Mundo Verde Public Charter: Failing on Its Most Basic Mission

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are okay with your child being subject to incessant bullying, physical abuse and receiving a woefully subpar education - all of which the school leadership is complicit - then this is the school for your greatest treasure(s).

My child came to Mundo Verde Public Charter School (Calle Ocho Campus) in the fall, eager for 2nd grade, excelling at math and ready to learn reading and writing. By October, we became alarmed by the reports of the abuse our child was receiving from another child. Everyday. Multiple times per day. No intervention. We gathered her teachers and key administrators to discuss why this was happening and what the school could do to stop it. It was alarming that no one seemed to actually see these acts of abuse until we brought it to light. Our child has attempted to defend herself (we’ve enrolled her in self-defense classes), and when she’s attempted to protect herself, she’s been told by the supervising adults she’s not allowed. The offense can be allowed, but not the defense? At one point, she was even told by one of the supervising adults that she and her attacker needed to make a promise to be friends. What?!

As we approach year’s end, not only is she not at a level to pass into 3rd grade, she’s regressed to where she was before the start of 2nd grade. She’s not meeting the minimum requirements for math. Her reading and writing has improved in English, but she’s not meeting the minimum requirements for reading and writing in Spanish.

Why? There’s been a revolving door of educators. The classrooms and the school overall is a cesspool of chaos. In our child’s classes alone, we lost her lead Spanish teacher in the first three months of the school year. Then, weeks later, her lead English teacher. Then her English fellow (secondary teacher). And at the point where we had six weeks left in the school year, her replacement lead English teacher departed. This coincided with the departure of her lead after-care teacher. The teachers have been sharing with us (the parent community) all year that they are not receiving the support and resources they need. Further, they tell us the school is making promises that the school then breaks.

So many of our fellow parents are having to now find and pay for tutoring to make up for the school’s failure to prepare the kids to progress to the next grade level.

And while it might be easy to point to our experience as a tiny blip in a long record of success for Mundo Verde, let’s look at how the student attrition is as alarming as the attrition rate for the school’s teachers.

During the school year 21/22, there were 30 students at the Calle Ocho campus and 36 students from the Cook campus that were admitted from the MySchoolDC lottery for 2nd grade alone. That’s a total of three entire classes of 2nd grade students across both campuses who left Mundo Verde, making way for kids on the waiting list. I’ve not seen any such influx of students receiving calls from the MySchoolDC Lottery wait list to join any other school.

Parents have written letters to the executive director and board of directors for the school. There’s never a response. There’s never an ounce of concern. There’s never a sense that they have a responsibility to uphold a mission for education to each and every student who walks through their doors. The school leadership knows that the moment 66 kids cycle out, there are 90 more just waiting for a seat at Mundo Verde. The leadership is an example of appalling arrogance.

Mundo Verde Public Charter School has completely lost its way and is an utter failure on its most basic mission.

lol congrats on choosing an anti-democratic school for your child.

[Anonymous]

Can you write to OSSE?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can you write to OSSE?

What is OSSE going to do about it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you write to OSSE?

What is OSSE going to do about it?

The school, OSSE, will not change. You can't have those expectations or you are foolish. Make your exit plan and find another school situation (private, move, lottery) ASAP.

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is a warped interpretation of restorative justice. We experienced it too. If a child is disruptive (in the older grades this takes the form of throwing chairs, dishes, etc) the child isn't made to leave the classroom. All of the other kids are asked to leave, and their learning is further disrupted. Kids threw big rocks on the playgrounds. One threw a laptop out the window. Some sent threatening notes to other students. The focus is on protecting and not shaming the perpetrator, to the detriment of the victim and the learning environment.

I'm sorry, OP, that you're experiencing this. We stuck it out for a while and left eventually, just like all of the other founding families we knew. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

I’m so sorry for your experience but this sounds exactly like my child’s experience in 2nd grade at the Cook campus, although there was not as much teacher turnover during the year. We got lucky in the lottery that year (thanks COVID) and were able to move to a much better immersion school. It’s unfortunate that things have not improved.

[Anonymous]

i feel so sad for the families that are lured in based on the rumors and false pictures painted during the open houses.

