Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Powell and Barnard get love here. Shepherd (also in your area) gets less love than both and they have been a strong school for some time now.

Not the poster you are responding to, but Shepherd is not in the area (Petworth maybe) of the schools that poster mentioned.

Right - I think Shepherd is in a different place than the other schools here.

Anonymous wrote:Powell and Barnard get love here. Shepherd (also in your area) gets less love than both and they have been a strong school for some time now.

Not the poster you are responding to, but Shepherd is not in the area (Petworth maybe) of the schools that poster mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools here are getting better not because of DCPS but more high SES families are attending. Starts with the free pre school that gets us hooked in. its ALL the types of parents.

At these schools the students from higher SES families are more heavily weighted in the earlier grades that do not take the DC CAS . While there are some that stay, I think it does show that the students from lower SES families are getting more.

And that is to DCPS credit, as much as I'd like to think that our PTA bake sales are really doing that much.

Since the achievement gap is unchanged, this is a zero sum game. So in other words if the lower SES groups are improving here, then there must be further failure elsewhere in the system. I wish this weren't true, but hard to argue with the data...

That statistic is true for the system as a whole. I'm looking specifically at this area - I'd love to see data to show the gap here, because I think it's different than the overall numbers.

If what was said earlier is true -- and the gentrifiers are still just in the pre-testing grades -- then I'd guess the administration and teachers are doing something to help close the gap here. It's just that gains here would indicate backsliding somewhere else.

That is a good point - and painful if true. It would be interesting to see the data broken down that way. Maybe we have some things working right in places (or at least better) and other places that need more drastic action.

Yes, if you look at individual schools' scores, it seems like for every Truesdale with significant gains, there's a school with significant drops, like LaSalle-Backus. It would be interesting to see if there are commonalities between the improving schools that can be replicated at other DCPS schools. Obviously, KIPP and DC Prep would be worth looking to for ways to improve, but extended school days and school years would be harder to get agreement on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools here are getting better not because of DCPS but more high SES families are attending. Starts with the free pre school that gets us hooked in. its ALL the types of parents.

At these schools the students from higher SES families are more heavily weighted in the earlier grades that do not take the DC CAS . While there are some that stay, I think it does show that the students from lower SES families are getting more.

And that is to DCPS credit, as much as I'd like to think that our PTA bake sales are really doing that much.

Since the achievement gap is unchanged, this is a zero sum game. So in other words if the lower SES groups are improving here, then there must be further failure elsewhere in the system. I wish this weren't true, but hard to argue with the data...

That statistic is true for the system as a whole. I'm looking specifically at this area - I'd love to see data to show the gap here, because I think it's different than the overall numbers.

If what was said earlier is true -- and the gentrifiers are still just in the pre-testing grades -- then I'd guess the administration and teachers are doing something to help close the gap here. It's just that gains here would indicate backsliding somewhere else.

That is a good point - and painful if true. It would be interesting to see the data broken down that way. Maybe we have some things working right in places (or at least better) and other places that need more drastic action.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Schools here are getting better not because of DCPS but more high SES families are attending. Starts with the free pre school that gets us hooked in. its ALL the types of parents.

At these schools the students from higher SES families are more heavily weighted in the earlier grades that do not take the DC CAS . While there are some that stay, I think it does show that the students from lower SES families are getting more.

And that is to DCPS credit, as much as I'd like to think that our PTA bake sales are really doing that much.

OP thank you for shining a light on something positive - all to rare these days (IRL or on DCUM).

And PP is right, those improvements for those schools are mostly about leadership at the schools and their engagement of parents (or parents engagement of leaders). I expect the scores to continue to rise for those schools as higher SES parents stick around incrementally longer. Still doubtful they'll stay through 5th, but staying for K, 1st, 2nd... it all makes a difference.

Only potential issue is if the schools get popular enough to have waitlists, and then there is a big exodus of higher SES families for 3rd-5th or 4th-8th for ECs, and then a lot of students who weren't at the school before come in in later years... that already happens at some schools and it's harder to catch up kids who may have been at less effective schools before.