Monday, 27 May 2013

[WardFive] Re: [ward5] Fwd: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: Answering Rob Ramson's questions

Good Afternoon,
 
So,
 
1.  Why doesn't Catania allow for such an investigation by an Erich Martel?
 
2.  Why doesn't Kenyan or Yvette or Mr. Barry make this request? -- it seems like these Council Members would demand this!!! 
 
3.  Why doesn't the Mayor demand this -- it seems like so many of his Constituents are deserving of answers that an analysis by someone like Erich Martel would provide.  And from a Mayoral perspective, I would think that both Muriel Bowser and Tommy Wells would jumb at this opportunity other than this is something that all of them want to avoid.
 
4.  Why doesn't the rest of the Council jump on the opportunity to be transparent by making all the information open and available to a "Erich Martel"?
 
If I was DCPS and had nothing to hide, I would encourage Erich Martel to be privy to all the information so that he could come up with "nothing" of value to support "wrong doing" by DCPS.  Like I always say, I don't have any issues with Charter Schools other than if you want to utilize a school in certain neighborhoods, then the Charter School should be supplying education to that neighborhood first and then making all remaining seats available to DC residents first and then opening the seats up to MD and VA. 
 
Imagine -- with all the problems that we have in the world, why do we need to fight, argue and be upset over education of our kids when a simple approach to this would be Transparency/ACCESS.  What is there to hide?
 
Rob Ramson
 
 
 
 


On Sun, May 26, 2013 at 11:54 PM, KPW <WKPW3@aol.com> wrote:
 




-----Original Message-----
From: Erich Martel <ehmartel@starpower.net>
To: concerned4DCPS <concerned4DCPS@yahoogroups.com>
Cc: ward5coe <ward5coe@gmail.com>; Rob <indianrob@gmail.com>
Sent: Sun, May 26, 2013 11:47 pm
Subject: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: Answering Rob Ramson's questions

 
Rob,
Those are all good questions, which I will respond to individually.
My overall conclusion is that there is no evidence that charter schools and schools west of the park and those specially selective (Banneker and School Without Walls) are better schools than those that are labeled "underperforming."  Stated differently, the limited evidence we can get suggests that the primary difference between schools is the behavior and readiness to learn of the students.
 
If we understand that, then the entire school reform campaign (DCPS and the charter schools) is nothing much more than a reshuffling of students while holding teachers and communities hostage to a grand hoax.
 
-    -    -    -    -    -    -
 
My data comes from DC OSSE's posted reports:
-     October census-style enrollment audits, which DC OSSE, the charter schools, deputy mayor for education and DCPS would like to replace with a "student sample-type audit"
-     April DC CAS:  number of students on a school's test roster, by grade level
-     June-August graduation reports of individual schools.
 
Since my data shows no names, only numbers, at the above slices of time, the totals are minimums. 
 
Take the example of Cesar Chavez Capitol Hill, Class of 2012:
The OSSE data tell us that there were:
-         187 9th graders in the October 2008 enrollment audit
-         107 10th graders in October 2009 enrollment audit
-         84   10th graders on the April 2010 DC CAS testing roster
-         50   11th graders in October 2010 enrollment audit
-         51   12th graders in the October 2011 enrollment audit
-     50        June-August 2012 graduates
      -     64% 2012 Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate
 
I then do the calculations:
            -           Divide 50 graduates by the 64% graduation rate (50 / .64 ) to get the school's adjusted cohort:
                        78.125 or 78 students
                        That's the number of students, the cohort, for which CC Capitol Hill takes responsibility
 
-         80 students left at some time between Oct 2008 (gr9) and Oct 2009 (gr 10): 187-107= 80
-         23 more students left the cohort between Oct 2009(gr10) and April 2010 (gr10): 107-84= 23
-         34 more students left the cohort between April 2010 (gr10) and Oct 2010 (gr11): 84-50= 34
-           1 student was added to the cohort betw Oct 2010 (gr11) & Oct 2011 (gr12):  50+1 = 51
-         27 students were added to the cohort betw Oct2011 and Jn-Aug 2012:  78-51= 27
 
Key facts:
103 students left the starting cohort between Oct of g 9 & April of gr10: 187-84 = 103
109 students left the starting cohort between Oct of gr9 & the establishment of the final "adjusted cohort size: 187-78 = 109
137 of the starting gr9 cohort did not graduate:  187 – 50 graduates = 137 non-graduates.
 
