- D.C. Charter Enrollment Up 8 Percent
- D.C. Charter Schools Continue to Boom
- Fewer Students Enroll in DCPS After Last Year's Historic Increase
- D.C. Public School Enrollment Up for Third Straight Year
- Despite City’s Growth, D.C. School Enrollment Falls
- BASIS Head Says Early Tweaks Are Not a ‘Watering Down’ [BASIS PCS is mentioned]
- District to Start ‘Conversation’ About Special Ed
The Washington Post
By Staff
February 13, 2012
Fall enrollment in D.C. public charter schools jumped 8 percent compared to the previous year, education officials announced Monday.
D.C. State Superintendent of Education Hosanna Mahaley said that auditors verified 31,562 students in the independently operated charter schools as of fall 2011, up from 29,356 in fall 2010.
Enrollment in D.C. Public Schools, the city’s school system, fell slightly, to 45,191 in 2011 from 45,630 the year before, according to Mahaley. That amounted to a 1 percent decline.
In all, charter students now account for 41 percent of total D.C. public enrollment.
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
February 13, 2012
Enrollment in the city's public charter schools continued to boom this year with 8 percent more students, while DC Public Schools saw their numbers drop, according to the District's official count released Monday.
Combined, District enrollment jumped 2 percent, but the ratio between DCPS and the city's charters continues to shift. Charter schools now claim 41 percent of the District's public school students, the second-highest rate in the country after New Orleans, and have been growing substantially for at least the past 10 years. This year, 31,562 students enrolled in public charters.
"Parents are choosing charter schools because they have confidence in the overall performance of the sector," said Scott Pearson, executive director of the DC Public Charter School Board.
The board has aggressively closed failing schools -- 12 in the last three years, with two more on the chopping block -- and approves a handful of new schools each year. It's an energy that analysts say is driving more parents away from DCPS and into the charter realm.
DCPS enrolled 45,630 students this year, a decline of 1 percent. The system failed to keep up the momentum of the previous school year, when the underperforming school system saw its first enrollment increase in 41 years.
"There's a greater sense that the charter system is innovating -- aggressively creating new schools and aggressively decreasing their portfolio of failing schools," said David Pickens, executive director of DC School Reform Now. "But there's a sense that DCPS is not doing that, in many circles."
Melissa Salmanowitz, spokeswoman for DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson, said enrollment was stabilizing and that 80 percent of the losses were at 10 schools, mostly at the high-school and adult-education levels.
There was some growth at the earliest grades, with 3 percent more students enrolling in preschool, 2 percent more in kindergarten, and 3 percent more in grades 1 through 3.
"Parents are beginning to see progress in DCPS classrooms and we remain confident in our school leaders to continue bringing about the type of change that will bring more families into our schools," she said.
Last year, former Chancellor Michelle Rhee and former Mayor Adrian Fenty trumpeted the 2 percent PK-12 enrollment increase as a sign that parents were buying into the controversial school reforms championed by Rhee: school closures, mass firings of teachers deemed ineffective, and an intensified focus on data.
Even though these reforms have continued, the resignation of Rhee last October may have deterred some parents from sticking with DCPS, said Sarah Rosenberg, a K-12 policy analyst for independent think-tank Education Sector.
"Michelle Rhee was a figurehead -- for better or worse -- for the school system," Rosenberg said. "With her no longer in charge, the message of reform may be less powerful."
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
February 13, 2012
D.C. Public Schools' enrollment decreased by 1 percent this year, following last year's historic enrollment increase that officials said signified a turnaround for the underperforming school system.
This year, 45,630 students enrolled in DCPS, 439 fewer than in 2009-2010, according to an audited count released by the Office of the State Superintendent for Education on Monday.
Last year, a bump of 912 students gave DCPS its first enrollment increase since 1969. Controversial former Chancellor Michelle Rhee said the uptick was evidence that school reform was "moving in the right direction."
Then-Mayor Adrian Fenty concurred, "This historic reversal in enrollment proves that our hard work over the past three years has created quality schools that appeal to families and set a foundation for future growth."
The city's charter schools, which enroll 41 percent of D.C. public-school students, have been increasing steadily over the last several years. Charter school enrollment was up 8 percent this year, to 31,562 students.
In a statement on Monday, Mayor Vincent Gray only commented on the combined enrollment of DCPS and the city's public charter schools, which came to a 2 percent increase.
"The new enrollment numbers clearly show that parents have confidence in District schools,” Gray said. "I am hopeful that as we continue to make improvements in our schools, the numbers will continue to grow."
DCPS enrollment did increase for prekindergarten-4 through grades 3, a sign that more families are entering the school system. For four-year-old prekindergarten classes, enrollment increased by 6 percent, or 178 students.
