2017 Charter School Quality Reports Are Out (Tier ratings)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one wants tp talk about sela?! DCUM gets some schools wrong, and this is one (Bannaker is another).

There are so few students there it is easy to overlook.

NP. There are few students at SS and their is a 4 page thread about that. In fact, they are saying they scored so low because it's a small school. Well, SELA managed to pull it off.

Congrats SELA!!! Well done is such short amount of time.

No one talks about SELA because so few people want their kids learning Hebrew. Talk about a useless language.

SELA will never receive the kudos it deserves because of the ignorance and undercurrent of antisemitism on this site.

I'm Jewish, and turned down a spot at Sela for my kid a couple of years ago because I don't think fluency in conversational Hebrew is all that useful. We're still sending our children to Hebrew school on the weekends. I assure you, it's not anti-Semitism that motivated my skepticism about the school's mission.

I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black.

Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill.

I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative.

I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children.

Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications.

And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no.

Whackadoodle. Learning English is not actively discouraged in English in Israel in any form or fashion. While not an official language, kids learn English from third grade on. Sela was not started by Israelis - it's founding group is Jewish-American and African American, who perhaps believe Israel has a right to exist - but are hardly apparatchiks. At least one of their founding members is active in Peace Now. Sela is exactly about celebrating word language and history - even uniformed trolls persist in demonizing the school for reasons unknown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one wants tp talk about sela?! DCUM gets some schools wrong, and this is one (Bannaker is another).

There are so few students there it is easy to overlook.

NP. There are few students at SS and their is a 4 page thread about that. In fact, they are saying they scored so low because it's a small school. Well, SELA managed to pull it off.

Congrats SELA!!! Well done is such short amount of time.

No one talks about SELA because so few people want their kids learning Hebrew. Talk about a useless language.

SELA will never receive the kudos it deserves because of the ignorance and undercurrent of antisemitism on this site.

I'm Jewish, and turned down a spot at Sela for my kid a couple of years ago because I don't think fluency in conversational Hebrew is all that useful. We're still sending our children to Hebrew school on the weekends. I assure you, it's not anti-Semitism that motivated my skepticism about the school's mission.

I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black.

Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill.

I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative.

I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children.

Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications.

And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no.

Whackadoodle. Learning English is not actively discouraged in English in Israel in any form or fashion. While not an official language, kids learn English from third grade on. Sela was not started by Israelis - it's founding group is Jewish-American and African American, who perhaps believe Israel has a right to exist - but are hardly apparatchiks. At least one of their founding members is active in Peace Now. Sela is exactly about celebrating word language and history - even uniformed trolls persist in demonizing the school for reasons unknown.

Get to know Hebrew Public, the nonprofit that helped start Sela and other Hebrew charter schools. Look at who funds it and why.

And if you want to boost Sela, why don't you start a new thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

Let me translate this for you:

Black older kids who transferred in are not doing well.

Younger rich white kids are doing well.

"Culture" is the CMI word for "rich"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

Ummmm, you realize you just made my point for me, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

You may not care about the upper school PARCC scores, but they matter. CMI is responsible for educating every student enrolled -- not just the ones who started in the younger grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

You may not care about the upper school PARCC scores, but they matter. CMI is responsible for educating every student enrolled -- not just the ones who started in the younger grades.

In this case, the growth scores should be of greater interest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

You may not care about the upper school PARCC scores, but they matter. CMI is responsible for educating every student enrolled -- not just the ones who started in the younger grades.

Agree. Worrisome how CMI can so casually toss aside kids who don't fit into the CMI "culture" or who haven't been there since PS3. Would make me think twice about joining the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one wants tp talk about sela?! DCUM gets some schools wrong, and this is one (Bannaker is another).

There are so few students there it is easy to overlook.

NP. There are few students at SS and their is a 4 page thread about that. In fact, they are saying they scored so low because it's a small school. Well, SELA managed to pull it off.

Congrats SELA!!! Well done is such short amount of time.

No one talks about SELA because so few people want their kids learning Hebrew. Talk about a useless language.

SELA will never receive the kudos it deserves because of the ignorance and undercurrent of antisemitism on this site.

I'm Jewish, and turned down a spot at Sela for my kid a couple of years ago because I don't think fluency in conversational Hebrew is all that useful. We're still sending our children to Hebrew school on the weekends. I assure you, it's not anti-Semitism that motivated my skepticism about the school's mission.

I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black.

Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill.

I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative.

I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children.

Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications.

And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no.

Whackadoodle. Learning English is not actively discouraged in English in Israel in any form or fashion. While not an official language, kids learn English from third grade on. Sela was not started by Israelis - it's founding group is Jewish-American and African American, who perhaps believe Israel has a right to exist - but are hardly apparatchiks. At least one of their founding members is active in Peace Now. Sela is exactly about celebrating word language and history - even uniformed trolls persist in demonizing the school for reasons unknown.

Get to know Hebrew Public, the nonprofit that helped start Sela and other Hebrew charter schools. Look at who funds it and why.

And if you want to boost Sela, why don't you start a new thread.

