Prospect Heights May Be Getting a New Charter Middle School
The Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School would be co-located with P.S. 9. The DOE proposal is here.
The Brooklyn East Collegiate Charter School would be co-located with P.S. 9. The DOE proposal is here.
I don’t think this is totally different from the situation at John Jay. I’m also not sure that “no one is lamenting the loss of MS 571.”
Crazypants, are you serious? You think the DOE is more focused on fixing failing schools and and social ills than anything else? It looks to me like they are interested in pandering to the new “Brownstone Brooklyn” than anything else. And why wouldn’t they be? Kids with wealthy, involved parents usually score well on standardized tests, which makes the city schools look good, regardless of the true quality of the teaching in those schools.
All these “progressive” parents who have hopped onto the choice train have no clue. They don’t get that the DOE wants nothing more than to get unionized teachers out of schools so that they can fire teachers based on test scores. So these parents who can’t send their sensitive babies to traditional public schools because they need to play outside and do lots of hands-on learning are inadvertently creating a school system which will be even more focused on test prep than it already is.
And the idea that charter kids shouldn’t have to “suffer” the presence of kids without involved parents is downright reactionary.
Filmmer, the issues at John Jay/Millenium 2 are totally different. For one thing, there shouldn’t be any territoriality wars at PS 9, since that building was already on the list of “underutlized” schools, even before they announced the phase-out of MS 571. Second, this charter school is moving into District 13, which desperately needs more middle school seats. Third, no one is lamenting the loss of MS 571, at which fewer than 10% of students were reading at grade level.
i also thought this discussion of a similar move in park slope- might be of interest
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-somerville/separate-but-equal-in-the_b_796589.html?ref=email_share
I think it’s pretty clear that BrooklynIshome is pointing out that charters lead to a great deal of inequality and pit neighbor against neighbor. I also don’t believe that BIH’s post argues that the middle school process is fair – or makes sense.
Diane Ravitch, an education scholar, and former assistant sec of education under the elder Bush and Clinton- who originally supported charter schools now bases her opposition to them on data wrote a withering critique of “Waiting for Superman” in the NY Review of Books.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/
One of the main critiques is that charters were started and originally supported to deal with absolutely terrible schools and with children who could not survive in standard situations. Now- as evidenced by the schools in Brooklyn they take care of the best prepared students with the most active parents
From a meeting I attended there may be a growing sentiment that three years of middle school – grades 6-8 – isn’t enough time for the kids and faculty to really get into a cohesive groove that maximizes the learning and social experience for the kids.
Something like 6th grade is awkward and weird because all of the kids come from other schools and have to navigate the minefield of new friends, schools, teachers etc. Then you throw in pre-teen weirdness and the kids and staff don’t finally settle down by 8th grade – by which point they’re graduating to HS and it starts all over again. So 5th grade would give more time to acclimate.
If a school is consistently failing then it isn’t a new charter’s school’s fault – so why wouldn’t the DOE move functional schools to soon to be empty functional buildings.
Failing schools and the kids who attend these schools are a tragedy and a problem that needs to be fixed immediately – but that solution shouldn’t come at the expense of a functioning school.
It shouldn’t be that the DOE’s and the City’s ONLY JOB is to fix the failing schools and all social ills that contributed to the failure, to the exclusion of everything else school related.
If charter school parents are more motivated and engaged – then should their kids suffer because other parents aren’t engaged and motivated?
Isn’t charter schools in the city in general perform worst than their public school counterparts?
No, a child should not have to win a lottery to get a quality education. But isn’t the middle school process one of application and selection (“choice”) already, even without considering the charter school situation? Secondly, it sounds like what you’re saying is that there simply aren’t enough charter schools.
Really….So for those of who think school closures are not DOE hooey for real estate grabs for charter schools. One has to look no further. Traditional public schools have to take all comers and bring them up to the same standards. So a middle school for example MS 571 where special education homerooms outnumber more tradtional students is closed because of its failure….Yet charter schools whose students are from homes where the parents are motivated and engaged as demonstrated by the entry into a lottery will perform better. It’s cherry picking by another name.
A CHILD SHOULD NOT HAVE TO WIN A LOTTERY TO GET A QUALITY EDUCATION.
Some of the charter schools, i.e. Achievement First, do start in 5th grade. I’ve assumed it’s a way for them to get their students early so as not to compete with other middle schools for students. And of course parents would feel secure for the same reason, i.e. they don’t have to do a middle school search.