Why is Washington Latin MS now a Tier 2 school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:44---I really find your antipathy towards Latin and its current head curious. If you don't want to send your DC to Latin, then don't. You are now starting to come across as if you have a definite anti-Latin agenda---such as a loyalty towards the school's first head, or boosterism for Hardy and Basis. Whatever it is, I am glad that you are not a fellow Latin parent.

I agree. I wish she would go away. She passed annoying pages ago.

[Anonymous]

The problem is that the pp obviously has an axe to grind and is looking at pure numbers to tell a story rather than valuing the actual in-the-school day to day experiences of parents and students. The best use of the standardized test scores as an evaluation tool for a school ( which they were never designed to be on their own ) is as a STARTING point. This under educated pp is using these stats to wrap up Latin as a failure and stick a bow on top. Someone truly interested in getting to the bottom of it--rather than some agenda--would then move on to listen to actual experiences, check out the curriculum, the teachers, the homework the enrichment opportunities etc. Etc/. But nope, for the lazy and weak it is easier to sit home and make a anonymous conjecture. Thanks for pointing out a trend with Latin's standardized test scores, pp. And thanks for giving your personal interpretation of what they mean. We got it. Please go away now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:22:44---I really find your antipathy towards Latin and its current head curious. If you don't want to send your DC to Latin, then don't. You are now starting to come across as if you have a definite anti-Latin agenda---such as a loyalty towards the school's first head, or boosterism for Hardy and Basis. Whatever it is, I am glad that you are not a fellow Latin parent.

+ 1 It will work out for everyone if you please, please don't send your child to Latin!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:22:44---I really find your antipathy towards Latin and its current head curious. If you don't want to send your DC to Latin, then don't. You are now starting to come across as if you have a definite anti-Latin agenda---such as a loyalty towards the school's first head, or boosterism for Hardy and Basis. Whatever it is, I am glad that you are not a fellow Latin parent.

+ 1 It will work out for everyone if you please, please don't send your child to Latin!

It will work out for everyone if people start saying Latin, Hardy and Basis. Like the sound of that now!!!!!!!!

Used to be Latin. Then Latin and Basis (except for the snooty Latin parents who say Basis is not in their league). And now we have Hardy.

The only argument anyone can make against Deal is their size. And some of the parents obviously feel superior to the rest of us. But I think they kind of have a right to.......... And thus they mostly stay in their own lane and watch us fight.

There are many more posters on this thread than you think, unless everyone's wife and husband is being drenched

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Letter from Head of School to parents dated November 2014:

Dear Latin families,

This morning the Mayor held a press conference at which the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) released their school ratings based on the 2013-14 Performance Management Framework (PMF). I was invited to attend, because once again Washington Latin’s Upper School is rated a Tier 1 high-performing school. The Middle School is Tier 2 this year for the first time, the middle rating of three possible levels. Earlier this fall, the Office of the State Superintendent for Education (OSSE) also issued its ratings: OSSE rated our Upper School a Rising School (the second of five ratings) and the Middle School a Reward School (the top rating).

These ratings reflect some important ways that DC charter schools are held to a high level of accountability. I want to provide you with information about these ratings, the assessments behind them, and what both say about Washington Latin. Here are several key points I want to highlight.

· Academic Achievement - Washington Latin remains among the top-performing schools in the District of Columbia on both Math and Reading on the DC CAS for the Upper and Middle Schools. In the Middle School, 77% of students were proficient or advanced in Math and 79% in Reading. In the Upper School, 70% of students were proficient or advanced in Math and 63% in Reading. We were especially pleased to see the improvement in Upper School Math, from 59% to 70% proficient over the last four years. This compares to 54% Math proficiency and 50% in Reading for all DC public school students.

· Academic Growth – Improvement in scores counts for a full 40% of the Performance Management Framework in the Middle School as opposed to 15% for the Upper School, where performance on the PSATs, SAT/ACTs and APs is also included. The primary reason for the Middle School Tier 2 rating was that our already high scores did not improve as much as hoped.



· Time at Latin improves student achievement – The longer students are at Latin, the better their academic performance on the DC CAS. Students who have been at Latin since 5th grade outscored more recently-enrolled students by 15 percentage points in Math and 16 points in Reading.

