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Boston school officials put off rezoning again
By adamg on Thu, 06/04/2009 - 8:06am
This time for several months as they go over criticism of their newest plan to increase the number of school assignment zones from three to five, the Globe reports.
Increasing the number of zones is supposed to reduce transportation costs, but would also increase the percentage of "failing" schools in parts of Roxbury and Dorchester.
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Comments
There is no hope in sight for this issue is there..?
"failing schools"? Can someone please tell me what a "failing school" is?
Is it the buildings fault? The principal? The teachers? The super?
It's based on MCAS scores
If more than a certain percentage of kids don't do well on the tests, then the school gets put on a state list. Whom to blame probably varies case to case.
lets try something radical...
Lets take every kid from the "failing" school, and send them to the "highest scoring" school, and vise versa.
What do you think would happen?
Angry villagers
Torches and pitchforks.
you are right...
but all that is happening now is that these kids just stay in the "faliing school" and everyone blames the "failing school".
zone system is a geographic whitewash
The zone system now has become a way to whitewash the way the system fails kids from Roxbury and Dorchester, by spreading the failing kids into neighborhoods that are somewhat whiter. For instance nobody from Allston-Brighton wants to send their kids to East Boston or Mission Hill, while plenty of parents from Mission Hill will send their kids to A-B. There are grammar schools here in A-B that are 90% bussed.
failing schools
what about the parents how much are they involved in their childs future ie.homework, respecting peers, and teachers/authority.....
Because the backroom
Because the backroom comment, "Screw those bastards in troubled neighborhoods that want school choice, we need to cover up our poor job performance to keep the gravy coming." always comes out publicly from the teacher's union reps as, "It's for the children!"
Yooooon
Sam Yoon had a good article about that in the transcript.
His three main points were:
1. More charter schools.
2. Partnerships with local colleges
3. Elected school committee
On the one hand, he came out against the five-zone plan. On the other, he said the magic words: "We should expect and insist that every child in our city have access to a quality education in his or her own neighborhood."
Yeah, that really is the main point. Busing the kids all up and down and back and forth is a waste of time and money, but doing it differently isn't solving the root problem. Go after the root problem. Changing from three zones to five is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. If the problem is that the kids in Roxbury have unfair and unequal access to education because the schools in West Roxbury are so much better, then make the schools in Roxbury better! When parents in Roxbury start to complain about having their kids bused to West Rox you'll know you have succeeded.
Now if he'd just come out in favor of biryani carts he'd have my vote sewn up.
I have a lazy question here...
I dont want anyone wasting their time explaining somthing that I could probably look up myself but...
How does one get into a charter school? Are the teachers paid through city tax money?
Paging Stevil
He knows more about it than I do. What I know is that when you enter the lottery for your kids' school, you can also enter the lottery for a charter school.
Here's some basic information. The BPS doesn't control them; they're governed by the state rather than the district. As for funding, the BPS has to send reimbursement (9.3K?) to the charter school for each student.
Good Morning All
I will admit - I'm still learning a lot about charters (actually having lunch with a charter school board member today so if anyone has questions I'll try to ask and get back this afternoon). I think Sock Puppet has it basically correct - they are open to the public, anyone can apply and if you get in you are in. There is no selection process, but there is a "deselection" process. I think many of the kids and parents attend an open house (if any of you went to Catholic HS you might be familiar with this process). The charters tell you up front - you can apply but we are going to kick your butt when you get here - no 8-2:30 days 5 days a week. Many go until 4 or even 5 pm or later. You may have to come in on Saturday and you may have to come in past the end of the school year - a lot of kids and parents decide then and there it's probably not the place for them. They have a system - and if your kid has special needs that don't fit the system it's probably not the best place for your kid. This is why many people feel charters have an unfair advantage over the publics - and it's hard to disagree with that criticism.
