Looking for interviews - parents thoughts on DC charter schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello! I am a journalism student at George Washington University and I am working on a story for a class assignment about reasons why parents in DC choose to send their children to charter schools, rather than public schools, or private. Additionally, I am also looking to evaluate public opinions about DC charter schools as a whole. If you would be interested in partaking in a quick interview with me about your thoughts on this, or if you know anyone who would, please email me [e-mail]. Thanks!

With all due respect, you clearly haven't done even the basic amount of research on the topic if you don't understand the pretty basic concept of "public vs private". Words have meaning, especially in journalism. I would love to support a fellow journalist, but I would not be willing to waste valuable time with someone who hasn't done even a basic amount of research with their own time before asking for some of mine.

[Anonymous]

Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

Nice try but no.

Words mean something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

Nice try but no.

Words mean something.

Charter schools are public schools the same way government contractors are federal agencies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

WTF? You are the one who's confused. Charter schools are not "technically free"-- they *are* free. It's not a technical distinction. Charter schools are public because they are funded by the public, subject to public laws such as IDEA, and administered by public officials and their appointees, not by a private governing board and private tuition and donations. Some families choose their inbound DCPS school, and some choose other DCPS schools including citywide DCPS schools.

Also, OSSE supervises both DCPS and charter schools. DCPS manages its schools and the Public Charter School Board has oversight of charter schools. But OSSE things like the enrollment audit and the PARCC apply to both DCPS and charters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

Nice try but no.

Words mean something.

Charter schools are public schools the same way government contractors are federal agencies.

Congratulations!--that is the dumbest thing I have read on DCUM in years.

Why don't you learn how to use Google and learn something?

https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/what-charter-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

Nice try but no.

Words mean something.

Charter schools are public schools the same way government contractors are federal agencies.

Congratulations!--that is the dumbest thing I have read on DCUM in years.

Why don't you learn how to use Google and learn something?

https://charterschoolcenter.ed.gov/what-charter-school

+1. Hopefully, the poster didn't graduate from a DC public charter school.

https://dcpcsb.org/families/what-public-charter-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:+1

Framing is messed up. You may also want to explore school choice in general: people applying to out of boundary DCPS schools as well.

Great point. Only about 30% of students in DC attend their assigned neighborhood school. There has been a good bit of research on public school choice in DC, including what parents say they want and seem to actually want. I'd start there before crafting your own interviews.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

No. It seems like you also have some limited knowledge here. DCPS oversees district public schools. The public charter school board oversees charters. OSSE is like the state government for DC and oversees both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, charter schools are technically free, but they are distinct from public schools. There's DCPS and OSSE; they supervise public and charter schools, respectively. Some families choose their inbound public school; some go for charter schools in the lottery. Why are people harping on this? I can tell you that when I decided to send my kids to a charter, people said, "Oh, so you're not choosing your local public school."

Nice try but no.

Words mean something.

Charter schools are public schools the same way government contractors are federal agencies.

I don’t even care about the charter/public distinction but only a really stupid person would think making this analogy was clever.

[Anonymous]

OP, who I’m sure is a nice student. When I moved to Petworth in 2008, the first thing all of the long time families who had lived there for generations told me was that they knew all the trick and could help me get our kids out of the local public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, who I’m sure is a nice student. When I moved to Petworth in 2008, the first thing all of the long time families who had lived there for generations told me was that they knew all the trick and could help me get our kids out of the local public school.

Since the lottery, there are no tricks, and many in Petworth actually attend the local elementary these days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, who I’m sure is a nice student. When I moved to Petworth in 2008, the first thing all of the long time families who had lived there for generations told me was that they knew all the trick and could help me get our kids out of the local public school.

Since the lottery, there are no tricks, and many in Petworth actually attend the local elementary these days.

Not really. You can see here the IB participation rate and it isn’t high for schools in Petworth.

https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, who I’m sure is a nice student. When I moved to Petworth in 2008, the first thing all of the long time families who had lived there for generations told me was that they knew all the trick and could help me get our kids out of the local public school.

Since the lottery, there are no tricks, and many in Petworth actually attend the local elementary these days.

Not really. You can see here the IB participation rate and it isn’t high for schools in Petworth.

https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

I am not as familiar with that neighborhood, but I believe Powell is in Petworth? 58% of their students are in boundary, and 65% of Barnard's students are in boundary. And both of these schools capture about 30-40% of the students that live in their boundary. In a city with a lot of school choice, that percent of neighborhood kids attending a school is on the higher end of average.

I realize that detail is not the point of this thread, but for the OP - if you want to understand the school landscape in DC, this website has a lot of great data (including that link above) https://edscape.dc.gov/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, who I’m sure is a nice student. When I moved to Petworth in 2008, the first thing all of the long time families who had lived there for generations told me was that they knew all the trick and could help me get our kids out of the local public school.

Since the lottery, there are no tricks, and many in Petworth actually attend the local elementary these days.

Not really. You can see here the IB participation rate and it isn’t high for schools in Petworth.

https://dme.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dme/page_content/attachments/SY2122_Public%20School%20Enrollments%20per%20DCPS%20Boundary_0.xlsx

I am not as familiar with that neighborhood, but I believe Powell is in Petworth? 58% of their students are in boundary, and 65% of Barnard's students are in boundary. And both of these schools capture about 30-40% of the students that live in their boundary. In a city with a lot of school choice, that percent of neighborhood kids attending a school is on the higher end of average.

I realize that detail is not the point of this thread, but for the OP - if you want to understand the school landscape in DC, this website has a lot of great data (including that link above) https://edscape.dc.gov/

30-40 percent seems about as high as you’d ever expect for lower-tier but not basement level DCPS elementary schools.