Comments on: For some charters, 2012 reading test gains began with a struggle

By: Survivor with scars

Survivor with scars — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 04:31:00 +0000

The inside story at Success is that the teachers worked hard but some went WAY overboard… students were forced to do manual labor is they didnt perform, were demeaned, were not even allowed to go to the bathroom during practice tests. I know 8 and 9 year-olds who wet themselves repeatedly and those who were in tears for days. It was tragic and heartbreaking and no test is worth that. And look at the turnover– at Harlem 3, no one is staying for the 12-13 year. That charter network is a living hell for many children (and teachers… I am one who fled).

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 02:17:00 +0000

In what grade do they start teaching about comma splices?

Just kidding, Joe! My comment wasn’t meant to be an approval or disapproval of the practice of retention in general. However, for the record: I’m against retention in all but the most extreme cases. I think it’s better to use tools like extended day, tutoring, pull-in/push-out instruction, summer school, and so forth. Adding a year to the amount of time a child has to be in school is the same as taking a year away of his adult life, and I’m not comfortable with that if the alternative achieves an equal or comparable result.

Any elementary-school-aged child is bound to be smarter at age X+1 than he was at age X. It is possible for both of the following statements to be true: Democracy Prep did a solid job of righting the ship at this school / if they are measuring their results by student test scores, it can’t possibly have hurt that one hundred of their students were going through 180+ days of their grade’s curriculum and taking its corresponding state test for a second time.

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:29:00 +0000

Based on the previous score they should have held those students back, they obviously did not learn the lessons the first time through.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:20:00 +0000

You think more fund would help the charter schools? Would it also help the public schools?
I can’t reply to the second part. It is not written in English grammar I understand.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 06:05:00 +0000

1)I understand that Charters school do not have the funding to be able to give students will a special needs the same as a general ed student. Maybe more funding would help
2) As for the lottery process it is not a full blow we need to know everything about your family, its a simple for that ask for name, address, phone number, age, grade of the child and any family members that maybe already attenting the school. If is not where you sit down and they ask your family a bunch of question. They take all of the children name and put it in a container, then they shake it up and pu;l out name one by one and in that order and base on how many seats thay have it goes into first accepted and wait list.
3) In a charter school the child is hold completey responsible for there action and some parents get upset because their child is in dentention for very small things and the parents are the one that takes their kids out because the school is too strict.

By: Guest

Guest — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 05:56:00 +0000

I am a parent of a child that goes to AF Bushwick Middle school and I would like to say that during the 2011-2012 school year all of the parent and teachers had several meeting to discuss what they can change and help so that our scholars can get a higher grade in the state wide test.
I know that my child was taking pratice test of all test in Reading, Writing, Math, Science and Social Studies at least 2 months before the test. They also offer after school and Saturday class to help children that they feel are falling behind.

By: Mr. Flerporillo

Mr. Flerporillo — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:24:00 +0000

But the hedge fund money!

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 19:11:00 +0000

I have no idea why the Icahn schools don’t get more press. Without spending millions on outreach, they end up with enrollments that are very similar to their home districts in terms of the percentages of at-risk kids that they serve. They have extremely low student attrition rates and/or they backfill their classes to replace the kids who do leave. Their students test as well as anyone’s.
(Well, I do have an idea. It’s a network run by an old-school DOE guy, not a TFAer or someone who is constantly deriding traditional district schools. Icahn also stresses small class size, which isn’t something that ‘market-based’ reformers want to see, and the Core Knowledge curriculum is similarly problematic. Move along, nothing to see here: Let’s write another profile about Eva or Geoff or Deb or the guy in the baseball cap.)

By: Okiokm8759

Okiokm8759 — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 16:15:00 +0000

This is bs Geoff and you know it. Last year by Bloomberg’s own grading methodology public schools outperformed charters. You fail to indicate in your title or even in your initial report a major flaw in the interpretation of this data. Charter schools underrepresent English language learners and special needs students. Not only do they under serve these populations, they cherrypick among those that do apply.

Wat will you do when thublic schools are privatized. Will the hedge fund managers fund all of these schools? No. And then we will see the real danger of privatizing the school system. An educational system far more unequal then This generation has ever seen.

You write as a stooge for the corporate elite. Hope you sleep well at night.

By: Andresfigueoam

Andresfigueoam — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 15:06:00 +0000

We all remember the impact a special teacher had on us; a teacher who refused to let us fall through the cracks; who pushed us and believed in us when we doubted ourselves; who sparked in us a lifelong curiosity and passion for learning.
My daughter goes to Icahn Charter school 4 and I can tell that the great teachers that they have were the key for the school success.

By: Questioning Educator

Questioning Educator — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:17:00 +0000

Comparing a charter school’s scores to a traditional school’s scores is never a fair comparison.

1) Just by having a lottery selects out those students/parents who want to go to another school. Even though charter schools have students that may be coming in at the same terrible level as their peer counterparts in the traditional school, the mere fact of a lottery already self selects out a certain type of student/parent. Furthermore, researchers are now saying “well let’s compare those who lost in the lottery and compare them to those who won a lottery.” This research comparison is flawed because charter schools have students who…wait for it…apply to the charter! 100% of the students did this, while at a traditional school you might have 25% of students who got rejected to a charter and 75% of students who might not have an idea that there’s a charter school in town.

2) Do charter schools have the same retention rates as traditional schools? I’m not quite sure they do based on my conversations with some charter teachers and administrators. (“Yes, if a student is very difficult due to behavior or a difficult IEP, we’ll encourage the family to perhaps return to their traditional school.”) It would be interesting to see the retention rates of charters vs. traditional schools.

3) There are studies that suggest lower percentages of students with IEP’s and ELLs at charters. They are more difficult to teach, and typically have lower test scores.

To squash the above 3 arguments, I would like to see an entire charter network taking all students in an entire area. That way, they cannot tell the student “if you don’t do well here you need to go” I think Green Dot attempts to do this, taking over entire schools. But maybe there are more. I know many charter schools do incredible things, but I’d like them to do this with all students and without any of the above tricks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:03:00 +0000

And how!

By: Petrosian

Petrosian — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:31:00 +0000

So the AF Bushwick school was faced with closure and everyone was facing dismissal and then POW! the reading scores shoot up. Come on Geoff.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:26:00 +0000

”
And Democracy Prep said the low-performing charter school it took over last year had posted the largest reading proficiency gains of any school in the state, with third-grade reading proficiency hurtling from 28 percent in 2011 to 63 percent this year.”

Did Democracy Prep say that 100 of the 247 children who decided to remain at the school after Democracy Prep’s takeover were held back one grade? Of course they didn’t.

By: Pogue

Pogue — Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:16:00 +0000

Do charters cream?