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Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:The ten public charter schools whose students scored highest on DC CAS were (in order of overall proficiency):
1. St. Coletta Special Education PCS (87.9 percent)
2. DC Prep PCS – Edgewood Middle (86.3 percent)
3. KIPP DC – College Preparatory PCS (83.2 percent)
4. BASIS DC PCS (82.9 percent)
5. DC Prep PCS – Benning Middle (81.1 percent)
6. KIPP DC – KEY Academy PCS (80.0 percent)
7. Washington Latin PCS – Middle School (77.9 percent)
8. Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS (77.1 percent)
9. DC Prep PCS – Edgewood Elementary (75.4 percent)
10. Washington Yu Ying PCS (74.9 percent)
"Other" charter schools continue to trounce DCUM's HRCSs.
Latin, Basis and YY always get lots of DCUM love. And even DCUM acknowledges that KIPP and DC Prep do a great job.
Other charter schools that get "lots of DCUM love" are: LAMB, Stokes, Mundo Verde, Inspired Teaching, Creative Minds, Two Rivers, E.L. Haynes and Cap City. Where are the high scores to back up the love?
Mundo Verde's students haven't reached testing age yet.
Thanks. What excuse do the other charters have? Especially LAMB and Stokes--they have been around for at least a decade. And LAMB was even illegally cherry-picking its waitlist--I guess that still didn't' help.
You do realize that LAMB has it written in to their charter that they will balance classes with certain percentage Spanish speaking and non-Spanish speaking children. Thus, they can leapfrog over numbers on the waitlist to reach the next Spanish speaking and non-Spanish speaking child as necessary.
Why so bitter? Did widdums not get a good lottery number? DCUM may love LAMB, MV, etc. but its not like the schools themselves don't have big egos.
No, they can't. It doesn't matter what they have written into their charter, when the law is clear on this. That is illegal. That is why LAMB stopped having two lotteries and doesn't bother asking about Spanish dominance in the application.
Anonymous wrote:There are a lot.
Franklin Montessori
Broad Branch Montessori
School for Friends
NCRC
CCPC
CCBC etc...
School for Friends no longer has a half day program.
Whether she was at CHEC as AP for a year or not, she is young and relatively inexperienced. It sounds like there was a real dearth of bilingual candidates, and OA, which prioritized bilingualism, didn't have much choice. It also sounds like she will bring enthusiasm and important middle-school experience that is valuable for the EC model. However, it does seem a shame that DC doesn't have a larger pool of bilingual candidates, particularly ones with more experience to bring.
That would be hard to do when the lottery opens in December. People will have already applied under the new boundaries.
Anonymous wrote:I know you can't force people to attend their in-bound school, but I wish you could - maybe the city could give some kind of tax credit for attending your neighborhood school if it is currently less than a certain percentage in bounds and meets other criteria and possibly give them a weighted better chance of OOB lottery if the whole experiment fails and they end up re-imposing OOB lottery.
I wish a tax credit would do it. My school could really use more neighborhood families. But neighborhood families are not going to go to a failing school for a tax credit. They are not willing to compromise their kid's education. My school has around a 30% proficiency rate--I just don't see how you meet the needs of a kid who is proficient when the vast majority are not.
Anonymous wrote:\Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:It is such a no-brainer to me that if DME got rid of OOB rights entirely and aligned elementary boundaries with neighborhoods, that a good chunk of the city's schools would be in good shape. Those that are not are the ones where resources could be invested in smart ways - like saturday hours, free, enhanced after-school programs, extended morning hours, etc.
This would cause a firestorm. During Rhee's tenure I recall her quote a statistic that about 1/3 of the city's public school children were in charters (obviously that has risen to 44%) 1/3 were OOB at schools not in their neighborhood, and only 1/3 were in their IB school. Point being if only 1/3 of families like their IB school, the consequences of removing OOB would be enormous and severe.
Right, but if you "force" every child to go to their neighborhood school, many of those schools will get better instantly, as in the very first year. Then resources could be used to really address the failing schools, not the schools that are failing because of low enrollment.
