Do charters really differ that much from regular public schools?

[Anonymous]

Don't they all have to follow the common core standards and take the same standardized tests? One teacher I know told me that it's impossible to do genuine Montessori (for example) in a public charter school setting, and that even schools that manage to start out being more innovative, such as Inspired Teaching, end up looking more and more like regular public schools over time, because of the requirements. For those that have experienced both varieties of school, how different are they?

[Anonymous]

charter schools can innovate at the building level; DCPS is following curricular and programmatic mandates from downtown

[Anonymous]

The same issue you cited re Montessori exists in any public school — for example Deal deviates from IB math (which doesn’t follow the US sequence of preAlgebra, Algebra, Geometry, etc).

As for charters — yes they must cover the same basic content (the standards) but they can choose different curriculums.

The real differences are around governance and independence. For good and bad, charters don’t have a central office to tell them what to do, and they don’t have a central office to support them. The majority of teachers in a charter must be ‘highly qualified’ but they do not have to have teacher certification.

[Anonymous]

In my opinion, each school is different. Some charters seem a lot like DCPS and some DCPS schools are quite innovative compared to others. The PMF requirements of the charter board force charters to pursue a particular score each year or risk closure. This does seem to have an impact. I've seen schools make changes over time as they focus more on testing to get better scores. Or in early learning grades, schools change their approach so that they get better observation scores from the state. The test scores and observation scores are included on the charter report card and factor into the score from the charter board.

[Anonymous]

Well, "true" Montessori maybe not, but, I will tell you spending time in a Montessori classroom is quite a different experience than a typical classroom even given these parameters.

As for other learning/teaching styles I can't comment. But visit a few and you'll get a different "vibe" from each, for sure, vs. a visit to any DCPS. Which also vary somewhat but feel a bit more alike.

[Anonymous]

They have much looser teacher licensing requirements.

They are also exempt from FOIA. Not a good thing in my view

[Anonymous]

And a few of these charter schools can be exempt from charter laws. I have no idea how this is possible since they are funded per student.

[Anonymous]

Yes, they all have same Common Core standards, PARCC testing, and some other requirements. But all DCPS school are not the same and all DC public charter schools are not the same, so comparing DCPS as a monolith versus public charter schools as a monolith has limited value.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And a few of these charter schools can be exempt from charter laws. I have no idea how this is possible since they are funded per student.

Hmmm... a few schools are exempt from which laws?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And a few of these charter schools can be exempt from charter laws. I have no idea how this is possible since they are funded per student.

What charters are exempt from exactly what charter laws? You can’t assert that without more detail.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:charter schools can innovate at the building level; DCPS is following curricular and programmatic mandates from downtown

So then what makes one DCPS different from another? Other than demographics, of course, and how good the principal is at hiring and managing the staff?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:charter schools can innovate at the building level; DCPS is following curricular and programmatic mandates from downtown

So then what makes one DCPS different from another? Other than demographics, of course, and how good the principal is at hiring and managing the staff?

There are a lot of little differences, such as how the day is structured, whether classes rotate to teachers or have one teacher per class, whether they partner with student teachers or have extra aids, special programming, additional resources for focus schools (math , reading, science focus -- a temporary thing usually, but it stays with the school culture), whether they have things like contests, science fairs, school traditions and celebrations, etc. How they approach classroom management and discipline on the day to day stuff, uniforms, what the teachers focus on for PD and internal development, whether the teachers teach outside of and beyond the standard curriculum and how they approach and supplement that curriculum. A thousand little difference that can create a different culture at each school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:charter schools can innovate at the building level; DCPS is following curricular and programmatic mandates from downtown

So then what makes one DCPS different from another? Other than demographics, of course, and how good the principal is at hiring and managing the staff?

Talking about elementary -- some have extended day; some have extended school year; some do SEM; a few are Montessori for ECE; a couple are Reggio-inspired; a few are IB. All of these things are called out on their school profile pages.

[Anonymous]

Charters can essentially pick their students through barriers to entry and subtle (and not-so-subtle) signals to parents who (consciously or not) choose to self-segregate.

Just the fact that they get more engaged families (who exercise choice) makes them stronger than your typical neighborhood DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:charter schools can innovate at the building level; DCPS is following curricular and programmatic mandates from downtown

So then what makes one DCPS different from another? Other than demographics, of course, and how good the principal is at hiring and managing the staff?

There are a lot of little differences, such as how the day is structured, whether classes rotate to teachers or have one teacher per class, whether they partner with student teachers or have extra aids, special programming, additional resources for focus schools (math , reading, science focus -- a temporary thing usually, but it stays with the school culture), whether they have things like contests, science fairs, school traditions and celebrations, etc. How they approach classroom management and discipline on the day to day stuff, uniforms, what the teachers focus on for PD and internal development, whether the teachers teach outside of and beyond the standard curriculum and how they approach and supplement that curriculum. A thousand little difference that can create a different culture at each school.

This. Our experience at Inspired Teaching has been different than DCPS. While they cover common core at Inspired, the breadth of how they do it and what they do on top of it is not what we experienced at a DCPS. There were weeks at a time where the majority of my kid’s day was spent working on their Shakespeare production close to PARCC timing.