FOCUS DC News Wire 2/17/12

 

DCPS Enrollment: Missing the Mark By $18 Million [Carlos Rosario and Cesar Chavez PCS are mentioned]

The Washington Post

By Bill Turque

February 16, 2012

 

DCPS projected an enrollment of 47,247 students for the 2011-12 school year when it put together its current budget. And through the uniform per pupil funding formula, which provides a minimum of $8,945 for each student, that’s what the school system received.

 

But this week’s audited enrollment showed DCPS with 45,191 students, or 2,056 less than forecast. That means the system got $18.4 million for new students who are either ineligible for residency reasons or who never materialized.

 

So is the refund check to the D.C. treasury in the mail?

 

Not likely. DCPS routinely--some critics say systematically-- overestimates enrollment projections built into its annual operating budgets. In FY 2010 and 2011 the system also received more money than it would have if payments had been based on actual enrollment: a total of $29 million, most of it in the area of special education, according to research by the staff of the Public Education Finance Reform Commission (PEFRC).

 

Not so for D.C.’s public charter schools. While DCPS is fully budgeted in the spring on the basis of enrollment projected for the following school year, charters receive their allocations on a quarterly basis, beginning July 1. If audited enrollment falls below spring projections, allotments can shrink in the third or fourth quarterly payment.

 

PEFRC staff report that public charter schools collectively would have received $5.2 million more in FY 2010 and FY 2011 if they had been budgeted on projected enrollment instead of actual audited numbers (On the other hand, schools that under-project get more money).

 

This was an issue raised by charter representatives to the commission, tasked by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) to study equity issues. Three members — Allison Kokkoros, chief academic officer for Carlos Rosario PCS, Irasema Salcido, founder and CEO of Cesar Chavez PCS and Jeremy Williams, director of business oversight for the D.C. Public Charter School Board-- recommended that ultimate funding for both DCPS and charters be tied to audited enrollment. But their position made it only as far as PEFRC’s draft minority report.

 

Enrollment is, as DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said this week, “a moving target.” On Feb. 14, according to the enrollment and attendance database, the system was serving 46,512 students. That’s still 735 less than the spring projection but 1,321 more than the annual Oct. 5 count that was the basis for the enrollment audit. Enrollment historically rises after Oct. 5, she said, and DCPS receives no extra money to support it.

 

Salmanowitz didn’t say this, of course, but the implication is pretty clear: DCPS overestimates in the spring as a hedge against its post-Oct. 5 arrivals. Charters are not legally required to accept new students after Oct. 5

 

“We make our best effort to project an accurate number of students that will be enrolled in school,” Salmanowitz said. “The audit released isn’t 100 percent reflective of the actual number of students in the classroom at this moment.”

 

Where do the additional DCPS kids come from? Salmanowitz said officials identified four different groups: charter school transfers, new students in the high school STAY programs, students new to the city and students returning to schools with newly renovated buildings.

 

There is widespread speculation about whether some charters “dump” problem students into DCPS after the October count, although not a lot of hard data to settle the question. According to PEFRC the D.C. Public Charter School Board estimates that total enrollment decreases during the year by 0.5 to 0.75 percent, or about 150 to 225 students--not exactly a handful, but also not boatload.

 

 

 

 

Kwame Brown Scolds School Officials Who Don't Support Mandatory SAT, ACT [Washington Math Science Technology PCS is mentioned]

The Washington Examiner

By Lisa Gartner

February 16, 2012

 

D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown lashed out at school officials on Thursday who said they did not support his bill to require all District students to take the SAT or ACT before they can graduate.

 

Scott Pearson, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, testified before the council that Brown's bill to make students take at least one college-entrance exam and apply to at least one postsecondary institution was "overreaching." He also testified that charter schools were already incentivizing students to prepare for college.

 

"All they want is our money and they don't want us to tell them what to do," Brown said of the city's charter schools. He added, "You know I'm a supporter of the charter schools, but for the charter schools to sit here and say [that]. ..."

