Petition to Change Sela Leadership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Academics are very important to our family so I’ll certainly be digging deep into this latest data. The school has received many accolades and awards over the years— which have been well-deserved in my opinion based on how my children are performing. My understanding is that the latest scores are focused on CAPE and grades 3-5. Unlike other language immersion programs, Sela admits students at all grades. 4th and 5th are small class sizes based on what I previously noted above about no feeder school, etc. I’m planning to dig into scores of students who have been at Sela for many years and those who just joined and took the test if this data is accessible.

I’ll also note that Sela meets students where they are and provides differentiation when needed. For example, if your child is a high performer, their needs will be met. If they are not, their needs are met as well through various formats. The administration has an open door and will sit down with you and discuss learning needs and whatever else you need in detail. They take feedback seriously and adjust as needed. That has been our experience. This anonymous petition, especially the approach of posting in this forum, is entirely the opposite of the school culture and experience we know and love. We don’t even know if this is coming from current parents, families who chose to leave, or a combination. Hope this information is helpful.

This is what all schools do, or at least are supposed to do. It's not something unique about Sela or anything to brag about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the latest comments. Sela has been a wonderful school and community for my children for many years. Lots of us are happy there and have chosen to stay, even without a feeder school for middle and high. Enrollment certainly drops off in the higher grades as some lottery into middle schools that start in 5th or move out of DC. The school has been actively working on a feeder school, but it’s challenging for many reasons. Also, Hebrew will never be the most popular language to learn. For us, we were open to any dual language program at a school where our children could thrive both academically and socially. Sela has been that place for us and many families. This petition was a shock to receive in my inbox this week and posting it here is simply ridiculous. Those hiding behind it won’t even reveal themselves to the school community. That’s telling in my opinion.

Why do you think Sela's growth stats are so low?

Understand that poor academic growth compounds year over year to pull down performance. If you love your school, and it sounds like you do, open your eyes.

If the group of people trying to take down the leadership, which is supposed to include staff, puts forth no theory of why the growth numbers are low, how is a parent going to know that? I've been happy there and my older kid did not struggle academically with the transition to middle school, and it doesn't seem like their friends did either. I can't speak about anyone else.

They could know by looking on DC School Report Card, where Sela scores in the 22nd percentile. If you're fine with that, great. But I can't look at that and say there's no problem here.

The median student grew at the 27th percentile in English and the 37th in math. You have no idea why. I have no idea why. And the people who are complaining about this have no idea why and no plan to improve this. As a parent, all I can tell you is that it's been a good school for my kids and I've had zero concerns about their test scores.

Well yay for you, but I'm concerned about all the kids not just my own.

Be concerned about anyone you want. This distracted mess of a petition does not answer those concerns.

[Anonymous]

I just reviewed the data in more detail. Sela’s academic achievement is quite good on the statewide assessments. It’s the growth scores that bring them down on the report card. It’s also easier to have growth when people need lots of improvement in subject areas. Personally, I find achievement quite important. Every family needs to weigh these points for themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just reviewed the data in more detail. Sela’s academic achievement is quite good on the statewide assessments. It’s the growth scores that bring them down on the report card. It’s also easier to have growth when people need lots of improvement in subject areas. Personally, I find achievement quite important. Every family needs to weigh these points for themselves.

The petition speaks of stagnating or declining academic performance, do you think that's accurate?

[Anonymous]

I think that petition is lacking all kinds of data and facts. I plan to dig in more on the growth scores, but in terms of achievement, Sela is doing quite well for DC and exponentially better than our inbound school. For that reason alone, I am happy to keep my children there for the time being. Sela is also well run and it’s a great community. My children love going there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that petition is lacking all kinds of data and facts. I plan to dig in more on the growth scores, but in terms of achievement, Sela is doing quite well for DC and exponentially better than our inbound school. For that reason alone, I am happy to keep my children there for the time being. Sela is also well run and it’s a great community. My children love going there.

It scored such a low percentile in total Accountability score, I'm really perplexed why you would say that. With which of the metrics do you diagree?

