Reply to Two Rivers elementary families -- what is your MS plan

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does TR really do “expeditionary learning” in older grades? [/quote]

There are attempts in some classrooms. Its not a robust curriculum approach past kindergarten.[/quote]

The problem is that it is their official curriculum. So if it's not followed or not followed closely, what you get is a patchwork with no consistency. This is why they need to completely overhaul their curriculum. This is also one of the major reasons behind teacher attrition.

I think the reluctance to let go of EL is that [b]they view it as a differentiator from DCPS and other charters.[/b] Without it it's really unclear what TR is offering.

This is also often a problem with Montessori charters in upper grades (past 3rd or so) which is why they often see a lot of attrition at that point as parents want to acclimate kids to a traditional classroom. But none of the Montessori schools abandon their principal method in K! Also Montessori has some real support as a method in ECE grades where's EL is just some trendy approach TR latched onto for some reason.[/quote]

I'm sure that they do, but I've never really grasped what it is other than a bunch of field trips and like, projects about the field trips.

ITDS doesn't have any particular angle and [b]yet is successful[/b]. I think the main thing they're offering is a small middle school, which some people love and some people don't want, and a very high adult-child ratio due to all the student teachers. And of course a bunch of high-SES kids and decent test scores. I wouldn't say the differentiation is really that good, they just have a lot of kids who are smart.[/quote]

Your definition of "success" differs from my own. Also differs from what the word actually means. "Better than a lousy comparator" is not what that word means.[/quote]

The truth is that very few charters at the elementary level are actually better academically than the average DCPS. [b]If you adjust test scores by socioeconomic level, many charters are actually worse academically. [/b]

We are a former TR family now at a DCPS (and not one of the 3 on the Hill that gets talked about on here as "good") and I am not soured in charters completely. We will almost certainly try for charters for MS and HS. But I think at the elementary level charters that do not offer a significant differentiator from DCPS (like Montessori or immersion) should be held to very high standards academically.

Our DCPS experience has been really good and even though I don't regret going to TR for ECE I now realize that we would have better than okay at our IB DCPS for those years with the benefit of a short commute. We were overly swayed by people telling us it was a bad school.[/quote]

Bolded is an oft repeated statement of nonsense repeated by so many of you "deep thinkers". I don't send my kid to a school to an ES to get their test scores up. I send them to a school where there are enough kids with high test scores that my kid won't be bored or warehoused. By this dumb logic, you should send your kid to any school with a 1% proficiency rate since your kid will be fine. It is ES.

You people and your fortune cookie logic amuse me.  [/quote]

There is a real debate to be had over which is better though:

A neighborhood DCPS with a high number of at risk kids resulting in overall poor test scores but a small cohort of high achieving kids (say 5-15 kids per grade who may be distributed across classes).

A charter with a much smaller percent of at risk kids and overall higher test scores but where kids rarely if ever work above grade level and may receive a disjointed education with weak curriculum (so: Two Rivers).

Obviously neither are ideal. If you value having your kid in an ES with a large cohort of high achievers then neither of these are going to meet your expectations. The DCPS may have some high achievers but they will be very limited and your kid will definitely spend a lot of time doing solo work or having to sit through lessons that are review for them. However I will say that my experience with DCPS is that the high caliber of teachers at the ES level mean that high achieving kids absolutely ARE given above grade level work that challenges them and the schools often find ways to group advanced students so they can work forward. But yes there will be some boredom and just the general issue of your kid being at a school where most of the focus is going to be on trying to bring at risk students up to grade level.

On the other hand at the charter your kid isn't really in a group of high achievers either. At Two Rivers actual high achievers leave because there is nothing for them there. Kids who are right on grade level do fine and then the school is not very good at moving kids who are below grade level up. The main advantage you will get at a school like this is social -- plenty of kids with a similar background and thus plenty of parents with a similar background so it may be overall a more pleasant experience. But it's unlikely your child will be challenged and they certainly are not getting the benefit of a high achieving cohort.

Those are the options being discussed in this thread. If you are looking for a school with a large cohort of high achievers you will need to look elsewhere altogether. The problem of course is that if your IB is say JO Wilson and the best alternative you can get into is TR you may not have other options unless you move or keep playing the lottery and hope you get a hit.[/quote]

No the reality is that at many title 1 DCPS schools there are not enough high achievers and above grade level kids to group anything.  In fact, they will spread out the few, if any above grade level kids between classrooms.

And no, the above grade level kids are on computers a lot or asked to be the teachers helper to help so many of the kids below grade level.  Or best just given worksheets to do on their own.  There is no active teaching of above grade level material.

[b]If your title 1 school is different, then you are the outlier.  [/b]

[/quote]

And what is the average experience of an above grade level kid at Two Rivers? That's the real question. Are they given above grade level material or just put in the corner with worksheets on their own? Or just forced to sit through the material they already know? Two Rivers test scores do not indicate that kids are getting a bunch of instruction above grade level. In fact when you compare TR to Payne (a DCPS with very similar demographics to TR) you see the DCPS doing significantly better with more than twice as many kids scoring above grade level in math and signficantly more scoring at or above grade level in ELA.

Everyone agrees they want their kids in a cohort with plenty of kids at and above grade level. That's the whole point -- TR does not offer this and their curriculum is pretty awful and poorly implemented. So regardless of why you might reject your IB Title 1 DCPS the question is why you would *choose* TR as an alternative when it appers to be an inferior school.[/quote]

I said nothing about TR and don’t have any kids at TR.

I refuted your general statement that title 1 schools group above grade level kids and teach them above grade level content.  This is not true and anonymous people like you making false statements across the board should be called out.

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