Excellent work as usual. Good analysis of the space utilization v. integration factors. I was a bit concerned about the moving/co-location of UPCS: Isn't that specifically for a particular underserved neighborhood in partnership with Clark U, and would doing such a thing vitiate its mission?
Re: the middle schools. As a student i attended 2 systems that had the K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade breakout. My husband attended a different one where they actually had all the 6th graders from the system in 1 school, and then the 7-8 and 9-12 breakout (if I recall). Watching my kids and their friends go through WPS, they start 6th grade looking like little kids, they end 6th grade beginning to look like young adults. I've heard from middle school principals that one of the challenges of the 7-8 middle school is that having them for just 2 years makes it difficult to create community with the students and the parents. I think it's a really hard call child development-wise.
Re: dual language. Good catch! And yes, SHAME on them for the oversight! We both know why WPS isn't doubling down on the bilingual program, which is what they should be doing: because it's hard and expensive to do it right. But they SHOULD be doing that because, like you said, Worcester does have people and cultural resources to help with it.
Re: the lotteries: I'm wondering how students and parents in school-wide programs feel about their ability to connect with classmates and other families through extracurricular events: Can they get to them and participate if they are a bus-dependent family?
Research shows that dual language doesn't cost more than non-dual education. Sometimes there are more costs at the administrative level, but it's minimal (2-4%) and WPS doesn't have any admin specific DL roles. When Portland Public Schools analyzed their DL costs researchers found: "We estimate that an additional US$100 spent per immersion student in a given year was associated with an additional 8% of a standard deviation in language arts performance in English, which was just over one third of the causal point-in-time enrollment effect of 22% of a standard deviation." It's something people often assume about dual, but generally not true.
Your last question about extra-curriculars can you be more specific? I think access to extra-curriculars and being bus-dependent is true regardless of whether you go to a quadrant school, neighborhood school, or a city-wide school.
I'm thinking about city-wide vs. quadrant/neighborhood: with quadrant/neighborhood, there may be more likelihood of being able to walk to extra-curriculars and events vs. if you're attending a city-wide school on the other side of town, where you have to get there by bus (and the WRTA's spoke & hub system). All hypothetical. I'm just wondering if bus-dependent families with kids currently attending city-wide program feel that they and the students can get involved with the school & participate in events if they want to, or if they feel restricted by transportation (as opposed to time or desire).
it's a good question, I'm not sure anyone has asked that. I'll say that at WorDL not having an elementary late bus does make it harder, but I do think that's true for all bus kids at all elementary schools. Being a citywide school does give more access to more after school programs, with busses taking kids to after school programs all over the city.
Excellent work as usual. Good analysis of the space utilization v. integration factors. I was a bit concerned about the moving/co-location of UPCS: Isn't that specifically for a particular underserved neighborhood in partnership with Clark U, and would doing such a thing vitiate its mission?
Re: the middle schools. As a student i attended 2 systems that had the K-5, 6-8, 9-12 grade breakout. My husband attended a different one where they actually had all the 6th graders from the system in 1 school, and then the 7-8 and 9-12 breakout (if I recall). Watching my kids and their friends go through WPS, they start 6th grade looking like little kids, they end 6th grade beginning to look like young adults. I've heard from middle school principals that one of the challenges of the 7-8 middle school is that having them for just 2 years makes it difficult to create community with the students and the parents. I think it's a really hard call child development-wise.
Re: dual language. Good catch! And yes, SHAME on them for the oversight! We both know why WPS isn't doubling down on the bilingual program, which is what they should be doing: because it's hard and expensive to do it right. But they SHOULD be doing that because, like you said, Worcester does have people and cultural resources to help with it.
Re: the lotteries: I'm wondering how students and parents in school-wide programs feel about their ability to connect with classmates and other families through extracurricular events: Can they get to them and participate if they are a bus-dependent family?
Research shows that dual language doesn't cost more than non-dual education. Sometimes there are more costs at the administrative level, but it's minimal (2-4%) and WPS doesn't have any admin specific DL roles. When Portland Public Schools analyzed their DL costs researchers found: "We estimate that an additional US$100 spent per immersion student in a given year was associated with an additional 8% of a standard deviation in language arts performance in English, which was just over one third of the causal point-in-time enrollment effect of 22% of a standard deviation." It's something people often assume about dual, but generally not true.
Your last question about extra-curriculars can you be more specific? I think access to extra-curriculars and being bus-dependent is true regardless of whether you go to a quadrant school, neighborhood school, or a city-wide school.
I'm thinking about city-wide vs. quadrant/neighborhood: with quadrant/neighborhood, there may be more likelihood of being able to walk to extra-curriculars and events vs. if you're attending a city-wide school on the other side of town, where you have to get there by bus (and the WRTA's spoke & hub system). All hypothetical. I'm just wondering if bus-dependent families with kids currently attending city-wide program feel that they and the students can get involved with the school & participate in events if they want to, or if they feel restricted by transportation (as opposed to time or desire).
it's a good question, I'm not sure anyone has asked that. I'll say that at WorDL not having an elementary late bus does make it harder, but I do think that's true for all bus kids at all elementary schools. Being a citywide school does give more access to more after school programs, with busses taking kids to after school programs all over the city.