Charter School Sit Down with Bowser and Niles

[Anonymous]

The Mayor and DME Niles should sit down with the charter schools with the longest waiting lists and ask:

1. What are you doing to serve more students?
2. If we provide you with more resources, will you serve more students?
3. How will you maintain or improve current quality as you move to serve more students?
4. What can we do to be helpful beyond providing more funding?
5. If we offered you a co-location opportunity within a DCPS school, would you take it? Why or why not?

[Anonymous]

Yes! Why can't this happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes! Why can't this happen?

They are doing a sit down somewhere I thought?

[Anonymous]

Why don't they do this? I feel like dc sometimes makes the lives of charter schools harder, doesn't offer them space, denies them equal funding, and let's low performing charters live on (Perry St Prep?). I think that it's time they realize lots of families would NOT be living in DC but for their charter school.

[Anonymous]

They should give a long, hard look at why it is that so many families are seeking out charters (whether immersion or other offerings) and look at what DCPS could solidly offer there. If DCPS wants to stay competetive and relevant to meaningful education rather than just continuing to be the default, the fall-back, the choice of last resort, then they need to start seriously looking at what it takes to attract and retain families. And for Bowser, she needs to be looking at it not as city services being provided but also attracting and retaining tax base that will help the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should give a long, hard look at why it is that so many families are seeking out charters (whether immersion or other offerings) and look at what DCPS could solidly offer there. If DCPS wants to stay competetive and relevant to meaningful education rather than just continuing to be the default, the fall-back, the choice of last resort, then they need to start seriously looking at what it takes to attract and retain families. And for Bowser, she needs to be looking at it not as city services being provided but also attracting and retaining tax base that will help the city.

The demographics of their IB school duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They should give a long, hard look at why it is that so many families are seeking out charters (whether immersion or other offerings) and look at what DCPS could solidly offer there. If DCPS wants to stay competetive and relevant to meaningful education rather than just continuing to be the default, the fall-back, the choice of last resort, then they need to start seriously looking at what it takes to attract and retain families. And for Bowser, she needs to be looking at it not as city services being provided but also attracting and retaining tax base that will help the city.

I think they (DCPS) is doing quite a bit to "stay competitive and relevant".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They should give a long, hard look at why it is that so many families are seeking out charters (whether immersion or other offerings) and look at what DCPS could solidly offer there. If DCPS wants to stay competetive and relevant to meaningful education rather than just continuing to be the default, the fall-back, the choice of last resort, then they need to start seriously looking at what it takes to attract and retain families. And for Bowser, she needs to be looking at it not as city services being provided but also attracting and retaining tax base that will help the city.

I think they (DCPS) is doing quite a bit to "stay competitive and relevant".

DC is barely even rolling out things like G&T programs. Families aren't seeing it. If DC offered something akin to a TJ there would be a lot of families that would flock to it.

[Anonymous]

Kaya doesn't want a sit down. Charters would replicate in a heart beat but there's no space and Kaya and the machine won't release any.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kaya doesn't want a sit down. Charters would replicate in a heart beat but there's no space and Kaya and the machine won't release any.

+1

[Anonymous]

Why does Kaya have to? She has nothing to do with Charters. Muriel or Nile can brief her on their expectations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Mayor and DME Niles should sit down with the charter schools with the longest waiting lists and ask:

1. What are you doing to serve more students?
2. If we provide you with more resources, will you serve more students?
3. How will you maintain or improve current quality as you move to serve more students?
4. What can we do to be helpful beyond providing more funding?
5. If we offered you a co-location opportunity within a DCPS school, would you take it? Why or why not?

Something like this would make a lot of sense in a city with a credible and competent Mayor who cares about quality public education. Given what we are seeing so far, I doubt that's what we have, so I doubt charter schools would engage.

[Anonymous]

I don't really follow some of this logic. The research does not suggest that making a school bigger improves it. I would think an effective charter worth its salt would be careful about expanding its grade cohort too dramatically. Charters exist because they want to be independent. I don't think most of them would look at colocation as a plus.

I am also concerned about giving more resources to charters, given the lack of transparency. Most high scoring charters have high SES students. The ones that get high scores with kids living in poverty, like KIPP, seem to be doing okay. (Google Richard Barth's salary).

[Anonymous]

If depends on the charter. Get rid of these low performing charters and redistribute the space. I'm looking at you Perry St prep and Center City PCS. I don't understand how Perry st was found to have questionable financial dealings and only lost the high school!

And I agree that bowser has been terrible thus far.

[Anonymous]

Excellent article in the Washington Post right now about charters in North Carolina. All about how charters are amplifying issues with segregation.