- Inspired Teaching, Lee Montessori to lease Shaed Elementary in Northeast Washington [Inspired Teaching Demonstration, Lee Montessori, DC Scholars PCS mentioned]
- Why the suspension rate is so high at one D.C. charter school [DC Prep PCS mentioned]
- Sparkling investment in District's Children [Friendship PCS mentioned]
Inspired Teaching, Lee Montessori to lease Shaed Elementary in Northeast Washington [Inspired Teaching Demonstration, Lee Montessori, DC Scholars PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
October 25, 2013
Two public charter schools will lease Shaed Elementary, a Northeast D.C. school building that has been vacant for the past two years, Mayor Vincent C. Gray announced Friday.
Shaed was closed in 2011 because of low enrollment. It will become the permanent home for the Inspired Teaching Demonstration Public Charter School, which is now housed in an old commercial laundry building in Northwest Washington’s U Street neighborhood.
Lee Montessori, a charter school scheduled to open in the fall, will use Shaed as a temporary start-up facility but will eventually move elsewhere.
“Shaed Elementary represents an exciting opportunity to put a building back into service as a school while also serving the broader needs of the community,” Gray (D) said in a statement.
The two charters plan to open the Shaed facility in time for the 2014-15 school year. They are in discussions with city agencies and nonprofit organizations about the possibility of allowing the public to use parts of the building for recreation and meetings.
Fast-growing D.C. charter schools, which now enroll 44 percent of the city’s public school students, often struggle to find suitable real estate. D.C. law gives charters preference in bidding on old school buildings, but charter advocates have long complained that the city has been slow to make those buildings available.
Gray administration officials announced last spring that they would make 16 buildings available for short- or long-term lease by charters.
Officials are continuing to review applications for another vacant school building, Winston Education Campus in Southeast. A local civic association would like to see Winston, which was closed in June for low enrollment, reopened as an application-only traditional school instead of turned over to a charter.
Two additional buildings were released for bid this week: Shadd Elementary in Southeast, which is used by the University of the District of Columbia and D.C. Scholars Public Charter School; and Sharpe Health in Northwest, which serves students with disabilities.
Those students are scheduled to be transferred in fall 2014 to a renovated facility in Northeast Washington’s River Terrace neighborhood.
Why the suspension rate is so high at one D.C. charter school [DC Prep PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Natalie Wexler
October 25, 2013
Although expulsions in charter schools decreased last year, short-term suspensions were slightly up. At one high-achieving middle school, DC Prep’s Edgewood campus, almost half the students received at least one one-day suspension. But the school says the disciplinary strategy is part of its formula for success.
Statistics recently released by the Public School Charter Board show a 27 percent decrease in expulsions at charter schools last year compared with the year before. Long-term suspensions, defined as 11 days or more, held steady at 0.3 percent. But one-day suspensions increased slightly, with five schools reporting that a quarter or more of their students received the punishment. Is that a problem? At least one school says it isn’t.
DC Prep’s Edgewood Middle Campus (EMC), one of the District’s highest-performing charters, gave 47 percent of its students at least one one-day suspension last year. That’s significantly higher than the average for the charter sector: 7 percent, up from 6.5 percent last year.
Generally, middle schools in D.C. have higher suspension rates than elementary or high schools. Charter middle schools had an average short-term suspension rate of 13.8 percent last year, almost twice the charter-wide average.
DCPS does not break down its figures into short- and long-term suspension, but the overall suspension rate in DCPS last year was about 14 percent. And the 14 DCPS middle schools seem to suspend students in greater numbers. In 2011-12, only one middle school had a suspension rate below 20 percent. (That was Deal, in Ward 3, with 7 percent). Some recorded more suspensions than students, indicating that some students were suspended repeatedly.
[Continue reading Natalie Wexler's post at Greater Greater Education.]
Sparkling investment in District's Children [Friendship PCS mentioned]
The Northwest Current, pg. 9
By Mary Procter
October 23, 2013
As parents and students settled into the new school year last month, my thoughts turned to the day that the region’s largest public charter school network first opened its doors to students 15 years ago. I had completed a 25-year career in the federal government before signing on to become Friendship Public Charter School’s chief of staff.
As a neighbor of Friendship House, a historic social services nonprofit for low-income families, I had met Donald Hense, who had recently become its executive director. From a distinguished career in government relations and development for universities and nonprofits, Hense had developed a sophisticated understanding of the obstacles facing poor children entering mainstream American life. He also knew the kinds of opportunities that could make a difference in their chances for successful lives.
Working at Friendship House had forced Hense to confront the fragility of nonprofits that serve the poor. Most important was the realization that Friendship House was providing young high school dropouts the same employment training and social services it delivered to their parents and grandparents. Hense saw that if nothing were done about the state of public education for children from low-income families, the children and grandchildren of those whom Friendship House served would also become its clients.
Hense decided to submit a charter to open Friendship Public Charter School, following the 1996 passage of the D.C. School Reform Act. He hired me to be the point person in this effort. Fourteen years later, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
Fast-forward 15 years, and public charter schools in the District of Columbia educate 44 percent of all students attending public school here. Publicly funded but operated independently of the traditional public school system, charters are free to set their own school culture and curriculum, while being held accountable for improved student performance by the D.C. Public Charter School Board.
Friendship operates six public charter school campuses in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Friendship serves students from preschool through 12th grade, with four campuses in wards 7 and 8 and one each in Ward 5 and Ward 6.
Friendship set about renovating neglected, derelict former school facilities that the traditional school system no longer needed due to decades of falling enrollment.
The building that now houses Friendship’s Collegiate Academy high school required a $12 million renovation. All the plumbing and wires had been torn out, and loose asbestos filled the building, which was being used as an illegal drug manufacturing plant. Other campuses had damaged windows — which the District had never replaced — doors, floors and ceilings. The renovation costs ranged from $1.2 million to $5.6 million.
Today, nearly 4,000 students are enrolled at Friendship’s six public charter school campuses, at which Friendship strives to bring opportunities routinely available at suburban public, private and magnet schools to urban youth.
Friendship’s Collegiate Academy in Ward 7 has a 95 percent on-time high-school graduation rate, 35 percentage points higher than regular high schools in the D.C. Public Schools system, and a number of points higher than the average for Maryland and Virginia. Friendship’s graduating class of 2012 made up 40 percent of the 604 graduates in wards 7 and 8. And 100 percent of each graduating class is accepted to college— this at a school in which three-quarters of students are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunches.
As preparation for college, Friendship offers high school students academically rigorous Advanced Placement courses at increasingly early ages. More than 2,500 students have taken these classes since 2006. College preparation also comes in the form of our Early College program, which allows students to take college level classes for college credit.
We also understand the financial challenges for low income students who want to attend the college of their choice. In total, Collegiate Academy graduates have earned nearly $40 million in college scholarships.
Many District neighborhoods where Friendship has renovated dilapidated and abandoned public school buildings have turned around. Friendship’s Southeast Academy in Ward 8 was renovated from a derelict former Safeway. Next door, Friendship is investing $22 million in a new state-of-the-art facility for its Technology Preparatory Academy on the site of an abandoned McDonald’s. The school will introduce students to 21st century skills in environmental sciences and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) disciplines.
Thanks to charter school pioneers like Friendship, back to school means much more for District students 15 years on, especially for those from D.C.’s most underserved and disadvantaged communities.
Mary Procter is the founding chief of staff for Friendship Public Charter School