I went to school in a college town sized town in the Midwest. One thing that was definitely true was that overall, the quality of the elementary schools was pretty strong. There were two or three schools in the poorer parts of town that were lower quality, but because they fed into the same 3 middle schools as the high quality schools, which fed into the same 3 high schools, educational quality was uniformly high. Within my high school, there was definitely the college prep track, which included AP classes, and the more vocational track, which was more of a community college prep track than anything. The community college in our town was also pretty high quality in terms of vocational certifications, which meant that pretty much everyone who wanted to go to college after high school had that option. The school expected it and had a lot of structures in place to facilitate it.

At the elementary school level, we had buses, but I walked to school because we lived close by. I live in Ward 1 now, and my child goes to our neighborhood school. I am becoming more comfortable with the idea of her walking the 2 blocks to school, but it's still pretty different than the assumed safety + crossing guards that we had when I was a kid.

As far as diversity, my town frankly just wasn't very diverse racially. We had a lot of class diversity, but because of the region, the poor people were mostly rural white poor. I don't think I was in class with a black person until 7th grade. This didn't mean that there were no discipline problems, or that everyone was rich and white, the way that I think is assumed by a lot of people on this board when talking about demographics.

Anonymous wrote:

I'm a relatively satisfied DCPS parent but let's not gloss over all the flaws in DC public education. DCPS is an inefficient bureaucratic mess and the various DC government agencies with some responsibility/oversight of schools are as deeply flawed as DC government in general. It may be better than the 80s and 90s but it's far from optimal. Charters needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis which has strengths and weaknesses.

I am the OP and I agree with that, I just think those issues probably exist in burbs as well.

And...if you go onto the MD and VA school boards, I'm sure you will find them posting on a host of issues. But, this is specific to DC.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a relatively satisfied DCPS parent but let's not gloss over all the flaws in DC public education. DCPS is an inefficient bureaucratic mess and the various DC government agencies with some responsibility/oversight of schools are as deeply flawed as DC government in general. It may be better than the 80s and 90s but it's far from optimal. Charters needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis which has strengths and weaknesses.

There are good public schools but also horrible inequity and wildly uneven quality. I think many of those satisfied with DC public education either have either a preferred path through DCPS or charter. Plenty of families have neither.

This is very true.

You can't compare a parent at a Janney or Creative Minds to a parent at a Malcolm X or a Perry Street Prep.

I'm a relatively satisfied DCPS parent but let's not gloss over all the flaws in DC public education. DCPS is an inefficient bureaucratic mess and the various DC government agencies with some responsibility/oversight of schools are as deeply flawed as DC government in general. It may be better than the 80s and 90s but it's far from optimal. Charters needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis which has strengths and weaknesses.

I am the OP and I agree with that, I just think those issues probably exist in burbs as well.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a relatively satisfied DCPS parent but let's not gloss over all the flaws in DC public education. DCPS is an inefficient bureaucratic mess and the various DC government agencies with some responsibility/oversight of schools are as deeply flawed as DC government in general. It may be better than the 80s and 90s but it's far from optimal. Charters needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis which has strengths and weaknesses.

There are good public schools but also horrible inequity and wildly uneven quality. I think many of those satisfied with DC public education either have either a preferred path through DCPS or charter. Plenty of families have neither.

A PP here. Absolutely. It is by no means a solid system and it has a long way to go. But there are many more preferred paths than there used to be, which is a good start. And there are aspects of it that many of us would argue are better than the suburban counterparts, on a school-by-school basis.

I'm a relatively satisfied DCPS parent but let's not gloss over all the flaws in DC public education. DCPS is an inefficient bureaucratic mess and the various DC government agencies with some responsibility/oversight of schools are as deeply flawed as DC government in general. It may be better than the 80s and 90s but it's far from optimal. Charters needs to be evaluated on a case by case basis which has strengths and weaknesses.

There are good public schools but also horrible inequity and wildly uneven quality. I think many of those satisfied with DC public education either have either a preferred path through DCPS or charter. Plenty of families have neither.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But I think I know why everyone on this particular board comes across as defensive and embittered.

