DCPS Improving -- Let's Ignore Charters

[Anonymous]

CHPSPO is the worst lead to follow for schools in Ward 6 and unfortunately it has member/s on Allen's staff. CHPSPO is all about the status quo and forcing families to use abysmal public middle schools on speculation that they will magically improve. Their most fervent wish is that charters would disappear and stop "creaming"all the "best"students.( without acknowledging that charters are actually providing an environment for the best students that DCPS REFUSES to do ). They scream down any proposals that are innovative and creative and don't pass their bleeding heart liberal sniff test. Allen would need to distance himself from this group and have some true political leadership and courage to fix the STRUCTURAL and OPERATIONAL problems with middle schools in ward 6. Not sure what Grosso is up to

[Anonymous]

Charles Allen couldn't fix the deep and abiding systemic and operational problems of Ward 6 schools even if he had no relationship with CHPSPO any more than Mary Cheh could get new DCPS schools built in Upper NW (she asks year in and year out, to no avail). DCPS is a mess, the mayor is a mere technocrat, and city council members struggle to stay in office (and out of prison).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS is doing a great job making progress considering that, unlike charters, they can't IN ANY way "cherry pick" students. Or "counsel them out".

Out-of-boundary students can be sent back to their in-boundary school at the principal's discretion. Some principals use that power to "cherry pick" and "counsel out" students.

Technically, yes but at the elementary level this is rarely, if ever, done. Ive heard of it at Wilson in really egregious cases.

Dcps schools cannot cherry pick like the charters, not at all, especially with the new lottery system, its all very tightly controlled.

This is complete BS. DCPS imposes barriers to entry by creating boundary lines: those with money and resources can buy in, those without cannot. $$ are the most assured form of cherry-picking. It's why there are no disadvantaged students at Mann.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS is doing a great job making progress considering that, unlike charters, they can't IN ANY way "cherry pick" students. Or "counsel them out".

Um, they do in fact "counsel kids out" of DCPS schools - and frankly that's part of the reason so many kids are in charters now - because DCPS could not meet their needs, made them miserable, made them feel unwelcome, or "counseled them out" - nobody likes to admit or acknowledge that but it does happen quite a bit.

I'd like to be counseled out of DCPS and be put into Yu Ying (or any other HRCS). How do I make that happen? I get how it works the other way -- I get counseled out and my IB has to accept me, but would love to have a charter forced to accept me over my IB school.

The majority of charters aren't hard to get into. They're similar to the majority of DCPS in that regard, they just have better performance metrics and safer environments.

Getting counseled out of your IB into YY will happen when you get counseled out of your IB into Lafayette or Janney.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS is doing a great job making progress considering that, unlike charters, they can't IN ANY way "cherry pick" students. Or "counsel them out".

Out-of-boundary students can be sent back to their in-boundary school at the principal's discretion. Some principals use that power to "cherry pick" and "counsel out" students.

Technically, yes but at the elementary level this is rarely, if ever, done. Ive heard of it at Wilson in really egregious cases.

Dcps schools cannot cherry pick like the charters, not at all, especially with the new lottery system, its all very tightly controlled.

This is complete BS. DCPS imposes barriers to entry by creating boundary lines: those with money and resources can buy in, those without cannot. $$ are the most assured form of cherry-picking. It's why there are no disadvantaged students at Mann.

And DCPS also has several application only high schools (Walls, Ellington, Banneker, McKinley). By definition they only take the best students. Perhaps they should be forced to go to their neighborhood schools - Ballou, Coolidge, Eastern and Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CHPSPO is the worst lead to follow for schools in Ward 6 and unfortunately it has member/s on Allen's staff. CHPSPO is all about the status quo and forcing families to use abysmal public middle schools on speculation that they will magically improve. Their most fervent wish is that charters would disappear and stop "creaming"all the "best"students.( without acknowledging that charters are actually providing an environment for the best students that DCPS REFUSES to do ). They scream down any proposals that are innovative and creative and don't pass their bleeding heart liberal sniff test. Allen would need to distance himself from this group and have some true political leadership and courage to fix the STRUCTURAL and OPERATIONAL problems with middle schools in ward 6. Not sure what Grosso is up to

I could have have written this. The hold CHPSPO has on Allen because the majority of his staff are members mean that any opinions contrary don't even make it to Allen to get heard.

