basis woes
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Anonymous
Of course they do. |
Anonymous
That doesn't change the attrition rate. The attrition rate is strictly the percentage of students who started the year and left divided by those who started the year and finished. Successful marketing, and replacement of the some students who left does not change the attrition rate. It changes the enrollment numbers back in the school's favor, but it does nothing to change the attrition rate. |
Anonymous
| The attrition rate for DCPS schools is in excess of 40%. No charter has numbers anywhere near that bad. |
Anonymous
Not to automatically doubt your figure, but where is it from? The school my younger son attends certainly is nowhere near that number. From recent meetings I recall it's about 4% (virtually 0% if new arrivals are accounted for). If 40% is the average and our case at the lower end, then there would be schools with more like 60 or 70% attrition or even 100% to make the math work. If you're figure is indeed from somewhere and not entirely fabricated, then maybe it takes into account school closings (=100% attrition)? Over all I don't think it's useful to keep bashing the 10% attrition rate. I find that indeed something to be expected for a start-up. And knowing a little who headed its way, they may have a "hard to please" audience. The selectivity of the attrition is a little more worrisome and the inability of the school to make up for it, where it's supposedly the place everyone wants to go. I'm also troubled by the fact that the PCSB cited its management for not being forthcoming with requested data (see link posted previously). |
Anonymous
Over all, I'm not surprised when DCPS results suggest they are bilking the taxpayers of DC. However, it takes titanium bollocks to receive $13.7 million in taxpayer dollars for a couple of schools, graduate only 20% of the students (AFTER weeding out all the lower SES and FARMS children), and in the process spend $9.8 million of it on your own private enterprise. (links) |
Anonymous
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Stop with the 40% attrition number.
You can't compare the average of an entire school system to one charter school. Apples and oranges. A better comparison would be Latin to Basis. |
Anonymous
Yes, or Deal as well. If Basis wants to promote itself as a premier public MS it should post comparable numbers to Latin and Deal. |
Anonymous
| Welcome to the New World Order!!!!! |
Anonymous
I'd really like to see one of the Basis boosters address this issue with something other than "Yawn." How is this even possible - is Bernie Madoff on the Board of Trustees? |
Anonymous
Or the fact that frankly I'm tired after being a parent who did the hard ground work for an elementary school that is now the one hard to get in for PS, even if you are in bounds. We chose Latin for several reasons and one of them was that it already been open several years and had worked out some of the kinks. |
Anonymous
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Over all, I'm not surprised when DCPS results suggest they are bilking the taxpayers of DC. However, it takes titanium bollocks to receive $13.7 million in taxpayer dollars for a couple of schools, graduate only 20% of the students (AFTER weeding out all the lower SES and FARMS children), and in the process spend $9.8 million of it on your own private enterprise. (links) I'd really like to see one of the Basis boosters address this issue with something other than "Yawn." How is this even possible - is Bernie Madoff on the Board of Trustees? I am a parent of a child at BASIS DC and can only attest first hand to the quality of the teaching and curriculum at the school in DC. My child is doing well and having fun. As to the issues on management etc, I looked into the article posted at azcentral.com. The quote above about the 9.8million leaves out some details about the materials. As presented it sounds like 9.8 million for books and guidance documents. Apparently the 9.8 million covers teachers, administrators, books, curriculum design etc. I think more clarity is warranted and I am all for more local control. However, the quality is better in some areas than what I have seen when my children were at a JKLM school. So following the national BASIS model seems to be working so far. From the article: The Blocks later formed a separate, for-profit company and in 2009 signed a service agreement with the non-profit that provides Basis’ six schools with most everything they need to operate: school directors, teachers, accounting, technology, human resources, public relations and Michael and Olga Block. The non-profit signed a 10-year agreement with the Blocks’ company. Michael remained on the non-profit’s board as an unpaid director while Olga resigned from the board. Michael Block said the company, now employing about 500, was originally formed as a way around the state retirement system so employees would receive 401(k) accounts instead. In fiscal 2011, the non-profit paid the Blocks’ company $9.8million out of $13.7 million in total spending. Although playing dual roles, Block said as a board member, he refrains from voting on any matters related to his and his wife’s company. He feels his presence on the board is valuable. As co-founder of Basis schools, he brings a unique perspective to board discussions, he said. |
