Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

I think the odds are higher than most people here will anticipate. I was in a recent meeting with Bowser where she talked about the possibility of another WoTP high school. She insisted that such a decision would driven by the population growth (i.e. over-crowding at Wilson).

However, based on her other comments that night, I would extrapolate that any new WOTP high school will likely be open to all of DC. Bowser is big on this, keeping the pathways to WOTP schools open to motivated families throughout the District. I could, potentially, see a magnet charter HS opening WOTP. Ideally, it would combine by-right and application set-asides. For example, promise that 50% of seats are set aside for Hardy students and 50% held for District-wide applications. That would balance diversity, equity, and proximity goals. Any Hardy kids not making the cut-off would still retain rights to Wilson.

Again, DCPS and Bowser needs to lead with carrots, not sticks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

I think the odds are higher than most people here will anticipate. I was in a recent meeting with Bowser where she talked about the possibility of another WoTP high school. She insisted that such a decision would driven by the population growth (i.e. over-crowding at Wilson).

However, based on her other comments that night, I would extrapolate that any new WOTP high school will likely be open to all of DC. Bowser is big on this, keeping the pathways to WOTP schools open to motivated families throughout the District. I could, potentially, see a magnet charter HS opening WOTP. Ideally, it would combine by-right and application set-asides. For example, promise that 50% of seats are set aside for Hardy students and 50% held for District-wide applications. That would balance diversity, equity, and proximity goals. Any Hardy kids not making the cut-off would still retain rights to Wilson.

Again, DCPS and Bowser needs to lead with carrots, not sticks.

I like this idea!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is inevitable that DC will have to adopt a random lottery placement system for public schools, like in San Francisco. Neighborhood-based schools are inherently exclusionary. Only with a true DC-wide lottery (with diversity adjustments) will DC achieve equity.

I know families in SF and the citybwide lottery is hated! Almost all Upper class
Families flee the public school system. That would destroy the small gains DCPS has made over the last few years.

Exactly. A city-wide lottery system would accomplish the opposite of its ostensible goal of diversity -- meaning that the supposedly benign reason for the new policy would be a false reason. Which means the proposed change probably would not survive a lawsuit. However, if the overall percentage of white students in DCPS were to rise to around 30%, I think you could make a good case for it.

I posted this upthread - SF literally just decided to ditch their all-lottery system. Everyone acknowledges it's a failure. Parents hate it, and it does not increase diversity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

I think the odds are higher than most people here will anticipate. I was in a recent meeting with Bowser where she talked about the possibility of another WoTP high school. She insisted that such a decision would driven by the population growth (i.e. over-crowding at Wilson).

However, based on her other comments that night, I would extrapolate that any new WOTP high school will likely be open to all of DC. Bowser is big on this, keeping the pathways to WOTP schools open to motivated families throughout the District. I could, potentially, see a magnet charter HS opening WOTP. Ideally, it would combine by-right and application set-asides. For example, promise that 50% of seats are set aside for Hardy students and 50% held for District-wide applications. That would balance diversity, equity, and proximity goals. Any Hardy kids not making the cut-off would still retain rights to Wilson.

Again, DCPS and Bowser needs to lead with carrots, not sticks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is inevitable that DC will have to adopt a random lottery placement system for public schools, like in San Francisco. Neighborhood-based schools are inherently exclusionary. Only with a true DC-wide lottery (with diversity adjustments) will DC achieve equity.

I know families in SF and the citybwide lottery is hated! Almost all Upper class
Families flee the public school system. That would destroy the small gains DCPS has made over the last few years.

Exactly. A city-wide lottery system would accomplish the opposite of its ostensible goal of diversity -- meaning that the supposedly benign reason for the new policy would be a false reason. Which means the proposed change probably would not survive a lawsuit. However, if the overall percentage of white students in DCPS were to rise to around 30%, I think you could make a good case for it.

