or asylum inside and out.  It was the most dilapidated and depressing environment I've ever been in, but I didn't have to stay there.

I'm sure it's not that bad anymore, but when I talk about resources, it's not just funds/pupil.  It's getting whatever is needed to ensure education and enrichment, which may mean an entirely different  set of priorites--specialized staff or training, before and after school programs, enrichment and community development, specialized curricula, the chance to organize around interests (science club, etc)--but these extras are also essential to the success of a school.

You say failing parents are the reason DCPS is failing, but I say it's the other way around.[/quote]

I did not say only gentrifying parents, I recognized that other involved families also are there but they are not the majority.  I think there are many low income families that care a lot about education, both of my parents were raised in working class families that cared about education.  My grandfather was a coal miner that became a railroad safety inspector, my other grandfather was a farmer (3 out of 4 kids graduated from college and my dad has a PhD).  The boarded up windows have been fixed, they have highly qualified teachers, there are 3 empty 100 million dollar high schools in this city no one wants to send their kids to because the students are failing.  DCPS has a problem it is trying to solve and a big piece of that arises out of children showing up for school not ready to learn because of serious familial instability.  So no, I do not believe the majority of the families in DCPS are involved.  I believe all the families that care about education are involved to the best of their abilities and that includes many parents without college degrees.  But it is not the majority.  If the majority of families in this city sent their kids to school ready to learn and with high expectations we would have a lot higher proficiency rates and a lot better conduct at many schools.  I expect things have gotten worse since you taught in DCPS because those families with high educational expectations with poor neighborhood schools have largely taken advantage of charter options.[/quote]

I just want to put an end to the assumption--the haughty presumption--that if parents are involved, then the school will succeed.  It's not true.  And the corollary thrown out by so many here as empirical evidence--that failing schools are only thus because of UNinvolved parents, lets DCPS off the hook in a way that should be wholly unacceptable to anyone who pays taxes.  Because  DCPS bought the "involved parents" line, too, and now they're re-selling it as The Only Thing That Will Make Schools Work.

So hey.  Since we can't make these other schools work, we're just going to allow "equitatable access" (whatever that means) to the schools that do.  Mmmmkay? How's that working out for everyone?

If you KNOW that parents are not pulling up the slack, then there should be MORE resources thrown at those students.  Why isn't that the corollary?

I get it that people don't want to pay for something and then watch others get it for free.  But I want the public that I pay into to be creating self reliant individuals who eventually pay into it as well.  I don't think it's a lot to ask.  If wealthier parents have to pay more to get something above par, that seems fair.  But bring up the par.[/quote]

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