Wow. This blog is now doing advertisements for individual schools.

My turn-

Send your kid to Dunbar Middle. Forget about what you may of heard. We are the new Dunbar Middle. We are merging with the National Academy Foundation High and will reside in a newly rennovated building in 2010-2011. Our students will have the opportunity to specialize in culinary arts, engineering, computer science, banking.

Our Math scores ares some of the most improved in the city, and our staff is ready and able to offer your child the best education possible.

You pay only shipping charges. 30 day money back if not completely satisfied.

LOL@Michael - great comment!

is this what the blog has come to.... Sad.

They are not the only one trolling the playgrounds to drum up business. Northwood is also still looking to fill up its incoming ninth grade class in its new school.
My question is.. is there something to this? Is the shine beginning to come off the charter school apple? Have they run out of students who are willing to make that extra commitment?

The bigger question is has Baltimore reached its saturation point with charter schools? Baltimore has more then the entire rest of the state combined.

Seriously, this blog has died. I miss Sara.

I used to read it every day, now I check it once a week and there is nothing worth reading.

I do not see why Sara was the one who volunteered to leave. By the look of the Blog there was definately no one to replace her that has the same feeling about our City Schools which was quite apparent the 1st week when all this information about the county schoos was coming out and our schools information was being slowly put out, our input getting lost or put out late. We need to start a Bring Back Sara Campaign.
Schools will be opening sooner then we think and I fear this blog will be long gone from here.
Please, please prove me wrong Lisa and start getting out there and giving us information. Give us a reason to continue to come here like we used to not that long ago.

Yeah. If I am not mistaken there has only been the Brian Morris article. Other than that city schools has received little to no coverage. And it is not just about City Schools, but just interesting education articles that were posted daily.

I need we do not even see the heavyweights posting regularly any more like Bill and a parent and many others.

Bring back Sara.

The only sad thing here is that most of you don't know what you're talking about. Not that I necessarily blame you, given the title.

This school, along with the new Northwood one, is not a charter school. Both of these organizations started charters, and are now opening new schools under Baltimore City Schools Transformation initiative.

These are not charters, and there huge differences, including how much money they get.

Michael, I'm glad you are proud of your school. That is great! I hope your scores continue to climb. We need teachers like you in every classroom in this city.

Too many are apathetic.

COMPETITION is the name of the game now in education. And that's one of the great things about charters, and the new Transformations. Michael's comments are great evidence.

@HP - Charter, Transformation or New Initiative doesn't make that much of a difference. They are all, to quote AAA, "charter like". And if this is about COMPETITION is the playing ground even?

Every parent should want to give their child an advantage in life and a good education is a critical part of this. But, Charters are not new and have yet to provide proven data to say that they are better(?) models for education. Many are just safe havens away from the distractions associated with non-charters.

But what is happening is the enlarging of Baltimore educational caste system long perpetuated by the city-wides. The feeling that if your child does not get into one of the chosen schools then your child is doomed.

This is the mentality that charters use to their advantage. I have heard of charters who had students enrolled before they had staff or a location. I have also seen Transformations that had just the opposite, staff and location but no students. So who jumps first, the parents that are paying attention, who are involved and who are looking for an out. So who is left behind in affected non-charters, those who need the most help. Also, whether it is admitted or not charters are selective if by no more than the application process. So it is far from a FAIR COMPETITION.

Footnote - I don't want anyone to think that I am anti-charter. I believe every child deserves a chance. I am concerned that charters cloud the vision and are becoming the Noah's Arcs of public education.

@OTT

1) Transformations are very different from charters. They are far more like the traditional public schools than they are like charters. It is all about the money, and Transformations (apart from one-time start-up funding from private foundations) get the EXACT SAME funding as all traditional public schools.

2) Charters ARE new in Maryland (three years old). And our charter law is very different from other states. It is far too soon to evaluate them. I think there are some good, and some bad.