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

When one is putting together a charter proposal, the organizers must discuss the educational landscape where they intend to operate, and use data to show that they would be filling a void that doesn't now exist or why the model they are pursuing will have better educational outcomes than what already exists in that proximate area.

Hard to imagine that there is a case to be made for a charter WOTP. The community isn't underserved in any meaningful way, and the students who live there are high achieving.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is inevitable that DC will have to adopt a random lottery placement system for public schools, like in San Francisco. Neighborhood-based schools are inherently exclusionary. Only with a true DC-wide lottery (with diversity adjustments) will DC achieve equity.

I know families in SF and the citybwide lottery is hated! Almost all Upper class
Families flee the public school system. That would destroy the small gains DCPS has made over the last few years.

Anonymous wrote:On a different tack when we talk about limited school capacity west of the Park - does anyone talk about new charters west of Rock Creek Park? Does PCSB have any known positive or negative views about this?

Anonymous wrote:It is inevitable that DC will have to adopt a random lottery placement system for public schools, like in San Francisco. Neighborhood-based schools are inherently exclusionary. Only with a true DC-wide lottery (with diversity adjustments) will DC achieve equity.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think most white parents fear poor minorities, like it is contagious. Studies have shown that wealthy white students do no worse with poor minorities peers or rich white peers. The difference is poor minority students improve with more diversity. In MS and HS white parents worry about their kids getting beat up by poor minorities but I feel like this fear would be resolved if we weren’t so segregated as a society. (If they actually knew some black teenagers and families.)

I think it offers little comfort for parents when studies show their kids will "do not worse" than their white peers. There are Type A parents all over DC. They don't want to settle for not doing worse than their peers. They want specialized attention and give their kids a leg up. These parents view charter schools with language immersion, Montessori, and other special programs as offering the extra that they think their kids need to move ahead. The only way that DCPS is going to compete with charter schools is if they too offer something (anything) that can be viewed as giving kids an advantage.

But those kids do not do any better in all white schools. There is NO leg up!

Are you going to tell me that a kid with a performing arts bent is not going to benefit from going to a performing arts focused school? Or that a family who wants Chinese immersion is not getting a leg up in a foreign language? When their neighborhood school does not make such offerings? Or a math and science wiz is not going to have more opportunities at a STEM school? Is that what you are telling me?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You didn't ask the question at all. By implication, I guess your answer is there aren't enough white families in DC to effectively integrate schools outside of the areas that they actually live, and even in those areas the overall numbers of white students are not high. Assuming "integration" remains your goal (and I'd volunteer that "integration" as a goal is actually a red herring if you care about education) -- your solution is...?

Not sure which PP you're responding to, but I don't think the issue is identical for every area of the city and every school. For example, many Ward 6 elementary schools are admirably integrated, as white families are willing to send their kids to neighborhood schools; so are some charters. The issue there is integration of the MS and HS. Any place white parents are opting out of their feeder pattern is an issue to be addressed (if you care about diversity!). And, it can't be addressed by just calling white parents racist (I'm looking at you Nikole Hannah Jones). You have to proactively bring in the UMC families with programming and engagement. At the same time, some Ward 6 elementary schools still to not reflect the neighborhood except in PK (Payne, Miner, JOW, Tyler, eventually Amidon-Bowen.) That's also a diversity issue to be addressed through engaging white parents productively. A thornier issue is re-zoning overcrowded HS and MS like Deal and Wilson. There, white parents are basically totally against "losing" what they think they have the right to. I'm not sure how to deal with that issue. Where integration doesn't seem to be an answer is the all-black high at-risk schools in all-black neighborhoods. At-risk set aside seats in integrated schools is a partial answer; but not the whole answer. There, I don't think you can expect "integration" to do all the work.

This is one of the best posts I have seen on this issue. Bravo. It's much more complex and nuanaced

Stuart Hobson is beginning to get more diverse by offering advanced programming. Of course the advanced programming is much whiter than the overall school population. So you have diversity in the building but not in individual classrooms which doesn't really accomplish anything.