 

Brown also appeared angry when D.C. Public Schools' chief academic officer, Carrie Wright, said she did not support additional graduation requirements for D.C. students.

 

Brown asked Wright if any of her colleagues or employees lacked college degrees. Wright said she did not know and would have to check -- not quite the answer Brown was asking for.

 

"Dr. Wright, I am appalled that I am sitting here and you can't even agree that this should be mandatory," said Brown, who questioned Wright's grasp on the situation after she said she had been with the school system for three years.

 

Brown introduced the College Preparation Plan Act of 2012 on the premise that more students will go to college if they take concrete steps toward admission. Eleven states require that students take the SAT or ACT.

 

Several D.C. schools, like Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, already require students to apply to at least one college. Washington Math Science Technology Public Charter School has students apply to at least five.

 

Although she personally opposed it, Wright said D.C. Public Schools planned to support the bill after working with the chairman to improve it, and Hosannah Mahaley, head of the agency that regulates both DCPS and the charters, said she supported the bill.

 

Spokesmen for DCPS and the charter school board did not return requests for comment by deadline Thursday.

 

 

 

The Washington Times

By Tom Howell Jr.

February 16, 2012

 

A long line of education advocates and high-achieving students testified Thursday in favor of legislation that requires D.C. high school students to take college entrance exams and apply to at least one college.

 

Yet the city’s charter school board feels the measure amounts to “overreaching” and the traditional public schools system could not offer unqualified support for the bill.

 

Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown said his college preparation bill is a “bold step forward” in opening new doors for city students. The bill, which would be phased in over time, also emphasizes trade skills, military or other post-secondary programs to make sure high school students can compete in the workplace and earn a livable wage.

 

“We’re simply being dishonest if we pretend a high school diploma is enough for our students,” Mr. Brown said, openly disagreeing with public schools representatives who do not think SAT and college applications should be mandatory.

 

But the D.C. Public School Charter Board said mandatory SAT testing could impose on charter schools’ autonomy and “leads to a creeping re-regulation of charter school that steadily erodes the very basis for their success.”

 

Mr. Brown told the board’s director, Scott Pearson, that he understands that position. He supports charter schools, he added, but “all they want is our money and they don’t want us to tell them what to do.”

 

A top official from the D.C. Public Schools said the system is working on programs that dovetail with the chairman’s goals, but it could not offer his bill a definitive stamp of approval.

 

“Is that a yes or a no?” Mr. Brown asked chief academic officer Carey Wright.

 

“We’ll support the bill,” Ms. Wright said. “We’d like to just work with you to strengthen it a little bit.”

 

Pressed on the issue, Ms. Wright could not offer specifics on how DCPS would work with the chairman’s office. She said she personally opposes a mandatory SAT but noted the test could be offered during the school day to compel more participation.

 

“I don’t think we need additional graduation requirements, but I do think we need to address the issues you brought forward in your bill, which is what we’re trying to do,” she said.

 

Council member Marion Barry, Ward 8 Democrat, said he wished D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson had attended the hearing.

 

“That’s precisely why the chancellor should be here,” he said. “Dr. Wright does make those educational policy decisions, she recommends them.”

 

Ann Abbott, policy analyst for the D.C. Alliance of Youth Advocates, said she supports the spirit of the bill but warned of a “check the box” mentality that could take hold among students who have no choice but to apply to college.

 

“Just applying for college isn’t necessarily enough,” she said. “You actually do have to put a lot of thought into what career you want to go into … I think this legislation could really hurt kids that just say, ‘Oh, well we applied, that’s enough,’ and that’s our fear and we don’t want that.”

 

Herb Tillery, a former D.C. deputy mayor and executive director of the D.C. College Success Foundation, said the chairman’s bill strikes at the heart of a problem in the District, where jobs require post-secondary education more so than in other locales.

 

“Students have consistently told us that they want to know how to prepare for college and they want to know earlier than the 12th grade,” he said.