https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/majority-of-us-public-school-students-are-in-poverty/2015/01/15/df7171d0-9ce9-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html

"For the first time in at least 50 years, a majority of U.S. public school students come from low-income families, according to a new analysis of 2013 federal data, a statistic that has profound implications for the nation.

"The Southern Education Foundation reports that 51 percent of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in the 2012-2013 school year were eligible for the federal program that provides free and reduced-price lunches. The lunch program is a rough proxy for poverty, but the explosion in the number of needy children in the nation’s public classrooms is a recent phenomenon that has been gaining attention among educators, public officials and researchers.

“We’ve all known this was the trend, that we would get to a majority, but it’s here sooner rather than later,” said Michael A. Rebell of the Campaign for Educational Equity at Teachers College at Columbia University, noting that the poverty rate has been increasing even as the economy has improved. “A lot of people at the top are doing much better, but the people at the bottom are not doing better at all. Those are the people who have the most children and send their children to public school.”

"The shift to a majority-poor student population means that in public schools, a growing number of children start kindergarten already trailing their more privileged peers and rarely, if ever, catch up. They are less likely to have support at home, are less frequently exposed to enriching activities outside of school, and are more likely to drop out and never attend college."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

That's rich. Diane Ravitch is complaining about poor students being failed? Ha. No-one has been failing them longer and more egregiously than the traditional district system.

Nothing substantive to add in terms of the underlying criticisms of high-stakes testing and the failure to deliver on the promises of EDreformers when the achievement gap is worsening in DC?

The achievement gap is worsening EVERYWHERE because income inequality is worsening. Majority of students in public school are poor. Until we fix the economy and do something about the income gap we're all moving around deck chairs.

Each school district is in some ways a microcosm. plenty of affluent suburban school districts with higher percentage of publically educated students who are not poor unlike DC

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

That's rich. Diane Ravitch is complaining about poor students being failed? Ha. No-one has been failing them longer and more egregiously than the traditional district system.

Nothing substantive to add in terms of the underlying criticisms of high-stakes testing and the failure to deliver on the promises of EDreformers when the achievement gap is worsening in DC?

The achievement gap is worsening EVERYWHERE because income inequality is worsening. Majority of students in public school are poor. Until we fix the economy and do something about the income gap we're all moving around deck chairs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

That's rich. Diane Ravitch is complaining about poor students being failed? Ha. No-one has been failing them longer and more egregiously than the traditional district system.

Nothing substantive to add in terms of the underlying criticisms of high-stakes testing and the failure to deliver on the promises of EDreformers when the achievement gap is worsening in DC?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, boatloads of happy middle-class Cap Hill families at Hobson, the neighborhood middle school that's 40% FARMs, 80% OOB, 15% white, and 0% Asian (just like the Hill, right?).

It's just like the middle-SES Hill.

The Hill, regardless of SES, is nowhere near 85% non-white in 2016.

20003 alone is about 27K people and < %10 are school aged children. There are more seniors than school aged children. While Hill East is fast gentrifying it's not as whited out as you may think with 3:2 white to black ratio. You still have multi-generational households, plus neighboring boundaries for Payne, Miner and Tyler. It's not all dog parks, yoga and bike lanes (thank god!). Some of us do lament the loss of diversity underway

Are you one of the folks who think that black people never ride bicycles?

no, but they are the only ones who complain about bike lanes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, boatloads of happy middle-class Cap Hill families at Hobson, the neighborhood middle school that's 40% FARMs, 80% OOB, 15% white, and 0% Asian (just like the Hill, right?).

It's just like the middle-SES Hill.

The Hill, regardless of SES, is nowhere near 85% non-white in 2016.

20003 alone is about 27K people and < %10 are school aged children. There are more seniors than school aged children. While Hill East is fast gentrifying it's not as whited out as you may think with 3:2 white to black ratio. You still have multi-generational households, plus neighboring boundaries for Payne, Miner and Tyler. It's not all dog parks, yoga and bike lanes (thank god!). Some of us do lament the loss of diversity underway

We need to act now to preserve the open air drug markets and corner stores selling blunts and singles! Life in the Hill isn't the same without the crunch of crack vials under your shoes and junkies defecating in your alley.

none of those things makes me cringe as much as seeing sheeple lined up for the latest [insert choice of cronut, barre, studio, crossfit, doggie daycare]

I can laugh at the man-bun-wearers as much as anyone, but anything is better than crack vials and defecating junkies.

