term 2 charter school updates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

+100. I feel like charters are doing zero to prepare for in-person and are just leaving it to parents...

Yep. And everyone gets a pass on testing and charter reviews too. Feel free to underperform! Flexibility!

How about feel free to keep your staff safe??? How about let's not make teachers with kids at home they are likely in other schools not have to take leave or be forced to find outside childcare for their own children.
Distance Learning is NOT working well for my child. But the teachers are by no means slacking off or working less with my kids because their is not testing. If anything it is giving them more freedom to focus on actual learning vrs the testing.
Yeah, I would like to have safe hybrid class rotation for my children. I also don't want teachers forced to come in and out themselves & their families at risk. I know some would volunteer and that is great but now expected.

I am not saying they should be made to go back, but it seems like the charter board is abdicating its quality control responsibility more generally. There can still be quality control and review of distance learning, and schools should not get a pass on doing a good job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

+100. I feel like charters are doing zero to prepare for in-person and are just leaving it to parents...

Yep. And everyone gets a pass on testing and charter reviews too. Feel free to underperform! Flexibility!

How about feel free to keep your staff safe??? How about let's not make teachers with kids at home they are likely in other schools not have to take leave or be forced to find outside childcare for their own children.
Distance Learning is NOT working well for my child. But the teachers are by no means slacking off or working less with my kids because their is not testing. If anything it is giving them more freedom to focus on actual learning vrs the testing.
Yeah, I would like to have safe hybrid class rotation for my children. I also don't want teachers forced to come in and out themselves & their families at risk. I know some would volunteer and that is great but now expected.

I am not saying they should be made to go back, but it seems like the charter board is abdicating its quality control responsibility more generally. There can still be quality control and review of distance learning, and schools should not get a pass on doing a good job.

Can you say more about this? My kids' school is doing assessments, requiring daily attendance and participation, etc. What is changing from DCPCSB? I just did a scan of their website and didn't see anything. thanks!

[Anonymous]

KIPP teachers are not wanting to come back either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

Are you so blind with "Charter Rage" and "WTU Rage" that you can't see the internal inconsistency and stupidity of your argument? Your argument appears to be that the WTU is controlling DCPS and are to blame for not going back in full. Charters are making a similar or more restrictive decision and instead of seeing that as evidence that DCPS's decision might not be the WTU's fault, you somehow conclude that this is evidence of charters making a poor decision. Do you see how your conclusion is your argument? You remind me of conservative commentators who complain about the "liberal NYT" and dismiss everything they don't like but occasionally likes something and cites it with glee saying "even the liberal NYT".

[Anonymous]

Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

I think the issue here is that childcare for this age group is a massive challenge. You cannot work with a 3 year old at your heels all day, and the costs of childcare has soared. This is a significant issue that impacts whole families.

To that end I wish the city would be more strategic and open schools for PK-2 and leave 3-5 to DL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

+100. I feel like charters are doing zero to prepare for in-person and are just leaving it to parents...

Yep. And everyone gets a pass on testing and charter reviews too. Feel free to underperform! Flexibility!

How about feel free to keep your staff safe??? How about let's not make teachers with kids at home they are likely in other schools not have to take leave or be forced to find outside childcare for their own children.
Distance Learning is NOT working well for my child. But the teachers are by no means slacking off or working less with my kids because their is not testing. If anything it is giving them more freedom to focus on actual learning vrs the testing.
Yeah, I would like to have safe hybrid class rotation for my children. I also don't want teachers forced to come in and out themselves & their families at risk. I know some would volunteer and that is great but now expected.

I am not saying they should be made to go back, but it seems like the charter board is abdicating its quality control responsibility more generally. There can still be quality control and review of distance learning, and schools should not get a pass on doing a good job.

