Anonymous wrote:i dont think the charter board would necessarily approve basis in dc today. they obtain a high achieving student body using their particular branding and an up or out model to discourage lots of students from enrolling. id maybe like to see dcps open some kind of citywide magnet middle in a eotp location like that is pretty easy to get to from east of the river.

Anonymous wrote:

It seems like all of DC outside Ward 3 is interested in academic success for middle schoolers, but only where gentrification has occurred are there people demanding acceleration.

In Ward 7 and 8, except for those sending kids westward, parents seem to want schools that will do better than DCPS at getting achievement out of their kids.

Unfortunately because this is anonymous I will say that the tie between parent academic success and child success is strong, so we have a bunch of charters in Wards 7 and 8 not delivering any better results than DCPS despite obviously trying something different.

I think ultimately the demand for tracking is coming from parents who were tracked in secondary schools themselves, either within a school or a larger school system.

and that is because schools (either regular DCPS or charter) and politicians are not explicit enough with parents and other adult caregivers regarding what adult supervision and behavioral modeling are necessary on the home front in order to improve student chances of success. If all you know and do is what you have seen around you, then don't expect different outcomes for kids. Don't expect the school system to do it all because they can't.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think many would say DCI fills that gap, and there are many, many immersion families at feeders that are there as much for the DCI feed as the language itself. We could debate whether DCI really really provides “differentiation/advanced classes”, but I think the buy in from MC EOTP families shows that they see the academics as “good enough.”

if you dont win the lottery an get into a DCI feeder in PK, you are pretty much out of luck getting to DCI

Not true. They went deep on their Mandarin list. Also, you can get into Stokes or MV pretty much any grade after 3rd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think many would say DCI fills that gap, and there are many, many immersion families at feeders that are there as much for the DCI feed as the language itself. We could debate whether DCI really really provides “differentiation/advanced classes”, but I think the buy in from MC EOTP families shows that they see the academics as “good enough.”

if you dont win the lottery an get into a DCI feeder in PK, you are pretty much out of luck getting to DCI

Anonymous wrote:I think many would say DCI fills that gap, and there are many, many immersion families at feeders that are there as much for the DCI feed as the language itself. We could debate whether DCI really really provides “differentiation/advanced classes”, but I think the buy in from MC EOTP families shows that they see the academics as “good enough.”

Anonymous wrote:

It seems like all of DC outside Ward 3 is interested in academic success for middle schoolers, but only where gentrification has occurred are there people demanding acceleration.

In Ward 7 and 8, except for those sending kids westward, parents seem to want schools that will do better than DCPS at getting achievement out of their kids.

Unfortunately because this is anonymous I will say that the tie between parent academic success and child success is strong, so we have a bunch of charters in Wards 7 and 8 not delivering any better results than DCPS despite obviously trying something different.

I think ultimately the demand for tracking is coming from parents who were tracked in secondary schools themselves, either within a school or a larger school system.


and that is because schools (either regular DCPS or charter) and politicians are not explicit enough with parents and other adult caregivers regarding what adult supervision and behavioral modeling are necessary on the home front in order to improve student chances of success. If all you know and do is what you have seen around you, then don't expect different outcomes for kids. Don't expect the school system to do it all because they can't.

And the charters in Wards 7 ad 8 that are improving results are most likely the ones that have gotten parental and adult caregiver buy-in. Because just applying to a charter means that a kid has some adult in their life who cares enough to push to find a better educational fit.

It seems like all of DC outside Ward 3 is interested in academic success for middle schoolers, but only where gentrification has occurred are there people demanding acceleration.

In Ward 7 and 8, except for those sending kids westward, parents seem to want schools that will do better than DCPS at getting achievement out of their kids.

Unfortunately because this is anonymous I will say that the tie between parent academic success and child success is strong, so we have a bunch of charters in Wards 7 and 8 not delivering any better results than DCPS despite obviously trying something different.

I think ultimately the demand for tracking is coming from parents who were tracked in secondary schools themselves, either within a school or a larger school system.


and that is because schools (either regular DCPS or charter) and politicians are not explicit enough with parents and other adult caregivers regarding what adult supervision and behavioral modeling are necessary on the home front in order to improve student chances of success. If all you know and do is what you have seen around you, then don't expect different outcomes for kids. Don't expect the school system to do it all because they can't.

It seems like all of DC outside Ward 3 is interested in academic success for middle schoolers, but only where gentrification has occurred are there people demanding acceleration.

In Ward 7 and 8, except for those sending kids westward, parents seem to want schools that will do better than DCPS at getting achievement out of their kids.

Unfortunately because this is anonymous I will say that the tie between parent academic success and child success is strong, so we have a bunch of charters in Wards 7 and 8 not delivering any better results than DCPS despite obviously trying something different.

I think ultimately the demand for tracking is coming from parents who were tracked in secondary schools themselves, either within a school or a larger school system.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like all of DC outside Ward 3 is interested in academic success for middle schoolers, but only where gentrification has occurred are there people demanding acceleration.

In Ward 7 and 8, except for those sending kids westward, parents seem to want schools that will do better than DCPS at getting achievement out of their kids.

Unfortunately because this is anonymous I will say that the tie between parent academic success and child success is strong, so we have a bunch of charters in Wards 7 and 8 not delivering any better results than DCPS despite obviously trying something different.

I think ultimately the demand for tracking is coming from parents who were tracked in secondary schools themselves, either within a school or a larger school system.

Anonymous wrote:There aren't that many middle schoolers who are academically advanced. Between those who want to attend their inbound school or follow the feeder pattern they're already in and the charters that start with ms, most of the need is met. And the dcpcsb is not interested in granting charters to cherry pick rich, white, or high-scoring kids...they want to close the achievement gap.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With it being increasingly difficult to get into Latin or BASIS, and with increased demand as more UMC families hit middle school, and with all the uncertainty around selective high school admissions, it seems like there would be a lot of interest in a new charter middle and/or high school whose value prop was differentiation/advanced classes. I know there's Latin Cooper. But are there not more attempts at this because they wouldn't get approved, or because it's very difficult to get the real estate, or something else? Thank you.

Very simple--DC probably has the highest percentage of kids in private schools in the country. Until privates become too cost prohibitive, I really don't think the middle and high school landscape will change. It's ingrained in the culture vs demanding something better. I don't think anywhere else in the country is like this. Pretty sad...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As someone who was shut out of the MS lottery and moved because of it, I agree that there should be more spots where parents can comfortably send college-bound kids. But let’s be clear that basis is the only charter that caters to high performers. The only reason there is any differentiation at Latin is because parents pushed hard for it.

But would you have wanted a newly started school, given your understanding of the constraints that charter schools have to operate under?

It's far from clear to me that BASIS would be granted a charter if it wasn't already here and applied today. The PCSB is pushing the equity stuff much harder and might not be willing to tolerate the fail-out model.