Anonymous wrote:How were the meetings so far? ANy insight?

I went to a meeting, and was impressed with the founders and director of school development. I have a feeling they will be very hands-on, and this should ease the normal start-up pains of all new charters
Still not sure if this is what I want for my children, though...

How were the meetings so far? ANy insight?

Anonymous wrote:
Parents in Wards 1,2 and 3 should definitely attend one of BASIS meetings.

Please be aware that there is going to be another round of DCPS schools closings for next year.

Even in Ward 2 and 3 schools, not every parent can afford private schooling. Next year, Deal will be extremely overcrowded. Hardy has problems (less than 8% of actual neighborhood kids attend it, and it's practically serving the out of boundary students who are already attending the area feeder schools).

There is a dire need of a good public middle school where all students (not only the brightest ones who do everything on their own) will be challenged to reach their maximum potential instead of falling 2 years below grade level by grade 8 due to whatever, especially schools who talk the talk but do next to nothing in the name of innovative methodology.

Actually, it's parents in Wards 5, 7, and 8 that should attend a meeting. Is the school doing the appropriate outreach? I didn't see a meeting scheduled in Ward 5. Wards 1, 2, and 3 have choices: Latin, Deal, and Hardy. If this school is serious about its mission, it needs to look for the kids in Ward 5 (and 7 and 8).

Parents in Wards 1,2 and 3 should definitely attend one of BASIS meetings.

Please be aware that there is going to be another round of DCPS schools closings for next year.

Even in Ward 2 and 3 schools, not every parent can afford private schooling. Next year, Deal will be extremely overcrowded. Hardy has problems (less than 8% of actual neighborhood kids attend it, and it's practically serving the out of boundary students who are already attending the area feeder schools).

There is a dire need of a good public middle school where all students (not only the brightest ones who do everything on their own) will be challenged to reach their maximum potential instead of falling 2 years below grade level by grade 8 due to whatever, especially schools who talk the talk but do next to nothing in the name of innovative methodology.

Just pulled this from their web site:

Monday, November 14, 7:00-8:30 PM
Capitol View Public Library, CAV Meeting Room, 5001 Central Avenue, SE (Benning Road Metro)

Tuesday, November 15, 6:30-8 PM
Westminster Presbyterian Church, 400 I Street, SW (Waterfront Metro)

Wednesday, November 16, 12:00-1:30 PM
Brown bag lunch, Fordham Foundation, 1016 16th Street, NW, 7th Floor (Farragut West or Farragut North Metro)

Wednesday, November 16, 7 – 8:30 PM
FBR Branch Boys & Girls Club at THEARC, 1901 Mississippi Ave, SE (Southern Avenue Station)

Thursday, November 17, 6:30-8 PM
Mt Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 9th & Mass NW (Convention Center or Gallery Place Metro)

Do your homework, talk to patents, visit the school and even volunteer before you enroll ... I bet you'll get a lot of useful info.

Anonymous wrote:Nice try, but I have put in hours and hours looking at dcps middle schools and coming to this conclusion. And what parent in their right mind actually puts their child in a middle school to see if it is a good fit? Especially since by the time you figure it out and want to go elsewhere, those slots are already taken and you are stuck.

The onus is on DCPS to convince parents that they know what they are doing, it is not parents responsibility to trust and take a chance. I guarantee that charters would not be so successful at drawing parents if DCPS had anything worth staying for. Just sayin'

This.

Anonymous wrote:He's in 6th grade now, after being in 2 DCPS schools in one year.

By direct teaching, I mean direct instruction where the teacher is involved personally with each student and each small group rather than lecturing for 2-3 minutes to the whole class before putting students in groups for the rest of the period where 1 student does the work and the others copy. I am for cooperative learning and exploration if it's indeed guided by the teacher, and not only during open houses only.
I went to several middle schools and did not see any real interaction between the teacher and the students. It seems the teacher supplies the work and a grading rubric and the students work independently or teach each other. This invironment is condusive only to the self starterer kids who are completely independent and need minimal or no guidance.

What you are seeing is differentiated learning in practice. See a thread on this forum for more. Agreed that this is a weak way to educate in the upper grades. The amount of time wasted is astounding.

Nice try, but I have put in hours and hours looking at dcps middle schools and coming to this conclusion. And what parent in their right mind actually puts their child in a middle school to see if it is a good fit? Especially since by the time you figure it out and want to go elsewhere, those slots are already taken and you are stuck.

