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By Lauren Outlaw
As the school year progresses, good news for the DC charter school movement keeps rolling in: schools are being awarded public facilities, charter school enrollment is increasing, and the number of expulsions are decreasing! Here are several noteworthy articles from last month. If you have not already, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook! Happy Fall Everyone!
Inspired Teaching, Lee Montessori to lease Shaed Elementary in Northeast Washington (The Washington Post, 10/25/13)
More good facilities news for the local charter school movement! A new lease for Shaed Elementary, a former DCPS school closed in 2011 for low enrollment, was awarded to Inspired Teaching Demonstration and Lee Montessori public charter schools. Both charter schools plan to open the facility in time for the 2014-15 school year. Shaed will be a permanent home for Inspired Teaching, which currently operates in an old commercial laundry building in Northwest, and a temporary home for Lee Montessori, a new charter school scheduled to open in the fall. Read this article for more on this significant facilities development! Check out our website here for more information on the ongoing facilities battle.
D.C. charter school teacher Kena Allison surprised with $25,000 award (The Washington Post, 10/24/13)
Congratulations to teacher Kena Allison of Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School on being awarded a $25,000 cash prize from the Milken Family Foundation for her “exemplary work as an educator.” Students and other teachers rave that Allison “stays after school as late as necessary to help anyone who’s struggling,” “creates lessons that keep class engaging,” and “coaches fellow teachers throughout the year.” Read this article for more on the amazing work Kena Allison is doing at Thurgood Marshall PCS.
Charter school enrollment up by 6.2% compared to previous year (The Examiner, 10/18/13)
In this article, Mark Lerner reports on the 6.2% increase in the District’s charter school enrollment for this 2013-14 school year. According to OSSE’s unaudited student enrollment figures for public charter and traditional schools, charters demonstrated an increase from 34,674 students in the 2012-13 school year to 36,823 this year. Needless to say we are not surprised! As Mr. Lerner points out, this finding demonstrates that “charters are continuing their stubborn, steady march toward enrollment equity with DCPS.”
Fewer expulsions in D.C. public charter schools in 2012-13 year (The Washington Post, 10/15/13)
In this piece, Emma Brown highlights the decrease in the number of expulsions in the District’s charter schools. The “overall expulsion rate fell 27 percent” with the “number of students removed for disciplinary reasons dropp[ing] from 227 students in 2011-12 to [just] 186 this past school year.” KIPP DC College Preparatory, YouthBuild, and Friendship Collegiate are a few of the schools that saw significant decreases. Susan Schaffer, chief executive officer of the KIPP DC charter network noted that the decrease in expulsions at College Prep “stems partly from policy changes meant to prevent discipline problems.” Read this article for more on how charter schools are decreasing the number of students they expel.
The D.C. Education Adequacy Study (The Examiner, 10/8/13)
Here Mark Lerner reports on the long-awaited results of the Education Adequacy Study, a study commissioned by the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Education and created by The Finance Project and Audenblick, Palaich, and Associates. The report recommends “adding legal, technology, nurses, mental health support, and procurement assistance, which DCPS currently receives at no charge, into the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula.” Mr. Lerner rightly notes that this is a huge victory for FOCUS Executive Director Robert Cane and staff. Mr. Lerner also highlights a few concerns with the study, read this article for more on his observations. For more information on the funding inequities charter schools have historically faced in the District, click here.
Adult charter schools must now track outcomes (Greater Greater Education, 10/1/13)
Beginning this school year, the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) will begin evaluating adult education charter schools based on a new, more structured framework. This framework requires schools to track students who have spent at least 12 instructional hours at the school, for up to nine months after students have left the school to see whether or not they “have go[ne] on to find jobs or enter some kind of postsecondary program.” A few school leaders are concerned about this new tracking requirement, click the link above for more.