- IDEA Charter School Fights to Stay Open [Thurgood Marshall Academy and IDEA PCS are mentioned]
- IFF Study Blocks Charter Access to Closed DCPS Facilities
- D.C. Schools: The Bottom Tier [Community Academy, Imagine Southeast, Center City, Maya Angelou, Howard Road Academy, and Options PCS are mentioned]
- Kwame Brown Moves to Penalize Uninvolved Parents
IDEA Charter School Fights to Stay Open [Thurgood Marshall Academy and IDEA PCS are mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
February 3, 2012
The IDEA public charter school leadership was lawyered up when it came to the table Thursday night to fight a proposal to close it down, accusing the D.C. Public Charter School Board of trampling on its due process rights.
The board voted last month to begin revocation proceedings against the tech-centered middle and high school in the Deanwood neighborhood of Ward 7, citing a decade of dismal test scores, discipline issues and high truancy rates. A final decision will be made in a few weeks. Several hundred parents and staff packed a charter board hearing at IDEA (Integrated Design Electronics Academy) to hear school leaders plead their case. The early tone was one of contrition, as IDEA board member David Owens acknowledged that the school needed a top-to-bottom overhaul.
Owens announced that the school’s principal, executive director, chief operating officer and board chairman would step down at the end of the academic year. He also said that the consulting firm TenSquare, headed by Thurgood Marshall Academy co-founder and former CEO Josh Kern (who was offered the charter board’s executive directorship last year), would be working on the school’s restructuring. There would be a new curriculum, new teachers, new everything.
“We recognize the gravity of our situation,” said Owens.
But after the mea culpas, Owens introduced attorney Stephen Marcus, who clearly signaled that the school was prepared to litigate to stay open. He argued that the charter board had violated its own procedures by not giving IDEA a year’s warning that its operating charter would be at risk when it came up for review Dec. 19. He also produced a letter dated Dec. 7, signed by PCSB chairman Brian Jones, with a report attached stating that the school was not a candidate for charter revocation. He asked that the revocation be stayed and that IDEA be allowed to operate until it applies for a renewal of its 15-year charter in 2013.
“IDEA has the right to be treated the same as any other charter school,” Marcus said, to cheers from the standing-room-only audience.
PCSB members didn’t respond to Marcus publicly but said afterward that the board was well within its rights to begin revocation. Jones cited last year’s D.C. Superior Court decision upholding the closure of KIMA (Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers) Public Charter School. Judge Michael Rankin ruled that PCSB is “given broad authority by the Congress to use discretion, based on its expertise, in matters affecting educational policy choices.”
Jones said that a school with IDEA’s record has effectively been on notice for a long time. The school offers career and technical training in computer science, computer-assisted drafting and electrical house wiring, along with a JROTC program. But standardized test scores have been bad for a decade: Reading proficiency has never broken 45 percent and has declined over the last four years to just below 40 percent. The re-enrollment rate is less than 60 percent, and just 48 percent of ninth-graders have credits that put them on track to graduate, according to charter board data.
The charter board heard testimony from about a dozen students and parents calling for IDEA to remain open. “The longer I’m here, the better I feel about this school,” said junior Denzel White.
Ruth Mohammad, an IDEA parent, said the 389-student school, which opened in 1998, is an anchor and a presence in the Deanwood neighborhood. “Just like they said about the banks that they were too big to fail, this school is too big to fail in this community.”
Jones said no final determination has been made and that the charter board would take what it heard Thursday night into consideration. The board also asked IDEA to provide more information about its restructuring plans by Feb. 14.
Examiner
By Mark Lerner
February 6, 2012
We have been hearing for months that the Mayor would make several closed DCPS schools available for occupancy by charter schools. First the buildings were going to be released last summer. Then it was before Thanksgiving. Finally it was supposed to happen by the end of January.
Now it appears that five sites, Rudolph, Charles E. Young, Webb, JF Cook, Langston, Randall Highlands Annex, and Minor Annex are caught in the yet to be defined process of facility coordination between charter schools and DCPS called for by the recently released Illinois Facility Fund Report.
