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State education head backs two new charter high schools for Boston
By adamg on Tue, 02/16/2016 - 3:32pm
State Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester is backing plans by the Neighborhood House Charter School and the Brooke charter schools to extend their current K-8 programs to the secondary level.
The Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester wants to add 428 students to the 400 it already serves and begin programs in grades 9-12.
The three Brooke schools, in Roslindale, Mattapan and East Boston, currently serve 1,530 students in K-8 but, wants to add 691 students and a new high school. The new school would be located in South Boston, at least temporarily; Brooke has already begun hiring administrators and teachers for it.
Mitchell's recommendations go to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for approval.
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Comments
Here we go
A very consistent criticism/conspiracy theory of the Brooke, here and elsewhere, is that they aggressively filter out students and fail to replace them, which is why the 7th grade class is much smaller than the K2 class, etc... So if they have a high school, this diabolical plan will mean that I guess there will be 1 or 2 seniors left to graduate.
Or...
They want to offer a comprehensive K-12 charter experience to as many kids as they can instead of losing them to exam schools, etc... Seems like making it easier to apply with the universal application and expanding their offering would remove both the criticism that they filter out kids at the start and then kick out the ones they don't like.
This is how it should work IMO. Charter school expansion should be glacially slow. 1-2 schools a year, if that, as warranted.
Looking forward to AWC middle class parents chiming here about how the charter schools are the devil's work while knowing their kids will be in a classroom without disruptive kids or developmentally challenged kids. #ivorytower Bonus points if you can work in a Koch brothers reference.
Brooke Charter Was already in southie and they left!
The people running this charter school were already in South Boston years ago under the name, "South Boston Harbor Academy." They left Southie, opened in Dorchester under the name, Collegiate. Eventually, they expanded and opened under the name, Brooke. They abandoned Southie, and now that the neighborhood is gentrified, they want back in.
You are Talking About Two Different Schools
The Brooke opened their Brooke - Mattapan school in Southie while looking for and building a permanent spot. Then they purchased and renovated the old Lena Park Community Center and moved. There are not a lot of spots that are ready to accomodate a school on short notice and this space in Southie is probably one of them. I doubt it has anything to do with gentrification.
They will back fill 7th and 8th grade seats
Part of the plan for the Brooke high school is to back-fill the 7th and 8th seats, when they are vacant. My kid goes to a Brooke school and has 27 kids in her 8th grade class. Not sure how much back filling will be needed, the kids are not leaving in large numbers as in the past.
Way off
You are living under a rock. Where is the universal application? Oh, that's right it hasn't happened yet & I doubt that it ever will. That hype was all done to appease some folks. I work in a Boston Public School & both of my children attend BPS. I'm not an AWC parent. My son & daughter were both accepted at 1 point, but I chose not to send them. They went to school with children that had disabilities & others who were non-disabled. That experience has made them both into amazing young people. They are able to see people for who they are. They don't see color, race, creed, sexual preference, etc. They are not judgemental & are truly empathic to their peers. My son was accepted to a charter school for middle school & after we went for several visits and a open house, it was clear to both of us that their militant ways were not for him. The students were NEVER allowed to leave their homeroom class. The teachers rotated & they even had to eat lunch in the classroom. They had no contact with other students, not even other 6th graders. I'm sorry, but that was not the middle school experience that I wanted for my child. It's also pretty sad that as we were touring the school, there were pictures of each class outside of their respective classrooms, my son pointed out to me that all of the special needs students were lumped together in the basement of the school. But don't think that they were in any way associated with the charter school because we all know that charters do not accept such students. These special needs kids were part of a sattelite program from BPS. Charter Schools begin their active recruiting as soon as MCAS/PARCC results are released. I've heard from parents of children who scored well on these tests that the charter schools are borderline stalking them. It's just not right. They especially target low poverty families where the first language at home is not English & the tactics they use are a disgrace!!!
Um ok
I thought I was fairly clear that I was talking about the Brooke charter school, which was offered the opportunity to expand. Which charter school are you referring too? And seriously, if you think a school is terrible, please feel free to name it- it helps to have more specific opinions out there vs just anon comments about 'charter schools'
I have no doubt there are terrible charter schools and these should be (and are closed). This is not an option for terrible BPS schools BTW.
My point about the universal application is that this is viewed as a pro-charter school move whereas it seems to me that this isn't the case.
I just don't get the appeal
What do charter schools provide that public schools can not? As far as I can see it's to exploit teachers by making them work longer hours for less money and giving boot to behavioral kids.
For Me...
A better public education. MY children received a great education at charters. I had absolutely no confidence that BPS would give us the same experience and visiting 10+ BPS schools did nothing but enforce that belief.
A safer learning environment.
Smaller classrooms.
An escape from the BPS budgeting seesaw, broken promises, and other political mess.
To each his own
I'm glad you found something that worked for you.
We went on those same 10+ school visits (BPS does NOT make it easy), decided to go with BPS and it worked out for us.
speaking from own experiences as a student and as a parent
I don't agree with the comments of charter schools are run on militant style, they choose students and lumped special need students in the basement.
In the city of Boston, teachers in the BPS don't have control in the classrooms and students are lumped in, the disruptive ones slow the learning of their peers. The result is a poor education. It has going on for years, in fact, it has gotten worse. High School drop outs in BPS are through the roof.
In the classroom, you need students paying attention to their teachers to learn math, science, reading etc. When parents send their kids to a charter school they are aiming to have their children have a better education when compare to the traditional BPS which is a total failure. The Charter Schools have adopted dress codes as well as disciplinary guidelines because they need it in classrooms, if a student is distracting the teacher, that behavior is preventing others from learning. These students are giving many chances to redeem themselves, when parents and students don't collaborate in their development, that behavior is setting precedents which will lead to failure. I send my son and daughter to school to be challenge acedemically and discipline a key component to success.
I have 3 kids and the oldest one had some issues with speech, the Boston Public School conducted an evaluation and wanted to label my son as a special need student, I got terrified because I went to school in the BPS and once they label student as a special need student, they are lumped in with students that have from moderate to severe disabilities. In my opinion that is worse than evaluating the student, finding out exaclty what type of support the student needs. At the Brooke, when my son won the lottery, he was not hand picked, he was blessed to get a spot, he was evaluated and we met with the speech specialist and we agreed on the approach, they would take my son once a week from the art class and instead he would get one on one help until he overcame it. The reason because parents are looking for great high schools outside the BPS is because there aren't enough slots in Boston Latin, Boston Latin Academy and the O'Bryant. I went through it and had to look for other options, including catholic and private schools. As a parent I want the best possible education for my kids even if it cost me money. Some parents can not afford it as a result are stuck in BPS schools which provide a mediocre education.
Unfortunately, there aren't enough slots to place the 34,000 students from waiting lists into charter schools. It is a disgrace that the legislators are playing politics and keeping the status quo, teachers associations are giving misleading information and unions are worried on their membership because they depend on those fees paid by the teachers who are unionized.
Your comment on charter schools targeting people of color, your statement is misleading because the reality is charter schools are opening the opportunity to these members of society who are being left out of a great education. Are you against equal opportunity ?
If you work in the BPS you know, there are a lot things that need to be change, until the board of education implements a different educational plan, parents will be going to the lotteries and placing their kids on waiting lists.
I feel the BPS is realizing parents know there are better options and are opting for them, today we are advocating for lifting the cap. Parents are organizing and are not going away until every single kid in the waiting list of 34,000 gets a slot in a charter school that is bringing light at the end of the tunnel. Something that has going on for over 3 decades now.