Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

["Marc \"Zeke\" Kossover" <zeke_kossover@yahoo.com>]

In San Francisco, only one charter school has better scores than the rest of the district (though kids and their parents are often happier at a charter school than at their neighborhood schools, but that's a different and important story). 
 
The one school is a KIPP school, and of course KIPP schools are quite different than regular schools. First, kids go to school until 5 each day. They also meet two Saturdays a month. They have hours of required homework each night and extensive work required over the summer. Teachers are required to give their telephone numbers to their students so that they can be reached outside of school. This is actually just the beginning, and the list differences goes on.
 
KIPP has a lottery for admission and expels very few students. The lottery doesn't have that many applicants though, and the kids that leave generally do because they don't like the working (learning) conditions. Few teachers stay for more than a couple of years as well. 
 
http://policyweb.sri.com/cep/publications/SRI_ReportBayAreaKIPPSchools_Final.pdf
 
If you don't have much time, just read the executive summary. It is interesting reading.
 
Marc "Zeke" Kossover
Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator Fellow at the National Science Foundation
 

> Again, I'll say what I said to Marty - Do you guys make this up as you go along? 
>
> The lottery is over the entire district. In Providence the ethnic makeup is essentially 25 percent each of white, Hispanic, black, and Asian. The school we partner with mirrors that mix - with a slight preponderance of blacks - probably because it is located next to what was a few years ago a predominantly black housing project. I would guess that there was a greater awareness of the existence of the school and hence a larger number of entries in the lottery. That housing project has recently transitioned to a Hispanic majority so I would expect that that in a few years that will be reflected in the lottery as well. Again, as I said to Marty, a student may be suspended from the school for behavior problems but not deported to another school - it may be a charter, but it is still part of the public school system.
>
> What evidence do you have that anyone "gamed" the lottery? That is quite a charge to make without some kind of evidence - even anecdotal.
>
> Bob at PC
>
> ________________________________________
> From: phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org [phys-l-bounces@mail.phys-l.org] on behalf of John Denker [jsd@av8n.com]
> Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 6:00 PM
> To: Phys-L@Phys-L.org
> Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Private schools
>
> On 07/09/2012 12:56 PM, LaMontagne, Bob wrote:
> > Our charter schools in RI admit students by lottery.
>
> That's nice.  However ...
>
> A)  I'm no expert, but as I understand it, the lottery only applies
> to the students who have applied _to a given school_ so there are
> unlimited opportunities for gaming the system by influencing who
> applies and who doesn't.
>
> B) We need to watch out for selective _retention_ even if there is
> not strongly selective admission.  It is the easiest thing in the
> world to chase a given student out of the school if somebody decides
> that student is "undesirable" or "bad for business".
>
> The rules say "In Rhode Island, all charter schools must reflect the
> demographics of the districts within which they are located."
>   http://www.ride.ri.gov/commissioner/charterschools/character.aspx
>
> However, in some ways that makes some of the worst problems even worse,
> not better, because of the enormous variations from neighborhood to
> neighborhood.  It makes it illegal to have a diverse school in a non-
> diverse district.
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________________________________
From: "LaMontagne, Bob" <RLAMONT@providence.edu>
To: "Phys-L@Phys-L.org" <Phys-L@Phys-L.org> 
Sent: Monday, July 9, 2012 11:39 PM
Subject: Re: [Phys-L] Private schools