3) It is because of the fact that state charter laws are so different that I tend to ignore most research on charters, whether they are labeled good or bad. I've seen some places where charters ran wild (Ohio, Arizona), and the result is bad charters. Other states with more constraints (Mass) have charters that work wonders. Here in Maryland, there has been no credible study yet.

4) As for your point about every child having a chance, every child in this city chooses their high school, and every child will soon choose at the middle school level as well.

Transformations are a clear attempt to rectify the fact that every middle school in Baltimore City is an utter failure and an unsafe place for children. The only middle schools that even made AYP last year were charters. And that's a low bar.

Middle school has been the worst aspect of a failing system for years. If your kid didn't have a K-8, or get chosen in a charter lottery, you were forced to send your child to a place no child should be.

If anything, the Transformation are increasing choices for parents. That's why I support them.

@HP - Charters are not new to MD, the law is. There was a "charter" school in west Baltimore back in the late 1970's. Its first couple of graduating classes did well but the school quickly sank thereafter. It was modeled after a school in DC that is still operating today.

The research I cite is from Baltimore City. Every year the Charter School Office gives a status report to the Board. The last published one stated that on average charter schools are performing only slightly better than representative non-charters but worse than magnet schools. And since Baltimore is so far ahead of the rest of the state I do wonder if the counties are sitting back and letting city students be the lab rats for charter school expansion.

And if every child truly chose their high school then Digital Harbor would be two to three times as large as it is now. So the placebo that every child gets to choose a middle school is not true. They may submit the application but they will get placed by the central office.
I attended the Transformation fair last year and my observation was it was mainly students that did not get accepted into one of , or was accepted into the wrong citywide.

One question you may be able to answer for me. What did engaged Hamilton parents do before City Neighbors?

@ OTT

Which school in DC? Where was the "charter" here in Baltimore? I'd be interested in learning more.

Regardless, charters - as a group of schools - ARE new to Maryland. I've read the BCPSS charter reports, and could poke a lot of holes in some of their findings.

But on the whole, they're right. Charters are outperforming traditional schools. That being said, anyone who knows anything about education policy knows it is way too soon to be measuring that and drawing any conclusions.

And as a group they do not compete with magnets. Although many do. Magnets get to cream their kids, and if they don't like them, they toss them back to the district. Also, a few charters compete with any school in the state, magnet or otherwise.

My biggest concern with charters is in regards to students with disabilities. I'm not satisfied with how they've addressed this issue as a group (although some are amazing at it). That was also in those reports. There is fault at the school and district level, and I hope they improve that area or their gains will be questionable in my eyes.

Also, there are bad charter schools in Baltimore City. I don't think any of them are nearly as bad as the schools that have been shut down, but they have not come close to the standards the Board set for them, and that they agreed to.

They should be closed. Period. I'm still waiting for the school board to put its money where its mouth is.

To answer your question, Hamilton parents did what all the other parents in working/middle class neighborhoods in this city did, they fought for a K-8 model, or they sent their kids to private school.

Most working class neighborhoods, and even some that aren't, in this city have K-8s because the parents refused to send their kids to the middle schools.

(Also, my kid doesn't go to City Neighbors, although I like the school and what it does in my community a lot).

@Hamilton Parent -
I agree with most of what your saying, except "Magnets get to cream their kids, and if they don't like them, they toss them back to the district." The reality is that magnet schools (in Baltimore City) are not able to toss kids back to zoned schools. I'm not going to argue about if that's right or wrong (manly because I already did here). This is not a vague rumor or general grumbling. Dr. A has made it clear that kicking kids out of magnets won't be as easy (I'm not sure if it's even possible even possible) as it was before. This includes problems with academic and behavioral performance.

I do agree that charters and magnets serve very different purposes and I wholeheartedly believe that the City Schools need them both.

@ HP It was call The School without Walls and it was located on Park Heights Ave back in the mid to late 1970s.

Also we need to direct the credit where it is due. Students at charters are doing better than students at traditional schools. But I can make the same assumption about some charters that they only keep their best.

