FOCUS DC News Wire 3/12/2014

 

 

Eight groups have submitted applications to open new D.C. charter schools in fall 2015, according to the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which is responsible for vetting proposals and deciding which merit approval.

 

The proposals include the city's first Arabic-immersion, dual-language program; two boarding schools, one with a particular interest in serving children in foster care; two middle schools with a bent toward international education; a K-8 school with expertise in special education; an adult-ed school meant to reconnect high school dropouts with education and eventually a job; and a privately funded preschool in one of the city's poorest neighborhoods, seeking to convert into a publicly funded charter.

 

The city charter board will hold a public hearing on the eight proposals in April, and it is scheduled to vote May 19 to approve or deny each one. The board could approve all of the school plans, but historically has only approved a fraction of the proposals each year.

 

Here's a quick synopsis of each proposal, with links to the full applications:

 

Xcelerate Institute

 

Grades served: Adults

 

Expected enrollment: 160 students in year one, growing to 400 at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: Ward 1 or 4

 

Mission: Xcelerate would use a "blended learning" - combination of online and face-to-face learning - approach to help high school dropouts earn a diploma or General Educational Development certificate and build technology-centric workplace skills, including social media management, coding and digital marketing.

 

In their own words: "Xcelerate Institute's vision is to significantly decrease the number of disconnected youth due to dropping out from High School in Washington, DC, and to ‘turn around' the lives of these youth by providing them with the skills they need to have a successful school-to-work transition."

 

Founding group: Founders have a diverse group and include Dolores Virasoro, the Spanish department coordinator at the Washington International School, and Jennifer Daniels, an education consultant and former lobbyist for the Archdiocese of Washington who has advocated for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship, the private-school voucher program.

 

Monument Academy

 

Grades served: 5-12

 

Expected enrollment: 40 fifth-graders in year one, growing to 317 students at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: TBD

 

Mission: Monument Academy would be a weekday boarding school for high-risk students, especially students who are in the foster care system. It aims to pair high-quality academics with efforts to meet the specific needs of foster children, including therapeutic supports, life skills and strong connections with adults.

 

In their own words: "Across the country, outcomes for youth aging out of foster care are tragically poor, on every imaginable dimension. The goal of Monument Academy is to radically change this fate for pre-teens and tens in the Washington, DC foster care system."

 

Founding group: The leader is Emily Bloomfield, who recently finished a term on the D.C. Public Charter School Board. Bloomfield began planning for Monument while still serving on the board, and the Board of Ethics and Government Accountability recently opined that she may continue working for the school if it wins approval from the board later this month.

 

Washington Leadership Academy / Revolution Schools

 

Grades served: 9-12

 

Expected enrollment: 100 students 11th-graders in year one, growing to 400 students in grades 9 to 12 at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: Lower Academy (freshmen and sophomores) in Ward 7 or 8; Upper Academy (juniors and seniors) on Capitol Hill

 

Mission: This blended-learning school would focus on civics education and service learning opportunities. Older students would attend the Upper Academy, a boarding school where they take classes in the morning, complete internships (primarily in congressional offices) in the afternoon and do online learning in the evening. The Lower Academy, for younger students, would be a day school without the internship component.

 

In their own words: "By engaging the first generation of digital-natives in a technology-rich, blended-learning and civic-minded school environment, WLA will equip citizen-scholars to excel in higher education and ultimately to become civic leaders who address our Nation's toughest challenges."

 

Founding group: The lead founder is Seth Andrews, who built a national reputation as the founder of Democracy Prep, a New York-based charter school chain known for its no-excuses approach to lifting achievement among children in poor neighborhoods. Democracy Prep won permission to operate its first D.C. school, an elementary-middle school, starting in the fall; the first 8th graders to graduate from that Democracy Prep campus would be able to enter Washington Leadership Academy in 9th grade, if WLA is approved.

 

One World

 

Grades served: 5-8

 

Expected enrollment: 100 in fifth grade, growing to 300 in grades five to eight at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: TBD

 

Mission: This middle school aims to infuse arts, technology and environmental education into an extended school day. Each student's experience would be shaped by his or her individual learning plan.

 

In their own words: "The mission of One World Public Charter School is to develop critical and creative students who address global social, economic, and environmental conditions via artistic expression and rigorous academic culture."

