Blogs

The next meeting of the DC Public Education Finance Reform Commission (Commission) will be held this Thursday, December 1 at 6:00 PM in the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) Community Meeting Room. The address is 1901 Mississippi Ave., S.E. Washington, DC 20020. Parking is available, as is convenient access to the Southern Ave Metro (Green Line).

Did you know that about 83% of DC public charter school graduates are accepted into college?  That’s great news. We want to share the successes of public charter school students, teachers and parents. It takes an enormous amount of hard work and commitment to get into college. We’d like to showcase your efforts on the path to reaching this incredible goal.

Public charter school enrollment in the District grew another 9% this year to 32,009, the 15th consecutive year of significant growth.  According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, DC ranks second behind New Orleans in percentage of students being served and, despite its small size, eighth in the country in terms of numbers of charter school students.

DCPS enrollment grew 1% to 46,191.

Here's how DC charter enrollment has grown since the first two schools opened in 1996.  Annual growth rates are in parentheses.

Please come out to dialogue with Mayor Vincent Gray and voice your questions and concerns at the upcoming Youth Town Hall. There will be resources and opportunities available for student youth in attendance. See event information below:

WHAT:  Mayor Vincent C. Gray's Youth Town Hall

WHEN: Saturday, October 29, 2011; 12:00pm-2:00pm

WHERE: Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, 1100 Michigan Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20012

Against all the odds, DC’s public charter schools are raising the bar for public education in the District. But charters receive fewer public funds per student than DC’s traditional schools. That’s unfair. Charters are public schools and should receive the same level of public funding as the city-run schools.

Interested in writing to your DC council representative in support of fairness for DC public charters schools?  Here’s the information you’ll need:  

Ward 1:

Jim Graham

Continuing with our commitment to keep you in touch with DC public charter schools, here’s a list of public charters on Facebook:

This month, DC Council Chairman Kwame Brown held a middle grades reform roundtable to bring in a variety of local education experts, including FOCUS’s Deputy Director and School Quality Director, Naomi Rubin Deveaux.

This year marks the 15th anniversary of the passage of the District of Columbia’s School Reform Act, which enabled the creation of publicly funded but independently run charter schools for District-resident children. In a decade and a half, these new-style public schools have transformed the educational landscape in the nation’s capital, raising student performance and prompting the long-overdue reform of D.C.’s traditional public school system.

Want to follow your favorite DC Public Charter School on Twitter? Here's a quick list of some of their handles:

Achievement Preparatory Academy ----> @AchievementPrep

AppleTree Early Learning Institute Public Charter School ----> @AppleTreeInst

Bridges Public Charter School ----> @BridgesPCS

Capital City Public Charter School ---->@CapitalCityPCS

Center City Public Charter School ----> @CenterCityPCS

Cesar Chavez Public Charter School ----> @ChavezSchools

In case you missed it, Bill Turque's Sunday Washington Post piece "Huge Achievement Gaps Persist in DC Schools" outlines the deep divide evident in this year's DC CAS scores.