Modest Proposal: Moratorium on New DCPS/DC Public Charter Seats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

The latest WP article on failing schools delves in the difficulty of creating an environment for learning at one of its failing schools:

"Several former Ballou teachers told The Post they did not want to leave mid-year and felt bad about the consequences for students. But they said a number of problems drove them to leave, from student behavior and attendance issues to their own perception of a lack of support from the administration. They also raised questions about evaluations. Some veterans said that in previous years they had received high marks from administrators but this year they were given what they believe are arbitrarily low evaluation scores."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/one-dc-school-lost-more-than-a-quarter-of-its-teaching-staff-this-year/2017/05/28/e66c1cd8-34db-11e7-b4ee-434b6d506b37_story.html?utm_term=.c922574f1f8a

More:

"“I felt awful about it,” she said. “Before I started this job, I said I didn’t understand why anyone would quit mid-year. But being in it, you realize how long a year is because every single day feels like three.”

Ballou has about 930 students, and all qualify for free or reduced-price lunch because they live in poverty. Many come from homes where their parents didn’t go to college. The school ranks among the city’s lowest-performing high schools on core measures. Its graduation rate in the last school year, 57 percent, was second-lowest among regular high schools in the DCPS system.

In 2016, 3 percent of Ballou students tested met reading standards on citywide exams. Almost none met math standards."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf


For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf


For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

No, the scores follow the kid and are reported.

And most students don't move much from 3rd to 8th, and if they move it is into/out of DC. High school is where the greatest churn is (from the DME task force data).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf



For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

No, the scores follow the kid and are reported.

And most students don't move much from 3rd to 8th, and if they move it is into/out of DC. High school is where the greatest churn is (from the DME task force data).

So your telling me when a child moves school the scores follow them? Well that's another reason for Charters to not accept some children, if you're reading at a 3rd grader by middle and high how are you ever going to pass PARCC at grade level? DCPS teaches grade level Common Core curricula so the children are doomed, unless DCPS allows teachers to meet students were they are at. Which they are not allowed to do, it's "rigor" without an understanding that for children reading at an elem level at middle/high school any work at 6th grade level is rigor! Same with math, yet teachers all over DCPS held to same standards with no regard for the population or behavior levels that's why despite having highest pay scale in the area Principals and teachers keep leaving. Churn & burn, churn & burn, and leads to even more instability for kids who need the most support as is exemplified in this article. As most folks on DCUM do not have their children in schools such as Ballou it doesn't generate much interest. WOTP schools are much more stable, and it leads to the myth of the lousy lazy teacher stories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf



For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

No, the scores follow the kid and are reported.

And most students don't move much from 3rd to 8th, and if they move it is into/out of DC. High school is where the greatest churn is (from the DME task force data).

So your telling me when a child moves school the scores follow them? Well that's another reason for Charters to not accept some children, if you're reading at a 3rd grader by middle and high how are you ever going to pass PARCC at grade level? DCPS teaches grade level Common Core curricula so the children are doomed, unless DCPS allows teachers to meet students were they are at. Which they are not allowed to do, it's "rigor" without an understanding that for children reading at an elem level at middle/high school any work at 6th grade level is rigor! Same with math, yet teachers all over DCPS held to same standards with no regard for the population or behavior levels that's why despite having highest pay scale in the area Principals and teachers keep leaving. Churn & burn, churn & burn, and leads to even more instability for kids who need the most support as is exemplified in this article. As most folks on DCUM do not have their children in schools such as Ballou it doesn't generate much interest. WOTP schools are much more stable, and it leads to the myth of the lousy lazy teacher stories.

Charters take those that apply and whose numbers come up in the lottery. And they can't get their student records until AFTER enrollment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS isn't opening new schools anyway, so what you're calling for is a moratorium on charters. The city is going to add about 45,000 school-age kids in the next decade if Office of Planning is to be believed, and it looks like all of them are going to go to charters. So a moratorium on charters makes no sense.

It kinda does if you have DCPS and DC charter schools continually to be under enrolled "Except the sought after DCPS and DC charter schools". Remember so many D.C. kids go private and homeschool is on the rise especially EOTR. These 45,000 Kids expected to arrive are not going 100% charter. New schools arent the issue when schools are under enrolled. Students not attending them are the issue in both sectors. Lastly, at some point both sectors going to have to work together more as they both got strong points. Neither system "wants 100%" of the kids. Trust me on this as if DC Charters were the only school system in D.C. they would be having the same issue or worse than what DCPS deal with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There will always be some kind of achievement gap -,whether at charters, Wilson or across America. Perhaps we should focus more on making schools excellent, engaging and responsive to the students they serve than on closing a gap for groups of people that we've thrown into a definition.

That's why you need to track median growth percentile. You can see whether all students (advanced, struggling and in the middle) are improving and learning compared to where they were the previous year.

You can find this data now. But people believe the anecdotes more and behave like sheep.

Where does one find the median growth percentile?

For charters it is the first item on page 2 of each school's PMF report http://www.dcpcsb.org/report/school-quality-reports-pmf



For DCPS go to the DCPS school profile page and click into a school page. http://profiles.dcps.dc.gov/ Then click into the "scorecard" tab, and then click under "student progress"

It is PARCC based - percentage of students that improved from year to year relative to their previous scores. But more gives a different picture from just the percentage achieving 4 or 5.

Except it's not the same children, there is so much movement of students between schools, teachers, principals and DCPS initiatives that all the data is meaningless!

No, the scores follow the kid and are reported.

And most students don't move much from 3rd to 8th, and if they move it is into/out of DC. High school is where the greatest churn is (from the DME task force data).

So your telling me when a child moves school the scores follow them? Well that's another reason for Charters to not accept some children, if you're reading at a 3rd grader by middle and high how are you ever going to pass PARCC at grade level? DCPS teaches grade level Common Core curricula so the children are doomed, unless DCPS allows teachers to meet students were they are at. Which they are not allowed to do, it's "rigor" without an understanding that for children reading at an elem level at middle/high school any work at 6th grade level is rigor! Same with math, yet teachers all over DCPS held to same standards with no regard for the population or behavior levels that's why despite having highest pay scale in the area Principals and teachers keep leaving. Churn & burn, churn & burn, and leads to even more instability for kids who need the most support as is exemplified in this article. As most folks on DCUM do not have their children in schools such as Ballou it doesn't generate much interest. WOTP schools are much more stable, and it leads to the myth of the lousy lazy teacher stories.

Why do you say this is not allowed? Granted, I'm WOTP, but teachers are absolutely differentiating in our classrooms and bringing up the kids who are behind and accelerating the kids who are ready, willing, and able. Where is it written that this isn't allowed everywhere? I know some teachers/administrators resist it and won't do it, but that is not the same thing as not being allowed to do it.