And Charters do compete with other schools. It is not surprising that the growth in charters in Baltimore parallels the decline in the catholic schools. AFYA grew out of the closing of Shrine of the Little Flower.

@OTT -
I think you're getting experimental and cooperative schools mixed up with charter schools. From the City Paper "Macdonald (from City Neighbors) had applied for a charter spot in March 2003—which would make her first in line to open a new school under the charter law." So any school in the 70's was not a charter school.

As per AFYA growing "out of the closing of Shrine of the Little Flower", in the sense that they can rent the building, I guess, but if you are implying that the students from Little Flower transferred into AFYA, it hardly seems likely since it closed more than three years before AFYA opened. If you are implying that the parish has anything to do with the school, I think you're wrong.

I'd like to see some numbers to back up your claim that charter schools kick out kids that don't do well academically.

@OTT -
I think you're getting experimental and cooperative schools mixed up with charter schools. From the City Paper "Macdonald (from City Neighbors) had applied for a charter spot in March 2003—which would make her first in line to open a new school under the charter law." So any school in the 70's was not a charter school.

As per AFYA growing "out of the closing of Shrine of the Little Flower", in the sense that they can rent the building, I guess, but if you are implying that the students from Little Flower transferred into AFYA, it hardly seems likely since it closed more than three years before AFYA opened. If you are implying that the parish has anything to do with the school, I think you're wrong.

Finally, I'd like to see some numbers to back up your claim that charter schools kick out kids that don't do well academically. I've heard accusations of special ed students not being served in some charter schools, but there are no charter schools that say if you do poorly you have to leave as far as I know.

I happen to know a little bit about the Shrine situation.

That school was slated to close a long time before Afya came into the picture. I'm pretty sure the building was vacant for a couple of years.

I know through my community association that the Archdiocese was considering renting it to a few different types of tenants.

So to say it grew out of the Catholic school is a stretch. As are your allegations about kids being thrown out of charters.

@ parent, thanks for the info. Glad to hear that the practice has stopped/slowed.

@AP

" which would make her first in line to open a new school under the charter law."

Your quote not mine.. this does not make it the first charter. Also I do consider charters any school run by a outside agency that seeks to bring innovation to education and while some may consider that too broad, it is the basic intent.

My other statement that you questioned was a rhetorical assumptive response based on the statement made by HP.

@OTT -
I thought that the reason you were objecting to charter schools was because they were getting funding from the city & state. That is why I said there were no charter schools before 2003. If you want to say any innovative school is a charter school, OK, but you can't object to them taking money from public schools (besides tax breaks). This conversation started because Dr. A said that charter schools provided competition. You're interpretation of charter includes Greenmount or Waldorf schools. Those aren't the schools Dr. A was talking about.

Thanks AP -

My concern is that this oversimplification that charters are a solution to a persistent problem with urban education. Their growth is leading to the decentralization of the education community and fosters an every man for themselves mentality.

The discussion over funding is the outcome of this situation. Attend any meeting with charter school advocates and the discussion will eventually turn to getting their "fair share". And we must remember the argument the Charter Coalition tried to use to gain greater funding. They took the total number of dollars divided by the total number for students and stated that is what they should get. BCPSS response was that charters don't serve the special needs community who typically need the most expensive services. I admit I don't know how that turned out but just to make that demand shows a lack of concern for others.

And it has yet to be proven that typical charters provide a greater benefit to the greater community. KIPP is the standard bearer for middle schools but we see how there are predictions of gloom and doom when it is forced to operate on a somewhat leveled (?) playing field.

One thing about competition, there are normally winners and losers.

Another thing about competition is it forces the losers to re-examine what they are doing wrong and see if they can copy what the winner is doing.

If you don't like independence (what you're calling every man for himself), you must hate the per-student funding and the idea that schools get to choose their own funding priorities. Personally, as long as I'm not stuck in a school where the administration is failing, I think this is a big step in the right direction. And school choice is supposed to solve the problem of being stuck in a school that you don't like. Seems like movement in the right direction to me.

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