There is no way to force people in the schools--if they don't get into a charter, they will go outside DCPS.
Anonymous wrote:The problem with Bancroft/CHEC is that it gives no options for IB parents who don't want dual language. The net effect of these proposals will be to heighten a pattern that already exists. High SES/educated families in Mt P send their kids to Eaton (and Hearst) OOB. With mt pleasant continuing to feed Deal/Wilson, and IB Eaton families stuck with Hardy, you'll see more MtP families at Eaton-- thus keeping Eaton's scores up while IB parents start bailing at 3rd, 4th and 5th. Then the OOB Eaton but IB Deal MtP families will switch back to Deal for MS.
If bancroft/CHEC doesn't make sense, then having te two CHEC feeder schools be non-dual language makes even less sense.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I was just looking at the selective/city-wide section in the proposal and it looks like there will be selective admissions high schools (so test/audition in), specialized programs within neighborhood schools (so admission is with boundaries (except possibly set asides and native language preferences), and city-wide elementary schools (so admission is lottery based.) Does that mean that the city-wide schools (the two that exist now and the ones that are rumored to be planned for the future) are really not going to be an option for most people in the district? The lottery preferences go IB/sibling (not applicable), IB (not applicable), OOB/sibling (1), OOB/at risk (2), OOB (with proximity, but only if DCPS chooses), OOB. It seems to me like the first two categories (OOB/sibling and OOB/at risk) will be sufficient to fill any city-wide school. So, most of us just won't be able to get a seat at these schools. It kind of makes the arguments that have been going on about proximity preference at these school obsolete since no one who does not fall into the at risk category has a prayer of getting into these schools, regardless of where they live.
What is going to happen to schools like SWS and CHML once the sibling pipeline dries up and they are filled almost exclusively with at risk kids?
The DME needs to clarify the city-wide lottery component. Since everyone has a fair shot at admittance into a citywide school, does it make sense that the city-wide lotteries will reflect the city's natural balance of at-risk/higher SES families that the set-aside is attempting to address? They may actually be limiting access by capping the at-risk population.
I agree that the DME needs to clarify city-wide lottery component. What makes you think that the DME means that the at risk population will be limited to 10% at city-wide schools? The list of preference categories does not make it clear that the way the wait list will be generated is with only 10% of students at risk going to the top. This isn't clear for non-city-wide schools also. It reads to me like the boundary schools that qualify have to set aside 10% of seats and the preference order goes IB/sib, IB, OOB/sib, OOB/at risk, OOB/proximity, OOB. Therefore, this is the order that the spots are filled and the wait list is generated. So, they have to set aside AT LEAST 10% of seats for at risk, but they also have to fill the seats in the preference order. Therefore, all the at risk kids fill the seats first, even if there are more than 10% of seats available, and then everyone else gets in line in their lottery order. At a citywide school, there is no IB population, so the seats fill OOB/sib, OOB at risk, OOB proximity, OOB. There is no language that indicates that the OOB/at risk will be LIMITED to 10%. If there are enough students who fit that criteria in the city (and let's face it, there are), a school would have to fill all of its OOB seats with at risk kids first. There is unlikely to be any seats left at city-wide schools (or any other schools for that matter) for OOB/proximity, and OOB.
I am sort of surprised that this isn't of more concern to people in this thread since a lot of people bank on getting in somewhere either OOB or to a city-wide school, both of which are pretty much off the table unless you are OOB/at risk.
My read is the same as yours--my middle-class kid will have to get into a charter by luck or go to our IB failing school. Or we will have to move to a place we can afford that also has good schools.
Is this really so different than the current reality?
My impression is that all of the schools that would be affected by this proposal already have zero open spots.
I don't know how the 10% would work. Is it 10% per grade level? Overall? Will they have to add 10% to their student population?
Yes.