That is all I know. These are all minimum numbers. 
I don't know how many of 107 10th graders were part of the 187 9th graders.  In other words, I don't know how many students were enrolled after each "slice of time" student enrollment count.
I do know that every student added after an enrollment count increases the number of transfers out by one student.  That number may be considerable in some schools.
 
Next, to your questions.
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Rob <indianrob@gmail.com>
To: ward5 <ward5@yahoogroups.com>; wardfive <wardfive@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, May 26, 2013 11:50 am
Subject: Re: [ward5] Fwd: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: An Analysis of DC Charter HS Transfer Rates (Thanks to Dan Ackroyd & Eddie Murphy)
 
So the questions here are:
1. When are the kids being transferred?
     I don't know.  Anytime between the dates of the audits, test roster deadline dates and graduation reporting deadlines
2. Why are the kids being transferred?
       I don't know; so, I have to infer.
Since charters and their advocates are claiming their superiority and since they (like DCPS) do not post complete information (which is usually an indicator of information they wish to hide)  and since I have documented the process of altering records to inflate graduation rates (2002 & 2006) and since I and others have described how "credit recovery" is a shortcut for students to get course credit without meeting course requirements, I can hypothesize that the majority of the students removed from their rolls are those who would do poorly on tests, drop out and not graduate and/or exhibit behavior that impedes teaching and learning.
These are reasonable educated guesses.  The burden of proof lies with those who control the data. 
3. Who is requesting the transfer?
      Again:  I don't know; so, I have to infer.
Aside from expulsions and transfers due to parents moving out of town, a reasonable inference is that most students are "counseled out," i.e. encouraged into voluntarily transferring.  In terms of records, that's to the advantage of both student and school:  the school isn't criticized for a high expulsion rate; the student is not have a negative mark on his or her record.
Some students may be held back.  If that's the case, then it's probably happening to all cohorts, compensating for that number.
4.   Of the kids being transferred, do they all have bad geades or underperforming? See Ans #2
5.   Can Erich Martel separate the graduation rates to represent the graduating rates of transfer students as a separate catagory for both DCPS and Charter to have more clear perspective?
       No.  I can't.
But get me authorized access to all of the records and I guarantee you we'll have a field day of Eureka Moments.
6.   Is a tracking system being utilized by Charter Schools which directly correlates with underperforming students and them being transferred - somebody has to know if this is a practice.
      I don't know, but if it exists, it will be like the merchant who keeps two sets of books.
7.   Are transfers from Charter Middle Schools following the same rate/ratio which in turn would help boost their proficiency reports while decreasing DCPS schools?
      In the last three years, charter enrollment has declined slightly between grade 6 & 7 and between grades 7 & 8, then recovered between grades 8 and 9; then precipitously dropped between grades 9 & 10, and more gradually dropping between grades 10 & 11 and 11 and 12.
      SY2012-13 is the first year since 2004-05 (I don't have earlier complete data), that the grade 12 charter enrollment (Oct audit) is greater than last year's gr11 or this year's gr11, but only because there are five new 12 grades this year with 247 students:  KIPP: 82; LAYC: 21; Natl Collegiate: 56;  Next Step (Proximo Paso): 88.
     