MV (and maybe other charters) need to be held to account for making false claims. During the MV open house, I remember an elaborate slide show of photos from field trips to Rock Creek Park (though I think they haven't been there in many many years), and our tour guide, when asked what the teacher turnover rate was, said something along the lines of "teachers are very happy and rarely leave." At the Bancroft DCPS open house when someone asked an identical question, the principal pulled out the data and said "86%"

it makes it so hard for parents to get a clear idea of what kind of school they are entering when the open houses are full of exaggerations and falsehoods... then you end up with someone like OP feeling so devasted. I have so many friends who entered MV with such high hopes and they are ALL gone now, and left very disgusted and disappointed.

How can this school be held to account?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:i feel so sad for the families that are lured in based on the rumors and false pictures painted during the open houses.

MV (and maybe other charters) need to be held to account for making false claims. During the MV open house, I remember an elaborate slide show of photos from field trips to Rock Creek Park (though I think they haven't been there in many many years), and our tour guide, when asked what the teacher turnover rate was, said something along the lines of "teachers are very happy and rarely leave." At the Bancroft DCPS open house when someone asked an identical question, the principal pulled out the data and said "86%"

it makes it so hard for parents to get a clear idea of what kind of school they are entering when the open houses are full of exaggerations and falsehoods... then you end up with someone like OP feeling so devasted. I have so many friends who entered MV with such high hopes and they are ALL gone now, and left very disgusted and disappointed.

How can this school be held to account?

There is really no accountability for charters short of egregiously bad test scores or outright fraud. But if MV parents would stop defending it and tell prospective parents the actual truth, that might help by damaging the school enough that the board intervenes.

[Anonymous]

They can’t be held to account. Families have been trying for years. There is just no accountability in the charter system. Mundo Verde’s reputation is getting out in the community, which is why they’re clearing waitlists in Kindergarten and up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is a warped interpretation of restorative justice. We experienced it too. If a child is disruptive (in the older grades this takes the form of throwing chairs, dishes, etc) the child isn't made to leave the classroom. All of the other kids are asked to leave, and their learning is further disrupted. Kids threw big rocks on the playgrounds. One threw a laptop out the window. Some sent threatening notes to other students. The focus is on protecting and not shaming the perpetrator, to the detriment of the victim and the learning environment.

I'm sorry, OP, that you're experiencing this. We stuck it out for a while and left eventually, just like all of the other founding families we knew. Good luck!

This isn't limited to MV. We're at a different charter and the school has made it very clear that the safety of the children isn't as important as making sure violent kids don't feel bad about themselves. DCPS as a whole makes it near impossible to suspend kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They can’t be held to account. Families have been trying for years. There is just no accountability in the charter system. Mundo Verde’s reputation is getting out in the community, which is why they’re clearing waitlists in Kindergarten and up.

This is such a tired and worn out line of thought. As if DCPS Central was all over underperforming schools, admins and teachers. Remember a few years ago when a JO Teacher was abusing and bullying kids and after much public outcry there was a public hearing where students bravely stood up and spoke about their experiences, and DCPS moved the teacher to SH...where those bullied kids were going to be! One could argue that at least with charters there is accountability because if enrollment drops they lose money. DCPS schools are not punished for enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, it is a warped interpretation of restorative justice. We experienced it too. If a child is disruptive (in the older grades this takes the form of throwing chairs, dishes, etc) the child isn't made to leave the classroom. All of the other kids are asked to leave, and their learning is further disrupted. Kids threw big rocks on the playgrounds. One threw a laptop out the window. Some sent threatening notes to other students. The focus is on protecting and not shaming the perpetrator, to the detriment of the victim and the learning environment.

I'm sorry, OP, that you're experiencing this. We stuck it out for a while and left eventually, just like all of the other founding families we knew. Good luck!

