Reply to What's it like to be in a new charter school in its first year?

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Reply to "What's it like to be in a new charter school in its first year?"

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[quote=Anonymous]And the bottom line with "growth" is that you have a school culture set up and then there are new kids and parents who aren't a part of that culture who come in in a large group in an entry grade/year.

Let's say the culture is "work hard, get smart, play nice, go to college" or something like that.  Great. If a new kid or two joins the community they will learn the culture and go along with the flow.

But let's say the school doubles.  The year before your kid was with 20 kids who knew the culture and bought into the slogan above.  But now your child is in a class with 10 kids that know the culture and 10 kids that don't.  That's a big disruption.  The new 10 kids can learn the culture or they can force the culture to change to them, depending on what priority the school is placing on school community and culture at the time.  If there's some other emphasis going on (facilities problems or a move/construction; DC CAS crisis, etc., even staff changes) you can bet that culture/community takes a back seat.  And so now your kid is in a class with 10 new kids who may or may not want to buy into the school program.  If they don't want to work hard and play nice, or their families don't value education, etc., that will make a big difference.  And that can really stink.  [/quote]

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