Reply to Language instruction at CMI in the upper elementary grades

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]In my view, it's a good place for children with special needs, but mainly for reasons that are not academic. 
You don't have to love the place, as you can sense from these threads, you'll find a lot
of upbeat defensive parents at CMI, who aren't helping the cause that much. The school is pretty new
and, I think, needs a stronger focus on teaching core skills,  the shaky test scores are probably
here to stay unless CMI improves its teaching in reading and math. [/quote]

I didn't get the sense that special needs kids are the focus of the school and I wouldn't be surprised if fewer parents of SN Kids specifically seek the school out for that purpose. The principal made no mention of that as a focus, it was all about IYP curriculum etc.   I would guess at the school continues to skew more high SES every year, the diversity in race and special needs will also likely drop but the scores will go up.[/quote]

YOU may not, but every educated parent with a child on the autism spectrum knows the name Greenspan.  (School founder).  It's designed to serve students with special needs.  Happily, those same techniques are beneficial to all children.  By older ES and especially MS, they may not serve the academically higher-achieving students.[/quote]

Doubt it. The school is in such demand especially driven by the baby boom in the adjacent neighborhoods.  We do not have a middle school

Option and we know McFarland isn't going to cut it either. The school will evolve with the kids and demands of the parents for rigor and advanced learning to match Basis etc. [/quote]

So in your opinion, CMI is an option but MacFarland isn't even though CMI's scores are not much higher than the future feeders to MacFarland...?  And CMI's (citywide school) success is driven by the baby boom in the adjacent neighborhoods, but MacFarland's (neighborhood school) won't be?

What am I missing?[/quote]

What your missing is that it decades to turn around a middle school.  Look at Cap Hill, they have solid feeders but most of the top kids leave at 4th grade and have turned Basis into the de facto Cap Hill middle school. And these parents have been working for 15 years to make changes on the Hill and there is still not enough IB commitment.  The feeders for McFarland are weak at best.  Sure there are more high SES families in PS/PK but even still there is no where near a critical mass sticking through 5th grade to feed to McFarland to offer it any financial support or well supported kids. Not even in the next ten years.  We are like most families in Petwroth we are fine with younger years but so far every single person we know has bailed on the IBs or moved by first grade.   If Stuart Hobson is still such an underachiever after decades of concerted effort and solid feeders, what makes you think McFarland is going to open and be awesome? [b]Just because its shiny and new doesn;t make it good.[/b] See Brookland middle of that lesson.[/quote]

But if it's shiny and new and a charter school, then it's magically awesome (or "highly regarded")?

I get why people like you are hesitant about MacFarland.  I just don't get why a similarly performing charter school is suddenly "highly regarded".
It seems kind like MacFarland (and Stuart Hobson, Brookland, etc.) will be middling, but not terrible places, just like CMI, E.L. Haynes, and other Tier 2s.[/quote]

Peer group is a major factor.  Interpret that as you will.[/quote]

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