Careful planning regarding the future needs of the traditional school system is important. But for charters that have had to operate in substandard buildings for years the delay is maddening. All public schools students deserve to be able to learn in classrooms designed for this use. To treat charters differently is discrimatory. We cannot wait until someone figures out how to comply with the recommendations of a consultant.
D.C. Schools: The Bottom Tier [Community Academy, Imagine Southeast, Center City, Maya Angelou, Howard Road Academy, and Options PCS are mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Staff
February 5, 2012
●Roosevelt High
●Cardozo High
●Burroughs Education Campus
●Simon Elementary
●Prospect Learning Center
●Brightwood Education Campus
●Nalle Education Campus
●Community Academy Public Charter School Amos III — Armstrong Campus
●Imagine Southeast Public Charter School
●Kelly Miller Middle
●LaSalle-Backus Education Campus
●Kramer Middle
●Bruce-Monroe Elementary at Park View
●H.D. Cooke Elementary
●Drew Elementary
●M.C. Terrell/
McGogney Elementary
●Moten Elementary at Wilkinson
●Dunbar High
●Wheatley Education Campus
●Browne Education Campus
●John Hayden Johnson Middle
●Center City Public Charter School — Congress Heights Campus
●Brookland Education Campus at Bunker Hill
●Maya Angelou Public Charter School
●Patterson Elementary
●H.D. Woodson High at Fletcher Johnson
●Malcolm X Elementary
●Hamilton Center
●Anacostia High
●Tyler Elementary
●Amidon-Bowen Elementary
●C.W. Harris Elementary
●Howard Road Academy Public Charter — Main Campus
●Ferebee-Hope Elementary
●Davis Elementary
●Aiton Elementary
●Spingarn High
●Savoy Elementary
●Options Public Charter School
●Stanton Elementary
●Garfield Elementary
●Eastern High
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
February 5, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is planning to introduce legislation that would force low-income parents receiving financial assistance from the city to attend their children's parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings.
Brown's bill aims to increase parents' involvement in their children's education, a step he and other city leaders say is necessary to reap the promised benefits of school reforms, by cutting all federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program benefits to families who miss parent-teacher conferences or more than two PTA meetings without a doctor's note or other documented excuse.
Parents of charter-school students would not only lose their TANF benefits, but also the right to send their children to charter schools.
"We're holding our teachers accountable, our principals accountable, our chancellor accountable -- parents have to be accountable too," Brown told The Washington Examiner.
Brown originally introduced the bill in November 2008, but couldn't get enough support to hold a hearing.
"Since I am the chairman of the council and the education committee is under [my direction] now, I have control to at least have a hearing," Brown said.
DCPS schedules three parent-teacher conferences each year, including one set for Monday. The number of PTA meetings varies by school. DCPS and the D.C. Public Charter School Board both declined to comment on the bill.
Nearly 18,000 District residents receive TANF benefits, cash assistance reserved for pregnant women and low-income families with dependent children. The city spent $138.6 million on TANF expenditures in fiscal 2010. The council voted in December to phase out benefits for families who had been in the program for more than five years.
Brown's bill will be met by opposition from colleagues, experts and education activists, who say it's wrong to target only low-income parents; question whether any research has proven these penalties increase parental involvement; and express concern that children will be the ones penalized when their parents' wallets are thinner.
"If you cut them off TANF, what, are you also going to take in the kids as wards when their parents can't buy them food? This is crazy," said Absalom Jordan, chairman of the Ward 8 Education Council.
Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander said she agreed with Brown that disengaged parents are a barrier to their children's success in school. But, "I must stress the fact that you shouldn't categorize people based on their income, on whether or not they're responsible parents."
Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, said that he was concerned that "a significant administrative burden" for schools could tie up much-needed benefits with poor record-keeping.
"We don't want someone losing basic assistance for their families because the records for PTA meetings weren't kept organized."
But some parents say they witness firsthand how few parents show up to support their kids. Jamie Mayo, the PTA president at Ward 8's Garfield Elementary, says only five parents come to her meetings and a bill this dramatic could turn things around.
"On the first of the month, everything is crowded, Safeway is crowded, and you can tell everybody has money in their pocket," Mayo said. "Well, I would like to see more parents at my meetings."
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