· Testing across DC will change this year – Because of the Common Core standards adopted by DC, the District will administer a new test which is aligned to the new standards. The new test is called the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and will first be administered in spring 2015. What our students learn in the classroom everyday will help prepare them for this new testing instrument. PARCC will be a stronger assessment in terms of measuring the kind of higher-order academic abilities that Latin is focused on. We believe this is a better test that will more accurately reflect where we are and how to improve our students’ learning. With higher standards, scores may well drop for all DC students initially, but the long-term expectation is that student achievement will grow with higher standards and goals.

It is not yet clear how either OSSE or PCSB will handle ratings during the transition to PARCC, as it will take time to score the tests and then determine the new “cut scores” for Proficient, Advanced, etc. We will keep you informed as we learn more!

Our Assessment Philosophy – We remain committed to our high academic standards for all students at Latin. I work in close partnership with Principal Diana Smith, Director of Academics Lacy Peale, and Director of Data and Assessment Ryan Benjamin to ensure a balance between teaching for success on assessments and teaching a classical curriculum at the core of our mission. In our continued effort to develop well-rounded learners, we do not measure student achievement based on one test but rather on a variety of tools including the DC CAS, Latin’s own academic indices, and standardized tests used nationally to assess college readiness (PSAT, SAT and Advanced Placement exams). Together this suite of assessment tools helps us ensure that we are addressing student needs and identifying areas requiring greater focus.

Implications for WLPCS

At Latin, we are serious about academics and recognize the benefits of a common form of evaluation across the District for all public school students. The DC CAS scores are helpful for comparing our program’s effectiveness with those of other schools and ensures that we continue to focus on improving the learning of all students. At the same time, we will continue to balance our liberal arts/ classical approach with the need to perform well on these tests. Testing data are important, but they are not the sole driver of our pedagogy and curriculum.

With that said, we are focusing on improving our growth, particularly in middle school, as we have done previously in the upper school. While the change to the new PARCC assessment makes this year especially challenging for arriving at academic metrics, we have set goals in our efforts to improve, including:

· MATHEMATICS - In order to prepare our students for the PARCC in Mathematics, students will take school-wide monthly assessments that mimic the PARCC questions. Each assessment will have 1-2 performance-based questions (open response) and 5-10 selected response questions. Teachers will grade according to the PARCC rubric, and administrators will use Schoolnet to measure achievement and growth on these assessments as the PARCC approaches.

· READING - We will create a reading assessment of multiple-choice questions based on the literature in the WLPCS curriculum. We will give these assessments to students in grades 5-11 at the beginning of November and then will include a similar assessment as part of the final exams in June for grades 7-11.

In terms of the rating change for the middle school, we believe this is a temporary shift and does not reflect a substantial change in the quality of our academic program or the focus of our teaching to the classical model. We expect that, with continued focus on academic excellence overall and attention paid to the new assessment, Washington Latin will again demonstrate the quality of our program with the highest ratings.

I hope you see our school as one where words matter, ideas matter, and people matter. We have high expectations, both behavioral and academic, for our faculty and staff and for our students. We remain committed to offering our challenging, classical education to our wonderfully diverse community and to being one of DC’s highest performing charter schools. Your ongoing partnership and support are important to our work as we move onward and upward!

Res Ipsa Loquitor.

Wonder what the motto of the school is.

Dismiss, deflect, distract, delay, deceive.......... and saved by the PARCC!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

As a Latin parent, I have to say that this has also concerned me for a while. I watched the scores drop and didn't quite understand why. My DC continued to do well, her friends did well, and most of the students in our "circle" continued to improve and thrive. It seems at one time they had a problem with retaining teachers. I think this has goten better now. Also, we can't dismiss the fact that BASIS really did take a good chunk of the higher achieving MS student away from Latin. Yes, Latin still had a waitlist and was still able to fill all of their seats, but the student pool were of lesser quality academically. I think now Latin has to work harder to catch those students up and it has really proven to be a challenge. Overall, Latin is still a great school and has been a perfect fit for our family, but I can see how a potential parent looking in would be concerned if they are only looking at DC CAS scores. But luckily for the parents that are concerned, there are now other great options for your kids. No need to beat up on Latin. Just send your child somewhere else.

[Anonymous]

As a parent of a child who is high achieving and had a choice between Basis and Latin, we chose Latin! So there to the folks who say the bright kids aren't going to Latin. We are thrilled to have our child starting at Latin!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a parent of a child who is high achieving and had a choice between Basis and Latin, we chose Latin! So there to the folks who say the bright kids aren't going to Latin. We are thrilled to have our child starting at Latin!

