New Charter Tier Rankings Are Out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So proud of DCB!

+1

Also, so very proud of Sela! They worked hard with Board meetings, staff meetings, professional input followed to the letter, and extra time & energy to bring up those scores. That "academic improvement" you see in their results is not by luck, chance, or coincidence -- they worked very hard with individual attention to every student to make sure that the school improved while providing a language-immersion environment.

Every school could learn from their example to make sure academic rigor is not at the expense of the child, learning a second language, or having an emotionally supportive environment!

Congrats, Sela!

Yay...redemption! Sela deserves the recognition.

x1000. Way to go Sela on combining language immersion with academic rigor. It's a great school. It went through a few bumps (that all new schools face!) and then flew over the last hurdles with grace!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So proud of DCB!

+1

Also, so very proud of Sela! They worked hard with Board meetings, staff meetings, professional input followed to the letter, and extra time & energy to bring up those scores. That "academic improvement" you see in their results is not by luck, chance, or coincidence -- they worked very hard with individual attention to every student to make sure that the school improved while providing a language-immersion environment.

Every school could learn from their example to make sure academic rigor is not at the expense of the child, learning a second language, or having an emotionally supportive environment!

Congrats, Sela!

Yay...redemption! Sela deserves the recognition.

x1000. Way to go Sela on combining language immersion with academic rigor. It's a great school. It went through a few bumps (that all new schools face!) and then flew over the last hurdles with grace!

Seal is not being scored on growth/PARCC yet right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a link that gets into the weeds of the PMF methodology?

Each school has their own framework to determine their score. You can see the different factors and how they did in the school's report, but as far as I know, the rest is not disclosed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

CMI is a public school and needs to move its students toward proficiency in the grade level standards. Tier 2 means they're doing ok at that. Not great, not awful.

All public schools do not need to fit into the same box.

CMI families are happy. The families do not want CMI to move its students towards proficiency or grade-level standards. As you said, they aren't doing awful -- they are doing just fine on academics and that is fine. Meanwhile, they do great on all the extras: art, drama, music, Spanish, Chinese, gardening, and outdoor space/time (including extra recesses this year) that other schools lack and that no one "tests."

Families that are looking for proficiency or grade-level standards (or a Tier 1 school) should look elsewhere and should expect to sacrifice the advantages of CMI for a less holistic environment. If you want the traditional "grade-level standards," there are a lot of schools that are already doing it.

[Anonymous]

Not to knock Sela, but they are being measured and evaluated against entirely different criteria than most (all?) of the other schools. I'm not sure about the PCSB's decision to assign tiers to schools that don't have PARRC results and don't understand why, for instance, Sela is tiered and Bridges is not.

[Anonymous]

ITS (test grade) parent here and I'm not all sunshine and rainbows about being tier 2. I looked at our report compared to MV (mostly because we opened same year). While PARCC scores, attendance are similar, ITS lags behind majorly when it comes to growth. This is the sole reason we're not tier 1. This concerns me. I know we had really good DCCAS scores 2 years ago, not sure if that hurts us. Anyhow, I have to say while I'm concerned, I am also pretty confidant with our new leader/principal for lower school. My major concern is that I see my kid's classmates applying to DCI, Basis and Latin to establish a high school feeder which has major downstream impacts on retention and cohesiveness.

Big congrats to MV and the other newly ranked tier 1s! Growth is a great thing for all the city!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a link that gets into the weeds of the PMF methodology?

Each school has their own framework to determine their score. You can see the different factors and how they did in the school's report, but as far as I know, the rest is not disclosed.

Nope. Each school has a set of criteria based on their age range, they are the same criteria for all schools in that age range. You can see the possible points for each section here, in LAMB's report as an example:

http://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/Latin%20American%20Montessori%20Bilingual%20PCS_EC_PK3-8_2016.pdf

So for a full elementary program like LAMB, student progress (test score growth) is 35%, Student Achievement (test scores) is 25%, Gateway (how returning do, it seems like) is 10%, and school environment (reenrollment, attendance, teacher observations) is 30%.

There are some school specific criteria listed at the end, but they are not part of the overall score, just listed for reference sake. So all schools are ranked using the exact same criteria.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeez, people make it sound like CMI is a bunch of hippie families sitting around hugging and talking about feelings.

My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night for homework. Then we ate granola and danced by the light of the moon with the other CMI families.

LOL. You make hippie sound like it is a bad word. My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night. I wrote to her teacher and said that we decided to do a family game night instead. Her teacher emailed me back and not only told me not to worry and that the homework was excused, but also added that family time and board games are more important for my child's development than a math worksheet. I don't think teachers outside of CMI excuse homework that easily, or understand the "whole child" concept as well.

