Anonymous wrote:Controlled choice will be on the presented menu of options at the upcoming Working Group sessions. Attend one and make your voice heard before this wacko experiment is imposed upon the District of Columbia.

Civil rights attorneys and experimental education think-tankers are completely oblivious to the realities of what it actually takes to achieve performing schools. You CAN create a high-performing low-SES-populated school. But the methods necessary to get there are likely very, very different that what is beneficial for middle class kids coming from middle class homes. Ignoring that reality does a disservice to all.

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Anonymous wrote:I don't get how this is even an argument. Good public schools, schools with high test scores, high SAT scores, low to non-existent crime and low truancy rates are highly, HIGHLY correlated with students from higher SES families and highly educated parents. There is no myth here. It is not

+1000. The reality is that if Wilson's served all low income students, it would not be desirable. Income directly correlates to school performance. Making the city's schools all lottery and offering equitable access for all does not eliminate poverty and the problems students face when coming from a poor background. That's the real problem and it starts way before HS.

if Deal and/or Wilson become all lottery admission, I believe that preference levels would still come into play, just like for PK. I bet there would be preference for proximity or those living in the historic Wilson boundaries...at least for several years, while other middle and high schools across the district are made more desirable. It won't be a free for all. Plus DCPS has said several times that there would be "significant grandfathering" and parents will have to hold the Chancellor to that. I think commenters like those above, while making what I think are reasonable points, are going to lose if they keep articulating arguments that feel like they're waging war on the poor. I feel as if I can almost see the spittle forming from the corners of your mouth. It's all in the messaging, folks.

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No one is going to be shipping poor black kids over to your schools. The more likely scenario is a lottery with preferences that will crowd out most OOB students.

Anonymous wrote: maybe did not get what he/she meant: we want school choices, not school chances. High chances to go to Wilson are not enough. If school choice will be removed, I also will do what my parents would have done for me: move 4 miles north, to Montgomery County.

Integration, social justice are all fundamental values for me, and I have devoted my professional career to helping the poorest from the SE of the world, while with my qualifications (PhD economics, fully achieved in the public school/college system of my European home country) I could have landed into much higher paying jobs. I do believe in public schools, and I am renting a tiny apartment in a building in Wesley Heights to have my kids attending what I think is the best public ES for them (Mann). I volunteer and donate a lot of $$ to the causes/charities I believe into. However when it comes to my kids, I need to put what I think is best for them if front of everything. Especially in front of nonsense proposals such as the social experiments we are reading about on these days (controlled-choice city-lottery types).

You might not agree with what I am about to say, but we will be greatly missed by DCPS. I volunteer to school several hrs a month, and pay about $2,500 in voluntary contributions to the PTA each year. My kids (I know this is not granted in the future) are extremely smart, top scores, generous and helpful to the others (teachers say this, not me). We bring diversity to the school as Europeans (language, culture, history, perspectives).

In 2 years I would definetly send my kids to Hardy MS if MS school choice will still be in place (as long as Pride - who came to visit our school will stay).

All of this is laudable but as I read this thread and its growing hysteria, I'm getting more and more convinced that not much will change for families west of the park. People are calling the idea nonsense and ridiculous and social experimentation because that's exactly what it is. I keep looking for evidence that controlled choice is anything more than an idea here in DC. We don't have the same population, the same history the same anything as San Francisco and the idea of kids leaving Glover Park to go to school on the Hill is just downright laughable. It's not happening. Forget lawsuits, the mere logistics make it impossible.

If there's evidence anywhere that this is being seriously considered--evidence beyond that stupid Washington Post opinion piece and a blog post written on Greater Greater Washington--would someone please link it? The only thing I can find are some Capitol Hill parents meetings where it's discussed (as an idea), some Chevy Chase community meetings and a Kaya Henderson speech in which she gave half of one sentence over to the idea of city-wide magnet schools.

What is more probable than city-wide lottery for MS and HS is that everyone EOTP will be forced to stay EOTP. That's the part of town that's going to scream the loudest. That's where there's potential for lawsuit. Those are the people who should be griping and complaining and threatening to run off to Montgomery County. (As if!)

Who is it you Ward 3 people think you're threatening? If you move out of your house, the value will go up and there will be another family moving in before it's time to cut the lawn again.