I know middle income people in my neighborhood who attend Hearst and Eaton OOB. I won't have that option, even though the IB school I am sending my child to is one of the lowest-performing elementary schools in DC. So yes, it is different--at least I had a shot before.
Anonymous wrote:dcmom wrote:Anonymous wrote:I didn't think I had any chance of getting into a charter since the lottery was already conducted. My kids are 3rd grade, 1st grade, and prek. How would I understand openings? Thx for the suggestion. I'm only finding 2br units in woodley park.
Part of Adams Morgan is zoned for Oyster, so check that out too. Re new boundary maps, don't follow those, because they won't be in effect til next year, and they expand the OA boundary in AdMo. Definitely stick to the current boundaries. Good luck!
The part of Adams Morgan that is zoned for Oyster is very expensive as well (just not as expensive as Woodley Park).
We are on the other side of AdMo but have been looking to rent IB for Oyster. There are some good rentals, including some large 2 bedrooms, but you definitely need to nab them immediately when they are listed on Craig's list. Obviously depends on your budget whether it's affordable, but we haven't found anything comparable in terms of square footage for the price in Woodley Park.
Anonymous wrote:I didn't think I had any chance of getting into a charter since the lottery was already conducted. My kids are 3rd grade, 1st grade, and prek. How would I understand openings? Thx for the suggestion. I'm only finding 2br units in woodley park.
Part of Adams Morgan is zoned for Oyster, so check that out too. Re new boundary maps, don't follow those, because they won't be in effect til next year, and they expand the OA boundary in AdMo. Definitely stick to the current boundaries. Good luck!
Anonymous wrote:when is the plan coming out? today or tomorrow?
The WAMU story posted earlier said today.
From the article: "D.C. charter schools are legally allowed to contract with for-profit management companies, including companies with which school leaders have financial ties."
Seriously? Is this in the law, or could the PCSB change it? I have problems with allowing a for-profit management company run a school, but one that also has financial ties with school leaders seems over the top.
Seriously? Is this in the law, or could the PCSB change it? I have problems with allowing a for-profit management company run a school, but one that also has financial ties with school leaders seems over the top.
I believe you only get IB status for PK3 and Pk4 if you apply with it, so you'll have to wait until next year to take advantage of it for PK4. You can always call the my school DC hotline and the school itself to confirm.
The bad calendar is not just charters--DCPS has a lot of prof development days where parents end up having to find care (usually one each month). (Though of course that is only a small part of what OP is talking about.)
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:OP, I go to another charter school and have to say, this is why people dislike charter school parents.
It is NOT a neighborhood school. Sorry that you may get more Bloomingdale families and have to "gasp" be neighborly with them for your play dates.
If you want a neighborhood school, go to one.
OP here, I don't care if people dislike me as a new charter school parent. I have spent the last three years with one DC in a private and had to trek all over DC and Maryland to play dates and birthday parties and quite frankly, I am sick of it. I have absolutely no more interest in trekking to any location east of Georgia Avenue for play dates and parties. I have no energy to give to this and will not apologize for it. I have friends in Bloomingdale and our kids go to the same school but we NEVER do playdates. On the other hand, I regularly see my friends who are in Mt Pleasant because it is effortless. With my work schedule and my kids school schedule, I will not apologize for wanting one aspect of my life to be easy. Further, I have found that kids tend to develop closer relationships with kids they can hook up with in the blink of an eye for an impromptu outing to a park. That can't happen if the kid lives on the Hill and I am on the other side of D.C. If my in bound DCPS were a viable option, you can bet I would choose it, but at the end of the day it is not and very few people in my neighborhood even send their kids to our in-bound DCPS.
Given your priorities (which are fine by me!) then I think you would do much better at a neighborhood school. Are you IB for Bancroft? If I had your priorities and Bancroft as the default, I would definitely send my child there, not across town where her friends would come from all over the city. (And to be clear, I do not have your priorities. Our waitlist # at MV for PK3 was 400+, so that and other charters are not an option, which is why our child will be at our neighborhood school next year, a school that is not nearly as good as Bancroft.)