+1.

Give me a break. Having lived in the Brent District for more than a decade, I know how relieved parents tend to be that hard-to-educate OOB kids are mostly gone from our neighborhood school, or going. Why would high-SES parents want dozens of kids from tough neighborhoods at Brent? Those who want this are free to buy homes in Wards 5, 7 and 8, or in nearby Trinidad. Brent parents don't speak in these terms because it's not PC to do so in an urban setting, not because none privately long for the day when most of the low-performing kids are out of the picture.

What parents in increasingly upscale neighborhoods would welcome with open arms are test-in gifted and talented programs in which particularly capable and high-performing low-income kids sit in class alongside run of the mill high-SES kids, as in NYC and other US cities. DCPS won't even consider such programs so here we are, competing to out noble one another on DCUM.

Anonymous wrote:So apparently the parents who live inbounds for Brent are all virtuous, altruistic, and kind, whereas those IB for LT are racist, classist, mean-spirited, and exclusionary.

Seems rather unlikely.

Noooooooo, the parents at L-T are lazy and entitled; they want a school like Brent or Maury without putting in any of the work. To be fair, it's way more work than I would be able to put into my neighborhood school, either.

That's a defensive over generalizing response. Based on the posts in this thread ( which I would no way generalize to ALL IB LT parents ) and the real live experience with the process six years ago at Brent ( which I would not generalize to all IB Brent parents ), the intention or spirit of the discussion seems different for whatever reason.

So apparently the parents who live inbounds for Brent are all virtuous, altruistic, and kind, whereas those IB for LT are racist, classist, mean-spirited, and exclusionary.

Seems rather unlikely.

I think the problem some public schools in DC are facing is the same the city as a whole is facing. The "new normal" is a middle-class school in a middle-class neighborhood. That's what parents of newly school-age children expect to see walking through the door of any school. Besides the fact that 'seeing' comes with many distortions caused by erroneous causal assumptions about race and class, the reality is that most DCPS are urban schools, with any classroom running the gamete from from upper middle class families not able or not willing to pay for private school to the occasional (often more than one) child raised by relatives and/or whose parents are in jail (not so unusual and surprising btw given that about a third of all prisoners worldwide are incarcerated in the US, mostly in Texas, California, and DC).
The likes of us, for whom that wasn't the "new normal" and who made a conscious decision and footed the effort to make this work aren't the ones roaming the hallways with preschoolers and Kindergarteners. Yes, some of us are a little PC, playing down problems, but we're also hyper-conscious that an open mind, tolerance, kindness, and active involvement is paramount to our kids' education not only succeeding but turning out to be something truly special, something that will will make them stewards for life, not just educated them in reading and math.

Look pp. The Brent transformation was about making the school better for everyone in it. I never, ever heard this talk about people alarmed by the social milieu and anxious to get rid of OOB children. Never. It was not the mindset or attitude if the people starting Brent Neighbors. Yes, inboundary families using the school necessarily led to fewer OOB slots in the lower grades.

In fact, in the early years large portions of the money raised by the PTA and political capitol of the parents and principals were used for improvements in the upper grades that were 100 percent OOB. The attitude was that the older kids had a more pressing need for high quality and less-chaotic education. Principal changes and staff changes for the better were not welcomed by a number of Brent families who moved over to Tyler or elsewhere because they were unhappy with the changes. No doubt there was a change in the school culture that was not welcome to some.

I am not being starry eyed. No one was kicked out and Extraordinary efforts were made to get younger siblings of older OOB students in at PK. That has become increasingly difficult with crowding pressures.

Possibly, the attitude of the newer parents at Brent who bought in after the transformation is more harsh on OOB students or whatever, but you couldn't be more wrong about the attitude of that first wave of inboundary families who embraced the school--whose oldest kids are in 4th and 5th grades now.

Anonymous wrote:

Ludlow Taylor has some challenges - all schools do. Arguing on a message board won't solve them. Get more involved at the school. Talk to the teachers. And don't talk to them to rant about what you think the problems are. Ask them what they need. Ask them what you can do to help. Be a positive force for the school and the school will be a positive force for the neighborhood. It's already a positive force for the kids that go there.

The comments about the transformation at Brent are telling. The parents didn't set out to fire people or get rid of OOB students. They set out to make the school better.

What are you smoking? The Brent transformation narrative is one of high-SES parents setting out to shuffle off the early 2000s principal and any number of not-so-great teachers. Making Brent a mostly IB school meant phasing out OOB students like mad. Making the school much better meant making it upper-middle-class friendly in an overwhelmingly high-SES neighborhood.

LT serves a low-SES community in a predominantly high-SES catchment area. After nearly a year of preschool, I've reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that only by shutting LT down and re-opening with a new head, PTA leadership, about half the teachers and students, would we have any hope of being satisfied with the school up to the testing grades. DCPS isn't talking in terms of sweeping change, so forget it.

Even DCUM posters are generally reluctant to talk about the off-putting social dimension to LT for most IB parents. No, I don't want my kid in class with a good many others whose parents (or perhaps the 40-something grandmothers raising them) hardly read to them, who watch loads of TV, who don't go to museums much, who don't necessarily know who their fathers are, who have relatives in jail, whose parents didn't go to college etc. etc. A few, fine, maybe even a quarter, but the majority as at LT for years to come, no way.

This forum is a big part of the problem.

- Parents rant about how horrible Cobbs is and then are angry and shocked that she is suspicious of them.

- Teachers (most of whom have been teaching with success for decades) are basically being told their teaching philosophies are wrong by posters who have read a few articles but have no real world experience in the classroom. It's demoralizing.