As for funding I think sock is correct again - Boston (not BPS per se) is assessed a fee based on some kind of percentage of expenditures per pupil I believe just in regular ed. I think the state sets the accounting rules for that. If you look at the city budget this does not come from the school budget - there is a line item called "state assessments" - one of the items in there is the fee paid to charters - this line item also includes a state fee for the city's support of the MBTA transit system and a few other things (for anyone interested in the budget total state aid less these assessments is what they are referring to as "net state aid" if you run across that term-the Commonwealth giveth and the Commonwealth taketh).
The schools also do independent fund raising which is how I got involved originally. Per our other discussion I think Roxbury Prep for example raises about 1/3 of their own money in addition to the money they get from the city. The teachers are paid from the sum of all this so yes - some tax money is included as well as some private money.
I do not believe the teachers are unionized. They tend to be young and there is high turnover - but in most cases they do an amazing job (which is why there is a waiting list of thousands of students to get into these schools - but the state won't lift the cap on the number of charters allowed). I believe there is at least one school that has been closed or is on the verge of closure - so like anything not all will succeed.
I'm not sure how completely random the system is. For example, Roxbury Prep focuses on inner city kids and not sure how they do this - they may be able to discriminate on income for example - but probably not on race etc. - but not sure - hope to find out more about this today.
Again - any charter questions - please post and I'll try to get back later in the day.
School til 5pm?
Does that include lots of unstructured play time?
When do they get a chance to be kids, to eat a pound of dirt, and such?
I bet it's possible to get into the intellectual 99th percentile as an adult yet still have had a fun childhood.
They're still kids
I've met a number of them - they are delightful, very well adjusted, fun, talented and pretty much normal kids. Here's a great clip from NECN that S-P or someone else found during our last round (I will say - the video makes them look more serious than the kids I know as it focuses mostly on classroom time - but watch the interviews and look at the smiles on their faces - this is not acting) -not saying it's for everyone and there are other options - this is more for the kids who love school and their parents want to give them a better shot than what they probably had:
http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/2009/01/08/Sta...
Thanks Stevil and sockpuppet...
So in General what would happen to the kid who starts out in a charter, but does the following.
1. The kid who Skips class, shows up late, is disruptive in class, does something criminal, etc, etc
or
2. The kid who tries really hard, but simply can't handle the academics because of his ability, or because of a legitimate learning disablity that would need additional help or teaching. (just from looking at the website it looks like they have services for kids with learning disablities.
Does the charter school have an obligation to keep these kids?
Here's a school policy for Boston Prep Charter
found this on a Google search - handbook for Boston Prep
http://www.bostonprep.org/pdf/BPCPS_FamilyHandbook...
Page 10 deals with special ed (available if needed) - from what I've seen at Roxbury Prep the situation would have to be pretty dire to remove the kid for academic reasons - they bend over backwards for these kids
Page 17 deals with expulsion - sounds like you can expel- but my guess is you probably get tossed for these kinds of things from BPS as well or at least put in segregated school/classes- weapons possession, drug dealing etc.
More Recess, More Art, or Forget It
Hopefully, they have read the research on physical activity and arts curriculum and test scores before they do the 5pm thing. Otherwise, you get lots of fat burned out test-answer spewing robots who hate school.
i think the longer day is hopeful
it takes a lot more time to do creative and thought-requiring projects/"work" than it does to cram the facts needed for test-taking
I don't see any OBVIOUS downside (yeah, they could screw it up). I think it's self-regulating in that no teacher or student is going to be up for that kind of intensity day after day. Hopefully this means the time spent is less panicked about "material that must be covered"
I had a hell of a time in school because we had to blast through material so quickly. I'm one of those people who needs a second to consider the space around new info before i can do anything with it. Then in grad school i'd happily put a dozen straight hours or more into something i was really grooving on, because the time had been made available to me. I think that was some of my best work, to be sure, and not just because I was older then, but because of the conditions.
How to focus on inner-city kids
1. Announce you're going to focus on inner-city kids.
2. Middle-class white parents run away screaming.
3. Mission accomplished.