Last night’s open house at ITS

[Anonymous]

If you have ideas for how ITS could recruit more low-income kids, please share. I would argue that one strategy is having open houses that don't particularly impress rich white parents of two-year-olds. Another is to accept children at ALL grade levels - PK3-8th grade - which many of the language immersion schools in the city do not do.

It's a numbers game. The most seats are available at PK3 at the school. There are more than a dozen kids applying for each available seat in PK3 and PK4. The school has done some outreach to apartments in Edgewood and at the RI Ave metro, but it is a really, really hard sell to convince a low-income family that they should learn about and fall in love with and preference ITS - even though their chance of getting in may be less than 10% - when their kid has a practically guaranteed seat at DC Prep up the street. (ITS had 245 PK3 kids on its waitlist after the lottery last year. DC Prep had 4.)

I'm trying to participate in this conversation in good faith, and I hear that you are frustrated, but there is no easy answer.

[Anonymous]

As for diversity, I believe that a number of charters including ITS have expressed some kind of support, at least in theory, for neighborhood and/or at-risk preferences, but that's not part of the lottery system yet.

I think schools that have had higher scores and Tier 1 status for longer than ITS (just Tier 1 this year and at the low end of the tier) have been better able to attract lower income families really looking for high-performing schools (as measured by test scores and closing achievement gap). I also think many upper income families in Ward 5 are perhaps very interested in the convenience of mid-high performing schools that are in their neighborhood but are not their neighborhood schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you have ideas for how ITS could recruit more low-income kids, please share. I would argue that one strategy is having open houses that don't particularly impress rich white parents of two-year-olds. Another is to accept children at ALL grade levels - PK3-8th grade - which many of the language immersion schools in the city do not do.

It's a numbers game. The most seats are available at PK3 at the school. There are more than a dozen kids applying for each available seat in PK3 and PK4. The school has done some outreach to apartments in Edgewood and at the RI Ave metro, but it is a really, really hard sell to convince a low-income family that they should learn about and fall in love with and preference ITS - even though their chance of getting in may be less than 10% - when their kid has a practically guaranteed seat at DC Prep up the street. (ITS had 245 PK3 kids on its waitlist after the lottery last year. DC Prep had 4.)

I'm trying to participate in this conversation in good faith, and I hear that you are frustrated, but there is no easy answer.

Recruit at churches and other places that serve the low-income community. A few apartment buildings is nowhere near enough.
Hire more social workers and offer wraparound services like laundry and showers for parents.
Tone down the yuppie culture and the school will be more appealing. If they don't like the school, maybe it should change to be more appealing to them. Real inclusivity means meeting people where they are. Hey can tell if you don't really want them.
Strengthen special needs programming and offer behavioral support programming so that you can qualify to serve level IV special needs.
Subsidized or free aftercare.

[Anonymous]

Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have ideas for how ITS could recruit more low-income kids, please share. I would argue that one strategy is having open houses that don't particularly impress rich white parents of two-year-olds. Another is to accept children at ALL grade levels - PK3-8th grade - which many of the language immersion schools in the city do not do.

It's a numbers game. The most seats are available at PK3 at the school. There are more than a dozen kids applying for each available seat in PK3 and PK4. The school has done some outreach to apartments in Edgewood and at the RI Ave metro, but it is a really, really hard sell to convince a low-income family that they should learn about and fall in love with and preference ITS - even though their chance of getting in may be less than 10% - when their kid has a practically guaranteed seat at DC Prep up the street. (ITS had 245 PK3 kids on its waitlist after the lottery last year. DC Prep had 4.)

I'm trying to participate in this conversation in good faith, and I hear that you are frustrated, but there is no easy answer.

Recruit at churches and other places that serve the low-income community. A few apartment buildings is nowhere near enough.
Hire more social workers and offer wraparound services like laundry and showers for parents.
Tone down the yuppie culture and the school will be more appealing. If they don't like the school, maybe it should change to be more appealing to them. Real inclusivity means meeting people where they are. Hey can tell if you don't really want them.
Strengthen special needs programming and offer behavioral support programming so that you can qualify to serve level IV special needs.
Subsidized or free aftercare.

Adding to what PP said. ITS should look at what DC Prep leads with.

25% more time in school
Free breakfast and lunch are clearly cited on the school website
PrepEx aftercare -- maximum of $180/month per child. After 2 children the third is free. They help parents apply for the DC Child Care subsidy to bring the cost down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

They could do this, but that would obviously change their mission. I don't think it's a great idea to just expand to include more special needs children if that doesn't already fit within their expertise. It would be fair for charters to take more Early Stages placements so there's parity with DCPS schools, but I don't think turning every charter into a special needs school is the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

Actually they can't -- but a charter school can apply to the DCPCSB for approval to offer a special needs preference for students with more hours on their IEPs who would be in self-contained classrooms for part or full days.