Personally, I see hippie families as educated individuals who are willing to rebel against conventional values for the belief in something better. My stereotype of a "hippie" is someone who reads a lot, stays on top of the current events, protests against the corrupt, helps out the needy, recycles more than average (maybe even goes through the pain of cloth-diapering to save the landfills), and does their part to make the world a better place.

CMI is a bunch of hippie families and our students do spend a lot of time in the classroom sitting around talking about feelings, empathy, communication, adaptability, etc -- and that's not a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have a link that gets into the weeds of the PMF methodology?

Here you go - http://www.dcpcsb.org/performance-management-framework-pmf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to knock Sela, but they are being measured and evaluated against entirely different criteria than most (all?) of the other schools. I'm not sure about the PCSB's decision to assign tiers to schools that don't have PARRC results and don't understand why, for instance, Sela is tiered and Bridges is not.

I don't know, but Sela students do get tested every year -- not just PARCC. Sela has done a full-180 with its "new" director 3-years ago where academics, including a lot of one-on-one support, has become a focus. Dr. Natalie (the director) seems intent on making certain every student is an academic success while sticking to the language-immersion charter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ITS (test grade) parent here and I'm not all sunshine and rainbows about being tier 2. I looked at our report compared to MV (mostly because we opened same year). While PARCC scores, attendance are similar, ITS lags behind majorly when it comes to growth. This is the sole reason we're not tier 1. This concerns me. I know we had really good DCCAS scores 2 years ago, not sure if that hurts us. Anyhow, I have to say while I'm concerned, I am also pretty confidant with our new leader/principal for lower school. My major concern is that I see my kid's classmates applying to DCI, Basis and Latin to establish a high school feeder which has major downstream impacts on retention and cohesiveness.

Big congrats to MV and the other newly ranked tier 1s! Growth is a great thing for all the city!

+ 1 Congrats to MV -- that's my neighborhood school and they should be proud!

PP -- I'm in the same position, and I'm also be applying to DCI, BASIS, and Latin with all my kid's classmates. It's not just for the high-school feeder (that is a benefit to have as an option, but I plan on paying for private high school). I personally don't want my 8th grader in a nursery school with preschoolers. I want him to be competitive and ready for the private high schools we are considering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez, people make it sound like CMI is a bunch of hippie families sitting around hugging and talking about feelings.

My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night for homework. Then we ate granola and danced by the light of the moon with the other CMI families.

LOL. You make hippie sound like it is a bad word. My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night. I wrote to her teacher and said that we decided to do a family game night instead. Her teacher emailed me back and not only told me not to worry and that the homework was excused, but also added that family time and board games are more important for my child's development than a math worksheet. I don't think teachers outside of CMI excuse homework that easily, or understand the "whole child" concept as well.

Personally, I see hippie families as educated individuals who are willing to rebel against conventional values for the belief in something better. My stereotype of a "hippie" is someone who reads a lot, stays on top of the current events, protests against the corrupt, helps out the needy, recycles more than average (maybe even goes through the pain of cloth-diapering to save the landfills), and does their part to make the world a better place.

CMI is a bunch of hippie families and our students do spend a lot of time in the classroom sitting around talking about feelings, empathy, communication, adaptability, etc -- and that's not a bad thing.

Sounds great to me for pre-K to K, but not beyond.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeez, people make it sound like CMI is a bunch of hippie families sitting around hugging and talking about feelings.

My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night for homework. Then we ate granola and danced by the light of the moon with the other CMI families.

LOL. You make hippie sound like it is a bad word. My 1st grade child had a math worksheet last night. I wrote to her teacher and said that we decided to do a family game night instead. Her teacher emailed me back and not only told me not to worry and that the homework was excused, but also added that family time and board games are more important for my child's development than a math worksheet. I don't think teachers outside of CMI excuse homework that easily, or understand the "whole child" concept as well.

Personally, I see hippie families as educated individuals who are willing to rebel against conventional values for the belief in something better. My stereotype of a "hippie" is someone who reads a lot, stays on top of the current events, protests against the corrupt, helps out the needy, recycles more than average (maybe even goes through the pain of cloth-diapering to save the landfills), and does their part to make the world a better place.

CMI is a bunch of hippie families and our students do spend a lot of time in the classroom sitting around talking about feelings, empathy, communication, adaptability, etc -- and that's not a bad thing.

What kind of message are you sending your kid. When he grows up, do you think his boss is going to let him blow off an assignment like that? You may be raising a "well-adjusted" child but probably an unemployable one at that. Be a responsible parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not to knock Sela, but they are being measured and evaluated against entirely different criteria than most (all?) of the other schools. I'm not sure about the PCSB's decision to assign tiers to schools that don't have PARRC results and don't understand why, for instance, Sela is tiered and Bridges is not.

+1.

It's quite misleading for parents.

[Anonymous]

Didn't know you could be ranked without taking PARCC.and only on Pre3-2 scores. Are they only a pre school? Congrats anyway Sela.