We are all, somewhat, expected to justify not moving to the suburbs "for the good of our children," (or, as I like to think of it, move to the suburbs so our children can huff glue in a garage and drive drunk to prom and be abysmally bored), all the damn time. To everyone.

The myth of the suburban school experience is really strong. I never went to a suburban school myself (and I'm sure some immensely clever poster will chime in here about how they can tell that)--but I have to wonder. What, exactly, besides giant sports fields and parking lots, do these mythical burb schools have?

I can tell you what they don't have...they don't have a lot of minorities which is the very definition of a utopian society to a lotta folks.

Well, but see they do these days. That's another one of the sweeping generalizations that is simply no longer true.

Doesn't matter if its true or not; perception is all that matters.
Could have a suburban school full of straight-A students and no disciplinary problems save for the occasional untied shoelace but it'd still be perceived as lesser-than or not-good-enough or a breeding ground for gangs and thugs if the student population is majority minority.
That's the world we live in that's how ignorant people are.

The biggest thing I miss is a strong music program

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But I think I know why everyone on this particular board comes across as defensive and embittered.

We are all, somewhat, expected to justify not moving to the suburbs "for the good of our children," (or, as I like to think of it, move to the suburbs so our children can huff glue in a garage and drive drunk to prom and be abysmally bored), all the damn time. To everyone.

The myth of the suburban school experience is really strong. I never went to a suburban school myself (and I'm sure some immensely clever poster will chime in here about how they can tell that)--but I have to wonder. What, exactly, besides giant sports fields and parking lots, do these mythical burb schools have?

I can tell you what they don't have...they don't have a lot of minorities which is the very definition of a utopian society to a lotta folks.

Well, but see they do these days. That's another one of the sweeping generalizations that is simply no longer true.

It wasn't true 30 years ago where I grew up either

There is no myth it's just a different experience. I say this as someone who grew up happily attending schools in the burbs and happily sends my kids to school in the city.

Cheerleaders?

Dances in the school gym?

Yellow busses?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But I think I know why everyone on this particular board comes across as defensive and embittered.

We are all, somewhat, expected to justify not moving to the suburbs "for the good of our children," (or, as I like to think of it, move to the suburbs so our children can huff glue in a garage and drive drunk to prom and be abysmally bored), all the damn time. To everyone.

The myth of the suburban school experience is really strong. I never went to a suburban school myself (and I'm sure some immensely clever poster will chime in here about how they can tell that)--but I have to wonder. What, exactly, besides giant sports fields and parking lots, do these mythical burb schools have?

I can tell you what they don't have...they don't have a lot of minorities which is the very definition of a utopian society to a lotta folks.

Well, but see they do these days. That's another one of the sweeping generalizations that is simply no longer true.

I don't think it's that at all. I think DC public schools have changed a lot over the past 20 years- as have the MoCo and FFX schools. People who aren't actively looking at schools and recent data throw around labels and generalizations and DC parents get really frustrated trying to explain why those generalizations are no longer applicable.

It's like trying to explain to your grandfather how the internet works. Maddening.

Anonymous wrote:But I think I know why everyone on this particular board comes across as defensive and embittered.

We are all, somewhat, expected to justify not moving to the suburbs "for the good of our children," (or, as I like to think of it, move to the suburbs so our children can huff glue in a garage and drive drunk to prom and be abysmally bored), all the damn time. To everyone.

The myth of the suburban school experience is really strong. I never went to a suburban school myself (and I'm sure some immensely clever poster will chime in here about how they can tell that)--but I have to wonder. What, exactly, besides giant sports fields and parking lots, do these mythical burb schools have?

I can tell you what they don't have...they don't have a lot of minorities which is the very definition of a utopian society to a lotta folks.

But I think I know why everyone on this particular board comes across as defensive and embittered.

We are all, somewhat, expected to justify not moving to the suburbs "for the good of our children," (or, as I like to think of it, move to the suburbs so our children can huff glue in a garage and drive drunk to prom and be abysmally bored), all the damn time. To everyone.

The myth of the suburban school experience is really strong. I never went to a suburban school myself (and I'm sure some immensely clever poster will chime in here about how they can tell that)--but I have to wonder. What, exactly, besides giant sports fields and parking lots, do these mythical burb schools have?