[BicoastalAnn]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Absolutely life is very hard, if one's education level is not there, or skills are not there, or jobs are not there.

But as our "Bridgeport" communities have deteriorated in decades, it may take years or decades to gradually recover. A single-mother working 2 MW jobs will teach her kid to do better in school than her. Kid will grow up and do better than mom. This happens all the time.

But it starts with a working parent. Welfare / dis-incentivizing work breaks this trajectory.

No of course dis-incentivizing work is no solution in any scenario. The sweet spot for low-income households is to have both parents working a normal job each. Then the kids can absorb the work ethic and get the supervision/guidance they need. If neither work at all or both work too much (MW jobs), that becomes dangerous scenarios where kids can stray. Some kids will pull through - even in Bridgeport you'll have your students who break the cycle and go to some awesome schools - but the odds are stacked against them.

[Lincolnian]

There is a high inverse coorelation of income to achievement. Those in poverty have the lowest achievement level. There is a high coorelation of poverty with low levels of educational achievement as well as single parent households. Sadly, the move for testing to close the gap by holding districts (teachers) accountable for learning has resulted in widening the gap not narrowing it. This is due to unintended consequences of published test scores causing more economic segregration not less. It is very evident on CD that when people with the means are looking for a place to live they look for a community with "the best" schools. As has been stated elsewhere in this post, many low-performing districts have excellent teachers as well but yet they do not have high-performing schools. The reason is not a case of financial resources for the schools. It is critical mass. Children brought up in poverty face struggles that are significant. When the majority of the students have significant needs resulting from being brought up in a household which have significant financial challenges, it is nearly impossible for the school/teachers to meet the common educational goals. Often these schools are running triage for the children who have hunger, safety, emotional, medical and mental health needs that are not being met outside the school.

In the past many of Connecticut's communities had greater economic diversity. Since the publishing of test results by town/school people who value education and have the economic means necessary have targeted "high-performing" districts as the most desirable place to live. It is not purely the physical, convenience, or natural beauty qualities of the community that people are choosing it is the desirability as defined largely by how well the community's schools perform. The result has been greater economic segregation not less. The fix for this problem is not likely to get traction because it would require economic engineering, a solution most residents of surrounding communities would not allow. The call for regionalization of schools is attempt to correct the imbalance without moving those who live in communities with high concentrations of poverty out of the communities they reside in. Even if this came to be it would not solve the problem as the base challenges of large numbers of children living in poverty would not change.

[Jpierpont]

Originally Posted by JayCT

I believe there are towns in Connecticut that allow that as well. It is a crazy price though. Jay

People already essentially do that. People from my neighborhood with money sent their kids to private/catholic schools. My little cousin goes to St. Brigid now.

[dazzleman]

Originally Posted by BicoastalAnn

No of course dis-incentivizing work is no solution in any scenario. The sweet spot for low-income households is to have both parents working a normal job each. Then the kids can absorb the work ethic and get the supervision/guidance they need. If neither work at all or both work too much (MW jobs), that becomes dangerous scenarios where kids can stray. Some kids will pull through - even in Bridgeport you'll have your students who break the cycle and go to some awesome schools - but the odds are stacked against them.

Most low income households only have one parent.

[Lalalally]

Not to state the obvious, but traditional "families" -- with two parents present under the same roof raising their children together is the "golden," but not guaranteed ticket out of hell holes. Too bad that dynamic is the exception and not the rule in our inner cities.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by BicoastalAnn

I didn't realize that. I don't know how worth it it would be for CT residents but in Westchester it can be a good option. For example if you live in a great community like Bronxville or Scarsdale, you might still be assigned to Yonkers/New Rochelle schools. Safe neighborhood, good services and everything, but the house might be at a $100-200k discount simply because of the schools. Could be worth paying say $10k tuition for 4 years rather than making up that difference in the housing/tax cost. Would still be cheaper than private school tuition.

