Anonymous
07/31/2013 20:35
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not one charter school in the top ten. Interesting.
You would expect a charter school to surpass application/test-in magnents and schools West of the Park? Are you new to DC????????????????????
If you break it down by category, several of the top 10 high schools are charters, as are several of the top 10 middle and elementary schools. And yes, in several cases charters did outperform the "highly regarded" DCPS schools.
Well, not one of 6 or so immersion charters outperformed DCPS’ Oyster-Adams in the language immersion category. Oyster is still the champ by a healthy margin. Now if only DCPS could bring up the scores of Bancroft & Marie Reed, among others.
Oyster Adams is how old? I don't know but I've met adults with children who've gone there. Comparing Oyster to a bunch of new charters isn't fair and that's not even getting into how much money is spent per students in DCPS vs charters.
Students in the DC CAS grades test into Oyster on a Spanish language assessment. Guess what? Language proficiency = language proficiency = good student.
Charters can't test students in. Comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges. DCPS "specialty" schools self-select the best students.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 20:24
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
What's going on at Garrison? I thought it was meant to be on the cusp of a turn around?
Anonymous
07/31/2013 19:15
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not one charter school in the top ten. Interesting.
You would expect a charter school to surpass application/test-in magnents and schools West of the Park? Are you new to DC????????????????????
If you break it down by category, several of the top 10 high schools are charters, as are several of the top 10 middle and elementary schools. And yes, in several cases charters did outperform the "highly regarded" DCPS schools.
Well, not one of 6 or so immersion charters outperformed DCPS’ Oyster-Adams in the language immersion category. Oyster is still the champ by a healthy margin. Now if only DCPS could bring up the scores of Bancroft & Marie Reed, among others.
Oyster Adams is how old? I don't know but I've met adults with children who've gone there. Comparing Oyster to a bunch of new charters isn't fair and that's not even getting into how much money is spent per students in DCPS vs charters.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 19:06
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:17:55, how do you know your 5th gader's math placement already? To my knowledge they haven't done any testing yet.
Not that poster, but if your student got A (90s) -- or 4s in DCPS parlance -- in fourth grade math elementary school, chances are pretty good that he'll ace the placement tests next month.
Thanks for the helpful post.
Not sure how many placement classes they will do this year, but last year it seemed it was Math 7/8 or Algebra 1 to start 5th grade. Check out their course list for math on their website. Algebra 1 is what is called Leap. In 6th there are at least 3 levels of math. Only~4 out of ~125-150 kids placed into Algebra in 5th last year. I think 4s (90s) might not be good enough to assume advanced placement. Of course things may change this year.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:41
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:17:55, how do you know your 5th gader's math placement already? To my knowledge they haven't done any testing yet.
Not that poster, but if your student got A (90s) -- or 4s in DCPS parlance -- in fourth grade math elementary school, chances are pretty good that he'll ace the placement tests next month.
Thanks for the helpful post.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:35
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:17:55, how do you know your 5th gader's math placement already? To my knowledge they haven't done any testing yet.
The lowest level for math placement at BASIS for 5th is Saxon Math 7/8 (unless you are remedial/don't know how that works). 5th graders may also be placed in pre-Algebra or Algebra I depending on their testing. I'm assuming that he will be in 7/8 because I will fight a placement in Algebra I and I am nervous about a placement in pre-Algebra. I know my child's math level because he is currently learning 5th/6th grade math; he has been assessed every year; I teach him myself. But that was not the point of my post; review 18:07's post for further clarification.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:32
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:17:55, how do you know your 5th gader's math placement already? To my knowledge they haven't done any testing yet.
Not that poster, but if your student got A (90s) -- or 4s in DCPS parlance -- in fourth grade math elementary school, chances are pretty good that he'll ace the placement tests next month.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:13
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
17:55, how do you know your 5th gader's math placement already? To my knowledge they haven't done any testing yet.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:07
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:BASIS - first year out - very, very impressive.
+1! Proud Basis parent here!
This should not surprise anyone given the caliber student that is drawn to enroll at Basis. Those would be the scores no matter what school they all enrolled in together
+1 - It's called self-selection. My DC who is enrolled at BASIS is coming in 2 grades advanced in math and more than 2 grades advanced in reading. I would not feel comfortable putting him in Math 7/8 as a 5th grader unless he was; we would go elsewhere. While we can take advantage of the rigor, I am not comfortable with the weeding out of capable students who are not prepared for that level in the 5th grade. To do well in higher level math you need math fluency which is developed after you learn the concepts. It doesn't matter as much which age you develop it prior to high school; but you need it to truly excel. Students who have to spend the majority of their time learning concepts they have not been taught or exposed to will have a significant learning curve and require more dedication than others in developing this needed fluency.
