Emma Brown in Washington Post -- Limiting Charter Schools

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that if everyone went to charters they'd be as bad as DCPS; because Charters don't take everyone they are able to work with the motivated, well-behaved, high achievers, and hard workers. Without DCPS you wouldn't have successful Charters!!!!

Not so. Charters are successful largely because they are freed from the dysfunctional central office mayhem of dcps. They can spend budget how they like, hire and fire who they like, limit class sizes, set whatever curriculum it school hours that work for their students and on and on. They can make decisions and implement quickly without interference. Makes them flexible and responsive to their students needs. There is a real difference in structure not just students

You forgot to add that charters are successful because they can kick out the rowdy, disruptive, unmotivated students. Well, they can kick them out after the head count.

Signed,

A Charter Parent.

What does DCPS do with its rowdy, disruptive, unmotivated students?

What do they do with them? Basically nothing. Look the other way. Ignore the bad behavior, the rowdiness, the talking in class. Take the kids who never do their homework and flunk every test and pass them on to the next grade even though they didn't learn anything and are now EVEN MORE unprepared for the next grade. Shrug when kids show up for class late, skip school, hang out in the bathroom. Don't call the cops when kids violently assault each other. That's what they do in DCPS. Ignore the problems and pass them through the system and then let them be society's problem in adulthood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You do realize that if everyone went to charters they'd be as bad as DCPS; because Charters don't take everyone they are able to work with the motivated, well-behaved, high achievers, and hard workers. Without DCPS you wouldn't have successful Charters!!!!

Not so. Charters are successful largely because they are freed from the dysfunctional central office mayhem of dcps. They can spend budget how they like, hire and fire who they like, limit class sizes, set whatever curriculum it school hours that work for their students and on and on. They can make decisions and implement quickly without interference. Makes them flexible and responsive to their students needs. There is a real difference in structure not just students

You forgot to add that charters are successful because they can kick out the rowdy, disruptive, unmotivated students. Well, they can kick them out after the head count.

Signed,

A Charter Parent.

What does DCPS do with its rowdy, disruptive, unmotivated students?

Actually, what DCPS already does with a good number of the most difficult of these children is send them to Options Public Charter School. Yup, you got it, a charter school focused on kids with behavioral and academic problems.

What do they do with them? Basically nothing. Look the other way. Ignore the bad behavior, the rowdiness, the talking in class. Take the kids who never do their homework and flunk every test and pass them on to the next grade even though they didn't learn anything and are now EVEN MORE unprepared for the next grade. Shrug when kids show up for class late, skip school, hang out in the bathroom. Don't call the cops when kids violently assault each other. That's what they do in DCPS. Ignore the problems and pass them through the system and then let them be society's problem in adulthood.

[Anonymous]

Actually, what DCPS already does with a good number of the most difficult of these children is send them to Options Public Charter School. Yup, you got it, a charter school focused on kids with behavioral and academic problems.

[Anonymous]

From talking to several public schools the bigger issue is the student exchange after the money audits. There is clear evidence that Charters remove/ encourage to leave a higher number of kids especially after the audit date for funds. Frankly, I would not put a moratorium, but would mandate that the money follow the kid wherever they go, when they go. What we may see then is a more equitable situation to enable a comparison.

But I also think the reality is that the highly desirable charters have been outlets for middle/upper class, often white parents not to use the local neighborhood school. I know in Brookland where I have lived for 10 years, I have yet to meet a parent that uses the local schools. They go out of boundary, charter or use the local catholic schools. In most cases these are middle class white and black families, but usually new to the neighborhood. I don't blame them, we ourselves opted out after visiting the school across the street because it came across as a NCLB drill and kill program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From talking to several public schools the bigger issue is the student exchange after the money audits. There is clear evidence that Charters remove/ encourage to leave a higher number of kids especially after the audit date for funds. Frankly, I would not put a moratorium, but would mandate that the money follow the kid wherever they go, when they go. What we may see then is a more equitable situation to enable a comparison.

But I also think the reality is that the highly desirable charters have been outlets for middle/upper class, often white parents not to use the local neighborhood school. I know in Brookland where I have lived for 10 years, I have yet to meet a parent that uses the local schools. They go out of boundary, charter or use the local catholic schools. In most cases these are middle class white and black families, but usually new to the neighborhood. I don't blame them, we ourselves opted out after visiting the school across the street because it came across as a NCLB drill and kill program.

DC public schools also overestimate the number of students they will have by about 2000 students every year and this estimate is the basis for the amount of money that DC public schools receive unlike charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, what DCPS already does with a good number of the most difficult of these children is send them to Options Public Charter School. Yup, you got it, a charter school focused on kids with behavioral and academic problems.

DCPS cannot send kids to a Charter, they can choose to go however.