- Educational aides (many of whom hold college degrees but do this job to try and make a difference) make an hourly pittance and still donate money to parent breakfasts and other events. Then those same parents get on the forum and say no one at Ludlow Taylor is trying to foster a community environment.

- IB/ECE parents talk about the horrible make-up of the upper grades and point-blank say that the poor kids will negatively affect their kids (and while you can keep arguing that you're not racist, that's definitely classist). I wonder why the parents of those kids band together in the PTA and are suspicious of your motives.

Ludlow Taylor has some challenges - all schools do. Arguing on a message board won't solve them. Get more involved at the school. Talk to the teachers. And don't talk to them to rant about what you think the problems are. Ask them what they need. Ask them what you can do to help. Be a positive force for the school and the school will be a positive force for the neighborhood. It's already a positive force for the kids that go there.

The comments about the transformation at Brent are telling. The parents didn't set out to fire people or get rid of OOB students. They set out to make the school better.

Anonymous wrote:So the difference between LT and Brent is that the parents who go to PK don't feel any concerns that might arise after PK will be addressed by the staff/administration because they don't give a crap about the high SES gentrifiers. And, unless you keep your kids in the school said staff/administration is just going to point out that they don't need to give a crap about your concerns since all the IB high-SES people bail after PK! It's a never ending cycle...

Was Brent's principal saying "hell yes! Help me get rid of these OOB kids!" when everyone decided to stay? Is that what it takes?

Brent is on its third principle post in-bounds, and out-of-bounds but neighborhood kids started going there. Prior to this there was a principal who acted like the LT principal is described on here. As someone in-bounds, we started reaching out to her and she kept rebuffing the overtures. Right before she left, I think she finally realized that the tide was turning and she couldn't stop it. That's when she opened the door a little and Brent Neighbors was started.

The new principal came in and I went to sevral PTA meetings prior to my kids going there and the sense from the AA parents at the meeting that they didn't like her because she catered to the white parents. Ms. Clark only stayed a couple of years. I liked her but she was young and frankly didn't have the experience to handle the issues the school faced. Dr. Wilhoyte was either loved or hated, not a lot of in between for her. I trusted that while not a great communicator, she was doing a great job at addressing the needs of the older kids at the school who were behind academically while helping ensure that the younger kids never got that far behind. Part of her ability to do this was that she was at the end of her career, had a husband high up in DCPS and could pull strings that Ms. Clark couldn't.

Mr. Young is in my opinion somewhere in the middle of the previous two.

^^ no one cares black or white. That seems to be your issue.

Neighborhood schools and schools boundary are two different situations. One block of white families having 2.5 child[ren] will NOT have a school filled to capacity. Small schools don't survive and rich schools don't exist in this city. The city school population is overwhelmingly black. Regardless that DCPS shrinking in quantity but the majority is a black school population.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of you should be ashamed and embarrassed by what you are writing on here. You can claim it is not racism if you need help sleeping at night but anyone with sense can see past it. If you want to complain about something being ghetto in your neighborhood why don't you target something else (read: Many establishments on H street, the subsidized old folks building on G street that always has ambulances outside...) instead of a building with CHILDREN and a HARD WORKING STAFF. Stop making up excuses ( children from Maryland...some children at LT have parents who are divorced and one parent might live in MD, no advanced classes, the principal doesn't say hi in the morning) for why you don't like the school. These are just things to help you convince yourselves you are not racists. This blog has gotten DISGUSTING. Many of you need to check yourselves.

You couldn't be more wrong. The LT parents are not racist. We want and deserve a school that serves our diverse IB community.

Yes, you want and deserve a good school. But you won't send your children there until it gets better, and it won't get better until you send your children there. Perhaps the stalemate will be broken when Principal Cobbs retires or moves on, but until then, it looks like you are relegated to the same charter/OOB madness as the rest of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many of you should be ashamed and embarrassed by what you are writing on here. You can claim it is not racism if you need help sleeping at night but anyone with sense can see past it. If you want to complain about something being ghetto in your neighborhood why don't you target something else (read: Many establishments on H street, the subsidized old folks building on G street that always has ambulances outside...) instead of a building with CHILDREN and a HARD WORKING STAFF. Stop making up excuses ( children from Maryland...some children at LT have parents who are divorced and one parent might live in MD, no advanced classes, the principal doesn't say hi in the morning) for why you don't like the school. These are just things to help you convince yourselves you are not racists. This blog has gotten DISGUSTING. Many of you need to check yourselves.

You couldn't be more wrong. The LT parents are not racist. We want and deserve a school that serves our diverse IB community.

so when you constantly diss the student community, accuse the principal of hating white people that's not rascist?

I'm not suprised that cobb has a hard time being nice to you guys when you make it clear you want her removed.

Early in this thread, PPs pointed out that, nearly ten years ago, when Brent started to turn, parents had little choice but to band together push for change, pay for privates, or move. The only charter around catering to middle-class families was newish Two Rivers. Maury parents were similarly stuck in the early years. Now, you've got a good many charter options in Brookland etc. drawing Hill parents.

The explosion of charters leaves me with little hope for LT in the short or medium-term. When PPs assume that parents have a knee-jerk reaction to the quality of the LT's programs I roll my eyes. It would be so much more convenient for neighbors with kids at Yu Ying, Inspired Teaching, Bridges, Mundo Verde etc. to head to LT, around the corner, than to pay for private bus services or drive them north. But they don't after checking LT out, even after trying it for a year or two.

I'd be really surprised if LT builds the momentum it needs to get more than a handful of high-SES neighborhood kids into the testing grades in the next five years, or even ten.

14:47, seriously, no racist in their right mind would move to LT's neighborhood.