I think this is true across all of DCPS and charters. "Restorative Justice" means worrying more about the actor than his/her victim. To the extent there is any concern shown towards the victim, that concept of victim is narrowly construed to mean only the kids who was the recipient of violence and not all of the other kids who witnessed it. I understand the focus to ensure that suspensions and discipline are not disproportionately dispensed to black and brown kids (we know it is) but the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction where we are falling all over ourselves to pat ourselves on the back to show how enlightened we are by holding no behavior to account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can’t be held to account. Families have been trying for years. There is just no accountability in the charter system. Mundo Verde’s reputation is getting out in the community, which is why they’re clearing waitlists in Kindergarten and up.

This is such a tired and worn out line of thought. As if DCPS Central was all over underperforming schools, admins and teachers. Remember a few years ago when a JO Teacher was abusing and bullying kids and after much public outcry there was a public hearing where students bravely stood up and spoke about their experiences, and DCPS moved the teacher to SH...where those bullied kids were going to be! One could argue that at least with charters there is accountability because if enrollment drops they lose money. DCPS schools are not punished for enrollment.

In DCPS funding is connected to enrollment, just not on a tight per capita basis. But there absolutely is a financial consequence for enrollment loss. DCPS also has an ombudsperson, Instructional Superintendents, the LSAT groups, and sometimes more powerful PTOs than charters have. And DCPS leadership can fire the principal and APs if it wants to. At charters the board of the charter itself has some power but there aren't a lot of other places to turn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can’t be held to account. Families have been trying for years. There is just no accountability in the charter system. Mundo Verde’s reputation is getting out in the community, which is why they’re clearing waitlists in Kindergarten and up.

This is such a tired and worn out line of thought. As if DCPS Central was all over underperforming schools, admins and teachers. Remember a few years ago when a JO Teacher was abusing and bullying kids and after much public outcry there was a public hearing where students bravely stood up and spoke about their experiences, and DCPS moved the teacher to SH...where those bullied kids were going to be! One could argue that at least with charters there is accountability because if enrollment drops they lose money. DCPS schools are not punished for enrollment.

In DCPS funding is connected to enrollment, just not on a tight per capita basis. But there absolutely is a financial consequence for enrollment loss. DCPS also has an ombudsperson, Instructional Superintendents, the LSAT groups, and sometimes more powerful PTOs than charters have. And DCPS leadership can fire the principal and APs if it wants to. At charters the board of the charter itself has some power but there aren't a lot of other places to turn.

Plus political pressure if someone starts tagging Bowser on Twitter. It seems silly, but it’s effective.

And “it also happens elsewhere!” isn’t particularly relevant on a thread about what can be done at this charter. The suggestions to go to the charter board and OSSE are well intentioned, but bad advice. Because charters just don’t have accountability until test scores and enrollment numbers get egregiously bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They can’t be held to account. Families have been trying for years. There is just no accountability in the charter system. Mundo Verde’s reputation is getting out in the community, which is why they’re clearing waitlists in Kindergarten and up.

This is such a tired and worn out line of thought. As if DCPS Central was all over underperforming schools, admins and teachers. Remember a few years ago when a JO Teacher was abusing and bullying kids and after much public outcry there was a public hearing where students bravely stood up and spoke about their experiences, and DCPS moved the teacher to SH...where those bullied kids were going to be! One could argue that at least with charters there is accountability because if enrollment drops they lose money. DCPS schools are not punished for enrollment.

In DCPS funding is connected to enrollment, just not on a tight per capita basis. But there absolutely is a financial consequence for enrollment loss. DCPS also has an ombudsperson, Instructional Superintendents, the LSAT groups, and sometimes more powerful PTOs than charters have. And DCPS leadership can fire the principal and APs if it wants to. At charters the board of the charter itself has some power but there aren't a lot of other places to turn.

Plus political pressure if someone starts tagging Bowser on Twitter. It seems silly, but it’s effective.

And “it also happens elsewhere!” isn’t particularly relevant on a thread about what can be done at this charter. The suggestions to go to the charter board and OSSE are well intentioned, but bad advice. Because charters just don’t have accountability until test scores and enrollment numbers get egregiously bad.

Exactly. Yes, restorative justice is found across DCPS, but what really matters is how it is implemented, what sort of relationship the school personnel have with the kids. You can't build that bond with turn over like you have at MV and a complete absence of leadership and support.