Only 12 fewer students enrolled in middle-school grades, at a time when the D.C. Council has spent significant time trying to tackle underenrollment and other performance indicators in the middle grades.
But heavier losses were seen in the fourth and fifth grades - 217 students - as well as the high school years - 311 students. Enrollment in adult programs also dropped by 244 students, or 15 percent.
Charter schools also experienced growth concentrated in the early grades, including a 14-percent bump in kindergarteners and a 7-percent increase in students in grades 1-3. (Preschool enrollment also increased, but a reporting error by the schools leaves the magnitude up in the air.)
Enrollment in grades 9 through 12 dropped 4 percent for charter schools, along with a 1-percent decrease of 29 students in grades 4 and 5. Charters' adult-education programs grew by 13 percent, or 270 students.
The Washington Informer
By Staff
February 13, 2012
Current enrollment in public schools (District of Columbia Public Schools and Public Charter Schools) is up 2% (1,767) from last year, to 76,753, and numbers have been steadily increasing over the past three years, according to audited data by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
"The new enrollment numbers clearly show that parents have confidence in District schools," said Mayor Vincent C. Gray. "I am hopeful that as we continue to make improvements in our schools, the numbers will continue to grow."
A summary of the trends for 2011 is as follows:
· Categories that saw notable increases were Pre-Kindergarten ages 3 and 4 (13%), Kindergarten (6%) and grades 1-3 (4%).
· Public Charter School enrollment increased by 8%, from 29,356 to 31,562 (2,206 students) and saw the greatest increases overall in the Pre-Kindergarten ages 3 and 4 categories (24%).
· DCPS enrollment had a slight decrease of 1%, from 45,630 to 45,191 (439 students).
"States across the country look at early childhood enrollment numbers to determine future trends and to gauge the trust parents have in their school system," added Hosanna Mahaley, state superintendent of education. "Our amazing growth in the early grades and Pre-Kindergarten is a testament to the work of our school leaders, as well as the mayor's relentless early childhood efforts."
"This year's enrollment increase will no doubt become a driving force for continuous and permanent progress."
The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
February 13, 2012
An audit released Monday shows enrollment in the District’s traditional public schools decreased slightly from 2010 to 2011, despite significant population growth in the city.
There was a 1 percent decrease in enrollment at D.C. Public Schools — or 439 fewer students — even while the city added 16,000 residents from April 2010 to July 2011, according to the audit by the District's Office of State Superintendent for Education.
By contrast, enrollment in public charter schools increased by 8 percent.
The popularity of charter schools, particularly among parents sending their children to pre-kindergarten classes, is part of a 2 percent increase in overall enrollment in all public schools, according to the audit
Mayor Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat, said the numbers show enrollment has “stabilized” in traditional public schools and he is interested in speaking to Chancellor Kaya Henderson about her views on the audit’s findings.
“The new enrollment numbers clearly show that parents have confidence in District schools,” the mayor said. “I am hopeful that as we continue to make improvements in our schools, the numbers will continue to grow.”
The school system noted that 80 percent of its losses came from 10 schools, including a STAY program at Ballou High School for students 18 and older.
“Overall, DCPS enrollment remains steady after nearly four decades of decline,” spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said. “Today’s audit numbers show a slight decrease.”
Last year, city public school enrollment increased 2 percent, the first increase in 41 years for the troubled school system. Charter school enrollment increased 3.5 percent.
The D.C. Public Charter School Board oversees 32,000 students at 53 different schools on 98 campuses. It is responsible for educating 41 percent of all public school students in the District, and officials said they were thrilled by the steadily increasing enrollment in the past three years.
“While much of the growth is in the younger grades, we also saw 4 percent growth [overall],” said Scott Pearson, the board’s executive director. “Parents are choosing charter schools because they have confidence in the overall performance of the sector.”
Charter schools saw the most significant gains, by 24 percent, in its pre-kindergarten categories for children ages 3 and 4, according to the audit.
Mr. Gray has put an emphasis on early-childhood education in addition to the District’s unique universal pre-K offering.
The mayor said it does not matter to him whether young children are placed in traditional public schools or charter schools, “as long as they are quality programs.”
He touted an “early success” initiative during his State of the District Address last week, citing research that shows “the most critical brain development occurs between birth and 3 years of age.”
City officials are looking to private providers that once offered pre-K program to take up the early-childhood mantle.
Mr. Gray has pointed to the $12 million Educare Center in the Kenilworth neighborhood of Ward 7 — which should be completed within 30 days — as a testing ground for early-childhood development practices “that we then will roll out more broadly in a coordinated, citywide strategy.”
