So I wrote I’d post this later.
This comes out of my interest in looking at scores for African American boys based on what I read in the Diverse Schools Dilemma. The author’s main point was for middle and upper middle class white parents, instead of looking at a school’s test scores overall, look at measurements for white students when they are the minority. The idea was to say that minority-majority schools aren’t necessarily bad for white students. In other words, white families don’t need to move for a good education for their kids.
I decided to switch it up for my son. He’s bi-racial, and there really isn’t any data for bi-racial boys. He’s half white, half black we think (adopted), therefore I looked at data for African American boys. That was my earlier post.
For poops and giggles, I decided to look at the data for white boys, to compare. But limited it to PARCC math scores between 2016 and 2019, because I didn’t feel like doing that much work. I limited it to schools that had 50% or more boys scoring 4+ (met or exceeded expectations). Then I took the top ten for that category (ex. Grade 3). These are my results.
| BASIS DC PCS |
| Brent Elementary School |
| Capitol Hill Montessori School @ Logan |
| Deal Middle School |
| District of Columbia International School |
| Eaton Elementary School |
| Hardy Middle School |
| Hearst Elementary School |
| Hyde-Addison Elementary School @ Meyer |
| Inspired Teaching Demonstration PCS |
| Janney Elementary School |
| Key Elementary School |
| Lafayette Elementary School |
| Ludlow-Taylor Elementary School |
| Mann Elementary School |
| Maury Elementary School @ Eliot-Hine |
| Murch Elementary School |
| Murch Elementary School @ UDC |
| Oyster-Adams Bilingual School |
| Ross Elementary School |
| School Without Walls @ Francis-Stevens |
| School Without Walls High School |
| School-Within-School @ Goding |
| Shepherd Elementary School |
| Stoddert Elementary School |
| Stuart-Hobson Middle School (Capitol Hill Cluster) |
| Washington Latin PCS – Middle School |
| Washington Latin PCS – Upper School |
| Washington Yu Ying PCS |
| Watkins Elementary School (Capitol Hill Cluster) |
| Woodrow Wilson High School |
There are a few things I noticed. There aren’t many schools where a lot of kids of European decent (I’m just going to write WB- white boys from here out) are failing. Also this does not include schools where WBs are fewer than 10, like Seaton. For both AA boys and WBs, some top schools are top schools with 5 stars because of girl power. I made another table just for African American students (boys and girls) and some schools that were great for African American girls weren’t necessarily great for the boys. If you compare the lists for boys, there are some schools that are good for both, BASIS DC, Shepard Elementary, Deal Middle School, Hyde-Addison Elementary School @ Meyer, Lafayette Elementary School, School Without Walls High School, and Stoddert Elementary School. Lastly, there are a number of DCPS schools on this and the other list. But more DCPS schools on this list than the other.
Why the difference? I don’t know. I have some opinions, but that’s another post that I don’t want to write.