Anonymous wrote:Well, for different reasons we did decide to "directly invest" in my kid by sending him to private, rather than routing that investment through a house, which then bought a specific school pyramid. We were worried more about the kind of atmosphere and discipline in our local school (high % latino, AA, and poor, with poor test outcomes across categories) than with performance - our local school suspends elementary school kids and has a sort of law and order, toe the line atmosphere we didn't want for our kid. So he's at private. And from what I can see, there is no racial disparity in performance in my kid's private school. But you'd never know for sure if there was, would you? Its not like privates publish test scores by race and income. Good luck, OP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is really what tests are telling us:

They are not really IQ tests, they are cultural knowledge tests. They are supposed to be neutral, but I personally don't think that they can be. One of the issues I have seen is that schools that are very focused on progressive education, focus less on content knowledge and more projects feel good reading assignments. These practices are pretty common in this area, I think it often puts kids at a disadvantage especially of lower SES opportunity and sometimes minority students. Different stories and emphasis within our cultural frameworks. Lisa Deplit's article, The Silenced Dialogue is an interesting read http://faculty.washington.edu/rikitiki/tcxg464sp08/Silenced%20Dialogue%20by%20L%20Delpit.pdf

Personally for me, I seek to make sure my children are receiving at school and home a deep base of knowledge in history, science, literature and math. It is the only way I can enable them to engage the wider culture.

For the poster of this (hopefully you will see this request), how do you do this? I am the mother of a AA 6th grade girl. She attends a catholic school in Bethesda that I really think is lacking in history, literature and science. I would like to start supplementing in these areas, but honestly they are not issues that I'm strong either. I don't know where or how to start. Do you have any resources you can share?

Does anyone have any resources they can share to help supplement these subjects? I know I should hit the library, but what resources there should be I utilizing?

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for the helpful responses. Seriously. I didn't really think about private school seriously but I may have to consider this option (and choose a cheaper place) if there isn't some sort of way to address the disparity.

Also -- pp do you know what MoCo school that was? I will add it to my house hunting list.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To OP and others that are considering DC public schools, Shepherd Elementary in NW DC is a great choice, IMO. It is majority black, although that is changing a bit in the lower grades (which is fine with me--I'm black but I like the idea of my child being exposed to kids from different ethnic backgrounds). The test scores are quite impressive considering--I think last year reading was 73% proficient, and math was 76%. These are not WOTP school scores, which tend to be in the 80s and 90s, but actually pretty decent given that the school is 32% FARMS. It is a pretty popular school for black doctors, lawyers, etc.--actually, we are an MD/PhD couple and we've been quite happy with Shepherd and don't feel out of place at all; this is our first year there. The International Baccalaureate program is great, and our child gets French 3-4x/week. This year, PK3 was all in-boundary and there was even an in-boundary waitlist, so the school is getting even more popular.

For any PPs considering DC schools and looking for a school of choice for middle/upper middle SES black families, Shepherd should definitely be one possibility, particularly in the lower grades, where there is more buy-in from the neighborhood. There are other DC schools where I know high SES black families, although they are mostly charters--LAMB, Inspired Teaching, Creative Minds, etc.--and these are exceedingly difficult to get into.

I know this is an old thread, but the topic is sadly still relevant.
To the PP, are you planning to send your kids to Deal and Wilson?

Anonymous wrote:To OP and others that are considering DC public schools, Shepherd Elementary in NW DC is a great choice, IMO. It is majority black, although that is changing a bit in the lower grades (which is fine with me--I'm black but I like the idea of my child being exposed to kids from different ethnic backgrounds). The test scores are quite impressive considering--I think last year reading was 73% proficient, and math was 76%. These are not WOTP school scores, which tend to be in the 80s and 90s, but actually pretty decent given that the school is 32% FARMS. It is a pretty popular school for black doctors, lawyers, etc.--actually, we are an MD/PhD couple and we've been quite happy with Shepherd and don't feel out of place at all; this is our first year there. The International Baccalaureate program is great, and our child gets French 3-4x/week. This year, PK3 was all in-boundary and there was even an in-boundary waitlist, so the school is getting even more popular.