Ugh. Comments like this make me not want to talk to my Hill neighbors. I can't believe that people who are this clueless choose to live in DC and on the Hill in particular. But anyway, just for fun, I'll say: there's more to DC black culture than "crack vials and defecating junkies" and you are a clueless gentrifier.

That chip on your shoulder is distorting your whole world view. The only person who is conflating DC's black culture with "crack vials and defecating junkies" is you. Go back and re-read.

1st PP above: sarcastic reference to the Hill's infamous past
2nd PP above: snarky response regarding gentrifiers
3rd PP above: more snark regarding gentrifiers, but assertion that they're preferable to criminal behavior and unsanitary/unsafe neighborhood
YOU: conflating DC's black culture with the aforementioned crack vials, defecating junkies, and by extension open-air drug markets and corner stores specializing in blunts, singles, and other accessories for the indigent crowd

different PPs genius

I get that genius. Again - re-read the order of the posts. The one bitching about her Hill neighbors is the same one who felt the need to "inform" us that DC's black culture is more than crack vials, defecating junkies, etc.

She wrote it directly in reply to 3 different posters lamenting both gentrifiers and criminal behavior. None of the 3 had anything to say about black culture vis a vis gentrification, drugs, and crime. Only the bitcher did. Only she conflated them.

Genius.

Anonymous wrote:More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

That's rich. Diane Ravitch is complaining about poor students being failed? Ha. No-one has been failing them longer and more egregiously than the traditional district system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, boatloads of happy middle-class Cap Hill families at Hobson, the neighborhood middle school that's 40% FARMs, 80% OOB, 15% white, and 0% Asian (just like the Hill, right?).

It's just like the middle-SES Hill.

The Hill, regardless of SES, is nowhere near 85% non-white in 2016.

20003 alone is about 27K people and < %10 are school aged children. There are more seniors than school aged children. While Hill East is fast gentrifying it's not as whited out as you may think with 3:2 white to black ratio. You still have multi-generational households, plus neighboring boundaries for Payne, Miner and Tyler. It's not all dog parks, yoga and bike lanes (thank god!). Some of us do lament the loss of diversity underway

We need to act now to preserve the open air drug markets and corner stores selling blunts and singles! Life in the Hill isn't the same without the crunch of crack vials under your shoes and junkies defecating in your alley.

none of those things makes me cringe as much as seeing sheeple lined up for the latest [insert choice of cronut, barre, studio, crossfit, doggie daycare]

I can laugh at the man-bun-wearers as much as anyone, but anything is better than crack vials and defecating junkies.

Ugh. Comments like this make me not want to talk to my Hill neighbors. I can't believe that people who are this clueless choose to live in DC and on the Hill in particular. But anyway, just for fun, I'll say: there's more to DC black culture than "crack vials and defecating junkies" and you are a clueless gentrifier.

That chip on your shoulder is distorting your whole world view. The only person who is conflating DC's black culture with "crack vials and defecating junkies" is you. Go back and re-read.

1st PP above: sarcastic reference to the Hill's infamous past
2nd PP above: snarky response regarding gentrifiers
3rd PP above: more snark regarding gentrifiers, but assertion that they're preferable to criminal behavior and unsanitary/unsafe neighborhood
YOU: conflating DC's black culture with the aforementioned crack vials, defecating junkies, and by extension open-air drug markets and corner stores specializing in blunts, singles, and other accessories for the indigent crowd

different PPs genius

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Right, boatloads of happy middle-class Cap Hill families at Hobson, the neighborhood middle school that's 40% FARMs, 80% OOB, 15% white, and 0% Asian (just like the Hill, right?).

It's just like the middle-SES Hill.

The Hill, regardless of SES, is nowhere near 85% non-white in 2016.