To claim this preerence a child must already have an IEP or an IFSP with sufficient hours.

The only charter who has this in place now is Bridges, although St Coletta's is working to get it now.

But there is no way for 'downtown' to place kids at a charter school outside the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Back to what makes people love ITS...
- I think when teachers are valued and empowered, they're better teachers
- For me, convenient location
- Social justice focus (as mentioned)
- Very diverse (in many ways) teaching staff and diverse (in many ways) families also
- Valuing social and emotional learning, play, and arts
- Willing to look at what's working and what isn't and make changes accordingly
- Full-time aftercare includes "no school day camp" on professional days and during school breaks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

They could do this, but that would obviously change their mission. I don't think it's a great idea to just expand to include more special needs children if that doesn't already fit within their expertise. It would be fair for charters to take more Early Stages placements so there's parity with DCPS schools, but I don't think turning every charter into a special needs school is the answer.

Early Stages is part of DCPS. They cannot place any student at a charter, because charters are their own LEAs. But a charter school that a student enters via the lottery must accept and carry out an Early Stages IEP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:From a parent perspective, the teacher training program is amazing. There are two teachers in nearly every classroom - in most cases, that includes an experienced master teacher and a learning resident teacher - and it's so valuable for kids to have both and to be able to see their teachers learn from each other and complement each other and work as a team. (PK3 and PK4 have a paraprofessional in each classroom in addition to the two teacher.)

I think the teaching and commitment to teacher excellence is what sets ITS apart - as a prospective parent, it wasn't something that was so much on my radar. But as someone who's been at the school for a number of years, it is the thing that I most value.

(And YES, an at-risk preference would be great and if that becomes an option in the lottery, I hope the school opts in.)

It's just annoying, as a Langley parent. We have a high poverty population and many live in Edgewood and would have had the right to attend school in the Inspired Teaching building if it were still Shaed. All his social justice stuff is BS if you donot actually serve the kids. Go om raising your hundreds of thousands of dollars for an already affluent school and dom't mind that your neighbors' school has all these challenges.

I hear you. I agree. The school landscape in DC is really complicated and there are many things that happened years ago - before any of our kids were born - that have implications for where we are now. We are all trying to make the best decisions we can in a system that is changing around us. One thing that ITS is doing is training teachers who then bring the Center for Inspired Teaching's practices and pedagogy to schools - public and charter - across DC. I think this is valuable. From everything I know, the school would like to serve a more economically diverse group of students. There is a lot about the lottery that makes this hard. I hope an at-risk preference is implemented.

Or maybe they want you to think that, but don't actually do the recruiting that would cause those kids to apply. That way ITS parents can feel good about "social justice" but have a yuppie school culture and good test scores too.

...Or maybe 15% At-Risk, and 25% Disadvantaged students allows the school to take care of those kids and the better-off kids best. Maybe there is a threshold of At-Risk and disadvantaged students beyond which the better-off families feel like their own kids are not properly served and flee, leading to a zero dollar PTA situation.

But that has consequences for the other schools who have to take everyone regardless of what works "best" for those who are admitted. Charter school navel gazing with no regard for the system as a whole.

Bring back your "the other schools who have to take everyone regardless of what works "best" " argument when every single DCPS school offers guaranteed PK3 to their in-bound children. Until then, charters are working very hard to create economically diverse schools in which everyone is thriving.

??? What on earth does guaranteed pk3 have to do with it? And how exactly are charters working very hard? They recruit only affluent students and kick out the difficult poor kids after count day.

It has a lot to do with it, because the middle-class families that you'd rather not see at ITS wouldn't be at ITS if their kid and every one of their kids' neighbors had a PK3 spot at their in-bound neighborhood DCPS. Just as discussed above, ITS isn't a magnet school for any particular offering to their students other than training teachers. I don't know about ITS, but my kids' charter doesn't kick anyone out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

They could do this, but that would obviously change their mission. I don't think it's a great idea to just expand to include more special needs children if that doesn't already fit within their expertise. It would be fair for charters to take more Early Stages placements so there's parity with DCPS schools, but I don't think turning every charter into a special needs school is the answer.

We're getting off track, but charters serve a similar sized population of special needs students as DCPS, and a higher percentage of those students are level 3 and 4 (See link - scroll downhttps://data.dcpcsb.org/stories/s/Student-Demographics/gwuv-6rba/)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

Actually they can't -- but a charter school can apply to the DCPCSB for approval to offer a special needs preference for students with more hours on their IEPs who would be in self-contained classrooms for part or full days.

To claim this preerence a child must already have an IEP or an IFSP with sufficient hours.

The only charter who has this in place now is Bridges, although St Coletta's is working to get it now.

But there is no way for 'downtown' to place kids at a charter school outside the lottery.

If ITS really wanted to serve more at-risk kids, a special needs preference is an example of how they could do it.

