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To: SauronOfMordor
>>Private schools only work because they have no Special ED populations and can brag about test scores when they refuse to aadmit students under 120 IQ.

You're half right. Any school will work, IF they have the ability to eliminate those students who are disruptive and make it impossible for the rest of the class to learn.<<

You are correct to a point. In district schools, children with special needs are thrown to "special schools". In charters they are worked with, sometimes by a teacher, sometimes by another student who wants to volunteer. Our parents are great volunteers as well.
In Michigan, we cannot by law turn away any student. It is a lottery system. If my neighbor, who has a daughter with Angelman's syndrome (5 years old and does not walk or talk), puts her child into the lottery, we cannot turn them down. My daughter's class had 5 boys on Ritalin, one with CP and one girls with neurological problems the parents were fighting to diagnose. Tell me again we turned away the problems! My daughter ended up rating a 99% on the TerraNova tests and next year will be pushed to second grade reading and math.
Not all charters are as good as ours, but competition is a good thing!


20 posted on 06/20/2003 8:39:38 AM PDT by netmilsmom (God Bless our President, those with him & our troops)
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To: netmilsmom
How many to a classroom? What is the student/ teacher ratio? Terra Nova is a national assessment. Your daugthers 99% means that on the day the test was administered, you daughter did as well as the 99% that took the test.
My point here is that it is NOT the school, the program, the conditions,the climate, etc. ALL research conducted in the last twenty years, including that of the Heritage Foundation and similar organizations, have all come to the same conclusion: It is the Teacher that matters. Nothing else. Conditions may affect scores. That is why ALL Terra Nova results come with the caveat of plus or minus 5 points.
I am not trying to put you down (anymore.) I had come from a meeting with politicians talking about the same topic. Their mindless rhetoric had me madder than Hell. I apologize for flying off as I did. Congratulations on your daughters score!
However, I can find nothing to recommend charter schools over any other form of public/private education in any urban area. Perhaps your school is suburban with an involved community of concerned parents and businesses. Sadly that is not the case here.
24 posted on 06/20/2003 4:25:29 PM PDT by jackd
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