Exactly why you can't just look at individual school test scores as put out by OSSE, they are misleading unless you know if the individual child's score actually grew during the time that a child received the majority of instruction as the particular school. Having high test scores alone is meaningless, schools that are application only schools should have higher test scores at the high school level so unless you look at growth why would you try to compare McKinley, SWW etc. to Anacostia or Coolidge.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:03
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:To say Eastern has no growth is utterly ridiculous when you compare them to the other comprehensive counterparts. Eastern scores are doubled in comparison, so growth comparising is a kill joy. I see that many don't want to give schools their 5-min of fame.
Basis gets good test scores on their inaugural trial and Eastern needs to be compared to some irrelevant bullsh*t to justify their success.
Is it an oxymoron where the Cap Hill elementary, montessori and middle schools did so/so but the lone high-school did extremely well. Explain that stroller-brigade?
I am wondering if Cap-Hill grade schools are floundering out and Kaya sensed it and that's she didn't cater to their woes.
Kaya the clairvoyant. LOL
I don't think it was said Eastern has no growth, but it doesn't show any for 2012 so therefore nobody but the school or individual parents know if the students actually had growth or not. You cannot go just by scores because students may already test strongly at the start of the year.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 18:01
Subject: Re:DC CAS popular schools summary
I am a former chm parent and a long-time critic of the elementary program. I maintain that dcps is scared of the head teacher and her cult following. Maybe this will force dcps to take action.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 17:56
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Banneker is for Blacks and SWW is for whites. Did anyone notice that Eastern has the second highest test scores for the comprehensive schools. Wilson is number one but they have triple the tenth grade population in comparison to Eastern. Eastern came on strong and looks good on paper and that's nothing to sneeze at.
My niece is doing great at Banneker. Go Banneker!
Is a Banneker college acceptance list available?
It says it has 100% college acceptance rate on its website, http://benjaminbanneker.k12.dc.us/about_bbahs.html, but I'm still looking for a list.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 17:55
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:BASIS - first year out - very, very impressive.
+1! Proud Basis parent here!
This should not surprise anyone given the caliber student that is drawn to enroll at Basis. Those would be the scores no matter what school they all enrolled in together
+1 - It's called self-selection. My DC who is enrolled at BASIS is coming in 2 grades advanced in math and more than 2 grades advanced in reading. I would not feel comfortable putting him in Math 7/8 as a 5th grader unless he was; we would go elsewhere. While we can take advantage of the rigor, I am not comfortable with the weeding out of capable students who are not prepared for that level in the 5th grade. To do well in higher level math you need math fluency which is developed after you learn the concepts. It doesn't matter as much which age you develop it prior to high school; but you need it to truly excel. Students who have to spend the majority of their time learning concepts they have not been taught or exposed to will have a significant learning curve and require more dedication than others in developing this needed fluency.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 17:23
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Not one charter school in the top ten. Interesting.
You would expect a charter school to surpass application/test-in magnents and schools West of the Park? Are you new to DC????????????????????
If you break it down by category, several of the top 10 high schools are charters, as are several of the top 10 middle and elementary schools. And yes, in several cases charters did outperform the "highly regarded" DCPS schools.
Well, not one of 6 or so immersion charters outperformed DCPS’ Oyster-Adams in the language immersion category. Oyster is still the champ by a healthy margin. Now if only DCPS could bring up the scores of Bancroft & Marie Reed, among others.
Anonymous
07/31/2013 17:12
Subject: DC CAS popular schools summary
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I hadn't heard of PARCC before - how will this work: replace DC CAS? Will charters take the PARCC also?
Yes and yes.
At first I thought this would give DCPS more chance to obfuscate but now I'm realizing it'll give us some really apple-to-apples numbers to compare with other jurisdictions.
That's when the reality will sink and city leaders will be force to hire real, experienced education administrators to run DC's schools.
Also, when the scores follow the students. At this point, that obviously does already happen but not publicly. Students in DC, especially students with behavior problems, move around from school to school. Then you would really know if the school is good or bad, if the individual scores fluctuate dramatically, right now it is all hard to tell as clearly some schools already have higher achieving students and it is a lot harder to move a under-achiever to basic than it is to move a high-achiever to proficient. Also, Murch used to use their PTA to pay an outside agency to work with their struggling readers (don't know if they still do) so it also about access to resources as this program was not run by teachers but the results were added to their IMPACT scores and inflate the DC CAS.