Reply to Mayor Plans to Underfund Charter Schools

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]BASIS allows all students who are not likely to advance a grade to take summer classes and retake exams to pass to the next grade. They are also welcome to stay and repeat a grade. Many students do this rather than go to their IB abysmal DCPS options.

Which is more like the Mississippi option - and I cannot believe that Mississippi is better at educating students than DC!![/quote]

Sure, and the students who take those options are students who are committed to improving their test scores and who have families who can support it. Again, it's a form of self selection.

I'm not saying it's a bad model if the goal is high test scores. It obviously works well at BASIS. But it's literally not available to other public schools. DCPS also offers summer classes and tutoring to students who are identified as below grade level. However it cannot force them to stay back a grade if they don't show up for the summer classes and tutoring, or if they show up and it still doesn't work. They have to just keep educating those kids the best they can. And where do you think the kids who can't stay on track at BASIS even with the summer classes wind up? They don't stay at BASIS. They wind up in DCPS or in suburban schools or in other charters that will allow them to progress to the next grade despite low test scores.[/quote]

DCPS has very set rules around promotion and retention. It can happen but for students who are multiple years behind (and there are many), there are significant administrative burdens and approvals needed to do so.

[i]Per 5-E DCMR § 2201.4(a), a student cannot be retained more than once during the student's enrollment in DCPS unless there is a comprehensive review by multiple school personnel and approval from the Instructional Superintendent whose jurisdiction encompasses the school the student attends.[/i][/quote]

Exactly, social promotion. That doesn't mean everyone in DCPS gets socially promoted, but it does mean when you look at average test scores for DCPS schools, it includes students who may be a year or more behind academically which will obviously pull average scores down.

Whereas BASIS does not do social promotion, and kids who cannot keep up even with summer school simply leave the school, which results in higher average test scores.

It does not mean that BASIS magically is able to pull up kids who test poorly and get them to test higher. It means these students leave the school.[/quote]

What people who aren't at the school are missing is that BASIS also helps kids figure out how to do well.

They have free tutoring available after school. They teach them how to use a planner and make study guides and flash cards. The teachers all have office hours and are available to answer questions. And the way they teach, through handwritten note taking, is more conducive to learning.

Yes, some kids wash out. But it is more similar to the Mississippi system of having high standards and ALSO helping kids meet them, compared to DCPS. 
[/quote]

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