Reply to Mayor Plans to Underfund Charter Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]0% of students at Ballou met or exceeded expectations on the state assessment in math.

0% of students at Anacostia met or exceeded expectations on the state assessment in math.

Charters may not be perfect, but it's clear that they are needed and should be funded fairly.[/quote]

They are very needed. When you have seen up close how some DCPS schools are not even pretending to try and prepare some of these kids to be fully functional members of society (through low expectations, social promotion -- when you have seen an illiterate kid just keep getting promoted up) you will be very thankful for charters like KIPP and DC Prep, which parents have told me were "life saving" schools for their college-bound, low-income kids.

And at the other end, yes, schools like BASIS and Latin (and maybe DCI) are serving a very important need for upper income families who are not in bound for Hardy or Deal, because those kids desperately need to be challenged in order to be able to compete with their peers around the country when they go to college and beyond.

5 years ago when I was a young parent of young children, I probably would have enjoyed a juicy anti charter conversation. Now that's I've seen both ends up close, I can absolutely see the benefits.[/quote]

The much more difficult and complex conversation is the 'yes and ...'. Agreed that for parents right now, having choices can be a great thing. But there are still kids in those schools with 0% proficient rates who should not be ignored/forgotten. So just focusing on the success of the kids who 'got out' is only half of the conversation. I know the city is trying to do things to draw enrollment (and therefore funds) back to some of the under enrolled DCPS schools like these CTE programs https://dcpscte.org/schools/ - but that is not going to address the kids who are years behind academically.

I think the city needs to start in elementary school and drastically change how they instruct kids who are significantly behind - not by retaining them because there is a lot of research about how being significantly older than your peers is not good. But having a remediation/intensive track to get kids caught up, the they can re-enter grade level courses when proficient. Until we have kids entering middle and high school on or near grade level, it is going to seem like an impossible task to get kids to where they need to be to graduate. [/quote]

Those kids in the 0% schools need to be given a chance; but they should also be held accountable, and we should be more realistic about how their lives are going to work out earlier. This means separating out the kids with potential. [/quote]

This may be one of the worst things I have read on DCUM, and that is saying a lot. Props to the other posters who are acknowledging the very real problem and impact of students who are several years behind. But deciding you know how someone's life is going to 'work out' at an early age? I really hope you are just explaining your thoughts poorly.

The effects of being behind start to seriously snowball by late elementary. High Impact Tutoring is great, but it's not enough. We need to fund intensive remedial classes to make sure all kids leaving elementary school are reading on grade level and have basic understanding of math skills. But there always needs to be an 'off ramp' for them to re-enter grade level classrooms. Labeling kids bc you 'know how their lives are going to work out' and basically giving up on them is pretty horrible. [/quote]

DC schools have painfully low academic standards. Read about Mississippi. They did the opposite. Extremely tough standards and now poor kids there *trounce* DC kids on tests, despite spending a fraction of what DC spends on schools.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/opinion/mississippi-education-poverty.html

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Couple of interesting tidbits from the article.
[list]The Superintendent on whose watch the reforms were made came from...Washington, DC[/list][list]Perhaps the most important single element of the 2013 legislative package was a test informally called the third-grade gate: Any child who does not pass a reading test at the end of third grade is held back and has to redo the year.[/list]
[list]A Boston University study this year found that those held back did not have any negative outcomes such as increased absences or placement in special education programs.[/list]
[list]Gains from being held back were particularly large for Black and Hispanic students.[/list]
[list]Nothing worked quite as expected, and everything was harder than it looked. But Mississippi kept testing and tweaking its model, following the evidence where it led. And now second graders can read “nourishing.”[/list]

Would never work in DC because the well-meaning performative SJW in DC have drowned out any discussion of change. We can't hold kids back because it would be racist (never mind it is the black and brown kids who are being failed by social promotion). We can't hold kids back because then you'd have 18 year olds in 3rd grade (this BS red herring is thrown around all over DCUM and in education circles). The last point is the most important. Nothing works the way you think it will. You need to be willing to try new things and see what works and adapt. Charters exist precisely because DCPS and those that control it reject all change. The WTU has successfully fought almost all change at the expense of our kids. I really wish the white denizens of W3 would stop speaking for at-risk and families of color who are saddled with lousy schools. 
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