“Former staffers” are quoted as getting repeated requests by teachers to issue re-tests. But then again, why would the NPR blogger paraphrase the president of a local district’s teachers union who asserts that, despite low test scores, “their parents are happy” and then not ask parents like Salvador Ramirez and Jennifer Perez who have very publicly expressed their unhappiness with that district in their local paper of record?Ī mountain of evidence dispels retesting assertionĪ good portion of the NPR blog post calls into question the validity of our test results. Maybe as a Rocketeer parent myself I’m biased. So much so that they tell other families to enroll. But most days, most parents love their Rocketship school. Sure, not every parent is happy every day. In our most recent parent survey, 72% of parents stated that “I have recommended Rocketship to another family.” To be clear, these are parents who actually recommended Rocketship, they are not simply saying “they would recommend.” 2,276 parents responded to this annual survey. Over 250 parents of Rocketship Mosaic Elementary crowd into a standing room only reauthorization hearing in February 2016 to demand their school stays open another 5 years / Credit: Rocketship. And I’m sure it was very hard for Anya Kamenetz to understand, as she herself did not visit a single Rocketship school. As Paul Tough’s latest work highlights, it is particularly hard for people who have not worked or lived in low-income communities to understand the unique challenges of teaching in high-poverty schools like Rocketship. Our students’ “results are undoubtedly impressive.” But rather than dig in and really understand what underlies our Rocketeers’ impressive achievements, NPR’s blogger, Anya Kamenetz, went to great pains in trying to undermine our success and defend her personal anti-testing thesis.Įliminating the achievement gap is hard work. As for the voices included in the story, six of the nine Rocketship sources contacted me to express their frustration over how NPR’s blogger mischaracterized their comments (more on that below). They flooded my inbox over the weekend with outrage over the voices missing from this story. As co-founder and CEO of Rocketship, a leading network of nonprofit public charter schools, I have grown accustomed to anti-charter attacks like this. Last Friday, NPR’s Education blog published what is being called a “takedown piece” on Rocketship Education.
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