Russell Byers Charter School

Posted September 16, 2009

I am a current parent at RBCS and I am extremely pleased with the school. The curriculum is rigorous and it promotes the development of the entire child -- educationally, socially and emotionally. I am not aware of any other public school in the city that offers a Mandarin language program or dance classes taught by Rock School instructors. If you are a parent who chooses to be an active participant in your child's education, you will find that the teachers and administration are extremely competent and caring. They set the bar high, but if you are one of 900+ on the wait list fortunate enough to attend this school, shouldn't you and your child be up to the challenge?
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Posted July 30, 2009

RBCS needs to work on parent communication. Unfortunately, I would have to agree with the teacher posting of 2008. As a current parent, I have experienced miscommunications and little feedback from this school's teachers. We are taking our child out of this school.
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Posted August 6, 2008

I have supported this school for the past two years as a community stakeholder and have witnessed remarkable growth in its leadership and quality of instruction. The 30 percent plus teacher turnover rate is unfortunate, although understandable as a charter school; there is not enough money to attract the creme of the crop. I believe the school's decision to replace instructors (the reason for over 50% of the teacher turnover rate) demonstrates their dedication to quality instruction. I wish the administration had more resources with which to attract the highest quality teachers. Afterall, this school has the happiest kids I have ever seen! At an elementary school level, should we rate a school on its students' excitement for learning or high test scores? How will we define a balance?

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Posted July 17, 2008

As a former teacher, I have seen firsthand the unprofessional behavior of some of the administrators. Parents, please be wary ab out the reasons given to explain why teachers left. The school has an incredibly high teacher turnover rate. This is not promising for any school. RBCS had had a serious issue with retaining teachers. The curriculum is confusing. Students are not taught full Social Studies or Science curriculums. Instead, the school uses the Expeditionary Learning curriculum. Your child will learn about one Science topic for 3 months and one Social Studies topic for 3 months. Children that transfer from public school have so much more knowledge of Social Studies and Science content that children that have only been at RBCS. It's unfortunate because it should be an excellent school. Parents, don't be fooled.

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