[Anonymous]

Half of the accountability score is based on growth. A third of it is based on achievement. Interpret as you will but it’s interesting growth is weighted so heavily. You can easily compare with other schools too. Sela is also a smaller school than most so the data set is smaller too. Again, you have to decide what’s important to you and best for your children when picking a school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Academics are very important to our family so I’ll certainly be digging deep into this latest data. The school has received many accolades and awards over the years— which have been well-deserved in my opinion based on how my children are performing. My understanding is that the latest scores are focused on CAPE and grades 3-5. Unlike other language immersion programs, Sela admits students at all grades. 4th and 5th are small class sizes based on what I previously noted above about no feeder school, etc. I’m planning to dig into scores of students who have been at Sela for many years and those who just joined and took the test if this data is accessible.

I’ll also note that Sela meets students where they are and provides differentiation when needed. For example, if your child is a high performer, their needs will be met. If they are not, their needs are met as well through various formats. The administration has an open door and will sit down with you and discuss learning needs and whatever else you need in detail. They take feedback seriously and adjust as needed. That has been our experience. This anonymous petition, especially the approach of posting in this forum, is entirely the opposite of the school culture and experience we know and love. We don’t even know if this is coming from current parents, families who chose to leave, or a combination. Hope this information is helpful.

This is what all schools do, or at least are supposed to do. It's not something unique about Sela or anything to brag about.

don’t have a kid at sela but came to say that all schools absolutely DO NOT do this and if sela is able to effectively do this, kudos to them

[Anonymous]

Exactly- they do this effectively. I haven’t heard of many DC charters doing it well and consistently. In some larger schools there are even group (meaning multiple family) parent/guardian-teacher conferences due to time constraints. I appreciate that Sela is able to spend time with each family and meet student needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exactly- they do this effectively. I haven’t heard of many DC charters doing it well and consistently. In some larger schools there are even group (meaning multiple family) parent/guardian-teacher conferences due to time constraints. I appreciate that Sela is able to spend time with each family and meet student needs.

If they do it effectively, why are the growth stats so low?

[Anonymous]

I don’t know why the growth scores are lower than some other schools. I also don’t understand what growth means on the DC Report Card. There are no detailed explanations provided. I think achievement is really important in determining how well a school is performing. Sela is doing well there compared with other language immersion charters. Our children’s’ learning needs are also met. If we were having a poor experience on that front, we’d certainly consider moving to another school. But as of now, we don’t think another charter would meet our kids’ academic or social needs better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t know why the growth scores are lower than some other schools. I also don’t understand what growth means on the DC Report Card. There are no detailed explanations provided. I think achievement is really important in determining how well a school is performing. Sela is doing well there compared with other language immersion charters. Our children’s’ learning needs are also met. If we were having a poor experience on that front, we’d certainly consider moving to another school. But as of now, we don’t think another charter would meet our kids’ academic or social needs better.

You can view the technical guide here. It has explanations of each metric. Basically growth is how each kid did on there CAPE compared to how that specific kid did last year, and then compared to how kids in the city did at large. The only way for Sela to have such poor growth scores while some kids are doing fine is for other kids to have almost no growth at all.

https://osse.dc.gov/page/dc-school-report-card-resource-library

Sela's math scores are also really low, they get almost no report card points for math.

[Anonymous]

Thank you! I look forward to reviewing in more detail. Personally the first thing I look at in a school is the achievement stats, not growth. Sela is a smaller school compared to many in the upper grades due to various reasons mentioned earlier and admits students in all grades— even up to 5th. We have had a great experience there for years— caring teachers, admins, and leaders who we know well.

The anonymous petition posted that started this whole thread is ridiculous. I don’t know anyone at Sela who agrees with its approach for any effective sort of change.

[Anonymous]

I'm no fan of anonymous petitions, but the attitude of some PPs here is also kind of tacky. To say "My child is doing well so it's fine" in the face of such terrible growth scores is sad. It's not fine, even if your individual child is doing well. Because the only way math produces such a low average is if other children are doing very poorly indeed.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think PPs aren’t concerned about other children. They are saying they aren’t aware of a problem based on their information, which is their child’s experience. Those stats seem to be hard to understand based on comments here about the stats and how to read them. It is perfectly reasonable that people can speak with authority re: their own experiences and refrain from opining on stats. Again, not sure what the point was of posting this petition on DCUM if it was already circulated at school. Also I understand Sela has open board meetings. Curios to know whether the petitioner’s author chose to show up in person to discuss concerns or if they are hiding behind the veil of anonymity.