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Why is Oyster Legal
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Anonymous
Yes, let's destroy one of the very few decent schools in DC. It is outrageous that an exception to the general mediocrity is allowed to survive! This is a much better way to spend our time, rather than improving other schools. |
Anonymous
Actually the spanish speaking children have the opportunity to learn to read and write in their native language... something that the American school system would not have otherwise taught them. |
Anonymous
| So you know first hand that they would not learn how to read and write in their own language! I know many people that live in the US and never attended an immersion school and they can read and write in their native language. |
Anonymous
| Well, this African American parent is not about to join some lawsuit to help privileged (and probably mostly white) DC parents get their precious kids into Oyster. Fine some other group to use. |
Anonymous
|
Oyster is obviously a hybrid, part neighborhood, part charter. You can't discontinue the neighbhorhood component without providing a new school and you can't eliminate the charter aspect and continue the program.
If the school satisfies the neighbhorhood definition and follows guidelines similar to other charter schools, then it's legal, at least to this layman. Now, is it fair that it's the only DCPS school with two teachers per classroom (except art and gym) through Grade 5? Of course not. |
Anonymous
Why do you especially need AA parents? |
Anonymous
"So many people" who complain don't understand the history of Oyster, the the neighborhood and probably haven't been to the school itself. The status of Oyster, should it be magnet or charter or whatever, has been argued over for years. Absorbing Adams (mostly black school with OOB kids for those who haven't done homework) brought up many of the legal, racial and economic issues our city has to deal with. Starting a lawsuit over a school born out of community activism (and sometimes in conflict with rich neighbors) is a complete waste of time and energy. Why not sue over Strong John Thompson for teaching Chinese in Chinatown? Or Tyler elementary for doing bilingual preschool on Capitol Hill? Or Lafayette (70%+ white kids) for letting the Fentys in? Before people get indignant about Oyster somehow denying them something, you might want to know that Oyster missed AYP 2 years in a row since Rhee has had her kids there and replaced the principal. And last year's math proficiency of 73% was nearly identitcal to Marie Reed just up the road with lots of Latinos and way more black kids than Oyster. I'm a black parent in DCPS. IMO there are things that are illegal, downright criminal, in our public education. But our family can't move and I don't want to wait for yet another lawsuit wasting my tax dollars. So my time and effort is focused on my neighborhood school which is not perfect. It also happens to be Oyster. There is a tone of Rhee-bashing and anti-Latino prejudice in the original post that has nothing to do with the 600 kids in our school. Making Oyster a magnet solves nothing in the long run and won't fix the high school crisis. Focus people, focus. Time to put away childish things. |
Anonymous
What is the name of your neighborhood school? I am guessing you did not win a slot there. I think you started this thread because you have ing better to do with your time. If you want your child to learn Spanish why don't you hire a nanny! |
Anonymous
LOL: At Marie Reed, the teachers take the tests for the kids. |
Anonymous
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What's funny about this is that Oyster is more economically and racially diverse than any of the other schools in high-income neighborhoods. Oyster has to have 50% Spanish-dominant students, and because of the neighborhood demographics, most of these kids come from out of boundary. That lottery is MUCH smaller than the English-dominant.
Because of this, the Oyster OOB lottery is the one that gives lower-income children the highest likelihood of getting into a top DC elementary school. Conversely, a school like Mann will treat all of the waitlisted children equally, and has no need to bring in OOB children to create a balance like Oyster needs to have. That's why Mann is overwhelmingly white and 3% FARMS, while Oyster is majority-minority and about 30% FARMS. OP's logic applies better to Mann, Lafayette, Key, and Hyde than to Oyster. |
Anonymous
Wow, that's a huge accusation. Are you basing it on inside information, or an assumption that a school that serves low income, children of color couldn't possibly be producing those results. And why on earth would one be laughing on that? I'm not sure which is worse, this accusation, or the idea that increasing the number of AA kids at Oyster would "ruin" the school. |
Anonymous
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Yeah, I see the problems in keeping Oyster a neighborhood school. It makes sense to make it a magnet program.
However, I'd like to point out that Oyster was there before the neighborhood gentrified. Not exactly fair to characterize it as if it were created for the purpose of providing an exclusive education to white Anglos. School predated the exclusive residents. |
Anonymous
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I taught at Oyster. The PP is absolutely correct. However, the original poster is getting at the reason the founding parents advocated for Oyster--and that parents today are fleeing in droves for charters. Parents and kids don't like 'one size fits all'--they crave specialized programs. Michelle Rhee should respond to that. Vis racial diversity--the vast majority of children in this city are AA. There are going to be schools that are more white, and schools that are more black. Oyster is not designed to keep black kids out (lots of Latino kids have African ancestry btw). It does allow anyone in-boundary (well-heeled usually in) and then does admit Spanish Speaking children based on maintaining a 50-50 language balance. The idea that this is on the level of maids servicing white houses is pretty ugly. Yes, some of the Latino kids are less wealthy--but they are not there to serve the white kids' learning; they also benefit from the Oyster program. There may be other ways to recruit, admittedly--but if you want transparent lottery admission...found a charter. If you want more specialized magnet DCPS programs, ask DC to open more true magnet schools like Walls. You may not like what you ask for though-- Walls reserves the right to turn down candidates based on interview, GPA etc...unlike charters.
BTW--Oyster is an interesting school; I would not however fall into the pity party that b/cause you cannot get in it must be the best, or b/cause there is a long line it must be good. Oyster is suffering as many body blows as any other school under Rhee, and the program (especially Middle School) needs lots of TLC. Good luck to you in your quest for more accessible language immersion or other specialized programming for all children.... |
Anonymous
| BTW, lest I create the opposite impression above...Oyster has well-heeled Spanish speaking/Latino children. Lots. |
Anonymous
Indeed. In fact, Oyster even has well-heeled Spanish speaking/ Latino children with African ancestry. |