WaPo opinion piece on charters
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Anonymous
| Jay Matthews no longer even lives here but tries to write about DC schools. Why is that? |
Anonymous
Isnt the reason they are around TO educate? Instead of expecting ALL schools to be ALL things to ALL people, im all in favor of specializing. Some charters are specific in their mission to reach specific populations. If some of these kids are being "left" in public schools, maybe public schools should focus on these hard to help kids with specialty programming. They certainly have the respurces. |
Anonymous
It's okay to "specialize" but it's not okay to avoid the hardest kids and claim higher performance. It isn't an apples to apples comparison and it's dishonest to say that it is. And when charters approach 50% of the school system, it produces a concentration of high-needs students in the traditional system that makes it more difficult for high-needs-concentration schools to function. |
Anonymous
you mean and every other well meaning UMC parent at our Title 1 school. All planned to bail before 5th grade of course, but now COVID DL has been a total disaster. the admins have always said this school is NOT for kids who are above grade level but they are really doubling down on this now. Most classes are just prerecorded videos. My kids class is being taught on the same level as last year. The mass exodus is going to be after 2nd and thid grade now |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
You still complaining about Bruce-Monroe? So charters can “specialize” but Dcps better not focus on kids who aren’t at grade level and leave your kid behind. |
Anonymous
I'm really perplexed at why the PP thinks these statistics help her cause. First of all, it's SY 17-18 data. Don't you think if more recent data made the charter sector look good, it would be publicized? They do love to toot their own horn. Second, this shows a higher percentage of at-risk kids, but at-risk is a huge category in DCPS and not all of those kids are actually living in poverty or especially hard to serve. And DCPS has more English Language Learners, which is challenging in its own way. Third, for special needs, this data includes adult-ed charters, so again it isn't really an apples to apples comparison. And even when adult-ed is included, the charter sector only had more kids in two of the four IEP categories, and it's only a little bit higher. DCPS has more of the highest level IEPs, and more total special needs overall. So really, this data a roughly even split at best. The bottom line is DCPS still had more kids with special needs, and that's with the charter sector counting its adult students. Most importantly, it doesn't consider DCPS' obligation to serve all kids at all times, having high-needs placements available immediately for whoever moves to the city or leaves their charter or gets expelled or pushed out or served so poorly that they leave. If the charter sector wants to take on some of that responsibility for guaranteeing capacity, that would be an interesting project. But until they do, it just isn't the same. |
Anonymous
Same. I’m now pro-voucher. Pro-charter. Anti-union. It’s a complete 180 for me. |
Anonymous
Please withdraw your child(ren) from DCPS as soon as possible. I hope you are attending EdFest next weekend to find the right charter for you! |
Anonymous
Everyone I know is planning to vote with their feet. This year has been a disgrace. |
Anonymous
That is what Building Hope exists to help with. They work with the schools that they see as the strongest. If they didn't accept someone's financing proposal, maybe it wasn't a strong application. DCPS has to purchase land and buildings too in certain areas. I've always been puzzled by the idea that DCPS has tons of unused space and is unreasonably refusing to give it up. DCPS needs swing spaces or it's really hard to renovate anything. A lot of the school buildings DCPS or the city owns are in awful condition. Slater and Langston, for example, were RFPd earlier this year, but I don't know if anyone even applied. You can total up unused classroom space, but it tends to be a handful of classrooms here and there, and typically not on the ground floor of a building as is required for preschool. Could you run a tiny little school in five or six rooms on the top floor of a DCPS building? Sure. But there aren't a lot of schools that want to. And a lot of the space that's currently vacant will be used in the future as DCPS schools continue to grow their enrollment. So a short-term lease of a few classrooms without much access to the larger spaces or outdoor space just isn't that appealing. If it works out, great. But it's hard to see that being a big part of the solution. The idea that DCPS should close its low-performing schools similarly doesn't make much sense. DCPS has a commitment to provide every student a by-right seat within a reasonable distance of their home (the distance varies by grade). They can only shut down a school if they have a plan for how to offer a by-right seat to every student, including all with IEPs. So there would have to be enough capacity close enough to every address-- not just now, but for years to come. DCPS has already consolidated a lot of its schools in the past two decades and has about maxed out what can be done in that area. There just aren't a lot of options left. And DCPS has to hold on to some capacity because if enrollment continues to grow, it will be very hard and expensive to figure out where to put kids if they sell off their buildings now. That is why they are hanging onto, for example, Spingarn. If a charter wanted to take on the responsibility of offering by-right seats that could be different. But remember, DCPS once did hand Dunbar over to an outside operator, and it didn't go well. Because offering by-right seats to all comers is a big part of what makes public education difficult. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/autonomy-considered-as-way-to-improve-dcs-struggling-dunbar-high-school/2014/01/11/05c836d2-7a06-11e3-8963-b4b654bcc9b2_story.html |
Anonymous
I hope you are right. I would love to see more OOB and diversity (racial and ses) in my upper NW school. I’m a teacher so other parents may not feel this way. But if you are right I hope it leads to better outcomes for all kids served by DCPS schools. |
Anonymous
| DCPS has always been terrible except a few rich schools. You choose to live in DC. So, you pay for private or figure it out. |
Anonymous
+1000 |
Anonymous
WTU has made a tremendous number of enemies through all this. |