- Median D.C. charter school outperforms median traditional, study finds
- Study: Charter scores up, DCPS' down in math, reading
- Study finds median test scores of D.C. charters at 50.2%, DCPS at 36.7% [Cesar Chavez for Public Policy - Chavez Prep, DC Prep - Edgewood Middle, Two Rivers Elementary, SEED, KIPP DC AIM, Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
- D.C. Achievers scholarship recipients named [Friendship Collegiate Academy, Maya Angelou, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
- DCPS Offers More Seats through Lottery
- The right curriculum for kindergarten: Play
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
March 13, 2013
Student proficiency in math and reading improved at the median D.C. public charter school over the past five years, while student proficiency at the city’s median traditional school declined, according to a new analysis of school data.
The study, which the nonprofit D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute expects to release Wednesday, also found geographic trends. In more-affluent wards, proficiency rates at the median school rose over the past five years, while in poorer wards the median school’s proficiency rate fell.
The findings suggest that charter schools are slightly outperforming traditional schools and that to meet ambitious improvement goals, city school leaders will have to make greater strides over the next five years than they have in the past five, a period of rapid and wide-ranging reform efforts.
“We still have a long way to go to see citywide performance go up,” said Soumya Bhat, the study’s author. “That theme is consistent.”
Public officials often assess school progress by tracking the average scores of students in charter schools, in traditional schools and citywide. Between 2008 and 2012, the share of all D.C. students proficient in math and reading rose five points, from 42 percent to 47 percent.
Bhat instead examined the trajectories of individual schools. Using the results of annual standardized tests at 152 schools that existed in both 2008 and 2012, she analyzed the share of students who scored proficient or advanced at each school. She then tracked how the median school — the one squarely in the middle of the pack, with the same number of schools doing better and doing worse — performed.
Citywide, that middle-of-the-pack performance did not improve over the past five years, dropping slightly from 41.8 percent to 41.2 percent.
Proficiency rates at the median charter school rose from about 44 percent in 2008 to about 50 percent in 2012. At the median traditional school, proficiency rates fell from 40 percent to 37 percent over the same period, chiefly because of declines in reading.
Bhat said those numbers suggest the traditional school system might need to consider substantial changes to boost achievement, particularly at the 40 lowest-performing schools, where the goal is to raise proficiency rates by 40 percentage points by 2017.
School system spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz was provided with an advance copy of Bhat’s analysis. She said officials could not comment, because they have not had an opportunity to fully review the data.
Median school proficiency rates dropped in poorer parts of the city, including east of the Anacostia River and east of Rock Creek Park in Wards 4 and 5. They rose across Wards 1, 2, 3 and 6, which include the more affluent Upper Northwest and Capitol Hill neighborhoods.
The study points out that performance trends varied widely within every category of school. Since 2008, proficiency rates have risen significantly — by at least five percentage points — at about one-third of all traditional and charter schools. They have declined by that much at another one-third of schools. And one-third of the city’s schools have had modest changes of less than five percentage points.
The Washington Examiner
By Rachel Baye
March 13, 2013
Test scores in math and reading dropped in DC Public Schools between 2008 and 2012, while they improved in public charter schools, according to a study released Wednesday.
Using the median school's performance to determine a "typical" school, the study by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute found that the typical DCPS school showed a decline in the number of students who rated "proficient" or "advanced" on the DC Comprehensive Assessment System exams in reading and math across elementary, middle and high schools, except for the typical middle school, where the number of students proficient or advanced in math spiked from 42.7 percent in 2008 to 61.2 percent in 2012.
By contrast, the typical public charter school saw an improvement in reading and math proficiency across all age levels, except for high school reading, which remained largely unchanged.
Theola Labbe-DeBose, a spokeswoman for the DC Public Charter School Board, attributed charters' performance to their independence from city bureaucracy.
"What we know from our charters and from our oversight is that autonomy -- the freedom to innovate with curriculum, hiring, policies and budget -- is central to D.C. charter school results," she said. "Autonomy alone won't make a school excellent, but we believe it is a condition for excellence."
She also pointed to the board's "aggressive" approach to closing underperforming charter schools. Since 1996, one out of three charter schools opened in the District has closed, she said. But even at the typical charter school, only half of students rated "proficient" or "advanced" in math and reading on the standardized tests last year, according to the study.
"Overall, the District has a long way to go citywide," said Soumya Bhat, the Fiscal Policy Institute's education finance and policy analyst. "Even when we're talking about the charter schools ... we're still just talking about a 6 percent increase over four years."