For any PPs considering DC schools and looking for a school of choice for middle/upper middle SES black families, Shepherd should definitely be one possibility, particularly in the lower grades, where there is more buy-in from the neighborhood. There are other DC schools where I know high SES black families, although they are mostly charters--LAMB, Inspired Teaching, Creative Minds, etc.--and these are exceedingly difficult to get into.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, I live in PG and have a child in a NW DC independent school. I agree that you should look into private independent schools. The black children at our school are all from well educated families that are commited to their children's academic success. Since this is the norm, no one has any of the negative expectations that unfairly get projected onto minority children in the public school system. Especially if you have a son, it is worth the investment.

You didn't look at any schools in PG county? As someone who went through the school system I never suffered from "low expectations" The school system itself is Majority black so I feel that issue would be mute in PG county. Most of the kids in the TAG or AP courses were African American

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is really what tests are telling us:

They are not really IQ tests, they are cultural knowledge tests. They are supposed to be neutral, but I personally don't think that they can be. One of the issues I have seen is that schools that are very focused on progressive education, focus less on content knowledge and more projects feel good reading assignments. These practices are pretty common in this area, I think it often puts kids at a disadvantage especially of lower SES opportunity and sometimes minority students. Different stories and emphasis within our cultural frameworks. Lisa Deplit's article, The Silenced Dialogue is an interesting read http://faculty.washington.edu/rikitiki/tcxg464sp08/Silenced%20Dialogue%20by%20L%20Delpit.pdf

Personally for me, I seek to make sure my children are receiving at school and home a deep base of knowledge in history, science, literature and math. It is the only way I can enable them to engage the wider culture.

For the poster of this (hopefully you will see this request), how do you do this? I am the mother of a AA 6th grade girl. She attends a catholic school in Bethesda that I really think is lacking in history, literature and science. I would like to start supplementing in these areas, but honestly they are not issues that I'm strong either. I don't know where or how to start. Do you have any resources you can share?

Does anyone have any resources they can share to help supplement these subjects? I know I should hit the library, but what resources there should be I utilizing?

Anonymous wrote:Hi OP, I live in PG and have a child in a NW DC independent school. I agree that you should look into private independent schools. The black children at our school are all from well educated families that are commited to their children's academic success. Since this is the norm, no one has any of the negative expectations that unfairly get projected onto minority children in the public school system. Especially if you have a son, it is worth the investment.

Anonymous wrote:I have been researching with the same concern. We have started our oldest in private and they have siblings coming behind them once old enough. We are in PG. We adore the private so far and it is a community of very successful upper middle class peers and their children...many who are also AA. The students are testing highly and are moving on to many of the big name privates in this area. The school has high standards and so do the parents. It has been the best choice for us. By the time our oldest is in 5th, we plan to move so that a good public middle and high school will be an option. We are looking in VA and like you the overall great schools ranking don't mean much to me. I look at how AA children are performing. Virginia's school website breaks this data down and makes it easy to eliminate many schools from consideration. I looked at where do they have at least 5% of the pop. that look like my kid and I look at the AA test scores. Marshall and West Springfield "won". Woodson with an honorable mention but had almost half the AA population of the other two. Those clusters are where we plan to focus our search when we move....until the. We are very pleased with private school....and might continue to be all the way through 12th. We are either going to pay 3 to 3.5 times more for our next home in these districts and hope these schools will be the best fit or stay put and spend the money on private.

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is really what tests are telling us:

They are not really IQ tests, they are cultural knowledge tests. They are supposed to be neutral, but I personally don't think that they can be. One of the issues I have seen is that schools that are very focused on progressive education, focus less on content knowledge and more projects feel good reading assignments. These practices are pretty common in this area, I think it often puts kids at a disadvantage especially of lower SES opportunity and sometimes minority students. Different stories and emphasis within our cultural frameworks. Lisa Deplit's article, The Silenced Dialogue is an interesting read http://faculty.washington.edu/rikitiki/tcxg464sp08/Silenced%20Dialogue%20by%20L%20Delpit.pdf

Personally for me, I seek to make sure my children are receiving at school and home a deep base of knowledge in history, science, literature and math. It is the only way I can enable them to engage the wider culture.