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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You know what, having gone through this process three times now and familiarized myself with many of the charter schools and the DCPS website/schools, I feel that I'm qualified to offer the same services.

I certainly seem to know more than any of my kid's teachers or others who work in these schools.  (Which is frustrating and annoying, in itself.)

But, you know what, so do most of the people who read this board. You have to know and understand the system inside out.

Is there some magic tip that Ms. Downey knows that I don't?[/quote]

No. I think she is only useful for those who know nothing.[/quote]

Quite honestly, after 5 years of it myself, I have often thought of offering the same service.  I do it now for free - provide tons of advice here and in real life.  I participate in a neighborhood forum we put on exactly for this purpose.  What I don't have is an entrepreneurial spirit.  Marketing myself, putting myself out there, building a business, figuring out what to charge, dealing with taxes - ugh.  Not for me.  But the fact is, if you really dive deeply into this stuff, you can quickly become an expert, and often are easily more knowledgeable about the system as a whole than someone who works at one school.

It is a lot of work to get this deeply involved in DCPS.  DCUM is a bubble - I learn a LOT here, and am grateful for it, but despite the gig traffic, anyone who thinks "everyone" reads DCUM as closely as many of us do is kidding themselves.  Those of us who have immersed ourselves in it are in fact rare in real life.  [/quote]

I'm not saying everyone reads this part of DCUM. They clearly don't. My point is that her services are useful for those who don't know anything. There are tons of people like that in the city. For people who do things like go to open houses, attend the charter school expo, and check out school profiles online, her services are not particularly helpful. I found it to be a waste of money. The things she initially said about the algorithm were wrong, and she ended up having to send an email to clarify that. She has no more information than anyone else--it's just that some people don't want to put the time to go to open houses, look at school profiles, etc., and she can be helpful to them. But if you have done your basic research (not necessarily on DCUM), I think her sessions are not going to be helpful.[/quote]

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