Last night’s open house at ITS

[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.

Of course it would change their mission! Changing their mission to genuinely include social justice is the point! Would that be such a bad thing?

Expertise in special needs can be acquired if the school is motivated to do so. And it doesn't necessarily require an expansion. A charter does not have to become a "special needs school" to do a better job serving special needs and at-risk students. A self-contained classroom is usually 4-8 kids. That's not really asking that much.

[Anonymous]

Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

It isn't really a mission change to just bulk up services a bit. A behavioral support self-contained classroom serving each grade level over 4 classrooms would mean adding 15-20 kids, like two per grade. Not that big a deal.

Why is this not already part of the mission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

Now you're just picking on them for nothing. They're not trying to provide ALL teacher training. Lots of organizations with their own niches do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

Serving kids with SN is most definitely part of the training resident teachers receive at ITS, and there are many additional staff members on the special ed team. There are teachers who've moved from the special ed team to lead gen ed classrooms, and they are excellent teachers (and train resident teachers, too). The PP says there are 16% of kids at ITS with SN, which is on track with most DCPS schools. I'm less familiar with those particular stats, but they seem about right. I hear that you want ITS to offer self-contained special ed classrooms, but that's pretty different than arguing that they don't train teachers to teach kids with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

Now you're just picking on them for nothing. They're not trying to provide ALL teacher training. Lots of organizations with their own niches do that.

If the claim is they are furthering social justice by training teachers for all of DCPS, then those teachers need special needs experience beyond Level I. If ITDS is training teachers only for affluent schools without a significant SN program, fine. But I don't see the social justice in that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

Now you're just picking on them for nothing. They're not trying to provide ALL teacher training. Lots of organizations with their own niches do that.

You're talking to more than one person.

I actually don't think ITS should necessarily add self-contained classrooms. I do think that teaching general education teachers to incorporate universal design and do inclusion in an outstanding way would be a huge contribution.

Teachers who want to get this now have to go back and get a master's in special education; it's barely taught in colleges. And for the charter 'subject expert' teachers who aren't coming through a formal training program, they may have no exposure at all. It is a HUGE problem in both traditional and charter schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

One of the areas of most needs for teacher professional development is training teachers how to work with diverse populations, including students with disabilities. So it should actually be right up their alley.

FWIW ITS has 16% students with SN. Most are Level 1, but they are on track with most DCPS schools, save for those with self-contained classrooms, who only serve students who are in general education classrooms with supports.

Great point. How can ITS claim to be serving DCPS with teacher training if special needs teaching is not part of their training?

Serving kids with SN is most definitely part of the training resident teachers receive at ITS, and there are many additional staff members on the special ed team. There are teachers who've moved from the special ed team to lead gen ed classrooms, and they are excellent teachers (and train resident teachers, too). The PP says there are 16% of kids at ITS with SN, which is on track with most DCPS schools. I'm less familiar with those particular stats, but they seem about right. I hear that you want ITS to offer self-contained special ed classrooms, but that's pretty different than arguing that they don't train teachers to teach kids with special needs.

Offering self-contained came up as a way to get a more diverse student body outside the lottery.

[Anonymous]

Here's my beef with ITS -- and it isn't really about them.

Supposedly excellent teachers matter so we can close the achievement gap - but ITS racial disparity gap is as wide as anyone's.

The white/black gap on PARCC ELA last year was 45%; the math gap was 55%.

So if I am a black parent living in Ward 5, I'm going to send my kid to DC Prep where they will be surrounded by children like them, most of whom are performing at or above grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

It isn't really a mission change to just bulk up services a bit. A behavioral support self-contained classroom serving each grade level over 4 classrooms would mean adding 15-20 kids, like two per grade. Not that big a deal.

Why is this not already part of the mission?

But this change - 15-20 students - would hardly move the at-risk numbers at all. And there is no space for 4 additional self-contained classrooms in the building. There are good ideas in this thread and some food for thought, but also some wishes that aren't realistic given the school's constraints and the ed landscape in DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Remember, ITS is actually ITDS -- it's a Demonstration School for the Center for Inspired Teaching (professional development for teachers all over the city and beyond). Thus, unlikely to change its mission.

It isn't really a mission change to just bulk up services a bit. A behavioral support self-contained classroom serving each grade level over 4 classrooms would mean adding 15-20 kids, like two per grade. Not that big a deal.

Why is this not already part of the mission?

But this change - 15-20 students - would hardly move the at-risk numbers at all. And there is no space for 4 additional self-contained classrooms in the building. There are good ideas in this thread and some food for thought, but also some wishes that aren't realistic given the school's constraints and the ed landscape in DC.

It would because it would bring in siblings.

If ITS wanted to offer it, they would have found a way. There is "no room" because that's what they chose when deciding what to do with the space they have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's my beef with ITS -- and it isn't really about them.

Supposedly excellent teachers matter so we can close the achievement gap - but ITS racial disparity gap is as wide as anyone's.

The white/black gap on PARCC ELA last year was 45%; the math gap was 55%.

So if I am a black parent living in Ward 5, I'm going to send my kid to DC Prep where they will be surrounded by children like them, most of whom are performing at or above grade level.

+10000. How can a school claim to support social justice yet have such a big gap?

[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.

Of course it would change their mission! Changing their mission to genuinely include social justice is the point! Would that be such a bad thing?

Expertise in special needs can be acquired if the school is motivated to do so. And it doesn't necessarily require an expansion. A charter does not have to become a "special needs school" to do a better job serving special needs and at-risk students. A self-contained classroom is usually 4-8 kids. That's not really asking that much.

Of course it's asking a lot. You have a pretty simplistic view of what a self-contained classroom means -- and do you also understand that you couldn't just shunt the special needs kids into a self-contained classroom? I mean, I think more resources for special needs kids is great, but you can't just snap your fingers and create this. The other measures suggested (outreach, wraparound services, an at-risk set aside) would make more sense and are more in line with ITS's existing capacities.

signed,
Mom with a kid with an IEP who doesn't think SN kids are just an afterthought that you can "expand" to include