Not to derail the thread, but I'm confused how someone can have a choice--I thought you only get matched with a single school? Sorry if this is an ignorant question but we won't be entering the lottery until next year.

[Anonymous]

Got in to one with a very high waitlist number at the other. Just plain lucky.

[Anonymous]

So you got into BASIS and had a high waitlist number for Latin and when you go the call from Latin (because someone that got in to Latin decided to do something else-- or moved away, etc.), you took it and told BASIS you didn't want your BASIS spot anymore. Do I have that right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Interesting "dark ages" comment. Not sure what the PP is referring too. However, around 2010 quite a few high SES AA parents stopped sending the sons to Latin and began not considering applying due to the stereotyping that was occurring at the school (including comments made by Board members). This community started looking at Deal for which we are inbound and other schools both private and charter. It has developed the reputation in this community as only being a school that you can send your child if you can be present in the school on a daily or almost constant basis.

If you can, would you please elaborate on this statement. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you got into BASIS and had a high waitlist number for Latin and when you go the call from Latin (because someone that got in to Latin decided to do something else-- or moved away, etc.), you took it and told BASIS you didn't want your BASIS spot anymore. Do I have that right?

True!

[Anonymous]

Latins motto is "learn, those who are about to serve." Someone asked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So you got into BASIS and had a high waitlist number for Latin and when you go the call from Latin (because someone that got in to Latin decided to do something else-- or moved away, etc.), you took it and told BASIS you didn't want your BASIS spot anymore. Do I have that right?

No, we had to turn Basis down first, but our numbers at Latin were good enough that we hoped to get in. If our child hadn't moved up the list, we would have stayed at the current school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Latin parent, I have to say that this has also concerned me for a while. I watched the scores drop and didn't quite understand why. My DC continued to do well, her friends did well, and most of the students in our "circle" continued to improve and thrive. It seems at one time they had a problem with retaining teachers. I think this has goten better now. Also, we can't dismiss the fact that BASIS really did take a good chunk of the higher achieving MS student away from Latin. Yes, Latin still had a waitlist and was still able to fill all of their seats, but the student pool were of lesser quality academically. I think now Latin has to work harder to catch those students up and it has really proven to be a challenge. Overall, Latin is still a great school and has been a perfect fit for our family, but I can see how a potential parent looking in would be concerned if they are only looking at DC CAS scores. But luckily for the parents that are concerned, there are now other great options for your kids. No need to beat up on Latin. Just send your child somewhere else.

I honestly don't think there was much of a brain drain from Latin to Basis - except for really math and science oriented kids, whose parents might not have put them in Latin in the first place. Not all that many (maybe 15 max) kids from Latin left for Basis the first year it opened. They are very different schools.

Latin's decline in the percent of students scoring advanced and its decline in individual scores year over year started in 2011 and continued in 2012 - both years when Basis was not even open, so I don't think Basis can really be the explanation for a four year downward trend when they did not exist for the first two years. I also think Basis for its first two years (not this year) had very few white kids and a lot of FARMS kids while Latin has been moving in the other direction for a long time, which if you go by DCUM cw should have made all the scores rise not just the raw DC CAS scores..... The demographics at Basis year 3 are starting to look more like Latin but Basis has the improvement scores to satisfy the Charter Board and the number of kids scoring advanced went up in the two years they took the DC CAS.

I am glad you noticed the decline as a Latin parent though, because their letter seems on the verge of an outright lie to parents about what has been going on at the school and why they got dropped to Tier 2. And now they can just ignore it all because DC is moving on to the PARCC and it will take time to figure out accurate measurements there............ So unless parents say "hey, we are concerned about what was going on here...... what happened?" They will never have to explain themselves and I think they need to be required to because this was a serious decline at what is widely recognized as one of the best if not the best charter school in Washington DC - so to let their explanation stand is unfair to the kids and doesn't really make the administration respect you as parents who know what has actually been going on - who can see behind the "proficient plus advanced" scores and know that the explanation that it is hard to improve when you have been scoring so highly is false, especially because in their case they still had a long way to go in terms of how many kids could have become advanced............... and if Deal can do it, so should Latin.......

But I honestly don't see the Basis brain drain except for those few kids who know that what they want to do is math and science. It does give kids who don't get into Latin a place to go - and that is good............