Reply to Catania's Statement on Boundary/Feeder Changes

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Reply to "Catania's Statement on Boundary/Feeder Changes"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm really no fan of Bowser and can't think of anything she can do at this point to sway my vote her way.

So I really, [i]really [/i]want a reason to vote for Catania but this statement isn't doing it, either.  The boundary/assignment changes could not possibly please everyone but it can be refined and amended.  All can agree that school quality needs to be addressed, but that can't happen in a year so what's the point of delay - especially when there are grandfather clauses for those who want status quo?

For all the talk of Catania's intelligence and thorough understanding of the state of DCPS, he's been pretty whisper quiet on what he thinks needs to be done to raise school quality.  What's his vision?  More funding?  Innovative programming? Just . . . "make the schools better"???

It doesn't take a lot to criticize what we've got.  It seems to me that Catania is just more vociferous than most, but it doesn't mean he's got a plan for making it better.  If he wants to be a drag on the painful boundary review process we just went through without at least talking about what direction he wants to go in, I have to keep giving him the side eye.[/quote]

This. This. This. And, if Catania really cared about eduction, why isn't he busting his butt promising to make these new schools top-notch. Putting in a budget, securing the best teachers from a nationwide search, finding leaders to run it, etc. If he was dynamite, he could say let's make this happen and inspire confidence. Like pp said, Gray handed him the perfect set-up, and he's not taking it. [/quote]

Catania can't do that now. He is not yet the mayor. But, that's exactly what he wants to do. The DME released a plan calling for a bunch of things -- new schools for one -- that require budget support and all levels of planning. The recommendations don't include any of that. Catania's entire statement is essentially saying that while the recommendations have a lot of good ideas, they are simply ideas. Before parents are discouraged by half-baked ideas, develop them into concrete projects that can be implemented.

I'm seeing in some of the discussions in other threads that there is considerable confusion and/or lack of understanding of the final recommendations. I think it is highly likely that many current supporters are going to give many of the recommendations a second though when they understand them better. It is much better to slow down and make sure we are getting the deal that we want rather than rushing and ending up with buyer's remorse.
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The more I think about the boundary process vis a vis the issue of school quality, the more I believe it was right to keep them separate.

Quality would have been a noisy side show to the three-ring circus we had this year and we'd probably still be embroiled with no end in sight.

What I'd like to see is the same thorough treatment given to improvement and quality, with data-driven examination of DCPS and school districts in other cities, several rounds of public input, and some shared language on policy objectives that go beyond testing.

Just what makes highly-regarded public and public charter schools so good?  People want to say that it's high SES families, but if that's the case, we should be satisfied with school assignments that redistribute that demographic into lower performing schools - but we're not.

Still, it's a start to getting butts into seats, which is something that needs to happen at the earlier grade levels, when stakes aren't so high.  But every year of delay means more families peeling off.  There's just no reason to do so, except an emotional appeal for votes.  Implementation is the best way to learn what tweaks need to be made.  For example, you could have a school quality plan aimed at one particular student demographic with no accounting for a different population swelling in that school. Let's just get it started.[/quote]

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