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I didn't have a negative opinion either until high school and college. A lot of us went to the same churches and we just kind of ignored them when they acted superior. I suppose the breaking point for me was when one of my school's classes held their baccalaureate at mine.
A group of Parkies were saying "I can't believe we are letting these n*****s in our church."
I havent had a chance to read everything.. I first wanted to tell you I LOVE DESOTO.... my favorite neighborhood is Windermere over there and the area over off of Pleasant Run is so unique... My favorite mongolian restaurant is Tons off of Hampton close to the Lowes over there. Omgosh, the food is incredible!
Where I live currently Mckinney, the middle schools and high schools are purposely diverse. They take children who are on the lunch program and slate them at a schools that are not in their geographic area usually. The reason is to give the kids who come from low income homes a help up and mix them with kids from middle and upper middle class neighborhoods. My oldest attends middle school so far it has been fine... there are issues but it is NOT about race. We have seen the leadership there do well and has taken every issue and disciplined when it has been needed. That is the key for us, it is leadership. If you read my other post, I though am on the fence about the education here. I lived in Cedar Hill and I knew so many who wanted to leave due to leadership issues with kids who were just middle of the road performers. They had great G&T programs but out of that, most I knew weren't happy how they treated the kids who weren't in those classes. This though was some time ago and was told that they had a new superintendant. You would have to talk to people there to get a good grip what 's been going on lately there. It all stems down to who they are hiring for classes, and what philophsy they are taking towards the kids...
For us personally too, we are happier with a diverse school overall. Many kids from the west side have found out that not everyone wears their brands and there has been no complaints about me dressing my kiddo in Target or her being made fun off because she never wears ambercrombie. 2 years ago, she came home in tears because she was told her clothes were not quality... I was so livid.... it isn' t like that anymore...
Back to the op... I did not put my child in school on the south side of town and it wasn't due to it being diverse... she was slated for a school that had bad leadership and not a child who lived in our neighborhood went there which was a very diverse neighoborhood 30/30/30/10 diversity makeup. We ended up putting her in private which was extremely diverse, moreso than where she was slated for kindergarten and as a whole the class was fantastic and so smart. They were reading before kindergarten let out for the summer. Had great leadership there.
If you have any questions, you are more than welcome to email me. Good luck in finding an area to live.
Moving2008, the reason being is that there is still a good number of people who could care less about 'other' people's problems and only collect their $$$. This is a fact.
Cedar Hill and DeSoto are nice places to live; they seem to be more attractive to black families than to white families. I don't know why that would be. A friend of mine used to live in DeSoto and we'd hang out down there and go out to eat; often we'd be the only white people in a restaurant, but it didn't bother us and didn't seem to bother anybody around us.
Many of the posters here are being honest about the state of the DISD and the unacceptably low TAKS scores here. If you examine the DISD's performance in detail on the TEA's website, you will see that public schools in Dallas with high percentages of minority students do, in fact, do less well on standardized tests than schools without high percentages of minority students. The fact that blacks and Hispanics as a group do less well on state standardized tests is indisputable. However, I think it has more to do with socio-economic status than race. Middle-class blacks and Hispanics tend to do about as well as their white peers. Poor white children do far less well than their middle-class white peers.
I'm not trying to stereotype here; I'm just stating the facts as I see them. I think it's unacceptable that we have large groups of children not performing to their potential in our public schools. The city and the state are failing in their duty to educate those children. It's not so much that they're bringing down the TAKS scores...it's that the schools are letting those kids down. This needs to be a much bigger issue than it is presently. We as a nation can't afford to waste our childrens' potential.
Hello:
You're not the first and you won't be the last.
I am a white woman poor low-income and I raised three children in the DISD. I am 46 now and my children are grown. However, given the stats on testing poorly and overall grades, there are exceptions and I have the documentation to back it up. When I divorced my husband and took off as a single mom, not making more than 18,000.00 some times as less as 11,000, I worried about my children. They surprised me. They turned out the top grades. Stop it with the poor and the low-income children being disadvantaged. Children are independent little thinkers and they'll either do it or they won't. Money has nothing to do with it.
As for as DISD it’s the nuts that think they know but they do not apply themselves appropriately.
I am a white woman poor low-income and I raised three children in the DISD. I am 46 now and my children are grown. However, given the stats on testing poorly and overall grades, there are exceptions and I have the documentation to back it up. When I divorced my husband and took off as a single mom, not making more than 18,000.00 some times as less as 11,000, I worried about my children. They surprised me. They turned out the top grades. Stop it with the poor and the low-income children being disadvantaged. Children are independent little thinkers and they'll either do it or they won't. Money has nothing to do with it.
As for as DISD it’s the nuts that think they know but they do not apply themselves appropriately.
There's my rant for the day.
Your children aren't the only exceptions; I personally know others. However, the statistics don't lie. Low academic performance correlates with low socio-economic status. There's no guarantee that poor children will always do badly in school, but they are statistically less likely as a group to do well in school than middle-class or wealthy children. It's a fact.
Oh, and nowhere in my post did I say that I found that acceptable. It isn't. However, solving this problem is the educational equivalent of the Holy Grail. I don't think because you stated that children are "independent little thinkers" that everything is suddenly OK. It's not. Just look at the performance of low-income schools in the DISD. It's abysmal and unacceptable for this country to waste so much human potential. It's practically criminal.
So...please rant at someone else. I think you misunderstood my post or did not read it completely; I urge you to read it again.