 

Founding group: This group is back for a second try after failing to win approval last year. Many of the group members have ties to Sidwell Friends, the prestigious D.C. prep school; last year, they pitched One World as a cooperative venture with Sidwell, although the nature of the cooperation was not clear. This year, the application's section on "partnerships" does not mention Sidwell.

 

SPACE, or Student Parent Achievement Center of Excellency

 

Grades served: preschool-3 through 8th grade

 

Expected enrollment: 180 students in preschool-3 and pre-K-4 in year one, growing to 440 students at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: Ward 3

 

Mission: SPACE would be the first Arabic-immersion school in the city.

 

In their own words: "The recent Arabic Spring developments point to a desire of many Arabic speaking countries in North Africa and the Middle East to embrace the principles of democracy. However, in America today, there are very few pre-k-8 public schools offering a curriculum that supports the understanding of Arab language and culture."

 

Founding group: The names of founders have been redacted from the résumés included in SPACE's application, but the group includes a neurologist, a civil engineer and several educators, among others.

 

Washington Global

 

Grades served: 6-8

 

Expected enrollment: 100 sixth and seventh graders in year one, growing to 240 students at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: Ward 4, 5, 7 or 8

 

Mission: Using the International Middle Years Curriculum, the school would emphasize service learning, foreign language (Spanish and Chinese) and "international mindedness."

 

In their own words: "Washington Global Public Charter School is a community school open to all middle school students in Washington, D.C., that utilizes a rigorous, internationally based academic and cultural curriculum, which integrates project-based learning, service learning, technology and language acquisition to develop enterprising and competitive global citizens."

 

Founding group: The founders include several Education Department employees and former DCPS employees, including one veteran school psychologist who has worked since 2012 for Exceptional Education Management Corp., a company founded and run by the former managers of Options Public Charter School.

 

Educare DC

 

Grades served: Preschool-3 and pre-K-4

 

Expected enrollment: 119 in year one and 119 at maximum capacity

 

Proposed location: The existing Educare facility in Kenilworth-Parkside at 640 Anacostia Ave. NE

 

Mission: This $16 million state-of-the-art preschool, established by a privately funded nonprofit group and hailed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan as a model for the nation, is seeking to convert into a publicly funded charter school.

 

In their own words: Educare "believes that young children who have the opportunity to experience the world as predictable and supportive develop strong emotional foundations essential for learning."

 

Founding group: Most members of the founding group are already associated in some way with Educare.

 

The Children's Guild District of Columbia

 

Grades served: K-8

 

Expected enrollment: 450 students in year one, 450 students maximum

 

Proposed location: 5600 E. Capitol St., the current site of Maya Angelou PCS

 

Mission: The Children's Guild would seek to serve mostly special education students, using the "transformation education" approach that the founding group has used elsewhere, and that focuses on creating a flexible school culture that emphasizes life skills and values.

 

In their own words: "CGDC will look like no other school in the District, charter or traditional public. It will seek special needs students while providing general education students and families with many attractive features and opportunities."

 

Founding group: The founding group includes many key leaders of the Children's Guild, a Maryland-based nonprofit group that runs both charter and nonpublic schools for students who have experienced trauma, have autism or have other emotional.

 

 

The District's traditional public and public charter schools would receive a major infusion of more than $100 million next year, including tens of millions to improve services for at-risk students, under a budget proposal announced Tuesday evening by Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D).

 

Signaling the continued strength of the charter school movement, the District's publicly funded but independently run schools would receive close to half that money. It would be divided among schools depending on their enrollment.

 

D.C. Public Schools officials estimate that the system's local allocation would grow by $55 million and its overall budget - which includes a fluctuating federal grant - by $33 million to a total of about $851 million.

 

"It really is allowing us to live out some of our hopes and dreams for DCPS," Chancellor Kaya Henderson said of the mayor's proposal, adding that she is in an enviable position compared with many school system leaders across the country who are facing stagnant or decreasing budgets.

 

The boost would allow the system to plow more money into Henderson's priorities: strengthening middle schools, bolstering literacy instruction at struggling elementary schools and improving students' satisfaction with their schools, officials said.

 

It would also help extend the school day at some schools; add more custodians; add more staff workers who specialize in special education and teaching English as a second language; and assist the opening or reopening of several buildings, including a new application-only middle school east of the Anacostia River.

 

"I do feel very, very lucky to have the resources that I need to be able to deliver to the citizens of Washington the kind of education that our young people deserve," Henderson said.

