PARCC Scores for Charters

[Anonymous]

If these schools had a robust and integrated curriculum in math and literacy right from the start there would be no need to "teach to the test." Less focus on sight words, more focus on phonics, et cetera.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If these schools had a robust and integrated curriculum in math and literacy right from the start there would be no need to "teach to the test." Less focus on sight words, more focus on phonics, et cetera.

I think the jury is still out on these school, though. Anecdotally I've heard that some of the poor scoring is due to things like not teaching kids keyboarding skills, so it might not actually reflect the overall curriculum.

[Anonymous]

I will be honest: i could not give less of a shit about the achievement gap when picking a school. I care about it overall as much as the people who will write angry answers to this. We are both doing as much to solve the problem.

My children get top scores on those tests so they are learning. I was always good at taking tests and it's meant nothing in my job and even bringing it up as an adult seems weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest: i could not give less of a shit about the achievement gap when picking a school. I care about it overall as much as the people who will write angry answers to this. We are both doing as much to solve the problem.

My children get top scores on those tests so they are learning. I was always good at taking tests and it's meant nothing in my job and even bringing it up as an adult seems weird.

Here is why the achievement gap is worth noting: it means that the school factors are strong, rather than the parent factors (ie, that kids of good testers will be good testers.) A narrow achievement gap means that the school is doing something really good -- maybe the curriculum, maybe strong teachers, maybe supporting lower income parents. That is good for our kids, too.

[Anonymous]

^^^ YES

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will be honest: i could not give less of a shit about the achievement gap when picking a school. I care about it overall as much as the people who will write angry answers to this. We are both doing as much to solve the problem.

My children get top scores on those tests so they are learning. I was always good at taking tests and it's meant nothing in my job and even bringing it up as an adult seems weird.

Here is why the achievement gap is worth noting: it means that the school factors are strong, rather than the parent factors (ie, that kids of good testers will be good testers.) A narrow achievement gap means that the school is doing something really good -- maybe the curriculum, maybe strong teachers, maybe supporting lower income parents. That is good for our kids, too.

Exactly. And because I'm in a neighborhood school, I care about all my neighbors (not just my own kid). I also have no illusions that he'll just magically learn math and literacy.

[Anonymous]

I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

The city is changing. But 79% of students in DC's public schools - charters and DCPS combined - are economically at risk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

This just isn't true across by the board. There are non-title 1/low FARM schools that still have striking differences in scores for white children compared to children of color whereas the gap is not as prominent in other schools with similar demographics. From my observations there is a lot of academic supplementing going on by parents who tout progressive schools. Those who haven't caught on are out of luck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

This just isn't true across by the board. There are non-title 1/low FARM schools that still have striking differences in scores for white children compared to children of color whereas the gap is not as prominent in other schools with similar demographics. From my observations there is a lot of academic supplementing going on by parents who tout progressive schools. Those who haven't caught on are out of luck.

This! It took us longer than I care to admit to catch on and we are now playing catch-up with our MS kid. We're at a school that is highly sought after with a waitlist in the several hundreds. We trusted that the school was doing a good job educating our child and they weren't.

[Anonymous]

We went with a language immersion charter for 2 main reasons: (1) our IB school is terrible and we didn't want to move; and (2) language immersion. I do wish the PARCC scores were better, but I am not overly concerned about them at this point. I am not a fan of "teaching to the test" and while it may have a time and a place, it's not something I'd like for my child if given the choice. Having said all of this, if it turns out that our charter isn't a good fit for my child or we start to have concerns, we will reevaluate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

This just isn't true across by the board. There are non-title 1/low FARM schools that still have striking differences in scores for white children compared to children of color whereas the gap is not as prominent in other schools with similar demographics. From my observations there is a lot of academic supplementing going on by parents who tout progressive schools. Those who haven't caught on are out of luck.

You just reiterated my point in a different way. As I mentioned before socioeconomics are important but most important are enriching opportunities. You can have a white person and a black person on the same income level, at the same school in the same neighborhood. But if one person is providing enriching experiences for their child and the other person is not, then of course one child will show better test scores/school performance. People have to remember there are 24 hrs in a day, your child is in school for about 6.5-7 hours. There's lunch, recess, specials. etc. Which leaves about 3 hours ---maybe 4 hours of actual learning. You are your child's first teacher ---befote they start school and while they are in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went with a language immersion charter for 2 main reasons: (1) our IB school is terrible and we didn't want to move; and (2) language immersion. I do wish the PARCC scores were better, but I am not overly concerned about them at this point. I am not a fan of "teaching to the test" and while it may have a time and a place, it's not something I'd like for my child if given the choice. Having said all of this, if it turns out that our charter isn't a good fit for my child or we start to have concerns, we will reevaluate.

I don't think you can explain the PARCC score differences by claiming certain schools are "teaching to the test." The test measures basic proficiency levels in reading/english and math. Yes, you can teach good test taking skills, but if a majority of the students are doing poorly I would question the schools approach and academics. And to another PP point, if all I wanted my child to learn was what I could teach him at home then he'd be home schooled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We went with a language immersion charter for 2 main reasons: (1) our IB school is terrible and we didn't want to move; and (2) language immersion. I do wish the PARCC scores were better, but I am not overly concerned about them at this point. I am not a fan of "teaching to the test" and while it may have a time and a place, it's not something I'd like for my child if given the choice. Having said all of this, if it turns out that our charter isn't a good fit for my child or we start to have concerns, we will reevaluate.

I don't think you can explain the PARCC score differences by claiming certain schools are "teaching to the test." The test measures basic proficiency levels in reading/english and math. Yes, you can teach good test taking skills, but if a majority of the students are doing poorly I would question the schools approach and academics. And to another PP point, if all I wanted my child to learn was what I could teach him at home then he'd be home schooled.

This is not true - you can absolutely explain some PARCC score differences by schools teaching to the test. Look at the test material and at the day to day experiences in those schools - time devoted to science and social studies and topics not tested, time spent doing practice tests, time talking about test-taking strategies, and more - and see for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some posters have to remember that DC is predominately minority though quickly changing. DC in recent years has been in a surplus. The DC of today was very different from DC of yesteryear the 90s and early 2000s. More people are starting to send their children to public schools in DC (charters are considered public). Demographics matter when it comes to socioeconomics not race. People want to put their children in a school that is not too poor because then it starts to impact your children's education. Research has proven that middle class and upper middle class can absorb some poor students but if the demographics shift too far down, then no one benefits.

PARCC scores are important but working with your children at home and providing them with enriching opportunities are more important.

All schools struggle with PARCC schores especially when there is a high percentage of ELL, SPED and high FARMS students.

This just isn't true across by the board. There are non-title 1/low FARM schools that still have striking differences in scores for white children compared to children of color whereas the gap is not as prominent in other schools with similar demographics. From my observations there is a lot of academic supplementing going on by parents who tout progressive schools. Those who haven't caught on are out of luck.

This! It took us longer than I care to admit to catch on and we are now playing catch-up with our MS kid. We're at a school that is highly sought after with a waitlist in the several hundreds. We trusted that the school was doing a good job educating our child and they weren't.

Wish I knew if this was our school.

I honestly don’t think all charter schools are the same wrt how well they are teaching. At least I hope not. The wide variety of PARCC third grade scores would indicate major differences.

Thanks to the PP who pointed these out. The classes who have gone all the way through ITS have markedly better scores than students who transferred.