Across the 109 DCPS schools and 43 charters studied, overall proficiency levels slipped over the four-year period, from 41.8 percent to 41.2 percent. Most of the change is the result of reading scores dropping 6.5 percent at the typical school, according to the study. Lower grades saw the greatest drop in reading scores.
Math proficiency, on the other hand, increased 5.7 percent across all schools, to 44.9 percent.
The schools with the greatest declines in proficiency were those in Wards 4, 5, 7 and 8, the study found. In the report, Bhat said that finding was of particular concern because the schools in Wards 7 and 8 were already the lowest-scoring before the drop.
Bhat recommended giving more money to schools with more low-income students, which she said the D.C. deputy mayor for education is currently studying. Bhat also recommended putting more money toward mental health services, after-school activities and efforts to engage parents.
DCPS is still reviewing the findings, said spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz. She declined to comment further.
Study finds median test scores of D.C. charters at 50.2%, DCPS at 36.7% [Cesar Chavez for Public Policy - Chavez Prep, DC Prep - Edgewood Middle, Two Rivers Elementary, SEED, KIPP DC AIM, Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
March 13, 2013
In a fascinating research study Soumya Bhat of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute looked at changes in the median DC CAS test scores at individual public schools from the years 2008 to 2012. The results are sobering. For DCPSthe median score combined in reading and math decreased from 40.4 percent proficient to 36.7 percent. Charters on the other hand saw an increase in their median test results from 44.2 percent to 50.2 percent proficient. The difference between charters and the traditional schools for median proficiency rates is dramatic. The charter school median proficiency rate is over 13 percent higher in reading and math compared to DCPS (charters at 50.2 percent and DCPS at 36.7 percent.)
For all public schools the overall median proficiency rate decreased slightly from 41.8 percent to 41.2 percent over four years. Although charters are higher than DCPS the median score is still at 50 percent. This means half of the students were graded above this number and another half below. There is still so much work to be done.
What I thought might be interesting is to look at some of the Tier 1 PMF charter schools to see the changes in their proficiency rates between 2008 and 2012. Some are quite impressive. For example, Cesar Chavez for Public Policy - Chavez Prep Campus went from 30.6 percent to 60.0 percent. DC Prep - Edgewood Middle Campus improved from 56.9 percent to 80.4 percent. Two Rivers Elementary went from 46.4 percent proficient to 73.3 percent. SEED saw its rate change from 52.3 percent to 68.4 percent. At KIPP DC AIM the proficiency rate went from 56.7 percent to 72.1 percent. In addition, Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science was at 62.2 percent proficient in 2008 and that improved to 76.0 percent in 2012. Finally, Thurgood Mashall Academy rose to 75.8 percent from 65.4 percent.
The D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute study provides further evidence that charters are outperforming the traditional schools in academic performance. However, for those involved in public school reform we must figure out a way to move much faster so that all children are receiving a quality education.
D.C. Achievers scholarship recipients named [Friendship Collegiate Academy, Maya Angelou, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
March 12, 2013
Hundreds of D.C. high school juniors have received excellent news in recent days: They are the recipients of Achievers scholarships, meant to help promising city students pay for college.
The Achievers scholarships, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by the nonprofit College Success Foundation-District of Columbia, provide as much as $55,000 over five years of school.
This year, 316 were selected for the scholarship. More than a third — 111 students — attend Friendship Collegiate Academy, part of the largest charter school network in the city. An additional 41 students attend Anacostia High School, which is run by Friendship in partnership with the traditional school system.
“We start really early trying to get kids oriented toward college,” said Donald L. Hense, chairman of Friendship’s board of trustees, describing pre-kindergartners’ trips to local college campuses and dual-enrollment opportunities that allow high school students to earn university credit.
Hense said that the Achievers scholarship, coupled with the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grants — which provide city students up to $10,000 a year to defray the cost of out-of-state tuition at public colleges across the country — have made college a possibility for many students.
“You have kids who are able to walk out of high school into a college with $20,000 dollars a year,” Hense said. “Most colleges and universities would love to have a kid walking in the door with that much of their tuition paid for.”
The Achievers scholarship is open to students in six schools with a high percentage of low-income students. Besides Anacostia and Friendship Collegiate, those schools are Ballou (38 recipients this year), H.D. Woodson (42 recipients), Maya Angelou (40 recipients) and Thurgood Marshall Academy (44 recipients).
Winners receive not just money but also support services during their senior year in high school and throughout college.
The College Success Foundation-D.C. has selected more than 1,700 Achievers since 2007. Donald E. Graham, chairman and chief executive of The Washington Post Co., serves on the organization’s board of trustees.