Erich Martel
 
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: KPW
Sent: Sunday, May 26, 2013 11:53 AM
Subject: Fwd: [ward5] Fwd: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: An Analysis of DC Charter HS Transfer Rates (Thanks to Dan Ackroyd & Eddie Murphy)

 



-----Original Message-----
From: Rob <indianrob@gmail.com>
To: ward5 <ward5@yahoogroups.com>; wardfive <wardfive@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, May 26, 2013 11:50 am
Subject: Re: [ward5] Fwd: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: An Analysis of DC Charter HS Transfer Rates (Thanks to Dan Ackroyd & Eddie Murphy)

 
So the questions here are:
1. When are the kids being transferred?
2. Why are the kids being transferred?
3. Who is requesting the transfer?
4. Of the kids being transferred, do they all have bad geades or underperforming?
5. Can Erich Martel separate the graduation rates to represent the graduating rates of transfer students as a separate catagory for both DCPS and Charter to have more clear perspective?
6. Is a tracking system being utilized by Charter Schools which directly correlates with underperforming students and them being transferred - somebody has to know if this is a practice.
7. Are transfers from Charter Middle Schools following the same rate/ratio which in turn would help boost their proficiency reports while decreasing DCPS schools?
Rob Ramson
On May 25, 2013 7:52 PM, "KPW" <WKPW3@aol.com> wrote:
 



-----Original Message-----
From: Harry Travis <travis.harry@gmail.com>
To: concerned4DCPS <concerned4DCPS@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, May 25, 2013 11:28 am
Subject: Re: [concerned4DCPS] Trading Places: An Analysis of DC Charter HS Transfer Rates (Thanks to Dan Ackroyd & Eddie Murphy)

 
I hope others will pay attention to this. There is now a national standard reporting statistic for graduation which does not credit the school for completing the education of students who started HS elsewhere. So, additional measures of institutional effort and success should be used in DC, where there is such high transfer rate -- something like emigration / immigration, with returns -- .

What Erich is saying is that crediting charter schools may be like crediting chiropracters for the successful outcomes achieved by the MD specialist in osteopathy the patient subsequently went to for medical treatment. 

Yes, it is strange to think of DCPS that way. But, then, to think otherwise is to give insufficient credit to the professional educators and counselours in DCPS high schools.


On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 2:57 PM, Erich Martel <ehmartel@starpower.net> wrote:
[Attachment(s) from Erich Martel included below]

Dear Council Member (Council staff, please print out this cover email and the one-page attachment for your CM. Thank you),
 
You constantly hear assertions about "high performing charter schools."  In 2012, charter high schools outperformed DCPS high schools by 21% points, but is that really true when only 45% of the starting 9th graders graduated?
 
I am asking you to act in the interest of students, families and teachers.  Do not make public school policy and budgetary decisions on the basis of the charter school privilege gap (see below)
 
The attached 1 page word document makes one to one comparisons between 8 DC charter high schools' and 8 DCPS high schools' 2012 graduation data.  First you see the numbers of starting 9th graders, graduates and graduation rates.  Then the number & percentage of students transferred out of each school. 
Then the percentage of transferred students is exchanged, as if DCPS could send its weaker students to the charter schools who had to keep them.
 
When applied to the graduating class of 2012, the results should make you want to demand a full investigation into DCPS school closings and transfers of public property to charter operators.
 
DC OSSE Graduation Rates for 2012
Charters:  888 graduates, 77% graduation rate
DCPS:  2122 graduates, 56% graduation rate
 
Changing Places:  DCPS & DC charter high schools exchange transfer rates:
Charter Transfer rate:  41% goes to DCPS high schools
DCPS Transfer rate: 15% goes to the Charter high schools
 
Graduation Rates After Switching Transfer (Removal) Rates:
Charters:  888 graduates, 53% graduation rate (77% - 53% = 24%, the charter privilege gap)
DCPS:   2122 graduates, 81% graduation rate (81% - 56% = 25%, the charter privilege gap)
 
Time to act.
Erich Martel
Retired DCPS high school teacher

Attachment(s) from Erich Martel
1 of 1 File(s)




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