Anonymous
The fees are reduced or waived for families who cannot afford them. Teachers do not charge for student hours, a.k.a, office hours. The school day ends at 3:45 pm, and most teachers have student hours after school. The building closes officially at 6:00 pm. I don't know how many days a week they are required to have their official student hours, but it appears as if the teachers linger in their offices after school grading work, planning lessons and taking care of administrative matters, and they seem willing to have "unofficial" student other days of the week. |
Anonymous
It's not apples and oranges, because the typical DCPS school is losing that many. And no, it's not just dropout rates, they are losing thousands each year to charters because they are not meeting those childrens' needs. Again, the number is over 40%. If you don't like hearing it, then stop talking about attrition. |
Anonymous
Comparing attrition at BASIS to attrition at Deal would be unfair. Deal is a neighborhood school. People by houses approaching or exceeding $1 million to attend Janney-Deal-Wilson and are thus much more committed to making the school work. Comparing attrition at BASIS to attrition at Latin would be more reasonable, with the caveat that Latin has been around for years and thus should have much more stable enrollment. The PCSB tracks re-enrollment rates for all DC charters as part of its performance management framework. Here is how the re-enrollment rate is calculated: # of students enrolled both on 10/5 of last year and on 10/5 of this year ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ # of students enrolled on 10/5 of last year - # of those students who graduated or moved out of DC For details, please see page 32 of the PMF guidelines: http://www.dcpcsb.org/data/images/2010-2011%20pmf%20guidelines%2011_1_11.pdf According to the Post article, 443 kids were enrolled on 10/5/12 and 43 kids have left. We know BASIS added 17 kids after 10/5, but let's assume the worst and that all of the 43 who left were in the original cohort of 443, i.e., that the 43 who left does not include any of the 17 added after 10/5. So, at this point, 400 of the original cohort are enrolled, and if none of them leave before 10/5/13, the re-enrollment rate will be 400 / 443 = 90.3% So how about Washington Latin's re-enrollment rate. Well, interestingly enough, the most recent re-enrollment rate for the Latin MS is...wait for it...90.3% Thus, the attrition rate BASIS has seen thus far in its first year of operation is comparable to the attrition rate Latin saw last year after many years of operation. Furthermore, Latin's 90.3% exceeds the PCSB re-enrollment rate target of 57% to 90%, and Latin got 10 out of a possible 10 points on this leading indicator. Of course, if more kids from the original cohort at BASIS leave before 10/5/13, then the re-enrollment rate will drop below 90.3% The question is how much more will the re-enrollment rate drop? Only time will tell... Here is a sample of the re-enrollment rates of the other tier 1, i.e., best, DC charters serving 5th through 8th, excluding those that also serve PK through 4th: Achievement Prep: 86.3% Cesar Chavez: 73.5% DC Prep: 89.4% Howard University MS: 84.1% KIPP AIM: 88.1% KIPP KEY: 82.5% KIPP WILL: 85.7% Paul: 90.3% SEED: 84.9% Given these re-enrollment rates for tier 1 charters, it seems premature to make such a fuss over the attrition at BASIS. For BASIS's re-enrollment rate to hit 85%, it would have to lose an additional 23 from the original cohort. For BASIS's re-enrollment rate to hit 80%, it would have to lose 45 more from the original cohort. For BASIS's re-enrollment rate to hit Chavez's rate of 73.5%, BASIS would have to lose 74 more. P.S. The data can be found at http://www.dcpubliccharter.com/data/files/2013_Applications/DC-PCSB-PMF_Mar18-web.pdf. |
Anonymous
| Before anyone gets confused given PP's explanations, which are otherwise interesting and on point: attrition throughout the year is obviously not the same as re-enrollment figures, which are not yet known for Basis. |