- All D.C. Students Would Pursue Higher Education Under Council Chief’s Proposal [KIPP DC PCS is mentioned]
- Brown: D.C. Students Must Apply to College, Take SAT or ACT
- D.C. Bill Mandates College Application for High School Diploma
- The Plexies: 2011 in Review for D.C. Real Estate [Youthbuild PCS is mentioned]
- Upcoming FOCUS Workshop
All D.C. Students Would Pursue Higher Education Under Council Chief’s Proposal [KIPP DC PCS is mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Tim Craig and Emma Brown
January 3, 2012
The D.C. Council will consider mandating that all city high school students complete college admission testing and seek out higher education, Chairman Kwame R. Brown announced Tuesday.
The legislation, which Brown (D) plans to introduce Wednesday, is a dramatic and provocative step that was praised for being well-intentioned but faulted as unrealistic.
Under the bill, all 75,000 students in D.C. public schools, including charters, would have to take the SAT or ACT college entrance exam to graduate from high school.
Every student would also be required to complete “at least one” application for admission to college or vocational or trade school — even if the student does not intend to continue schooling beyond 12th grade.
If approved, according to several education advocates, the District would have among the most aggressive requirements in the nation for prodding students to pursue college. But Brown’s bill makes no exceptions for students who want to join the military or seek a career that does not require a degree.
“I’m not saying everyone should go to college, but, my goodness, we have to get more young folks prepared to go to college if they want to go college,” Brown said. “A lot of them don’t even know how to prepare to apply to go to college. They have never seen a college application. We have to set high expectations.”
Requiring students to take college entrance exams is not a new idea — at least 11 states do so, according to the Education Commission of the States.
Experts say that taking such tests — and teaching teens and parents how to interpret the results — can be a powerful way to help more students prepare for higher education.
“There’s a lot of evidence that many families, particularly low-income families, don’t know what’s involved in going to college and being ready to go to college,” said Brookings Institution education scholar Grover “Russ” Whitehurst. “Making that information available while there’s still time to act has been shown to be important.”
But Whitehurst said requiring students to apply to a postsecondary institution could make a mockery of the process. “You don’t want people to go through a sham process of application, nor do you want to subject colleges and universities to receiving such applications,” Whitehurst said. “It takes motivation to attend college and succeed, and you can’t force it.”
High schools should be concerned about preparing students for college, not preparing them for a perfunctory application process, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.
“I recognize that this is a good-faith effort to move forward, but I think it would be better to focus on what is actually under control of the high school,” he said. “What good does it do for them to require students to ritualistically apply to college?”
Brown counters that D.C. students need an extra push to convince them that a college education is attainable. He notes that the city’s public schools have an on-time graduation rate of 43 percent, according to some calculations, and that more than half of its students qualify for free or reduced-price school meals.
Under the bill, which Brown said will be one of his priorities this year, all city schools will be required to offer seminars on how to apply for postsecondary institutions.
“We know the impact that even one workshop can make on a parent or student,” said Argelia Rodriguez, president of the District of Columbia College Access Program, a nonprofit organization that provides college and financial aid counselors in all of the city’s public and public charter high schools. (Washington Post Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Donald E. Graham sits on the organization’s board of directors.)
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education estimates that 51 percent of the District’s 2010 graduates enrolled in a degree-granting institution within a year of receiving a diploma from a public high school.
According to the College Board, fewer than half of the students in the class of 2011 took the SAT.
Since being elected to the council in 2004, Brown has hosted annual college tours in which he has accompanied dozens of students on visits to universities. On those tours, Brown said, he discovered that many D.C. youths do not realize that financial aid is available and that college is a realistic option for many of them.
For example, under the congressionally authorized D.C. Tuition Assistance Grant Program, city students are eligible for up to $10,000 a year in tuition assistance to attend public universities throughout the country.
“When you are dealing with these young folks, they want to better themselves, they want to go to college,” Brown said.
Brown said that a District-wide standard for college preparation evens out opportunities across a system that includes both poor-performing inner city schools and highly sought-out charter and specialized public schools.
Students at the high-performing public School Without Walls in Northwest Washington, for example, are required to fill out at least three college applications and are strongly encouraged to take the SAT, said Principal Richard Trogisch.
Many of the city’s charter schools also provide intensive college counseling and test-preparation courses.
Under a new evaluation system, charters are judged according to students’ SAT performance and college acceptance rate, and conversations about higher education often begin early.
Three-year-olds beginning school at KIPP DC campuses last fall began talking right away about the year they would graduate from high school and enter college: 2026.
Brown: D.C. Students Must Apply to College, Take SAT or ACT
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
January 3, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown plans to introduce legislation Wednesday requiring high school students to take the SAT or ACT and apply to at least one college or trade school before they can graduate.
Brown told The Washington Examiner that he plans to introduce another bill, or find a different avenue, to require the District's public school students to apply for both federal and local financial aid to pay for their post-secondary plans.
The College Preparation Plan Act of 2012 fails to explain who would pay the fees associated with college applications and exams. The SAT costs $49, and the ACT can cost up to $49.50, while some local colleges charge much more simply to apply.
Brown's staff wants to explore public and private funding options as the bill moves forward.
"We spent millions of dollars building a jail called New Beginnings for our young folks," Brown said. "I believe this is something we can fund."
The city is projecting a $42 million surplus as lawmakers look toward the next budget cycle. The council's docket is already lined with several education bills, covering everything from teacher evaluations and schools' role in the community, to another bill Brown plans to introduce Wednesday concerning interventions for at-risk students in early grades.
