Petition to Change Sela Leadership

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly- they do this effectively. I haven’t heard of many DC charters doing it well and consistently. In some larger schools there are even group (meaning multiple family) parent/guardian-teacher conferences due to time constraints. I appreciate that Sela is able to spend time with each family and meet student needs.

The group conferences we have had have been great. An hour or more to dig into data and understand how our kid is doing relative to the whole class and how we can support her. Much more effective than shorter individual conferences.

That part of the discussion would last 45 seconds with me. I don't care how other kids are doing relative to my kid. There is not universe where I'm comforted that my kid is not on grade level, but better than some kids who are even worse off. It is the same reason most parents don't look at data for entire schools, they look at data for demographic that match their own.

I totally do care! If my kid is fine but the rest are below, that indicates a lack of quality teaching and a lack of peer academic relationships. It means the teaching may be geared to the median which is below grade level.

[Anonymous]

Yeah- I’m all for individual teacher conferences. I expect my children to perform above grade level based on DC standards. Thankfully Sela is willing to entertain that conversation and challenge my kids. I want my children prepared for the real world and the reality that outcomes and achievement matter. Just because you make an effort, doesn’t mean you deserve an A— it means you need to work harder if you’re falling short. I recognize this is an unpopular opinion for some. However, I stand by it and as a parent, I’ve been pleased with Sela overall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly- they do this effectively. I haven’t heard of many DC charters doing it well and consistently. In some larger schools there are even group (meaning multiple family) parent/guardian-teacher conferences due to time constraints. I appreciate that Sela is able to spend time with each family and meet student needs.

The group conferences we have had have been great. An hour or more to dig into data and understand how our kid is doing relative to the whole class and how we can support her. Much more effective than shorter individual conferences.

That part of the discussion would last 45 seconds with me. I don't care how other kids are doing relative to my kid. There is not universe where I'm comforted that my kid is not on grade level, but better than some kids who are even worse off. It is the same reason most parents don't look at data for entire schools, they look at data for demographic that match their own.

Interesting. I do find it worthwhile to know how my kid is doing relative to others -- are they struggling with concepts that other kids easily get or are there concepts that are much easier for them? More than that though, I'd want my kid to have academic peers in their class and be on or above grade level. I'd also want to know if my kid is behind others. IMO, the group discussions are worthwhile though there are times that individual discussions with the teacher are needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Exactly- they do this effectively. I haven’t heard of many DC charters doing it well and consistently. In some larger schools there are even group (meaning multiple family) parent/guardian-teacher conferences due to time constraints. I appreciate that Sela is able to spend time with each family and meet student needs.

The group conferences we have had have been great. An hour or more to dig into data and understand how our kid is doing relative to the whole class and how we can support her. Much more effective than shorter individual conferences.

That part of the discussion would last 45 seconds with me. I don't care how other kids are doing relative to my kid. There is not universe where I'm comforted that my kid is not on grade level, but better than some kids who are even worse off. It is the same reason most parents don't look at data for entire schools, they look at data for demographic that match their own.

Interesting. I do find it worthwhile to know how my kid is doing relative to others -- are they struggling with concepts that other kids easily get or are there concepts that are much easier for them? More than that though, I'd want my kid to have academic peers in their class and be on or above grade level. I'd also want to know if my kid is behind others. IMO, the group discussions are worthwhile though there are times that individual discussions with the teacher are needed.

Agree, I want to know whether my kid has peers. The (anonymized) data are helpful for that. I also think that getting an in-depth understanding of what they are doing in school and how we can support at home is very helpful. Our ES does a mix of individual and group conferences, and we can always reach out to the teacher with questions, but I would not want to move to all individual conferences because overall I find the group conferences more helpful.

[Anonymous]

I couldn't think of a better forum than this one to spread this venom on such a fantastic school and one of the only truly diverse ones in the city. Good luck

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I couldn't think of a better forum than this one to spread this venom on such a fantastic school and one of the only truly diverse ones in the city. Good luck

If it's so fantastic, why are the growth scores so low?

And why did you dredge up an old threat and remind everyone that Sela has issues? Better for Sela that it be forgotten, no?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you imagine being so privileged that among your top concerns is building a new playground??? Out of curiosity I looked at the report card (https://dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/media/file/DC%20Report%20Card_Sela%20PCS.pdf), first of all this is a Ward 4 school that has a lot of upper-middle-class white and (probably???) Jewish families. They are 22% at risk, which is really LOW for a DC Charter School. They have a 4/5 star rating! And their enrollment is actually growing, even if by small amounts. This might as well have been signed as "Concerned Karen's who want to speak to your manager" LOL

Why don't you fill us in on the academic data here.
https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/lea/174/school/197/report

There's some very weird data in this report card. More than 50% of ECE students and nearly a third of other students were chronically absent? There is a bizarre gap in male/female ELA achievement which is not at all representative of DC wide data. The growth data is awful (3.5 points out of 50?!?).