Thats not true what happens is zip code boundaries dont correspond with municipal boundaries so there are some neighborhoods in Yonkers covered by both the Bronxville and Scarsdale PO's respectively so their mail address has a Bronxville or Scarsdale zip code and says those towns but theylive in the boundaries of Yonkers, pay Yonkers taxes and thus are in the Yonkers school district. A similar thing happens in New Rochelle in the extreme northern part of the city with the Scarsdale PO.

But in Westchester school district and municipal boundaries sometimes dont coincide even if zip codes do, for example the eastern 1/4 of Dobbs Ferry is in the Ardsley school district.

I dont think either of these phenomena happen in Fairfield County or anywhere else in the US for that matter.

[7 Wishes]

Originally Posted by Jpierpont

People already essentially do that. People from my neighborhood with money sent their kids to private/catholic schools. My little cousin goes to St. Brigid now.

No we're talking about someone going to public schools in a town other than their own, for example someone who lives in Bridgeport paying Trumbull a fee to send their kid to Madison Middle School, Trumbull HighSchool, etc

But what you say is done often too

[Peter5457]

Originally Posted by Henry10

Maybe the story was designed to bust the myth of "tiger moms", but that is not a myth, so there is nothing to bust.

Since I seriously doubt that CT Asian moms are any different from NYC Asian moms I will provide a NYC example of tiger moms.

Stuyvesant High School in NYC is the highest rated / most reputable public HS in the region. Entrance Exams are open for any NYC resident. Competition is fierce and admission ratio is lower than Yale.

Yet, student population is about 75% Asian, and many moms can barely speak English. They work their kids hard, and you can see that these kids are well-behaved, respectful, street-smart, and hard-working.

My own mother used to say "good or bad, it's always the mother."

CT doesn't really have the hard core TIGER MOMS like you see in NYC and Stuyvesant because there just arent that many asian families in CT. What separates CT top public HS from places like like nyc, Plano, Irvine is that those places have a ton of very competitive students competing at the same schools for the top grades (several hundred top level asian students competing at the same HS). Yes there are many extremely bright kids growing up in upper income families. But the vast majority of these tiger moms come from middle income families and education is there childrens ticket to a better life or American dream.

You just will not get the same intense competitive effort if there are only a handful of extremely competitive kids in one HS. Just not enough serious high level competition in wealthier CT public schools to push enough of their best students. If you go to top public HS with hundreds of asian students there is no day off. Too many capable students gunning for top spots ery day homie.

Not always a good thing either.

[Erikachern]

As an NYC guidance counselor in the largest and most diverse (racially, economically, religiously, etc.) middle school in Manhattan, I highly suggest educating yourselves on this topic. You will definitely learn something.
The Problem We All Live With | This American Life
I searched this thread because we are considering a move to the burbs, but if this is the overall sentiment there, I may reconsider.

[Henry10]

Originally Posted by Erikachern

As an NYC guidance counselor in the largest and most diverse (racially, economically, religiously, etc.) middle school in Manhattan, I highly suggest educating yourselves on this topic. You will definitely learn something.
The Problem We All Live With | This American Life
I searched this thread because we are considering a move to the burbs, but if this is the overall sentiment there, I may reconsider.

People like this in the article are ripping apart our society. Division, jealousy, envy, reparations. These people are the true racist, in the most tolerant and integrated country in world. These people are fueling a fraudulent race war and enticing violence .

When she talks about integration, she is talking about forced involuntary integration. She is talking about a strong central Govt mandating, dictating, forcing people who don't want to be associated with each other to associate with each other. Such social engineering, such compulsion is unnatural, and everything unnatural is bound for conflict and later messy separation.

Since you say you work for NYC DOE, then from a racial perspective how do you explain Stuy?

For those who don't know -- Stuyvesant High School is the highest ranking High School in NYC. Stuy has lower odds for admission than Yale or Harvard. 3% or 4% IIRC.

While Asians are less than 20% of population in NYC, 75% of Stuy students are Asian. Mostly from poor Asian families, and most live in Asian "ghettos." But why do these poor kids get into the best NYC HS en-masse? And why do Asian students "integrate" very well, and get into so many "white" colleges?

I'll wait for an answer.