Can you say more about this? My kids' school is doing assessments, requiring daily attendance and participation, etc. What is changing from DCPCSB? I just did a scan of their website and didn't see anything. thanks!

https://dcpcsb.org/covid-19-impact-policy

They just took a pass on collecting and publishing quality data in general. Really, really unhelpful to families trying to make decisions. "DC PCSB will cease collection, aggregation, and publication of academic data for school year (SY) 2019-20 and will not produce a School Quality Report (also known as the Performance Management Framework, or PMF) for SY 2019-20."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

Are you so blind with "Charter Rage" and "WTU Rage" that you can't see the internal inconsistency and stupidity of your argument? Your argument appears to be that the WTU is controlling DCPS and are to blame for not going back in full. Charters are making a similar or more restrictive decision and instead of seeing that as evidence that DCPS's decision might not be the WTU's fault, you somehow conclude that this is evidence of charters making a poor decision. Do you see how your conclusion is your argument? You remind me of conservative commentators who complain about the "liberal NYT" and dismiss everything they don't like but occasionally likes something and cites it with glee saying "even the liberal NYT".

It would seem to be you who is enraged. I am arguing that *if* the WTU is stopping DCPS from going back to any in-person instruction, then one might expect charter schools to be offering more. Which they aren't. DCPS is offering at least something in person for some kids, and many charters are offering no in-person for anyone at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

Was this a recent survey? I'd be shocked if a survey today showed that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

+100. I feel like charters are doing zero to prepare for in-person and are just leaving it to parents...

Yep. And everyone gets a pass on testing and charter reviews too. Feel free to underperform! Flexibility!

How about feel free to keep your staff safe??? How about let's not make teachers with kids at home they are likely in other schools not have to take leave or be forced to find outside childcare for their own children.
Distance Learning is NOT working well for my child. But the teachers are by no means slacking off or working less with my kids because their is not testing. If anything it is giving them more freedom to focus on actual learning vrs the testing.
Yeah, I would like to have safe hybrid class rotation for my children. I also don't want teachers forced to come in and out themselves & their families at risk. I know some would volunteer and that is great but now expected.

I am not saying they should be made to go back, but it seems like the charter board is abdicating its quality control responsibility more generally. There can still be quality control and review of distance learning, and schools should not get a pass on doing a good job.

Can you say more about this? My kids' school is doing assessments, requiring daily attendance and participation, etc. What is changing from DCPCSB? I just did a scan of their website and didn't see anything. thanks!

https://dcpcsb.org/covid-19-impact-policy

They just took a pass on collecting and publishing quality data in general. Really, really unhelpful to families trying to make decisions. "DC PCSB will cease collection, aggregation, and publication of academic data for school year (SY) 2019-20 and will not produce a School Quality Report (also known as the Performance Management Framework, or PMF) for SY 2019-20."

I thought you mean for the current school year. A lot of districts suspended assessments for last year, right? and, not really sure how to apply old frameworks to a year that was half in person and half remote learning when no one had a clue of what to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

+100. I feel like charters are doing zero to prepare for in-person and are just leaving it to parents...

Yep. And everyone gets a pass on testing and charter reviews too. Feel free to underperform! Flexibility!

How about feel free to keep your staff safe??? How about let's not make teachers with kids at home they are likely in other schools not have to take leave or be forced to find outside childcare for their own children.
Distance Learning is NOT working well for my child. But the teachers are by no means slacking off or working less with my kids because their is not testing. If anything it is giving them more freedom to focus on actual learning vrs the testing.
Yeah, I would like to have safe hybrid class rotation for my children. I also don't want teachers forced to come in and out themselves & their families at risk. I know some would volunteer and that is great but now expected.

I am not saying they should be made to go back, but it seems like the charter board is abdicating its quality control responsibility more generally. There can still be quality control and review of distance learning, and schools should not get a pass on doing a good job.

Can you say more about this? My kids' school is doing assessments, requiring daily attendance and participation, etc. What is changing from DCPCSB? I just did a scan of their website and didn't see anything. thanks!

https://dcpcsb.org/covid-19-impact-policy

They just took a pass on collecting and publishing quality data in general. Really, really unhelpful to families trying to make decisions. "DC PCSB will cease collection, aggregation, and publication of academic data for school year (SY) 2019-20 and will not produce a School Quality Report (also known as the Performance Management Framework, or PMF) for SY 2019-20."

I thought you mean for the current school year. A lot of districts suspended assessments for last year, right? and, not really sure how to apply old frameworks to a year that was half in person and half remote learning when no one had a clue of what to do.

I'm not sure about this year, but I do know that they're giving schools that are up for charter review or renewal an extra year to meet the criteria for staying open. So we'll have some low-performing schools that would have been shut down, allowed to continue. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

Was this a recent survey? I'd be shocked if a survey today showed that.

