- A tale of two charters [FOCUS and DC Prep and William E. Doar PCS mentioned]
- Council set to consider bills on education
A tale of two charters [FOCUS and DC Prep and William E. Doar PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
November 1, 2013
Since education news has been quiet this week I decided to spend a few minutes on the FOCUS data center dashboard. The schools I decided to look at this morning are DC Prep Public Charter School and The William E. Doar, Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts. I picked these facilities for a couple of reasons. First, I was a founding board member and board chair of Doar, and I'm very familiar with the location of these institutions. DC Prep elementary and middle school and Doar are located mere feet from each other on a small strip of Edgewood Street, N.E. in Washington, D.C. near the Metro railroad tracks.
Both schools started around the same time although I know that D.C. Prep's middle school came a few years after the elementary school was established. Each must pull from a similar student population because most parents enroll their kids in charters near their homes. But the academic results could not be more different.
On the 2013 DC CAS Doar students scored on average 47 percent proficiency or greater in reading and 44 percent proficiency or greater in math. Doar is a Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade school. DC Prep's elementary, a Pre-Kindergarten through third grade school, had 68 percent proficiency or greater in reading and 76 percent proficiency or greater in math. That's a difference between the two charters of 21 points in reading and 32 points in math. But there's more to the story.
To get a better comparison you have to include DC Prep's middle school which goes from fourth grade to eighth since Doar also goes up to that grade level. Here DC Prep students recorded an astonishing 79 percent proficiency or greater in reading and 92 percent proficiency or greater in math. Now the differences in DC CAS results between the institutions are 32 percent in reading and 48 percent in math for student proficiency levels.
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm honestly not trying to pick on Doar PCS. There are similar comparisons that can be made across town. But the fundamental public policy question that must be asked is why Doar is allowed to continue operating when those students could be educated by a much more successful program that share a driveway? Until we have the courage to ask questions such as this and take decisive, extremely difficult actions based upon the responses we will never really be able to provide each and every child in the nation's capital with a quality academic seat.
Council set to consider bills on education
The Northwest Current, pg. 5
By Graham Vyse
October 30, 2013
The D.C. Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a pair of education bills from at-large D.C. Council member David Catania that are among seven pieces of legislation he has introduced to help overhaul District schools.
In an interview, Catania spokes person Ben Young said the Focused Student Achievement Act of 2013and the Parent and Student Empowerment Act of 2013 aim to end social promotion of students not achieving at grade level, refocus the role of D.C.’s education ombudsman and create a new office advocating exclusively for the interests of parents and students.
Asked about the legislation’s prospects for passage, Young said, “I see no reason to be anything but optimistic.” Both bills drew nine co-sponsors when they were introduced.
Catania has been making his case for the legislation to various community groups recently, including an Oct. 17 appearance before the Glover Park/Cathedral Heights advisory neighborhood commission.
Discussing social promotion in elementary and middle schools, he said current law allows schools to hold back struggling students only in the third, fifth and eighth grades.
“What that has resulted in is the serial promotion of kids through the schools,” he said, adding that a pair of high school principals recently told him that some of their ninth-graders perform at fifth-grade levels.
Catania’s Focused Student Achievement Act would establish promotion standards for students in third through eighth grades; push to identify students at risk of retention and intervene to aid them; and require that retained students attend summer school.
“We have to start forcing accountability,” he said.
Catania also told Glover Park meeting attendees about his bill dealing with the education ombudsman and advocacy for parents and students.
He said the Parent and Student Empowerment Act aims to clarify the ombudsman’s role as a neutral mediator of school issues. But he also wants to create a new office that actively lobbies for parents and students, including during mediation before the ombudsman.
Catania plans to advance his five remaining bills in the coming months. Among other reforms, the legislation would increase funding for poor students and make changes to the school lottery system.
The entire seven-bill package received mixed reviews in September from a coalition of 36 education activists from across the city.
On the Focused Student Achievement Act, the group’s report expresses concern that “the bill could contribute to a pendulum dynamic through which we move back and forth between a promotion and retention based system.” The activists call for “a more thoughtful approach,” saying the council should authorize the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education to make recommendations on this subject.
With regard to the Student Empowerment Act, the report offers qualified support, recommending that proposed resource centers be located inside high schools and emphasizing the need for accuracy in school promotional materials.