In the words of one critic of Hebrew Public "Hebrew is not a neutral language" - in other words, it's a religious language, and one which in its modern form is the national language of a religious state. It is unique and can't simply be seen as "celebrating world languages." However, since public schools can't teach religion, it's careful to be "secular". But is it political? Very much so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Still waiting on CMI to come worry about being Tier 2

Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture".

There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good.

You may not care about the upper school PARCC scores, but they matter. CMI is responsible for educating every student enrolled -- not just the ones who started in the younger grades.

In this case, the growth scores should be of greater interest.

Pretty sure the formula DC uses for growth excludes students in their first year at a new school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one wants tp talk about sela?! DCUM gets some schools wrong, and this is one (Bannaker is another).

There are so few students there it is easy to overlook.

NP. There are few students at SS and their is a 4 page thread about that. In fact, they are saying they scored so low because it's a small school. Well, SELA managed to pull it off.

Congrats SELA!!! Well done is such short amount of time.

No one talks about SELA because so few people want their kids learning Hebrew. Talk about a useless language.

SELA will never receive the kudos it deserves because of the ignorance and undercurrent of antisemitism on this site.

I'm Jewish, and turned down a spot at Sela for my kid a couple of years ago because I don't think fluency in conversational Hebrew is all that useful. We're still sending our children to Hebrew school on the weekends. I assure you, it's not anti-Semitism that motivated my skepticism about the school's mission.

I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black.

Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill.

I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative.

I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children.

Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications.

And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no.

Whackadoodle. Learning English is not actively discouraged in English in Israel in any form or fashion. While not an official language, kids learn English from third grade on. Sela was not started by Israelis - it's founding group is Jewish-American and African American, who perhaps believe Israel has a right to exist - but are hardly apparatchiks. At least one of their founding members is active in Peace Now. Sela is exactly about celebrating word language and history - even uniformed trolls persist in demonizing the school for reasons unknown.

Get to know Hebrew Public, the nonprofit that helped start Sela and other Hebrew charter schools. Look at who funds it and why.

Go back to highlighting the Protocols of the Elders of Zion (abridged). Hebrew Public did not help start Sela. They have given them grants - like many other schools get grants. Their board is composed of secular Jews, religious Jews, secular Christians, and religious Christians. Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:no one wants tp talk about sela?! DCUM gets some schools wrong, and this is one (Bannaker is another).

There are so few students there it is easy to overlook.

NP. There are few students at SS and their is a 4 page thread about that. In fact, they are saying they scored so low because it's a small school. Well, SELA managed to pull it off.

Congrats SELA!!! Well done is such short amount of time.

No one talks about SELA because so few people want their kids learning Hebrew. Talk about a useless language.

SELA will never receive the kudos it deserves because of the ignorance and undercurrent of antisemitism on this site.

I'm Jewish, and turned down a spot at Sela for my kid a couple of years ago because I don't think fluency in conversational Hebrew is all that useful. We're still sending our children to Hebrew school on the weekends. I assure you, it's not anti-Semitism that motivated my skepticism about the school's mission.

I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black.

Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill.

I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative.

I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children.

Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications.

And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no.

Whackadoodle. Learning English is not actively discouraged in English in Israel in any form or fashion. While not an official language, kids learn English from third grade on. Sela was not started by Israelis - it's founding group is Jewish-American and African American, who perhaps believe Israel has a right to exist - but are hardly apparatchiks. At least one of their founding members is active in Peace Now. Sela is exactly about celebrating word language and history - even uniformed trolls persist in demonizing the school for reasons unknown.

Get to know Hebrew Public, the nonprofit that helped start Sela and other Hebrew charter schools. Look at who funds it and why.

And if you want to boost Sela, why don't you start a new thread.

In the words of one critic of Hebrew Public "Hebrew is not a neutral language" - in other words, it's a religious language, and one which in its modern form is the national language of a religious state. It is unique and can't simply be seen as "celebrating world languages." However, since public schools can't teach religion, it's careful to be "secular". But is it political? Very much so.

Arabic is a religious language and a secular language. Chinese is a religious language and a secular language. Hindi is a religious language and a secular language. Your bizarre focus on Hebrew is telling.

[Anonymous]

Regarding the Sela posts, might some families be interested in not so much the everyday world usefulness of Hebrew or the potential religious application but simply the research about bilingual education for young children in general being advantageous in brain development. I have a kid who was fairly advanced coming out of her childcare preschool experince and we considered a bilingual PK program for that reason and to give her more of a challenge since she already knew a lot of what would be taught in English.

[Anonymous]

You may not care about the upper school PARCC scores, but they matter. CMI is responsible for educating every student enrolled -- not just the ones who started in the younger grades.

As an upper elementary parent considering CMI for middle, I actually care a lot about the upper school PARCC scores. The point I was trying to make was that since 6th grade expanded and the majority of the kids were new, I don't know if they showed improvement or not after their one year at CMI. Now that we have 6th grade scores to use as a baseline, if the 7th grade score doesn't show improvement, then that will be more concerning for me.