The onus is on DCPS to convince parents that they know what they are doing, it is not parents responsibility to trust and take a chance. I guarantee that charters would not be so successful at drawing parents if DCPS had anything worth staying for. Just sayin'

The above poster's comments demonstrate that much about choosing charter schools is not because someone's child was enrolled in a DCPS (middle) school, then pulled because it wasn't working. Rather, parents follow the hearsay to select "supposedly" better options, many not bothering much to check whether they're a good fit for their own beliefs and their children's learning habits. Charter schools have a role to play, but the very convenient "pile of scum and bureaucracy" mantra is no longer a good argument in support of them. They have to actually offer and deliver something and be accountable for what they advertise. Not to say that middle schools don't have a ways to go but advocating for "back to basics" in charters really isn't the way. If the countless cutting-edge teaching techniques don't suit someone's fancy, then maybe it's time to check back in with DCPS. You know, the saddest part of it all is that DCPS gets to suck up the disenchanted, whose children fell behind in a charter school experience that wasn't thought through by their parents or the system as a whole.

Anonymous wrote:Three of those are CHARTER SCHOOLS. Hardy and Stuart Hobson attract decent students ( middle-class parents concentrating ) but I wouldn't pin the success of students there on the rigorous curriculum and stellar teaching going on.

You are looking down your nose down on two of the rare successful middle schools in DCPS?

Charters are a good point of comparison. Latin seems to stretch kids up. So does Howard. Those kids go on to SWW and other selective programs. Aside from Deal, Hardy and Hobson there are no viable options.

Anonymous wrote:Three of those are CHARTER SCHOOLS.

Hardy and Stuart Hobson attract decent students ( middle-class parents concentrating ) but I wouldn't pin the success of students there on the rigorous curriculum and stellar teaching going on.

You are turning your nose down on two of the rare successful middle schools in DCPS?

Charters are a good point of comparison. Latin seems to stretch kids up. So does Howard. Those kids go on to SWW and other selective programs. Aside from Deal, Hardy and Hobson there are no viable options.

He's in 6th grade now, after being in 2 DCPS schools in one year.

By direct teaching, I mean direct instruction where the teacher is involved personally with each student and each small group rather than lecturing for 2-3 minutes to the whole class before putting students in groups for the rest of the period where 1 student does the work and the others copy. I am for cooperative learning and exploration if it's indeed guided by the teacher, and not only during open houses only.
I went to several middle schools and did not see any real interaction between the teacher and the students. It seems the teacher supplies the work and a grading rubric and the students work independently or teach each other. This invironment is condusive only to the self starterer kids who are completely independent and need minimal or no guidance.

Three of those are CHARTER SCHOOLS.

Hardy and Stuart Hobson attract decent students ( middle-class parents concentrating ) but I wouldn't pin the success of students there on the rigorous curriculum and stellar teaching going on.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son attends one of the supposedly best charter schools in DC, but reading independently,writing slogans and designing T-shirts is not what we had in mind when we enrolled him. His education is being utterly shortchanged.

Then let me hypothesize that you just didn't do your homework. School choice, whether you like it or not (I only moderately do), is not about enrolling one's child in the "supposedly best charter school" but about going to check for yourself what any particular school is about, public, charter, or private if applicable. Before you advocate for yet another charter school to suck away talent and parental engagement, why don't you check where what you have in mind is at work. I'm convinced that what you'll find is that many traditional public schools do precisely what you (and I) are looking for: they plain and simply teach, no two ways about it. They'll use cards and dice to drive home probabilities or leaf through a newspaper to sharpen non-fictional reading skills, but that is not all they do. That's what they do in support of not instead of "direct teaching", as you call it.

Name me ONE traditional DCPS school that includes grades 5-8 that does anything CLOSE to what Basis does with their students. I will give you Deal MS. Now name another one. Waiting.......

When students in DCPS have access to quality across the board, then I will stop advocating for Charters that provide that. Meanwhile, kids educations are being squandered in traditional dcps programs by the hundreds and parents are sick and tired of waiting for that dysfunctional, cynical, ineffective time-wasting refuse pile of a bureaucracy to get their act together. Don't blame charter schools for sucking away "talent and parental engagement". Blame traditional DCPS for driving them away

What about:

Hardy & Stuart Hobson
Latin
Howard
KIPP