Charter Schools - Pembroke Pines and Coral Springs (Weston: home, public school)

[formerfire]

Hi everyone....

Doing some more research on schools and came across charter schools - specifically PP Charter (Elem and Middle) and Coral Springs (Middle). They rate 9 or 10 out of 10 on greatschools.org

Can you tell me what Charters are?
Are they good or bad?

Thank you

[Shoegal1075]

Originally Posted by formerfire

Hi everyone....

Doing some more research on schools and came across charter schools - specifically PP Charter (Elem and Middle) and Coral Springs (Middle). They rate 9 or 10 out of 10 on greatschools.org

Can you tell me what Charters are?
Are they good or bad?

Thank you

Coral Spring charter for elementary is not good at least according to records.

PP Charter performs very well - I would compare it to any of the cities we've discussed that have good schools. It actually performs better than most of those schools. Good luck - this is such a hard decision - I hate it!

[fauve]

Charters are by lottery. There is no guarantee of admission. However, the students (and teachers for that matter) are plucked from the same lot so to speak. Perhaps they perform better because those parents are the ones who care more about education and in turn, so do their kids? I can't figure it out myself.

[namomof3]

Originally Posted by fauve

Charters are by lottery. There is no guarantee of admission. However, the students (and teachers for that matter) are plucked from the same lot so to speak. Perhaps they perform better because those parents are the ones who care more about education and in turn, so do their kids? I can't figure it out myself.

Yes- parents who "go through the trouble" with the lotteries and other options are more likely to be the parents "on top of it" when it comes to their children as a whole. My kids are happy yet my daughter is an "overachiever" so keeping her interested becomes more challenging as she gets older. I might be "that parent" that will ask the teacher to give her more work if she continues to tell me she is "bored."

[Shoegal1075]

Originally Posted by namomof3

Yes- parents who "go through the trouble" with the lotteries and other options are more likely to be the parents "on top of it" when it comes to their children as a whole. My kids are happy yet my daughter is an "overachiever" so keeping her interested becomes more challenging as she gets older. I might be "that parent" that will ask the teacher to give her more work if she continues to tell me she is "bored."

I had one of those - my older son - not so much anymore, but when he was younger he finished his work so quickly that the teacher thought giving him more work was the answer - it isn't, unless it is more interesting - more work on the same level just equals more work period. I told her she could take her work back and I got a book from Barnes and Nobles to keep him interested in things - you would be surprised how well they can do with that stuff. Helps keep my brain fresh too LOL.

[namomof3]

Originally Posted by Chelsa1075

I had one of those - my older son - not so much anymore, but when he was younger he finished his work so quickly that the teacher thought giving him more work was the answer - it isn't, unless it is more interesting - more work on the same level just equals more work period. I told her she could take her work back and I got a book from Barnes and Nobles to keep him interested in things - you would be surprised how well they can do with that stuff. Helps keep my brain fresh too LOL.

Yes especially for the summer. I will get them both something to do. We will also be spending ALOT of time at the library. I am hoping they have some sort of summer reading incentive. We have done that the past 3 summers and the kids' teacher are surprised that they didn't "slippery slope" over the summer. We all enjoy reading different stuff so it keeps it fresh and exciting.

[Momma_bear]

Originally Posted by fauve

Charters are by lottery. There is no guarantee of admission. However, the students (and teachers for that matter) are plucked from the same lot so to speak. Perhaps they perform better because those parents are the ones who care more about education and in turn, so do their kids? I can't figure it out myself.

I think it is partly that parents who care about education are more likely to apply to different schools. I think it is also partly because in order to stay at a charter school the school will ask more of the parents. So the parents who just want the school to babysit their children move them out of charter schools. Imagine Charter in Weston (all 3 of my kids went there for elementary) requires parents to donate some combination of time (30 hours per year) and money ($5 per hour) to the school. The school also asks for way more stuff than a regular public school. If the parents don't want to comply they can move their kids to the home school.

As a result teachers can always count on having what they need (people or stuff) to teach whatever they want to teach. Test scores at this school are among the highest in Broward.

[Shoegal1075]

Originally Posted by Momma_bear

I think it is partly that parents who care about education are more likely to apply to different schools. I think it is also partly because in order to stay at a charter school the school will ask more of the parents. So the parents who just want the school to babysit their children move them out of charter schools. Imagine Charter in Weston (all 3 of my kids went there for elementary) requires parents to donate some combination of time (30 hours per year) and money ($5 per hour) to the school. The school also asks for way more stuff than a regular public school. If the parents don't want to comply they can move their kids to the home school.

As a result teachers can always count on having what they need (people or stuff) to teach whatever they want to teach. Test scores at this school are among the highest in Broward.

Darn skippy - I really like that school and really thought Weston was just out of the question because of the commute, but Fauve has me rethinking that now and the schools really are better - I'm checking things out and you can give me the low down on Weston when we do lunch!

[vr2]

I've seen Charter schools go both ways. The good AND bad thing about Charter schools is that they are operated more like a private business (I'm 100% pro-free market private business btw) - where if they have bad management, there is no one to really answer too.

This simply means as a parent you need to do your due diligence and find which ones are operated the best.

So I've seen a Charter school that was an absolute train wreck, but I've also seen a Charter School that far exceeds the public school counterpart.

It's a good thing you are checking here - you may want to visit a school before dismissal and talk to some of the parents waiting to pick up their children to get an idea about how well it's managed.

[Shoegal1075]

Originally Posted by vr2

I've seen Charter schools go both ways. The good AND bad thing about Charter schools is that they are operated more like a private business (I'm 100% pro-free market private business btw) - where if they have bad management, there is no one to really answer too.

This simply means as a parent you need to do your due diligence and find which ones are operated the best.

So I've seen a Charter school that was an absolute train wreck, but I've also seen a Charter School that far exceeds the public school counterpart.

It's a good thing you are checking here - you may want to visit a school before dismissal and talk to some of the parents waiting to pick up their children to get an idea about how well it's managed.

You are right again - the charter elementary in CS is no good by anyones standards - not sure why. However, the charters in tamarac and ft. lauderdale do relatively well.