The Washington Informer
By WI Web Staff
March 12, 2013
More families received seats at schools of their choice through the 2013 DC Public Schools (DCPS) Online Lottery Application than in 2012, according to results released by DCPS. This year, DCPS schools received a total 7,213 lottery applications. The results show an increase in early childhood program applicants, up three percent from last year.
"DCPS is on the rise. We're improving our schools, we're putting the right resources in the right places and we're expanding high quality programs," said Chancellor Kaya Henderson. "I'm thrilled to hear that more families are choosing DCPS for the high quality early childhood programs. I'm also glad to see that more families were able to get seats in the schools of their choice." Overall, about 55 percent of all applicants were placed in one of their requested schools, an increase of four percent from last year. This means that fewer applicants were solely waitlisted.
Additionally, families can expect to see shorter and more accurate waitlists due to a new DCPS policy where families are only waitlisted at schools they ranked higher than the school where they received a seat. At the early childhood level, about 66 percent of applicants were offered a seat through the lottery. The number of applications for the K-12 lottery were down six percent, from 3,193 last year to 2,994 this year. "There are a number of reasons why K-12 applications could have decreased. We are still in the process of analyzing the data," said Henderson.
More early childhood seats were made available this year to families at newly expanded classrooms. Expansion sites are Marie Reed Elementary School, Garrison Elementary School, Truesdell Education Campus, Burroughs Education Campus, Browne Elementary School, Kimball Elementary School, Aiton Elementary School, School-Within-A-School, Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan and Turner Elementary School.
Results of the lottery will also be mailed on or before April 1. Applicants who receive a seat in the lottery must turn in their completed enrollment forms by May 1 (including DC residency verification) to the accepting school secure their seat. Enrollment packets are available on the DCPS website, dcps.dc.gov.
The Washington Post
By Deborah Kenny
March 8, 2013
Deborah Kenny is founder and chief executive of Harlem Village Academies and author of “Born to Rise.”
Last year, as Harlem Village Academies prepared to open new elementary schools , our principals visited dozens of kindergarten classrooms. The upper-income schools focused mostly on active play, interesting discussions and crafts, including papier-mache projects that delighted children for hours. In the lower-income schools we saw regimented academics, reward-and-punishment behavior systems and top-down instruction. In one South Bronx classroom, the only time children spoke during the course of three hours was to repeat drills of the sounds of letters over and over.
Why the disparity? Many educators are placing the blame squarely on the Common Core — national learning standards recently adopted by 45 states and the District and supported by the Obama administration — and asserting that they lead to poor-quality teaching and take all the joy out of kindergarten.
One Brooklyn teacher who attempted to teach the Common Core told the New York Post that her kindergartners broke down in tears, anxious and frustrated. Early-childhood development experts such asNancy Carlsson-Paige argue that the standards will lead to an increase in rote learning and a decrease in active play and exploration. If so, we should heed her warning.
The question, however, is whether the new standards should be blamed for poor quality instruction. It’s an important question, as the Common Core will be the reason for spending billions of dollars for new textbooks, state tests, teacher evaluation systems and more.
The standards were designed to elevate the quality of instruction in our country: to teach students to think independently, grapple with difficult texts, solve problems and explain their thinking in a clear and compelling way. This is a noble vision. But its attainment depends entirely on the execution. In fact, the authors of the Common Core write, “the standards define what all students are expected to know and be able to do, not how teachers should teach.”
Take vocabulary, for example. The Common Core standards state that kindergarten students should be able to “distinguish shades of meaning among verbs that describe some general action (e.g., walk, march, strut, prance) by acting out the meanings.” Imagine a classroom full of 5-year-olds marching, strutting, walking and prancing for 10 minutes to different kinds of music while laughing and learning vocabulary. Imagine, further, that this activity is organically integrated into a meaningful project or a theme-based unit that lights up the child’s love of learning. So while some schools might choose to teach vocabulary in a rote, boring way, clearly the standards are not to blame.
As Zoltan Sarda, an elementary school teacher with 22 years of experience, said to me last month, “The textbook companies are trying to box the big ideas of the Common Core into little disjoined pieces. But just because they are written in a linear way, that doesn’t mean you have to teach in a linear way.” Sarda, who now guides teachers at High Tech High in San Diego, once had his kindergartners build a life-size paper model of how humans would need to be designed in order to fly. This project taught them gravity, anatomy, speed, addition and subtraction, and measurement — all included in the standards — and the children loved it.
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