Last night’s open house at ITS

[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?

Of course it's part of their training! They have a full set of special needs supports -- OT, SN teachers for age levels, and I assume they bring in PTs as needed. The question here is whether increasing ITS's population of special needs kids is the way to make the school more equitable. I think that's a pretty orthoganal and uninformed idea compared to the other ones.

[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?

Ok, so ITS achieves equity by expanding to include 20 severely disabled students? That doesn't even solve the problem we're talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

But if it's fine to place responsibility for self-contained classrooms, and everything that involves, on low-performing neighborhood schools, hlthen why can't a high-performing school like ITS be asked to so the same? Langley and its self-contained classrooms did not always exist. Langley was created after Shaed was closed, making way for Inspired Teachng to have the building. So if it can be created at Langley, why not at ITS? "Not part of the model" just means ITS doesn't want to deal with it.

[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?

Ok, so ITS achieves equity by expanding to include 20 severely disabled students? That doesn't even solve the problem we're talking about.

It would be more equitable and it would bring in siblings as well. It came up as an example of how charters choose not to serve at-risk kids, and how they can get more at-risk kids outside the lottery if they really want to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have ideas for how ITS could recruit more low-income kids, please share. I would argue that one strategy is having open houses that don't particularly impress rich white parents of two-year-olds. Another is to accept children at ALL grade levels - PK3-8th grade - which many of the language immersion schools in the city do not do.

It's a numbers game. The most seats are available at PK3 at the school. There are more than a dozen kids applying for each available seat in PK3 and PK4. The school has done some outreach to apartments in Edgewood and at the RI Ave metro, but it is a really, really hard sell to convince a low-income family that they should learn about and fall in love with and preference ITS - even though their chance of getting in may be less than 10% - when their kid has a practically guaranteed seat at DC Prep up the street. (ITS had 245 PK3 kids on its waitlist after the lottery last year. DC Prep had 4.)

I'm trying to participate in this conversation in good faith, and I hear that you are frustrated, but there is no easy answer.

Recruit at churches and other places that serve the low-income community. A few apartment buildings is nowhere near enough.
Hire more social workers and offer wraparound services like laundry and showers for parents.
Tone down the yuppie culture and the school will be more appealing. If they don't like the school, maybe it should change to be more appealing to them. Real inclusivity means meeting people where they are. Hey can tell if you don't really want them.
Strengthen special needs programming and offer behavioral support programming so that you can qualify to serve level IV special needs.
Subsidized or free aftercare.

Adding to what PP said. ITS should look at what DC Prep leads with.

25% more time in school
Free breakfast and lunch are clearly cited on the school website
PrepEx aftercare -- maximum of $180/month per child. After 2 children the third is free. They help parents apply for the DC Child Care subsidy to bring the cost down.

These are the only good suggestions in this thread. I know the Y offers subsidies for childcare, but trying to access them/find out if you qualify is too much of a process. I know some other schools offer a sliding scale. I really think ITS should figure out a way to offer that.

[Anonymous]

How about a bus service connectimg a less gentriied neighborhood?

[Anonymous]

ITS parent here - wanted to acknowledge the (at times tough) criticisms about how we can walk the walk more when it comes to our commitment to social justice. I know I'll keep these ideas in mind when talking to the school about their goals for funds raised by the family association and how they address concerns around recruitment, serving students and families with deeper needs, and more.

[Anonymous]

I just looked at the ITS demographics and given what I saw, I think some self-reflection is in order. And, I will just put it out there that I know a fair number of white, middle class to upper middle class families at ITS who are social justice types but still felt completely comfortable telling me they like being at ITS because there are so many families just like them. And - I am solidly upper middle class but I am not white. I was offended and they seemed clueless about why I would be offended. So much for their BLM week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

But if it's fine to place responsibility for self-contained classrooms, and everything that involves, on low-performing neighborhood schools, hlthen why can't a high-performing school like ITS be asked to so the same? Langley and its self-contained classrooms did not always exist. Langley was created after Shaed was closed, making way for Inspired Teachng to have the building. So if it can be created at Langley, why not at ITS? "Not part of the model" just means ITS doesn't want to deal with it.

I really don't understand why you're seizing on this issue. I don't think you know anything about how special education actually works and you're just using this as a straw man because you don't like ITS for some reason. Self-contained/specialized special needs programs are not concentrated in low-performing schools as far as I know. SWS has self contained classrooms and an autism program, and Hearst has an HFA program. ITS from everything I have heard has an appropriate percentage of IEPs indicating that they are not denying services, and they have a decent/strong reputation on the SN board here.

Maybe you're trying to make a point about the charter sector not having to share in all the expenses DCPS does? It's not a bad idea to make sure the charter sector contributes equally, but this is already happening through programs that specialize in higher needs students like St Colletas and Bridges. There are absolutely improvements to make, but not in the way you're suggesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked at the ITS demographics and given what I saw, I think some self-reflection is in order. And, I will just put it out there that I know a fair number of white, middle class to upper middle class families at ITS who are social justice types but still felt completely comfortable telling me they like being at ITS because there are so many families just like them. And - I am solidly upper middle class but I am not white. I was offended and they seemed clueless about why I would be offended. So much for their BLM week.

I get what you are saying -- however at the end of the day ITS is far more integrated than most schools upper class white kids attend in DC and nationally. Let's work on building that. I think the person who pointed out the acheivement gap was on to something. Unclear what ITS offers a striving low income family compared to DC Prep/KIPP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just looked at the ITS demographics and given what I saw, I think some self-reflection is in order. And, I will just put it out there that I know a fair number of white, middle class to upper middle class families at ITS who are social justice types but still felt completely comfortable telling me they like being at ITS because there are so many families just like them. And - I am solidly upper middle class but I am not white. I was offended and they seemed clueless about why I would be offended. So much for their BLM week.

I'm really sorry you have had that experience. I'd like to think I would immediately call fellow ITS parents out if they said something like that around me -- I'll keep your experience in mind to push me to do so even if/when it's hard.

[Anonymous]

New to DC Preschool, what does ITS stand for, what school is this? Thanks

[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.

BINGO!

[Anonymous]

I don’t think ITS offers anything in particular to a striving low-income family - and definitely less than many other schools, beyond even DC Prep/KIPP. And, I am not clear on their ability to handle the range of special needs that might be presented - they seem more limited on this - and The school certainly is not attracting the ELL population.

[Anonymous]

Is ITS really diverse? I am pretty sure most of the diversity resides in the middle school, where their is little diversity. I'd also like to point out that ITS is a demo school and they do support DCPS. Several of the best DCPS teachers come from ITS. Multiple ITS teachers have won DCPS awards and other national awards.