I am in no way surprised that you would "be shocked" that survey results would show the opposite of your belief. That's the problem with your feedback loop. The survey was conducted within the past 21 days.

I do not doubt your belief that you want your kids back in school. And I do not doubt that you have friends who agree with you. And I do not doubt that DCUM feeds into your belief that this is a no-brainer. But it turns out that the data (at least at our charter) doesn't agree with your expectation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ITS announced today that they will not be bringing anyone back in November, which they had previously said was the plan. Except maaaaybe some with special needs. No new date.

I’m disappointed about this but need to point out they always said they’d be reevaluating the November decision so it was never to be considered a firm plan. But I was really really hoping for it.

I was hoping for at least a bit of preschool, and would happily sacrifice two days of the DL preschool to have two days in person. But it was clear that the teachers had not been told anything and there was never really much of a plan. Meh.

I am disappointed that charters in general are not offering more. What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union? DCPS is at least attempting to go forward with serving high needs kids and providing childcare that some families will probably really appreciate.

Are you so blind with "Charter Rage" and "WTU Rage" that you can't see the internal inconsistency and stupidity of your argument? Your argument appears to be that the WTU is controlling DCPS and are to blame for not going back in full. Charters are making a similar or more restrictive decision and instead of seeing that as evidence that DCPS's decision might not be the WTU's fault, you somehow conclude that this is evidence of charters making a poor decision. Do you see how your conclusion is your argument? You remind me of conservative commentators who complain about the "liberal NYT" and dismiss everything they don't like but occasionally likes something and cites it with glee saying "even the liberal NYT".

It would seem to be you who is enraged. I am arguing that *if* the WTU is stopping DCPS from going back to any in-person instruction, then one might expect charter schools to be offering more. Which they aren't. DCPS is offering at least something in person for some kids, and many charters are offering no in-person for anyone at all.

The problem is you aren't arguing "if", you are concluding they are and therefore charters are beneath even tat low bar. Because the only logical conclusion to schools that aren't beholden to the WTU taking even more restrictive measures is that the decision matrix for DCPS is not nearly as impacted as you would have us believe.

And your post doesn't say "if". That's revisionist history. Own your position and ignorance girlfriend! Your said, "What happened to their flexibility and freedom from the scary, scary teachers union?" That was clearly a conclusory statement with regard to the fact that WTU was in fact responsible for DCPS's decisions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

I completely agree that schools can't bend to the will of the most vocal parents, especially when those tend to be higher SES and white parents. At the same time, I saw our charter school's data (from the summer, nothing new released to inform term 2) and the majority wanted either hybrid or 4 days a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our charter showed the entire community the results of their survey. The majority of families do not want to go back to in-person. I make this point because based on the feedback loop on DCUM one might think the majority of families are in favor of going back. At least at our charter that is not the case. Those numbers skew even more in favor of continuing DL when you exclude PK3-K.

Parents of 3-5 year-olds think the world revolves around them and their snowflakes. That was true before COVID and will be true long after. But you don't make public policy decisions based on the loudest voices representing a tiny fraction of the impacted population. None of this is to say that parents of 4 year-olds shouldn't advocate for their kids or want what they want. But this mentality that somehow schools that don't bend to their whim are negligent or behaving in defiance of logic is just crazy talk.

Was this a recent survey? I'd be shocked if a survey today showed that.

I am in no way surprised that you would "be shocked" that survey results would show the opposite of your belief. That's the problem with your feedback loop. The survey was conducted within the past 21 days.

I do not doubt your belief that you want your kids back in school. And I do not doubt that you have friends who agree with you. And I do not doubt that DCUM feeds into your belief that this is a no-brainer. But it turns out that the data (at least at our charter) doesn't agree with your expectation.

Our charter has not re-surveyed recently so I have no idea what most parents want, but I'm pretty sure that half or more than half of parents would choose all-virtual. That, to me, makes it even easier to reopen with smaller groups in classrooms.

And indeed it is parents of the youngest kids suffering the most - and the youngest kids are suffering too because DL doesn't work for them. I think it's probably more possible at charters to do hybrid successfully with just half or a third of kids in the building and the rest virtual.