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=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm a former Sela parent who moved outside of DC, but my child had an excellent time in the early elementary grades.

In my opinion, the biggest issue at Sela is the lack of retention in the older grades. It would be an option for folks in early elementary but then they would seek other paths. My sense is that it was for a mix of reasons: lack of a middle school feeder, pursuing private school, trying to get into a "stronger" charter. I always thought that the lack of retention was a self-perpetuating problem; if we hadn't moved, I also wasn't sure that I would have wanted for my child to stay with such a small cohort.

Because of this, I always thought that judging the school by solely academic performance was tricky. Since DC testing begins in third grade, it was really measuring the academic experience of about 22% of the school since enrollment is skewed so heavily to the younger grades. For what it's worth, my child became an excellent reader, in part thanks to the teaching at Sela. That experience isn't going to be reflected in the data.

Finally, I was very involved with the school community, and there was a small group of parents who complained about everything (and I mean everything!). At times, their concerns were legitimate and sometimes they were not, but the feedback was always presented in the most negative/over-the-top way possible. I would be willing to bet that some of these folks are involved in this petition and take it with a grain of salt. The number of signatures is quite telling.

Sometimes, my husband and I see the issues at our current elementary in a large public school district and have a chuckle about how that group of Sela parents would react. I hope these parents either get more meaningfully involved in the school or find another school that may suit their needs better. But having attended many Sela PTSA meetings, something tells me they will be unhappy everywhere they go.[/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]

Schools without a middle feeder aren't meeting the needs of many families but that doesn't mean that families who leave aren't satisfied with their schools. Nor does it mean that quality is the issue. Sela tested 35 3rd graders and 12 5th graders. There are middle/high programs that start at 5th grade. For some families the most responsible decision is to move their children for 5th grade. This is clearly happening at Sela where there were nearly 3 times as many students tested in the 3rd grade versus in the 5th grade. These parents didn't just become unhappy with Sela at the end of 4th. They weren't running from Sela; they were running to a middle school through high school opportunity.

Plus if you look at the achievement scores for White students in math, Sela is the third highest performing elementary after Marie Reed and Maury. For Black students in math, it is the 9th highest. The only higher elementary charters for Black student performance in math are LAMB and a Friendship campus. [/quote]

Ok, so why are the growth scores so low?[/quote]

No one here can answer that question. You have as much access to the data on that as anyone else, so why don't you tell us? And it's been thoroughly explained why there's so much attrition after pre-k. Maybe try spreading your trolling around some other schools. [/quote]

Has it though? All we know is some people think other charters are "stronger" (but apparently those people are wrong?), some people wanted private school (despite Sela being perfectly fine, I guess?), and that they want a middle/high school path. The last is a very compelling reason but the first two don't really indicate that all is well at Sela. It has not been thoroughly explained. People have *reasons* for what they do, they don't just randomly lottery or apply to and pay for private school without a rationale. [/quote]

The private school in question provides a religious education that a public school, by law, cannot. Some people eventually decide they want the religious education. That's not an indictment of Sela's quality.[/quote]

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