Reply to The Sojourner Truth School - possible new public middle and high school option

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I wish all the people proposing new charters - that aren’t serving a diverse population now - would publicly go to the Council and beg for an at-risk preference and commit to using it and not opening until they get it.

They have leverage. The city wants more “quality seats.” Let the schools walk the talk they include in their charters about wanting to serve all.

Personally I’d make at-risk the first preference for 5th through 12th, given that drop off and pickups isn’t an issue for older kids who can and do commute via public transit. [/quote]

I listened to Lee representatives talk at both the November and December DCPCSB board meetings, and heard them advocate for exactly this both times. FWIW, my connection to Lee is that my PK3 kid just matched to their new location, so I'm in a "learn as much as I can" mode.

November Board meeting [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJzUckqoyHs]video[/url], [url=https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2018-11-19%20November%2019%20Meeting%20Transcript.pdf]transcript[/url]

Starting at Page 14, Line 13, or at [url=https://youtu.be/hJzUckqoyHs?t=657]10:57[/url] in the video.

"In that time, we've learned a lot. In addition to solidifying ourselves as a high-quality Tier 1 school, we've really seen the impact of diversity. We've seen that both positively and negatively. To start with the drawbacks, it means an enrollment challenge, in that for every seat that we open, we see two applications from a low income family and eight from middle and upper income families. [b]Without an at-risk preference or an income based preference, that means that we're serving fewer low income families than we intended and, in my opinion, too few.[/b] We'd like that number to be at around 40 percent, or at least 40 percent. Currently, our low income number is at about 25 percent."

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If they wanted to serve more than 40% low income, they never should have located in ward 5.  I suspect that they want to serve somewhere between 40% and 50% lower income and, rightly predicted that opening across the river would mean that few middle income families would have  taken a chance on them as a new school in a far away neighborhood. Now they run into the opposite problem - lower income students crowded out in lottery by higher SES students. I think the goal of a truly economically diverse school with 40-50% lower income is commendable, but it's hard to find because middle income families in DC move in packs and they either ignore your school or flock to it in droves and crowd others out.

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I am supportive of more school options and truly supportive of this school. But let's be real -- a charter that really wanted to serve more at-risk kids would open where there are more at-risk kids -- Ward 8 or at least Ward 7. The truth is these charters know that it's easier to open and have high performance in a highly gentrified area and then expand with a good reputation, than to risk performance and reputation by starting with a more at-risk population. Truly believe in your model? Start in Ward 8 and let's see it work. [/quote]

Let’s be clear, there is no magic bullet or “model” that is going to be able to overcome the trauma, lack of home support and other challenges that low SES students have. They need wraparound services to include food, mentorship, laundry, clothing, therapy, field trips, etc. What can work are either schools that have these (expensive in money, time, and labor) services and very low student to teacher ratios, counseling, the works. Or we can create high performing schools that have a majority of students who are on or above grade level so teachers and staff can devote the appropriate time to the at-risk students that are there. You can have a great model but if you stick it in ward 8 without the wraparound resources or higher performing students, it’s doomed to fail.[/quote]

Have you heard of KIPP? Folks on this site look the other way when referring to that school so location really doesn't matter.[/quote]

KIPP offers a lot of wraparound services, proving PP's point. Also they attract and retain the more motivated families who can help their kids follow the many rules the school imposes. They also have a lot of discipline (I don't mean punishment, but they expect the kids to act in a fairly calm and prescribed fashion) that can match better with what some families think of as the ideal education than Montessori does. Lee and Truth and other charters will really need to sell the Montessori model to low-income families even if they got an at-risk preference.[/quote]

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