Reply to Petition to Change Sela Leadership

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Reply to "Petition to Change Sela Leadership"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote]Ok, it's attrition, and the middle school issue is baked in I agree. But you can't just say "oh, it's attrition" without addressing the reasons for the attrition, which come right back to quality issues at Sela. Why did people want a "stronger" charter? Probably because they didn't think Sela was strong. Why did they want private school? Because they didn't feel Sela was meeting their needs. See? [/quote][/quote]

For the benefit of any families who might be considering the school, let me elaborate. Based on our family's experience in the early childhood grades at Sela, here are some reasons that we saw other families leave:

- Families wanting a "stronger" charter: I put this in quotes for a reason because in my opinion, it was often what people perceive a "stronger" school to be (e.g. schools with longer wait lists in Ward 5, better facilities, etc.). As a family, we were more focused on what was happening in our child's classroom from year to year and again, that experience was very positive. 
- When I mentioned private school, this was a handful of families who went to Jewish day schools. 
- In the PreK years, we saw some families leave for schools closer to their home. (Sela pulls heavily from Brookland/Petworth, but my child's class also had students with much longer commutes.)
- And I wouldn't underestimate the lack of a middle school feeder that causes families to reevaluate in grades 1-3. Of course, Sela should improve its academic outcomes but with its grade enrollment distribution, it will always be more challenging to demonstrate impact because the school has too small of a cohort of students who attended from PreK to fifth grade.

Of course, the above isn't data-based but anecdotal from our experience, but I think it's valuable to share. I do not think the attrition at Sela was always linked to the actual quality of the student/family experience. We had a wonderful time at the school and will always be grateful to its leadership and teachers for a great academic start for our child. 
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