March 28, 2016

"Sean Combs, the hip-hop mogul known as Diddy, steered the creation of the Capital Prep Harlem school..."

"The school will replicate the model of Capital Preparatory Magnet, a year-round school in Hartford that says it has high graduation and college acceptance rates...."
Beginning in 2011, Mr. Combs recruited Mr. Perry to bring his educational model to Harlem, provided office space and quietly rallied support in the community, [the founder of the Hartford school, Steve] Perry said.... "I think that there’s a lot to be found in the fact that you have someone such as Combs, who is highly visible within our community, who has decided that his major push is going to be with our model and in education"...

22 comments:

Ken B said...

Wait till the unions sick Clinton and Sanders on this.

Chuck said...

Jalen Rose did the same thing in Detroit. It's been mostly a great credit to Jalen, who seems genuinely interested and involved in the project.

http://www.jrladetroit.com/

Probably my own prejudices at work, but I'd have a good deal more confidence in Jalen, than in Puffy.

Bob Ellison said...

That's cool. Combs seems like a get-it-done kind of guy.

HoodlumDoodlum said...

How are those DC charter schools doin'?
Doesn't Puff know poor kids are supposed to suffer so teacher's unions can thrive?
He'll learn.

madAsHell said...

How selective will the school be? Can everyone attend?...or do the just cherry-pick the students who were going to be successful without the new school? My guess is the later.

Everyone wants to throw money at education (It's for the children!!...for Christ's sake), but really what education needs is better students.

madAsHell said...

latter not later.

....and Althouse's blog needs better commenters, but I'm sure she is happy for people to throw money at her through the Amazon portal!!
Do you see what I did there??

theo said...

Why yes we did.

First you disparaged a noble effort to educate children and then you insulted us.

Keepin' it real classy there Bub.

jg said...

charters need do only one thing to improve outcomes: maintain classroom discipline.

(obviously these days it means freedom to eject miscreants, not rap them on the knuckles).

lots of smart+motivated kids are natural clowns+troublemakers once enough of their peers are doing/encouraging it. there are two equilibriums. only in one do you have teachers teaching instead of cowering inside..

it's amazing that the system fails so badly. even teachers' unions want freedom from bad eggs.

tracking is everything. no child left behind forgot about the ones who are ready to move ahead.

Bay Area Guy said...

It's a question of standards. If the school adopts high standards, both for academic achievement and discipline, and enforces such standards, the kids will succeed.

If not, then not.

Fernandinande said...

Article: "The school will replicate the model of Capital Preparatory Magnet, a year-round school in Hartford that says it has high graduation and college acceptance rates."

Replicate a below average school - cool.

Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Harford has a 3/10 academic rating with 0% students taking AP courses.

Fernandinande said...

"CAPITAL PREPARATORY MAGNET SCHOOL's overall adjusted proficiency rate of 28 percent earns it a grade of D. The school's performance is similar to the average performance of schools in Lithuania and Spain. 19 percent of American schools receive a grade of D, while 64 percent receive a higher grade."

Poor Lithuania.

Theodore James said...
First you disparaged a noble effort to educate children and then you insulted us.


There's nothing noble about stupid scams, and his commenter comment referred, I think, to his own misspelling.

And madAsHell is correct that "what education needs is better students."

David said...

He's trying. These schools are not guaranteed to be successful, but the present model is guaranteed to fail, as it has for decades.

Anonymous said...

"19 percent of American schools receive a grade of D, while 64 percent receive a higher grade."

Not stated, but implies that 17% receive a lower grade than D.

I wonder how Capital Preparatory compares to surrounding public schools. Ah, the page has a map. Looks like the two nearest schools scored F, then, B, No score, B, No score, D, F, A, D, D, F, F, F, F, D, F, F, F, B

Capital Prep doesn't look good, but 10 of the nearest 20 schools scored worse and 4 scored better.

madAsHell said...

There's nothing noble about stupid scams, and his commenter comment referred, I think, to his own misspelling.

Thank you!! It was self-deprecating humor.

William said...

If a kid comes from a broken or abusive home, the odds are not in his favor not matter how good a school he attends. Some kids climb up through the cracks, but it doesn't happen very often.......I wouldn't want to grow up in a home where P Diddy was the patriarch.

Jon Ericson said...

madAsHell said... [hush]​[hide comment]
latter not later.

....and Althouse's blog needs better commenters, but I'm sure she is happy for people to throw money at her through the Amazon portal!!
Do you see what I did there??

3/28/16, 7:21 PM

No.

Nichevo said...

Confused... So Donald Trump is off the hook now for Trump University? Not to draw stupid easy absurd analogies between well meaning educational efforts, but given the Althouse thought process, I wondered if that's where this was leading.

tim in vermont said...

Good luck to him.

tim in vermont said...

Reading the thread I can't see why anybody can root for the idea of leaving these children to a known failing system.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

On the plus side, the school nurse will be able to dispense medical marijuana. So there is that...

Roger Sweeny said...

"If the school adopts high standards, both for academic achievement and discipline, and enforces such standards," lots of the kids will wind up leaving.

Sad, but true. And, no, a positive school culture that celebrates hard work and learning is not going to make them all striving, hard-working students.

Fernandinande said...

Sam P said...
Looks like the two nearest schools scored F, then, B, No score, B, No score, D, F, A, D, D, F, F, F, F, D, F, F, F, B
Capital Prep doesn't look good, but 10 of the nearest 20 schools scored worse and 4 scored better.


I'm glad someone else looks at numbers.

Nearly all MSM statements like "a year-round school in Hartford that says it has high graduation and college acceptance rates...." turn out to be false, which is why the MSM omits test scores or other ratings and just repeats the school's own propaganda.

schoolgrades.org (which is giving the letter grades) says:
"Adjust for the Students' Economic Profile
We then take into account the percentage of students who qualify for the federal government's free and reduced price lunch program. This adjustment gives extra credit to schools that serve economically disadvantaged students and holds schools that serve affluent students to a higher standard."

So they apply a sort of affirmative action to the school "grades", rendering them rather meaningless.

I picked the first "F" school and the first "B" school in the comparison list and looked them up at "greatschools" (which doesn't AA the scores, as far as I can tell):

Silver Lane School: F ( greatschools: 1/10)
Hispanic 52%
Black 31% (83% H+B)
White 12%
Capital Preparatory Magnet School : D (3/10)
Hispanic 22%
Black 43% (65% H+B)
White 27%
TWO RIVERS MIDDLE MAGNET SCHOOL: B (5/10)
Hispanic 30%
Black 20% (50% H+B)
White 38%
Asian 7%

Almost always, with a few exceptions, "school performance" is a function of the student body ( = "what education needs is better students"). If you want a 9/10 or 10/10 greatschools rating, teach a lot of Asian and white kids.