Read the MySchoolDC board minutes for this year's changes to post-lottery placements. As I understand it, post Count Day admissions are now running through a centralized process. It's pretty opaque how it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From a parent perspective, the teacher training program is amazing. There are two teachers in nearly every classroom - in most cases, that includes an experienced master teacher and a learning resident teacher - and it's so valuable for kids to have both and to be able to see their teachers learn from each other and complement each other and work as a team. (PK3 and PK4 have a paraprofessional in each classroom in addition to the two teacher.)

I think the teaching and commitment to teacher excellence is what sets ITS apart - as a prospective parent, it wasn't something that was so much on my radar. But as someone who's been at the school for a number of years, it is the thing that I most value.

(And YES, an at-risk preference would be great and if that becomes an option in the lottery, I hope the school opts in.)

It's just annoying, as a Langley parent. We have a high poverty population and many live in Edgewood and would have had the right to attend school in the Inspired Teaching building if it were still Shaed. All his social justice stuff is BS if you donot actually serve the kids. Go om raising your hundreds of thousands of dollars for an already affluent school and dom't mind that your neighbors' school has all these challenges.

I hear you. I agree. The school landscape in DC is really complicated and there are many things that happened years ago - before any of our kids were born - that have implications for where we are now. We are all trying to make the best decisions we can in a system that is changing around us. One thing that ITS is doing is training teachers who then bring the Center for Inspired Teaching's practices and pedagogy to schools - public and charter - across DC. I think this is valuable. From everything I know, the school would like to serve a more economically diverse group of students. There is a lot about the lottery that makes this hard. I hope an at-risk preference is implemented.

Or maybe they want you to think that, but don't actually do the recruiting that would cause those kids to apply. That way ITS parents can feel good about "social justice" but have a yuppie school culture and good test scores too.

...Or maybe 15% At-Risk, and 25% Disadvantaged students allows the school to take care of those kids and the better-off kids best. Maybe there is a threshold of At-Risk and disadvantaged students beyond which the better-off families feel like their own kids are not properly served and flee, leading to a zero dollar PTA situation.

But that has consequences for the other schools who have to take everyone regardless of what works "best" for those who are admitted. Charter school navel gazing with no regard for the system as a whole.

Bring back your "the other schools who have to take everyone regardless of what works "best" " argument when every single DCPS school offers guaranteed PK3 to their in-bound children. Until then, charters are working very hard to create economically diverse schools in which everyone is thriving.

??? What on earth does guaranteed pk3 have to do with it? And how exactly are charters working very hard? They recruit only affluent students and kick out the difficult poor kids after count day.

It has a lot to do with it, because the middle-class families that you'd rather not see at ITS wouldn't be at ITS if their kid and every one of their kids' neighbors had a PK3 spot at their in-bound neighborhood DCPS. Just as discussed above, ITS isn't a magnet school for any particular offering to their students other than training teachers. I don't know about ITS, but my kids' charter doesn't kick anyone out.

How would you know if they did? They "counsel" them out, or refuse to serve them by intentionally not offering a high enough level of special needs services. Oh no, too bad so sad, we just are incapable of doing it. Guess they'll have to go to a struggling, failing, under-resourced neighborhood school instead. So much better!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Back to what makes people love ITS...
- I think when teachers are valued and empowered, they're better teachers
- For me, convenient location
- Social justice focus (as mentioned)
- Very diverse (in many ways) teaching staff and diverse (in many ways) families also
- Valuing social and emotional learning, play, and arts
- Willing to look at what's working and what isn't and make changes accordingly
- Full-time aftercare includes "no school day camp" on professional days and during school breaks

Your whole list was making me roll my eyes and mutter blah blah blah, until I hit the bolded last item. OMG! I want my kid to go to there!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all kids are placed through the lottery. If ITS (or any school) really wanted more at-risk kids, it could operate more self-contilained SN classrooms and work with downtown for placements. Ask for more Early Stages spots and proactively backfill mid-year vacancies via downtown's placement process. It isn't really that hard. If the administration and parents really wanted to, they would have done it already. Happy Black History Month!

They could do this, but that would obviously change their mission. I don't think it's a great idea to just expand to include more special needs children if that doesn't already fit within their expertise. It would be fair for charters to take more Early Stages placements so there's parity with DCPS schools, but I don't think turning every charter into a special needs school is the answer.

We're getting off track, but charters serve a similar sized population of special needs students as DCPS, and a higher percentage of those students are level 3 and 4 (See link - scroll downhttps://data.dcpcsb.org/stories/s/Student-Demographics/gwuv-6rba/)

That's charters as a whole. Obviously. Rocketship, KIPP, Excel, Friendship, Eagle, St. Coletta's, etc., are making the average look acceptable, but on a per-school level it's really inequitable. It's in the PCSB's interest to promote the overall totals rather than the per-school data.