It's only weird if you don't look at the overall data for DC : https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/state/report#measure-102

46.7% of Pre-K students were chronically absent, meaning they were absent for more than 10 percent of school days.
39.9% of students were chronically absent, meaning they missed more than 10 percent of school days.

Right but it's weird in light of Sela's at-risk percentage which is well below the city average.

This is not a thing. The relevant "average" depends entirely on the comparables one chooses. Brent is 6%. Janney 2%. Two Rivers 20 and 22%. Boone 87%. Savoy 89%. Lee East End 10%.

I’m not sure where you are getting that data, but at least Lee East End is quite off. Their DC Report Card says just shy of 39%.

[Anonymous]

I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

My kids are older. I worried about this when they were little. Ultimately, we had some years of happy kids and some years of bored kids but it really didn't matter in the scheme of things. I don't think "your kid is bright and will do fine" applies to high school, but, absent behavioral issues or your kid being miserable, it does apply pretty well to kindergarten.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

I'm really puzzled by this statement. Lots of schools, DCPS and charter, have much higher growth stats than Sela does.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

Just as an FYI this is not true of our DCPS even Title 1. DC is advanced for age and it's been recognized both on testing and in conversations with teachers with appropriate goals for continued advancement. If you think your kid isn't learning anything that's a real problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

Okay, no. No no no no no. The growth metric on School Report Card is based on CAPE scores, not on whatever system Sela is using for its goals for lower elementary. The growth metric shows that Sela students' CAPE scores didn't improve very much year-over-year. That's the problem Sela defenders need to understand and address.

I'm sorry that Sela is not giving you helpful information about your child's growth, but that's not a problem that all schools experience. Our school uses MAP and Dibels, and even for the high performing kids, the test goes high enough that growth is clearly visible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I will say - as someone who has a kid at Sela and thinks it's overall a pretty solid school - the "growth" metric...to an extent which I hadn't fully grasped beforehand....has actually emerged as a key headache (I say this with the caveat that from what I understand, this issue would be the same at just about any DC public or charter school):
My kid is both one of the oldest in the class and a pretty motivated learner, and I knew from the DCPS list of academic goals for their grade that they weren't going to actually "learn" anything new all year. Fair enough! Yet it was a bit of a head scratcher when the first assessment sent home scored them as "achieving" far below where I knew they currently were, with a "goal" of reaching a level they had surpassed long ago. This isn't some subjective measure - to give one example of many: my kid could already count to 50 before they enrolled. The first assessment sheet that got sent home three months later said they were "M - Meet Expectations" because they were "able to count to 5" with a "goal" of learning to count to 20 in the next quarter. Uh...

I'm not sure what other takeaways a parent is supposed to have other than: first, that this class is being taught to the lowest common denominator and isn't equipped for students who are ready for greater challenges...and, with that reality in mind, the only way teachers are able to indicate any of that all-important "growth" for these students is by actively downplaying and under-assessing their actual abilities at the beginning of the year, so there is "growth" to show at the end of it - even if that final report doesn't represent one iota of actual learning, just a more accurate assessment, one that could have been issued on Day One.

Again: I don't think this is unique to Sela. From what I can tell, this would be just as true, if not more so, at any DCPS or charter. But yeah...it's not ideal.

Okay, no. No no no no no. The growth metric on School Report Card is based on CAPE scores, not on whatever system Sela is using for its goals for lower elementary. The growth metric shows that Sela students' CAPE scores didn't improve very much year-over-year. That's the problem Sela defenders need to understand and address.

I'm sorry that Sela is not giving you helpful information about your child's growth, but that's not a problem that all schools experience. Our school uses MAP and Dibels, and even for the high performing kids, the test goes high enough that growth is clearly visible.

+1. The fake growth of the type you describe doesn’t help Sela at all on the report card, which only measures EOY (CAPE) to EOY. It might help teachers with internal assessments that Sela links to bonuses/performance grading and that would be a Sela-specific issue and a reason to find another school.

I send my high achieving kid to our local IB and they send him up a grade level for math, they don’t pretend he can’t count.

[Anonymous]

I have an older and younger kid at Sela. They get assessed all the time. I know exactly how they’re performing. My older son also gets more challenging work when needed. Sela is working great for us and this thread is simply ridiculous in my opinion. If you’re considering sending your kids to Sela, I’d recommend talking to parents there and the school directly. This petition was started by an anonymous small group and has gotten no traction at the school. The whole thing about growth scores was discussed earlier in the thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an older and younger kid at Sela. They get assessed all the time. I know exactly how they’re performing. My older son also gets more challenging work when needed. Sela is working great for us and this thread is simply ridiculous in my opinion. If you’re considering sending your kids to Sela, I’d recommend talking to parents there and the school directly. This petition was started by an anonymous small group and has gotten no traction at the school. The whole thing about growth scores was discussed earlier in the thread.

Wait, tell us again why Sela has such low growth stats? It's because the high scoring kids can't show growth and ... Wait for it .. the low scoring kids don't have growth to show?