Reply to Washington Post Poll vs Catania Internal Poll

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Reply to "Washington Post Poll vs Catania Internal Poll"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think this is a joke at all. It makes perfect sense for middle schools to start (and elementary schools to end) at the same grade across the entire system, DCPS and charter. I'm a charter supporter but this mismatch definitely hurts the stability of DCPS elementary schools (even those that are good) that don't feed into decent middle schools.[/quote]

I'm IB for an elementary school where typically 60-70% of the kids who start kindergarten don't finish fifth grade. The reason is that we feed a middle school that is deemed unacceptable by the vast majority of parents. Where do those kids go? Some go charter, some go private, some move out of DC, and some lottery into feeders for better middle schools.

I agree whole-heartedly that it is destabilizing for my school to have so many kids abandon the school in the upper grades. However, I see charters as only a small part of it. The real problem is the scarcity of decent middle school spots, the secondary problem is that just about all of them are locked up before fifth grade starts, whether in charters, privates or OOB.  If I had to pick a single biggest culprit, it would have to be the feeder rights for OOB students. I realize it's impolitic to say this -- feeder rights are a sacred cow -- but they destabilize the rest of the schools in the city.

At my school many kids leave for charters at fifth grade. Part of the calculus driving this decision is that they know if they weren't able to lottery into a Deal feeder for fifth grade, they have zero chance of lotterying into Deal for sixth. So the charter is the best they're going to be able to do for middle school.

Without feeder rights there would be no incentive to jump ship at 3rd, 4th or 5th grade. The number of OOB slots wouldn't change, but every fifth grader would have an equal chance of getting into 6th grade.[/quote]

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