I see Lipscomb Elementary in the Junius Heights Historic District is once again being named "Best in Texas" by Texas Monthly. The school has been exemplary for the past 3-4 years and the principal was selected as DISD principal of the year for 2006-2007. The school is mostly low-income but has started to attract the yuppie and bohemian upper-income people who are renovating the Craftsman Bungalows in the area. Also it is attracting attention from Swiss Avenue, which has traditionally sent several students to the school.
Seeing the more affluent breaking down their pre-conceptions and actually sending their children to such a school is not something I have personally witnessed until now. A similar but somewhat different movement is taking place at Robert E. Lee. Lee was ranked recognized and the gentrification has eliminated about half the student body -- now "the McMansion" people seem willing to try the school. All of this is quite encouraging to me. Well, I do have some reservations about gentrification -- especially in the form of 'teardowns' of historic homes.
We also have other exemplary and recognized schools in the area and another, Mount Auburn, is mostly-low income.
The only problem I see on the horizon is how well they do in middle and high school. There seems to be some problem adjusting there and achievement mostly drops among such students. As nD said, I have seen many overcome that, but I would say it is not more than 10%-20%. We must keep pressing..
I see Lipscomb Elementary in the Junius Heights Historic District is once again being named "Best in Texas" by Texas Monthly. The school has been exemplary for the past 3-4 years and the principal was selected as DISD principal of the year for 2006-2007. The school is mostly low-income but has started to attract the yuppie and bohemian upper-income people who are renovating the Craftsman Bungalows in the area. Also it is attracting attention from Swiss Avenue, which has traditionally sent several students to the school.
Seeing the more affluent breaking down their pre-conceptions and actually sending their children to such a school is not something I have personally witnessed until now. A similar but somewhat different movement is taking place at Robert E. Lee. Lee was ranked recognized and the gentrification has eliminated about half the student body -- now "the McMansion" people seem willing to try the school. All of this is quite encouraging to me. Well, I do have some reservations about gentrification -- especially in the form of 'teardowns' of historic homes.
We also have other exemplary and recognized schools in the area and another, Mount Auburn, is mostly-low income.
The only problem I see on the horizon is how well they do in middle and high school. There seems to be some problem adjusting there and achievement mostly drops among such students. As nD said, I have seen many overcome that, but I would say it is not more than 10%-20%. We must keep pressing..
It's good that Lakewooders haven't completely turned their backs on their public schools, but I don't think that small community is going to be able to cheerlead the rest of upper-middle-class and above Dallas into supporting public schools. It's a pipe dream.
The DISD needs to do a better job educating the children who DO attend public schools.
It's good that Lakewooders haven't completely turned their backs on their public schools, but I don't think that small community is going to be able to cheerlead the rest of upper-middle-class and above Dallas into supporting public schools. It's a pipe dream.
The DISD needs to do a better job educating the children who DO attend public schools.
Do most Lakewooders put their children in private schools?
I wanted to add my $.02 to this topic because I am currently going thru it. I am a single African American mother of 3 wonderful children ages 11(today's her birthday! Happy Birthday Chardonai), 5(she will be 6 on Thursday), & a well adjusted 13 y/o. I am very proud, can you tell?!!
Anyway, one of the major things that I looked at when I was relocating from Seattle was the school districts. I relied on this board a lot in my search of "UTOPIA" I am still searching as we speak. I too was warned about the south-sides of Dallas. Oak Cliff, Cedar Hill, Desoto, Duncanville, Balach Springs, & areas like those. There were a lot of comments made were not favorable at all. Having never been here before, I took that information, & started doing research of my own. Then when I had the chance to visit in April, I made it a point to go to these areas. I wanted to see if it was really as bad as I had been lead to believe. For the most part, I can say that those area's really aren't from what I've personally seen. Yes there will be some places that you don't want to live for crime & other reasons, but I think that is true for a lot of places.
This is not only a problem in the Dallas area however. On the Seattle boards on this forum, they talk about how bad south Seattle, & the Seattle School District is. People even talk about how bad the Renton/Kent area's are for children. One person made the comment that if your child attends schools in the one of the south Seattle school district, they have a very high chance of being left back! That upset me greatly. All 3 of my children attended school in the Renton & Seattle school districts. The 2 olders ones did great. When my youngest got into 1st grade this year at 5 y/o here in Ennis, they were very impressed with how much she knew for her to be so young. My 11 y/o is also the youngest in her 6th grade class, & is in honors classes, & continues to do well.
I am by no means a rich person. Extremely blessed...YES! I believe that my children deeserve the best. I will do whatever I need to do to make it that way no matter where we ultimately end up. The posters are correct when they say that a lot of the low-income families are working very hard on keeping food on the tables, & roofs over their families heads, & sometimes education becomes secondary. But I also totally agree with the poster that said that children are amazingly independent & they can overcome their odds & do great things. Test scores, & stats should factor into ones decision when it comes time to relocate. Word of mouth as well. But those should not be the only factors. Go explore. Do exactly what the original poster did. Talk to people; investigate. Gather as much information as you possibly can about a particular area if it interests you. It might be an area that people do not speak highly of, but it may fit your needs. Remember that the posts on these boards are personal opinions, with a few facts thrown in. Ignore the negativity. If you harp on it, you won't get anywhere. Base your decision on what's best for your & your family. They are the only ones that you ultimately have to answer to.
Good luck in your search
Check out www.greatschools.com. They have information on there that can help with your search as well. I would highly suggest that if you find a school that you like, go visit. Talk to the people that work there. Even see if you can talk to the principal, or get a tour. See if you can get a feel for the school & it surrounds.
Last edited by ladyjay73; 12-18-2007 at 11:24 AM..
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Poor TAKS