 

Full details about Gray's fiscal 2015 budget and its impact on traditional and charter schools will not be available until the mayor sends his spending plan to the D.C. Council early next month.

 

It's not clear how much money schools would receive for each enrolled student, for example, or how many extra dollars for a newly defined category of at-risk students.

 

Gray's proposal to substantially increase funding is not a surprise, even though the city already ranks among the nation's most generous spenders on public schools; his administration recently released a report recommending a $180 million boost in funding for public education, an increase enthusiastically supported by D.C. Council Education Committee Chairman, and mayoral hopeful, David A. Catania (I-At Large).

 

Catania has been pressing for a middle-school improvement plan and last year successfully pushed a measure to require additional funding for at-risk students.

 

"I'm glad the mayor intends to fund the initiatives that the Committee on Education has been talking about for more than a year," Catania said.

 

Henderson and other officials outlined their broad plan for the additional dollars, including a focus on addressing the city's uneven offerings for sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders.

 

For the first time next fall, all middle grade schools "” including standalone middle schools and K-8 education campuses "” will be required to provide a full year of math and English for all students; at least a semester of social studies and science in the sixth and seventh grades, and year-long courses in those subjects at eighth grade; and at least a semester of physical education. There are also partial-year requirements at each grade for the fine arts, health and foreign language, and every school must offer at least one section of algebra.

 

Henderson said that schools will receive the funds they need to fulfill those expectations, no matter the enrollment figure. Each middle-grades school will also be guaranteed a guidance counselor, and the schools will each get an extra $100,000 to hire a social worker, a dean of students or another staff member dedicated to social and emotional support for students.

 

Those schools will also each receive $5,000 to purchase materials for after-school clubs and $28,000 to defray the cost of field trips and other travel. "Students need to go out and experience things. Some of our kids have, and some have not," said John Davis, the system's chief of schools.

 

Overall, officials said, they expect to spend an additional $17 million on middle schools. "We're going to work to make sure that every middle-grades school ... offers every student in every part of the city a full and enriching experience," Henderson said.

 

The new investment also includes $77 million specifically to serve charter and traditional school students in a newly defined "at risk" category. "These additional funds represent the next phase of school reform in the District," Gray said in prepared remarks.

 

"We must take another giant step forward to tackle the unacceptable achievement gap" between the city's poor and affluent students, he added.

 

Next year's budget will take a step toward lengthening the school day for more students, an idea championed by Gray and Henderson. All middle schools and 21 of the city's lowest-performing elementary schools can opt for extending the day by at least an hour. The move requires approval by each school's principal and, under the teachers' union contract, two-thirds of teachers.

 

Henderson also plans to hire eight additional reading teachers for the city's lowest-performing middle schools and to ensure that more elementary schools have help from organizations specializing in intensive reading instruction.

 

Deputy Chancellor Lisa Ruda said that it's too early to say what fraction of the overall budget will go to schools vs. central office administration but that she does not expect significant cuts at the school level or an increase in central office budgets.

 

"This is a good year to be a school in D.C.," she said. No school, no matter how its enrollment shrinks, will see its budget reduced by more than 5 percent compared with this year, a measure passed by the D.C. Council last year and supported by the school system. The council also passed a measure requiring that DCPS funnel 90 percent of funds meant for at-risk students directly to principals, who are supposed to write a plan for using the money. DCPS officials said they believe that their spending plan aligns with the law.

 

Principals are scheduled to receive their school budget allocations Wednesday, and they must submit completed 2014-15 spending plans by March 18.

 

Previously, Henderson had said she would give schools $5 million to turn themselves into more attractive and enjoyable places for children.

 

The system also plans to expand some specialty positions, hiring close to 50 additional special education teachers, an additional 50 special education aides, two dozen teachers and counselors for students with limited English proficiency, and two dozen custodians.

 

Decisions about which schools need the extra staff were made in conversations with principals and on a school-by-school basis, officials said, although the custodial help will be concentrated in modernized buildings.

 

The school system also plans to invest more than $600,000 to establish a planning office, which next year will work to plan for the opening of a selective middle school east of the Anacostia. That office will also head up planning to open Brookland Middle School and reopen Spingarn High and Van Ness Elementary.

 

Finally, Henderson alluded to planning for a strategy to improve outcomes for young African American males, a group whose academic achievement and graduation rates trail the average. Officials could not say how much the system plans to spend on that effort.