2017 Charter School Quality Reports Are Out (Tier ratings)
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Anonymous
Curious if you could share your reasons. I visited Sela in anticipation of playing the lottery this year and was very impressed. I think folks' criticism of teaching Hebrew is a little unfair. Sure Mandarin is spoken by more people worldwide. But Hebrew has a fair amount of historical significance and Israel, regardless of what you think of the country's policies, undeniably has a rich history and today is highly relevant in the geopolitical world order. (In fact, it's that role that seems to drive the consternation of some folks here and the support of others -- whether or not you like Israel, the fact that it generates such a strong reaction indicates its relevance.) Isn't there value of in kids learning Hebrew for learning sake, even if not "useful"? Would people on DCUM be as negative if there was a charter school focused on learning Latin? From what I saw and what I have read, it seems that kids, including many who have no clear tie to Israel or Hebrew, are learning and stimulated -- isn't that what we should want? (Also, I actually think learning Hebrew can be useful. I work in tech industry, and Israel of course has one of the world's top tech industries. I don't speak Hebrew, but I think it actually would be useful to my career. Sure, Israeli entrepreneurs typically will know English. But I think speaking Hebrew would have made it easier to get some opportunities and connections in the Israeli tech world.) |
Anonymous
I still find it so bizarre that Sela is 70%+ black. |
Anonymous
Why? It’s a good school in a predominantly black neighborhood. Also, the brain benefits of bilingualism are about more then learning a functional skill. I find the obsession this board has with Sela to have its roots in antisemitism. I’m not Jewish or a Sela parent I just find the tone DC parents have towards Sela to be odd. Irrationally negative. I wish them nothing but the best and am glad that they provide a good education to our city’s children. |
Anonymous
Agreed. Not a Sela parent, but I've seen enough anti-semitic remarks on this forum when the school is mentioned. Like a PP said, it's an undercurrent, and it's very discouraging to see. I think it's great for kids to learn a language not of their own culture. It's encouraging to see the cross cultural bridges being built. And think of the college admissions and professional opportunities these children will one day have by being non-Jewish or even non-white children who learned Hebrew! Definitely something to stand out on college and job applications. |
Anonymous
It's ridiculous, unless my child was a high achiever or spoke a comparable language in the home this is not helpful. Look at the issues raised re. Chinese/Mandarin, unless you get to practice fluency you are not expanding your brain by learning two languages, if that was the case language learners wouldn't have the lowest scores in the District. Being bilingual on its own does not make you proficient at anything, many EL students struggle in DCPS precisely because when they are not in school they speak their dominant language at home! |
Anonymous
I agree that numbers don't tell an entire story, but the students at Bridges showed literally no growth compared to students at other schools. The growth metric compares students with similar PARCC scores and their performance over two years across district schools. Bridges score means that students at pretty much every other school showed more growth (including schools with more at-risk pops). I heard good things about Bridges too but this is seriously concerning. |
Anonymous
Thanks so much for explaining! |
Anonymous
It seemed like a nice school, but not a better option than the school our child was already in at the time. We aren't among the families in town who are eager for any dual language program regardless of the language (I don't mean that disparagingly, I recognize people see some benefits from that). Latin has more practical applications later in part because so many other languages are built on it -- if you have a good understanding of Latin, it's probably relatively easy to apply that to learning Spanish, for instance. That isn't the case with Hebrew, really. And as you note, virtually anyone who Americans are likely to encounter who is a native Hebrew speaker also speaks fluent English. As I said, we're Jewish, so I definitely understand the historical significance and rich history of the language and of Israel. Our kids are attending weekend religious school where they will also learn to read and speak some conversational Hebrew, so I don't have any problem with the language. But a completely secular course in spoken and written Hebrew didn't hold that much appeal for us as the basis for a school. |
Anonymous
| I'm looking at these Tier 1 schools like Capital City and Center City - Petworth and I just can't find them super impressive. Very comparable to my kids EOTP DCPS. It'll be interesting to see how they really compare to DCPS when put on an equal scorecard. |
Anonymous
I think the school-specific context is relevant here. The numbers are disappointing, but I also agree with PP that they will probably rise. Last year was the second year of testing at the school and the first year the students took the test on computers, which is a skill in itself. The fourth grade class was also small, so there was a small sample size for the growth measure. Next year's numbers should offer a better reflection of what to expect. |
Anonymous
Don't you get it? Ratings and testing matter, unless the school is "one of those", then we care more about "intangibles" and "culture". |
Anonymous
Thanks much, really appreciate your response. |
Anonymous
We are at a top charter school and I am eagerly awaiting those scorecards. |
Anonymous
And how do you know it's not anti-Zionist rather than antisemitism? I'm not Jewish but my husband is and we celebrate Jewish holidays. I've been to and worked in Israel. The issue with Hebrew is, in Israel it's a matter of actively discouraging English learning. I feel like a few Israelis brought their Zionist views here and started the school. It's not a kind of innocent lets celebrate world languages and history thing. Oh, no. |
Anonymous
There are some of us at CMI who care about school culture AND test scores. I'm not worried about being Tier 2 because I actually looked at the PARCC scores by grade. CMI 6th grade scores were bad (there are reasons for that, including that 6th grade expanded so the majority of kids were new to CMI), 5th didn't have enough kids to report, 4th didn't have enough kids to report, and 3rd grade did well. So, though the overall PARCC scores might not be great, the scores of the kids who actually started CMI in the younger grades are good. |