Why is it so hard to have a charter school approved in MoCo?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read the proposal for Global Gardens and thought it was great. It is based on Csikszentmihalyi's theory of emergent motivation/flow which centers on engaging children in meaningful, authentic work in order to increase motivation and achievement in school.

That sounds like so much goobledygook.

I'm an educator, and I agree - gobbledygook.

It's K-8 with an "IB" emphasis. But here's the problem. IB is a high school program for grades 11 and 12. PYP and MYP are philosophies only. MYP covers 6-10. The school, however, isn't authorized in MYP. So although PYP is great in many ways, it won't continue on up. So what's the sense?

So while I appreciate their effort, I'm wondering how disjointed the curriculum is.

People don't want gobbledygook. They want guides with backward mapping - and they want a focus. So if GG is preaching some aspect of IB, then show me the evidence that it's a comprehensive approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I read the proposal for Global Gardens and thought it was great. It is based on Csikszentmihalyi's theory of emergent motivation/flow which centers on engaging children in meaningful, authentic work in order to increase motivation and achievement in school.

That sounds like so much goobledygook.

The proposal for Global Gardens was not well done. It was confusing, full of jargon but without real substance, didn't articulate the message that the group was trying to go for or address how they would meet their vague goals .... just terrible.

I think they would have met with a lot of resistance from the board anyway, but it's a shame that so many people put so much effort into it with bad results. The perfect example of too many cooks and not enough professional leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would say another reason is that so many charter schools are run by people who have no business running a school. Many of them are incredible and wonderful, but they can also be a roll of the dice. Education is just too important to leave to unqualified people.

Yea, well, you can say that about Mo co!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

What makes you think charters are the answer? Only difference I can see is that people likely to enter lottery are able to speak and read English so you wouldn't have as many ESOL kids-would make for easier teaching.

Well they would offer additional options. I heard the lotteries can be tough to "win" so the more options you have for education that parents are happy with (in addition to the existing lottery opportunities), the better.
As to your 2nd point - having fewer ESOL kids in a class with my child who speaks fluent English would be a benefit to my child. This is not PC, perhaps, but it's a reality you acknowledge in that helping those children learn English at the same time they are learnign the rest of the material (a necessary thing since obviously they DO need to learn English) puts much greater demands on the teacher and therefore leaves less time/attention than would otherwise be the case for the rest of the students. So yes, I will admit that if i had the opportunity to get DD into a class w/ fewer ESOL kids than would be in her class at the local school, I would welcome that if it was a good program otherwise as well.

My kids didn't have ESOL kids in their classes and there MoCo experience was still a mind-numbing one. Don't blame it on those kids.

[Anonymous]

t's K-8 with an "IB" emphasis. But here's the problem. IB is a high school program for grades 11 and 12. PYP and MYP are philosophies only. MYP covers 6-10. The school, however, isn't authorized in MYP. So although PYP is great in many ways, it won't continue on up. So what's the sense?

I thought that the Washington International SChool is an IB school. Doesn't it go from elementary through high school?