Only 43 percent of D.C. Public Schools and charter school students graduate from high school, and fewer go on to college. The causes are many, from the effects of low-income and single-mother households, to the subsequent influence on academics. At Spingarn Senior High School in Ward 5, for example, just 12.5 percent of students are proficient in math.
Daria Hall, the director of K-12 policy at the Education Trust, a local nonprofit focused on low-income students, said she believes the bill is a step in the right direction but may not cover enough ground to be effective.
"You have to make sure they're supported academically so they actually perform well on these assessments," said Hall, stressing that finances should be "decided from the get-go."
At least 11 states have similar requirements. Colorado, Illinois and Michigan incorporate the ACT into their high school assessments. Delaware and Maine require the SAT and fund the fee.
Brown's bill instructs D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray's office to flesh out more details, such as providing materials to parents and helping students pick colleges. It also requires the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to track the number of students who go on to a post-secondary education.
D.C. Bill Mandates College Application for High School Diploma
The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
January 3, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown will introduce a bill Wednesday that would require all city high school students to apply to at least one college before graduating.
The effort is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, while a second clause in the bill would add the District to a list of 11 states that require students to take the SAT or ACT college entrance exams, according to Mr. Brown's office.
The bill is part of a legislative agenda that focuses on education, the collection of fines for various city violations and the continuing effects of an ethics-reform bill that the council passed before its holiday recess.
Mr. Brown, a Democrat, said his College Preparation Plan Act of 2012 is designed to expose the 18,000 students in D.C. public high schools and public charter schools to college opportunities as they face an increasingly competitive workforce.
In support of the bill, Mr. Brown cited an Education Week study released last year that says the District had a 43 percent high school graduation rate in 2008. Citing his personal experiences on college tours with D.C. youths, Mr. Brown said many students do not realize they have a chance for a college education until they are compelled to apply and get accepted.
"They want to do better for themselves," he said at a news briefing Tuesday. "What they don't have is anything that motivates them."
Mr. Brown acknowledged that he is still working out some challenging details, such as how to fund the fees associated with the bill. The University of Maryland, for example, requires a $65 fee to be submitted with applications. The University of Virginia requires a $60 application fee, and the University of the District of Columbia requires a $35 fee.
The college entrance exams also cost money: $49 for the SAT and between $33 and $48 for the ACT.
The council chairman downplayed suggestions that colleges would not want applications from D.C. students who need to fill a government-mandated requirement.
"I don't see anything wrong with that process," he said.
Mr. Brown said his bill should not be construed as an attempt to funnel everyone into college — other forms of skills training may be more suitable for some youths — but to provide them opportunities and know-how on the college process.
"I think we should do everything we can," he said, "and there's certain areas we have to flesh out. I understand that."
Mr. Brown's office said it believes the District is the first jurisdiction to propose the mandatory-application initiative.
The Maine Board of Education rolled out a similar measure in 2007 before clarifying that students did not have to submit the applications they produce.
Mr. Brown will introduce a second bill Wednesday that establishes an early warning and intervention system to track how certain students in grades four through nine are performing and whether they are at risk of dropping out.
Also Wednesday, council member Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, will move emergency legislation to help implement ethics provisions that the council passed Dec. 20.
Specifically, it would compel Mayor Vincent C. Gray to nominate three members of the newly formed Board of Ethics and Government Accountability within 45 days. The council then would have 45 days to confirm the nominees.
The legislation also would speed up the charter amendment process, allowing D.C. voters to weigh in on whether elected officials should be disqualified from office for a felony conviction and if they approve of the council's new procedure for expelling a sitting council member.
City legislators are expected to put their final stamp on a separate bill by council member Mary M. Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, that tightens hiring practices in the executive branch after personnel issues plagued the first months of Mr. Gray's term.
The legislation abolishes nepotism in D.C. government hiring, reduces the number of the mayor's political appointees from 160 to 100 and requires appointees to be "well-qualified" instead of "minimally qualified."
Among other items, Ms. Cheh said, the council will consider a bill that centralizes debt collection efforts in a single unit within the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
She said the city estimates that it can collect an additional $10 million per year through the legislation, which tasks the unit with examining which debts are collectable, the costs of collection and methods to withhold city funds from debtors to offset the amount they owe.
The Plexies: 2011 in Review for D.C. Real Estate [Youthbuild PCS is mentioned]
The Washington City Paper
By Lydia DePillis
December 28, 2011
NIMBY Travesty of the Year: Last year, Youthbuild Public Charter School and the Latin American Youth Center were set to renovate and move into the vacant J.F. Cook School in Truxton Circle, bringing the building back to life with educational programs and supportive housing for 50 at-risk kids—similar to what the well-regarded organizations have done in Columbia Heights and elsewhere. But the neighborhood revolted, claiming the area was already overburdened with social services, and the property transfer never moved forward. The street will remain dark and dangerous for years longer, and a vital social need will go unmet.
FREE Online Module on Reading Comprehension: Text Discussion Strategies
Weekly online sessions for 7 weeks starting January 23rd, 2012
Time based on your schedule
WestEd and FOCUS (Friends of Choice in Urban Schools) are offering an opportunity to take online modules designed for middle and high school teachers. Aligned with the new Common Core Standards, this interactive, facilitated module features a learn-by-doing approach with interviews, classroom video, and multimedia presentations, and provides tools teachers can use in their own classrooms.
Participant commitment:
- Log on 3-4 times each week to complete 2 hours of learning/week, for 7 weeks
- Participate actively in engaging discussions and small-group projects with other charter school teachers
- Complete all assignments, including developing focus student profiles and trying out instructional strategies with students
Free!
To register, click here, or visit www.focusdc.org/workshops.
Questions? Need special accommodations?
Contact Alison Collier at acollier@focusdc.org or 202.387.0405.