Submitted by acollier on
By Alison Collier
Enrollment in DC public charter schools grew another 11 percent in the 2012-2013 school year, according to unaudited enrollment numbers released by the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) last week. Just over 35,000 students chose one of 57 public charter schools on 107 campuses across the District. This continues the annual growth trend in the charter sector, which has seen marked growth every year since the first charters opened in 1996. Almost half of the growth was due to either new charter schools or new/expanded campuses of existing charters: four new schools opened their doors in 2012, and 12 existing schools added more students.
Of note is that 20 percent of the new seats were in schools designated as “Tier One” under the PCSB’s Performance Management Framework (PMF), the ranking system that was rolled out last fall, while there was a 10 percent decrease in enrollment in Tier 3 schools (the lowest tier in the PCSB system). But there is still much more demand for quality education options; there are thousands of students on waitlists for the higher performing schools. FOCUS is one of many charter support organizations across the District that is focusing its efforts on increasing the number of quality seats available at charter schools. Our startup services help high potential groups open quality schools, while our workshops and consulting services support existing schools to improve their performance.