BASIS Head Says Early Tweaks Are Not a ‘Watering Down’ [BASIS PCS is mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
February 13, 2012
The early pieces seem to be coming together for BASIS, the Arizona-based charter school group that promises an unprecedented level of rigor when it opens its D.C. campus this summer for grades 5 to 8. It has a building in Penn Quarter, and 319 students who registered during an open enrollment period that ended Friday. That’s short of the 400 that officials targeted, but head of school Mary Riner Siddall said the good news is that no lottery will be necessary.
“I am very happy about this fact that we won’t have to let anyone down,” she said in an e-mail. She held more than 30 informational sessions all over the city for prospective parents. Registrants represent more than 75 schools across all eight wards, she said.
When BASIS founders Olga and Michael Block announced plans to come to D.C. last year, their calling card was an uncompromising European-style academic program. Seventh graders would take Algebra 1 and Latin. There would be nine hours a week of physics, chemistry and biology. To graduate, students would be required to complete at least eight AP courses and pass six exams. Eighth graders will have to pass the University of Cambridge international benchmarking exam. It was a formula that earned their Arizona schools national ranking and test scores that exceeded statewide averages.
Skeptics pointed out that it was also done with a student population far less diverse than the one it would encounter in D.C. The Blocks brushed aside such concerns.
“We know how to do this,” said Olga Block. “We’re very good at it.”
But it turns out that BASIS will in fact be making some modifications to its rigorous program, tweaks that Siddall calls temporary but necessary.
Siddall said all students will still take the six AP exams, including AP calculus, before graduation. But in 2012-13 only, BASIS D.C. will modify its 7th and 8th grade curriculum, separating math courses into different levels “to account for the fact that not all 7th graders are ready for Algebra 1 and 8th graders Algebra 2...They will still get the same physics, chemistry, biology 9 hr/week, it will just not be as deep.”
She rejected the idea that D.C. students will be getting BASIS lite.
“Not a watering down, just a willingness to meet kids where they’ve been,” she said, adding that other new BASIS schools started out the same way.
To help new students close academic gaps before school starts, BASIS is offering its STARS program, three hours per week of small group tutoring in reading, math and study skills.
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
February 14, 2012
OSSE has hired the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to study the quality of special education programs in the District, an $800,000 project it hopes will identify best practices that can be replicated and brought to scale in public and public charter schools.
“The plan is basically to start a conversation about what quality special education practices should look like in the District of Columbia.,” said Amy Maisterra, assistant state superintendent for special education.
The venture, to be paid for with federal Race to the Top funds, also will help establish a series of performance indicators that schools can use to assess how they serve the city’s roughly 9,000 physically and mentally disabled students.
Maisterra said much of OSSE’s work to date has been around ensuring compliance with federal laws. This is an opportunity to step back and have a discussion “at a granular level” about instruction, behavior and support services. The study will start with a literature review of effective practices locally, nationally and internationally, followed by a series of stakeholder focus groups. Maisterra said she hopes to have a report out by early summer.
There’s nothing like a big, new shiny study to get the pulse of D.C. education officials racing. Last month, Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright rolled out the much-anticipated IFF school capacity analysis. DCPS is working with Educational Resource Strategies (ERS), a Massachusetts non-profit, on how to better manage and spend their money.
These kinds of announcements invariably raise the question:what is it that an outside consultant can tell them that they don’t already know? The city’s special education system, under federal court supervision for years, faces a set of issues that seem pretty widely understood. Capacity remains the most challenging.
At a D.C. Council oversight hearing last week, Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center, said there have been improvements in special education, and that the city has the right idea by trying to move students out of private placements in Virginia and Maryland back into neighborhood schools with their peers. But Sandalow said that too often the city is trying to return families before it has the programs to serve them.
She also said it is a struggle even to ascertain what the public schools have to offer.
“Despite repeated requests for this information, there is no comprehensive and publicly accessible list of special education programs within DCPS,” Sandalow said. “Short of calling each individual DCPS school for the information, parents, students and their attorneys have virtually no way of knowing where programs exist, what methodologies they are using in the classroom, what staff are in the classrooms or what training and licensing the professionals have.”
Early Stages, the DCPS center for identifying learning issues in children ages 3 to 5, has improved the city’s screening ability. But the transition from screening to full evaluation and treatment has been less successful, Sandalow said.
As an example, she described a three-year-old client who was tested at Early Stages and given an Individualized Education Program in September 2010. But the boy didn’t start receiving special education services until January 2011 and did not start his physical therapy until March.
“One the need is identified, the District must ensure that there exist sufficient resources for children to get timely services,” Sandalow said.
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