Petition to Expand Arts and Letters
This one just dropped into the inbox…a group of parents in Fort Greene and Clinton is urging the DOE to expand the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters, currently a middle school at P.S. 20, to include grades K-5. If you’d like to learn more about it or sign the petition, click here. Update:…
This one just dropped into the inbox…a group of parents in Fort Greene and Clinton is urging the DOE to expand the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters, currently a middle school at P.S. 20, to include grades K-5. If you’d like to learn more about it or sign the petition, click here. Update: As a commenter points out, not everyone is in favor or the proposed expansion. The Local ran a story on Thursday about it.
I’d like to see a petition opposed to it also. As for the whole, semi-mystical concept of “choice” for elementary schools…
Choice seems to be somewhat code for “not too many poor kids.” If that’s what you’re into, fine. But at least admit it. And please, explain to me how it makes sense to funnel limited existing resources into another school, when the existing one is not overcrowded? And, furthermore, explain how a lottery school actually gives you “choice.” Isn’t admission somewhat random? So when your kid doesn’t get in, do you need still more choices? And, if so, why should the public have to pay for them?
I may be somewhat naive about this topic, but the negative press I’ve seen about PS 11 and PS 20 all seems to be written in language that makes me really uncomfortable. It’s all about “choices” and “progressive education,” and being “responsive to needs.” But the vibe I get is that it’s about none of that.
Look, elementary school education is not rocket science. And public schools need parental involvement. Before you decide that your snowflakes need an extra, special nuturing environment, why don’t you at least try sending them to school with their neighbors?
Like I said, I am probably naive AND sanctimonious, and even I know that’s not a good combination. But it’s a bit depressing, seeing what the concept of school “choice” becomes.
Great idea everyone – forget the wildly successful models of district 13 and other thriving districts in brooklyn that have multiple choices of school to suit kids with different educational needs and parents with different philosophies – and are full, with waiting lists by the way.)
so lets just can everything except the existing zoned schools that haven’t been able to keep a large swath of local kids from leaving district thus far (and thereby sucking the money from district 13 and giving it to other school districts that already have more cash to begin with.) I think its a great idea to force families into the one-size-fits-all model, hell with the kids needs!
congrats on thinking through this so well folks!
Why not give this fairly new principal at PS 20 a chance to recruit and retain families? This is an obvious move by the DOE to crush this school – which has long provided many families a sound elementary school education. Why would any family enroll in PS 20 if by entering Arts and Letters they are guaranteed at coveted middle school slot? I’m with LafCH – if its such a great school – find them their own school building or expand grades 6-8.
My kids don’t attend PS 20 but I will not be signing the petition.
The reason it is a bad thing to have another great school in the district is because this school will be a lottery school rather than a local school.
Lottery schools skim the most active parents off the top of local schools and leave local schools with the children of parents who could not or would not fill out applications to charters.
Basically, lottery schools are about privatizing public schools. I’m sure that people who are more concerned about the value of their real estate than children will appreciate a lottery school in the district. They won’t care at all about how the new school will affect local publics like 11 and 20.
Brownstoner, can we post a petition for the many parents who are opposed to the expansion of Arts and Letters?
A. its not a charter school. its an unzoned public school, of which their are many shining examples. BNS, Children’s School, NY Harbor School. we just dont have any in this district.
B. other districts have a plethora of choices, and are thriving. I want to see the same for my neighborhood..
C. DOE co-locates schools in buildings where the existing school isn’t filling its classrooms due to under-enrollment. if any group can understand how precious space is in a city of this size, it should be a group of people who know something about real estate.
I have to say that there is a little bit of hypocracy here – on one hand people want the DOE to try and make sure they are smart about how they allocate precious funding, and on the other hand they yell at them for trying to make sure that all the schools sitting half empty get utilized. obviously we cant waste precious space in a city as populous as ours.
and please tell me how in the world is it a bad thing to have another great school in the district that is different in many ways from any school that currently exists there. if anyone wants to actually understand what the school is about, research it. there is lots of info out there.
Whether this is or is not a charter school is not really the point. It has been a consistent part of the Bloomberg/Klein plan to ostensibly support the public schools but to, in reality, constantly throw impediments into their paths. They co-locate other public schools or charters into existing schools, overcrowd the existing schools and cause student performance to plunge, and then point to the falling test scores in these schools as a reason to close them … and have the new school take over then entire building. In the high schools, for example, they close “low-performing schools” and open new mini-schools in the buildings, and then ship the former students and other “over-the-counter admissions” into other zoned high school. Now overpacked (look at Maxwell, for example) and with limited resources, they then say this receiving high school is failing its students. Then, of course, it’s time to close that school and overpack another that they wish to eventually close. The statistics that come out of Tweed are not to be trusted at all. After all, if the DOE was so adept at evaluating schools, how did so many schools drop two letters on the schol report cards (from A to C) in just one calendar year?
All smoke and mirrors. If Arts and Letters is so good and the DOE thinks they should expand to a K-8 school, let them find and relocate them to their own building for exactly that purpose. Or, keep them a 6-8 school, still in some other building, and expand the number of students in each grade.
I don’t think the Urban Assembly schools (in this case Urban Assembly Arts and Letters) are charter schools. I think they are a group of schools within the DOE with similar principles and ways of doing things. There are several Urban Asembly Schools in Brooklyn. Charter Schools operate in a different way.
There are many Urban Assembly charter schools. Some are great (e.g., the Harbor School, a high school that just moved from Bushwick to Governor’s Island) and some are not so great. This school has a very good reputation and is generally known as “Arts and Letters,” not “Urban Assembly.” Certainly it was a great addition to the not very distinguished collection of middle schools in District 13.
“Who wouldn’t want the top middle school in our district to try their magic with the younger grades?”
Me, actually. I’d love to see all of those resources going to ps 20. I think charter schools in a neighborhood with strong existing schools are divisive, not healthy. I also don’t really understand how it makes any economic sense to open more schools when the DOE is broke. Running a charter isn’t free.
I do, however, admit I don’t know a lot about the issue, and since PS20 isn’t my zoned school, I also don’t have anything invested in the outcome.