One World Charter School
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Anonymous
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Your point?
If you want to start a thread, you need to bring...something..... |
Anonymous
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What the hell do the people of Sidwell know about the families who live in DC? Seriously. Yeah, when they drive through the city from Ward 3 with tinted glass to get to work or maybe to see a museum downtown.
They realize that (gasp) poor kids will attend. Right? |
Anonymous
| Sounds like a stupid idea for a charter. If they want kids to attend Sidwell, they should expand the voucher system for poor kids instead of trying for a Sidwell "lite". Everyone knows what makes Sidwell, Sidwell, is the kids and families, ie POTUS kids, etc who attend it. |
Anonymous
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“The only difference between low-income kids and Sidwell kids is the exposure — exposure to arts, to music, to active dialogue, to questioning the world,”
hahahaha. The "only" difference is exposure? That is so sweet and naive. I want to know who's funding the "travel abroad" program for the kids who cannot "afford to pay full freight at Sidwell but would prefer a public school." |
Anonymous
Right. And with 90 minutes of art each day and Spanish and Chinese every week, where is the time dedicated to bring your average DC middle schooler to grade level proficiency in reading and writing and science and math? Expose away. Sidwell graduates go to Harvard and Yale. These kids will have a ticket to UDC (maybe) if academics aren't also a priority. |
Anonymous
Let's see what happens to the other High Achieving Charters if there is a new competitor in town. Will they cry foul or support it. There are only so many motivated students to go around, that is what's happening to DCPS - brain drain. It wouldn't matter, but if you are going to hold the school with the most difficult students to the same standards and then punish them when they are not successful by removing resources and funding, then you have a problem. Should be interesting. |
Anonymous
| They lied about letters of support in their charter application, according to this article. I don't think they will be getting approved... |
Anonymous
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We are a family that can afford Sidwell. We didn't apply because we don't want that kind of craziness for our child, how pompous of them to think that the "poor" children of DC could benefit by bringing Sidwell to the masses.
Some people don't WANT Sidwell. Ugh. |
Anonymous
This. Obnoxious move by the founders. |
Anonymous
| This is the most backward town ever. People are mad that a top private wants to open a charter school in a world where chapter applicants are numbering in to the 100s. Really? |
Anonymous
1. No one's angry. 2. It's not Sidwell that wants to open a charter school. It's former Sidwell associates--a former student, teacher... I think the founders are optimistically naive. While the arts and foreign languages are great assets to any child's education, it is not the only thing separating the DCPS student from that at Sidwell. Sidwell students walk in the door ready for the strong curriculum and with a few years of music and the arts already under their belts. They're reading on grade-level (if not above) and are ready to be challenged. Don't even get me started on the support and examples they have at home. Our DCPS student will walk into the door with SEVERE deficits. They'll need to be brought up to grade level. They'll have to teach the kids how to read before they can ask them to question what the hell it is that was read. If they could cherry-pick their students, they might have a chance. But they won't have the luxury. How will those Chinese classes go over for the kid who's absent more than present? I love the idea of the school, but believe these founders either a) didn't think this completely through or b)haven't visited DCPS schools to take a look at the students they'll be getting. Flubbing--or simply lying about?--the letters of support was a HUGE NO NO! That terrible move, along with being completely clueless about the population they serve would make me give this charter application a huge NO! Like, what else will they lie about after being in operation? And where's all the money supposed to come from? Most DC schools (which operate with a much larger budget) struggle to afford librarians and teachers for core subjects. Yet these neophytes expect to have a full state of the art library, Chinese AND Spanish teacher? I'm sure they'll quickly find those 90 minutes will be needed to help kids learn to read and do basic math. |
Anonymous
Totally agree. I think this is a very exciting idea on the part of these former Sidwell associates, and am eager to learn more about it. (And maybe a massive daily dose of art would help get middle schoolers in a place where they can focus on math, and everything else.) |
Anonymous
I agree they are naive but my opinion improved after reading their proposal which was more thought out. some issues that jumped out at me They plan to recruit from yu ying, lamb and other immersion schools as well as from general ed schools.But they only offer language 2 or 3 times a week, with no plan for how to handle teaching a population of kids where some will already speak a the language fluently. the 90 minute art block is held during their extended day (3 to 4:30) and will be taught by artists, not art teachers. sounds like a recipe for chaos since most artists don't have classroom management skills or can write a lesson plan. plus kids are at their worst behavior at the end of the day. They don't have plans for differentiated learning, just assume all the kids will come in able to read animal farm or persepolis. |
Anonymous
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No one in their right mind would start a charter at middle school. Even if the school attracts 50% high-involvement families, most of the kids come in with MANY deficits from every conceivable source. Some of the kids will have bounced around to different schools, some because they did horribly at current school, and others will be attracted because they are at an inferior IB school (and will have the academic gaps to prove it). Many of the "poor" kids who come from IB schools will have had no exposure to foreign language. "Here, take Spanish and Mandarin!"
I wish them luck as I do with all new charter ventures, but none of these will serve to create a cohesive, successful cohort of students. They advertise extended school day, but it will need to go until 5:30 or 6:00 to compensate for the 90 minutes/day of art combined with the huge academic deficits that will be streaming through the door. I hope that the charter board has a clear collective head about this and doesn't get dazzled into thinking this is a magic partnership. |