Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is the issue of PG cheaters really the most pressing issue facing DCPS? Hopefully you can come up with something more substantive as a topic of discussion. Remember, even if Catania loses to Bowser, he will continue to head the Education Committee and exert substantial influence on funding and policy priorities. Anyone in Ward 6 who is not concerned about middle schools has their heads in the sand.

I'm in Ward 6 and I'm more concerned about elementary rather than middle school. Not all of us have kids going to Brent or SWS.

Ditto me - some of us Ward 6 parents send our kids to Seaton, so we have a whole different set of priorities.

Anonymous wrote:Is the issue of PG cheaters really the most pressing issue facing DCPS? Hopefully you can come up with something more substantive as a topic of discussion. Remember, even if Catania loses to Bowser, he will continue to head the Education Committee and exert substantial influence on funding and policy priorities. Anyone in Ward 6 who is not concerned about middle schools has their heads in the sand.

I'm in Ward 6 and I'm more concerned about elementary rather than middle school. Not all of us have kids going to Brent or SWS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

You are really ridiculous. This is sarcasm but reflects the knee-jerk accusations of racism if anyone challenges the status quo in ward 6 middle schools. It can be paralyzing. You would be better off and so would our community if people could express themselves and try out ideas without being immediately insulted. People assuming the worst of their neighbors is not community-building.

Yes, yes, yes. It is paralyzing when a-holes like the sarcastic jerk play the racist/snow flake cards. We are all trying to figure this out, and no one has solved city-wide urban education issue yet, so let's cut one-another slack.

+ 1 to the last 2 PP's!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Cluster Cheerleader? Nonresident? Gotcha. Guess what, learning isn't race-based and there's nothing wrong with grouping high achievers to challenge them.

I think the PP was snarking on 16:47. The Cluster refuses to implement any level of G & T, pull-outs, or special programs, or even consider it. The Cluster blames DCPS Central, but in reality I don't think the Cluster hierarchy wants it anyhow. Supposedly there's some informal "honors" program at Stuart Hobson, and certainly nothing at Watkins. There's a troll that likes to dis on any mention of G & T or pull-outs, and the assumption is the troll reports on anyone who calls it out as a nonresident. G & T or pull-outs aren't race-based; it's based on the student's achievement or the ability to achieve. Yet 16:47 wants to make it a racial issue, when in fact it's race-blind. I don't think anyone on this blog cares about race but instead does care about getting a quality and safe education for their kids, which aside from upper NW, isn't happening within DCPS in most of the city. KIPP can be highly regarded because it takes safety seriously along with education; DCPS hasn't caught on, at least here on the Hill. This makes me think that the eventuality is that education will be privatized because the public school culture is in such opposition to what many people want. Don't want that to happen, but I'm becoming convinced there's no other solution.

Catania's going to lose bigtime, and is going to be off the counsel soon enough.

I'll go to LP to ask him if he's ever thought about trying to convince the counsel to get DCPS to give school principals cash bonuses for attracting and keeping in-boundary residents, just like they give for raising test scores.

But I can't get excited about another meet and greet. He's almost out of the picture already.

I think you meant "east." The phrase hoisted on your own petard comes to mind.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Do you feel the same way about the test-in middle school opening in ward 7?

PP here, would that be a test-in charter school? If so, what are the chances that the test-in middle school advocates on DCUM will send their precious DCs to any school located west of the river?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Do you feel the same way about the test-in middle school opening in ward 7?

And what about the families at Banneker, do you cut them slack because the school is mostly Black, but then denigrate them for being elitist? How does that judgement from on high work?

As a matter of fact, Banneker isn't a test-in high school. The only DCPS high schoo that is test-in is......SWW. Banneker does, however, use the 7th grade DC-CAS scores (proficient and/or advanced) as one requirement for admission. Of course, according to some on DCUM, the CAS isn't rigorous enough for high-SES students and therefore is an marginal assessment of student achievement-especially beyond middle school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Do you feel the same way about the test-in middle school opening in ward 7?

And what about the families at Banneker, do you cut them slack because the school is mostly Black, but then denigrate them for being elitist? How does that judgement from on high work?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

You are really ridiculous. This is sarcasm but reflects the knee-jerk accusations of racism if anyone challenges the status quo in ward 6 middle schools. It can be paralyzing. You would be better off and so would our community if people could express themselves and try out ideas without being immediately insulted. People assuming the worst of their neighbors is not community-building.

Yes, yes, yes. It is paralyzing when a-holes like the sarcastic jerk play the racist/snow flake cards. We are all trying to figure this out, and no one has solved city-wide urban education issue yet, so let's cut one-another slack.

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Do you feel the same way about the test-in middle school opening in ward 7?

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

You are really ridiculous. This is sarcasm but reflects the knee-jerk accusations of racism if anyone challenges the status quo in ward 6 middle schools. It can be paralyzing. You would be better off and so would our community if people could express themselves and try out ideas without being immediately insulted. People assuming the worst of their neighbors is not community-building.

Anonymous wrote:I would love to hear his thoughts on Middle school. Surely he has to know about the brain drain of kids before 5th grade who all head to latin and basis or privates on the Hill. I think he has good ideas on improving special education but he aslo needs to let folks know how he is supporting advnaced learners or heck, even kids at grade level who are too advanced for a lot of middle schools in DC>

Ninety minutes won't be enough to hear his thoughts on middle school. I consider myself to be extraordinarily informed when it comes to DCPS, in particular middle school, and it blew me away the first time I heard him talk about middle schools. The level of his command is impressive. What he really gets is that it's all connected -- crowding at Deal is related to Hardy which is related to the lack of middle schools in Ward 5 and the poor options in the rest of the city -- and it's all got to be fixed as part of a coherent plan.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Cluster Cheerleader? Nonresident? Gotcha. Guess what, learning isn't race-based and there's nothing wrong with grouping high achievers to challenge them.

Learning isn't income based or geography based either, and there are plenty of kids at reading level sitting in classes half full of kids who cant read. Those kids deserve test-in every bit as much.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I won't be able to make it to the coffee. However, can someone please ask Catania if supports test-in middle schools whereby high-SES white students can learn unencumbered by classroom disruptions that are caused by the less affluent minority type? (and report back?)

Cluster Cheerleader? Nonresident? Gotcha. Guess what, learning isn't race-based and there's nothing wrong with grouping high achievers to challenge them.

The poster is snarking on 11:49.