Allen is just a puppet - and for most of us in ward 6 - a waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS is doing a great job making progress considering that, unlike charters, they can't IN ANY way "cherry pick" students. Or "counsel them out".

Out-of-boundary students can be sent back to their in-boundary school at the principal's discretion. Some principals use that power to "cherry pick" and "counsel out" students.

Technically, yes but at the elementary level this is rarely, if ever, done. Ive heard of it at Wilson in really egregious cases.

Dcps schools cannot cherry pick like the charters, not at all, especially with the new lottery system, its all very tightly controlled.

This is complete BS. DCPS imposes barriers to entry by creating boundary lines: those with money and resources can buy in, those without cannot. $$ are the most assured form of cherry-picking. It's why there are no disadvantaged students at Mann.

And DCPS also has several application only high schools (Walls, Ellington, Banneker, McKinley). By definition they only take the best students. Perhaps they should be forced to go to their neighborhood schools - Ballou, Coolidge, Eastern and Wilson.

Application schools only taking the best students? Sort of. We've got Walls, with its affirmative action-based admissions system (admitting no higher a percentage of whites than that of the city as a whole) and Banneker, with average SAT scores no better than the national average, while academics at Ellington and McKinley don't pass muster. We have great application high schools in name only when we could have a Boston Latin, or a Chicago Lab School, or a smaller version of Stuyvesant. Neighborhood high schools tend to be a disaster; application schools are mediocre. Nothing much here to cheer about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS is doing a great job making progress considering that, unlike charters, they can't IN ANY way "cherry pick" students. Or "counsel them out".

Out-of-boundary students can be sent back to their in-boundary school at the principal's discretion. Some principals use that power to "cherry pick" and "counsel out" students.

Technically, yes but at the elementary level this is rarely, if ever, done. Ive heard of it at Wilson in really egregious cases.

Dcps schools cannot cherry pick like the charters, not at all, especially with the new lottery system, its all very tightly controlled.

This is complete BS. DCPS imposes barriers to entry by creating boundary lines: those with money and resources can buy in, those without cannot. $$ are the most assured form of cherry-picking. It's why there are no disadvantaged students at Mann.

And DCPS also has several application only high schools (Walls, Ellington, Banneker, McKinley). By definition they only take the best students. Perhaps they should be forced to go to their neighborhood schools - Ballou, Coolidge, Eastern and Wilson.

Application schools only taking the best students? Sort of. We've got Walls, with its affirmative action-based admissions system (admitting no higher a percentage of whites than that of the city as a whole) and Banneker, with average SAT scores no better than the national average, while academics at Ellington and McKinley don't pass muster. We have great application high schools in name only when we could have a Boston Latin, or a Chicago Lab School, or a smaller version of Stuyvesant. Neighborhood high schools tend to be a disaster; application schools are mediocre. Nothing much here to cheer about.

My only point was that motivated students, generally without behavior problems, leave neighborhood DCPS high schools for these application schools. Yet I don't hear those who decry charters for 'creaming' the best students from DCPS neighborhood schools make the same point about these schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS does a horrible job making kids safe in the classroom. The anti-bullying law is form without substance, no doubt due to influence from DCPS. DC would do best to give everyone a voucher to send their kids where they want.

We just left a charter where bullying was out of the control and they did nothing. We are now in a DCPS where it is so effectively dealt with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

My only point was that motivated students, generally without behavior problems, leave neighborhood DCPS high schools for these application schools. Yet I don't hear those who decry charters for 'creaming' the best students from DCPS neighborhood schools make the same point about these schools.

I've heard that concern when there has been discussion of opening new city-wide schools. It's just that not everyone and their mother are trying to open 5 new city-wide schools every year.

[Anonymous]

We just left a charter where bullying was out of the control and they did nothing. We are now in a DCPS where it is so effectively dealt with.

And we had the opposite experience. So much boils down to class dynamics sometimes. And maybe class dynamics.

It's not an SES thing--our DCPS was high SES, and the bullies were mostly high SES kids.