20003 alone is about 27K people and < %10 are school aged children. There are more seniors than school aged children. While Hill East is fast gentrifying it's not as whited out as you may think with 3:2 white to black ratio. You still have multi-generational households, plus neighboring boundaries for Payne, Miner and Tyler. It's not all dog parks, yoga and bike lanes (thank god!). Some of us do lament the loss of diversity underway

We need to act now to preserve the open air drug markets and corner stores selling blunts and singles! Life in the Hill isn't the same without the crunch of crack vials under your shoes and junkies defecating in your alley.

none of those things makes me cringe as much as seeing sheeple lined up for the latest [insert choice of cronut, barre, studio, crossfit, doggie daycare]

I can laugh at the man-bun-wearers as much as anyone, but anything is better than crack vials and defecating junkies.

Ugh. Comments like this make me not want to talk to my Hill neighbors. I can't believe that people who are this clueless choose to live in DC and on the Hill in particular. But anyway, just for fun, I'll say: there's more to DC black culture than "crack vials and defecating junkies" and you are a clueless gentrifier.

That chip on your shoulder is distorting your whole world view. The only person who is conflating DC's black culture with "crack vials and defecating junkies" is you. Go back and re-read.

1st PP above: sarcastic reference to the Hill's infamous past
2nd PP above: snarky response regarding gentrifiers
3rd PP above: more snark regarding gentrifiers, but assertion that they're preferable to criminal behavior and unsanitary/unsafe neighborhood
YOU: conflating DC's black culture with the aforementioned crack vials, defecating junkies, and by extension open-air drug markets and corner stores specializing in blunts, singles, and other accessories for the indigent crowd

Anonymous wrote:More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

Better link.

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/john-merrow-is-back-at-le_b_8799886.html

It's long past the time for parents of younger kids to start paying attention.

More reasons Hill families can't have nice things when it comes to middle school: EDreformers like Rhee and Henderson can't deliver despite the money poured in by Walton and Gates Foundations and the astroturfing by the think tank industry.

https://dianeravitch.net/category/naep/

Wow. Those scores are worse than I thought. But atonal the people who scream that white or high SES parents are racists and closed minded you need to be quiet. What parent in their right mind wants their kids in a school where 85% of the kids are below grade level? And DC keeps passing these kids from grade to grade . And eastern 97% of the kids are below grade on math? Yet how many still graduate??

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin doesn't want to expand partly because they had a hell of a time getting a permanent facility, after years of hassling with the city over the issue. If DCPS were freeing more up mostly empty schools in decent condition to the high-performing charters, I picture Latin's good liberal board singing a different tune. And if Latin elected not to grab a cheap or free Metro accessible building outside Wards 7 and 8, BASIS would.

I really don't think Latin is a very good school. Sure, in DC, where most middle schools are total garbage it seems ok enough. But it is no Boston Latin. I'd prefer a test in school that's real IB for ward 6.

It's not going to happen. The only way there will be a test-in MS in DC is if it is EOTR. That's the only way the city can get the demographics it wants and keep the school from being too white/asian.

Smarter Balanced vs. PARCC

http://scholasticadministrator.typepad.com/thisweekineducation/2014/03/thompson-an-even-sadder-tale-of-dc-common-core-testing.html#.VxkDvcj3bv4

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Latin doesn't want to expand partly because they had a hell of a time getting a permanent facility, after years of hassling with the city over the issue. If DCPS were freeing more up mostly empty schools in decent condition to the high-performing charters, I picture Latin's good liberal board singing a different tune. And if Latin elected not to grab a cheap or free Metro accessible building outside Wards 7 and 8, BASIS would.

I really don't think Latin is a very good school. Sure, in DC, where most middle schools are total garbage it seems ok enough. But it is no Boston Latin. I'd prefer a test in school that's real IB for ward 6.

No they wouldn't. Basis is not interesting in replicating its model in DC. They've stated that publicly, which is why they're opening a private school in the suburbs (they'd happily do a charter in VA or MD, but the anti-charter laws there are draconian). In DC, they're going to try to fix the MS, by building an ES and sending their ES kids into the MS in order to avoid having to accept the exact same students Hill parents want to avoid.