Monday, January 07, 2013

Checking In On Achievement First

KidoInfo reminds us that it's time for the PPSD's surprisingly early registation process for incoming kindergarteners. They also note:

This year, as an added convenience to the city’s families, parents will be able to use the standard public school registration form to indicate interest in the new Achievement First Mayoral Academy. Doing so will enter the child’s name in a lottery for one of that school’s 88 seats. The deadline to express such interest through the PPSD form is February 25, and the Academy’s lottery will be held on March 1.

I couldn't find anything on the PPSD site about entering the AF lottery through the PPSD registration form.

For that matter, as a parent, I can't really find any useful information about the school at all. RIMA, the ostensible charter holder, has a "Coming Soon!" sign up.

AF has very general info about their program and an enrollment form, but no upcoming information session, no location, no listing of board members, administrators, etc. They do list the deadline as February 22nd, which is different than what KidoInfo has (also the PPSD deadline is March 1). AF also says "All students will be admitted through a blind lottery that will include preferences for low-income families," which would contradict what RIDE told us during the AF preliminary charter process, where RIDE said that "all students in the application pool will have an equal opportunity to enroll."

Also, in case there is any ambiguity AF does still hope to "eventually open up to five academies (2 elementary, 2 middle, 1 high) in Rhode Island."

Mayor Taveras' secretive board has met once, apparently.

So... they've still got some time, but not a lot. It has never been clear to me how much AF has been meeting privately with various community groups, but they didn't seem to by trying very hard last year during the public meeting process. I'm sure they'll be able to get enough kids to open, but the total radio silence is a little weird. The biggest thing is that if they don't try hard they might get virtually nobody from Warwick or North Providence, and only a handfull of applicants from Cranston. That would not be helpful to them politically going forward, and integrating an existing urban school is even harder than creating one from scratch.

If you'd like to give me a heads up about any events or advertising you find, I'd appreciate it.

Also, for those of you outside Rhode Island, I should note that we are currently without a governing Board of Regents for K-12 at all, due to some crazy end of year legislative machinations that I don't even understand. So nobody is steering the boat through this channel.

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