[Anonymous]

Study shows significant midyear turnover among D.C. students
By Emma Brown, Published: February 12
Thousands of students move in and out of the District’s traditional and charter schools during the middle of the academic year, according to a new report scheduled for release Tuesday, a significant level of student transfer that raises broad questions about how the city’s public education is delivered and funded.

The report, from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, analyzes the movement of students in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade during the 2011-12 school year.

More than 6,200 students left traditional and charter schools between October 2011 and June 2012 and didn’t re-enroll in any D.C. public school, according to the report. Officials said they don’t know where those children went: They might have dropped out, moved to another jurisdiction, entered a private school or started home schooling.

Another 4,600 students entered city schools, also from points unknown. Most of them enrolled in traditional schools, which saw a net gain of 338 children over the course of the year. Fewer enrolled in charters during the year, which posted a net loss of nearly 2,000 students. The numbers exclude adult students and students with disabilities who use public funds to attend private schools.

“This almost looks like our admissions are rolling,” said Jeffrey Noel, OSSE’s director of data management, who helped produce the report based on a citywide database that records student enrollments and withdrawals. “Do we have education programs that are designed for this amount of monthly exit and entrance?”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/study-shows-significant-midyear-turnover-among-dc-students/2013/02/11/8e3b669c-7467-11e2-aa12-e6cf1d31106b_story.html

[Anonymous]

I would like to see the figures on transferring from charter to charter - I think those are likely much higher and can really kill a new school.

[Anonymous]

Charter to charter doesn't happen unless it's an "even exchange" and I'm not sure how a charter would even do this.

As I understand it, charter funding is based on children in seats at a given date in October. After this, individual schools have no motivation to let anyone new in should space open up. If the child moves out, however, they keep the funding and have an empty space.

[Anonymous]

Key paragraph:

Pearson said the report “bursts a number of myths about charters,” including the perception that charters push out large numbers of difficult students midyear, sending them into the traditional school system, which is required to take them. In 2011-12, 561 students — <b>less than 2 percent of total charter enrollment</b> — moved to traditional schools between October and June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charter to charter doesn't happen unless it's an "even exchange" and I'm not sure how a charter would even do this.

As I understand it, charter funding is based on children in seats at a given date in October. After this, individual schools have no motivation to let anyone new in should space open up. If the child moves out, however, they keep the funding and have an empty space.

I can't speak for other schools, but this is not true at Bridges. If there are open seats (even mid-year, say, because of a family moving), the Director will fill them. Even well after count day.

[Anonymous]

If it's just the troubled, unfocused, unmotivated et cetera, that DCPS complains about being left with, then that should be their primary focus. The earlier they start in correcting bad behavior, instilling good habits, work ethic, responsibility and motivation, the better. It only gets harder and harder the older they get.

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Charter to charter doesn't happen unless it's an "even exchange" and I'm not sure how a charter would even do this.

As I understand it, charter funding is based on children in seats at a given date in October. After this, individual schools have no motivation to let anyone new in should space open up. If the child moves out, however, they keep the funding and have an empty space.

I can't speak for other schools, but this is not true at Bridges. If there are open seats (even mid-year, say, because of a family moving), the Director will fill them. Even well after count day.

I understand that other charter leaders do the same to ensure full enrollment for the future, but this is not the rule. Charters generally also have the advantage of not filling certain grades if children leave, e.g. 6th and 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Actually, what DCPS already does with a good number of the most difficult of these children is send them to Options Public Charter School. Yup, you got it, a charter school focused on kids with behavioral and academic problems.

Actually, DCPS doesn't send children to Options PCS. It's usually the court system. (i.e. your "option" is juvenile incarceration or Options PCS). Options scored like 6% proficient on the DC-CAS last time around, I think, for what that's worth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS didn't meet the needs of the high achievers, the G&T, the motivated, et cetera. So now that's a set of needs they no longer need to think about, because most of their schools don't have to deal with it, as they've lost those students to the charters. Instead, they could narrow down and focus on the bad behavior and other issues in DCPS. But, they aren't. Frankly, I don't think DCPS really focuses at all on what's going on in their student body, or what kinds of needs they really need to be focusing on, i.e. the drug problems, the unmotivated, the behavior problems, the special needs. Their focus, by default, keeps getting narrower and narrower as various groups of students are stripped away, yet DCPS can't even seem to manage to meet the needs of that ever-narrowing group, either.

JKLM and Brent do pretty well with high achievers because their 6-figure PTAs and spunky principals see to it - at least DCPS has the good sense to largely stay out of their way. If only DCPS and the pols had the guts and vision to add much needed wings to the buildings of in-demand DCPS schools. Trailers and temporary buildings (more and more as time goes on) on the grounds of Murch and Lafayette for more than a decade is shameful. The boundary review and revision won't change anything beyond motivating more Upper NW parents to move to MoCo and Fairfax, and perhaps a few in SE around Brent.