- D.C. Council to Vote on Massive Education Changes
- The District’s Worthy Approach to Halting Truancy
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
March 19, 2012
The D.C. Council is poised to vote Tuesday on legislation that would lead to a massive transformation in District schools -- changing everything from where teachers work and how they are paid, to which tests high schoolers must take to graduate.
The "Raising the Expectations for Education Outcomes Act of 2012" sews together four education bills of varying levels of controversy into a single piece of legislation. Three of the bills were introduced by Chairman Kwame Brown, and a widely supported plan to transform several D.C. schools into community hubs was sponsored by Brown, At-large Councilman Michael Brown and Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham.
If passed, the measure would establish a pilot program to give $10,000 annual bonuses and other incentives to highly rated teachers who transfer to high-needs schools, where at least 75 percent of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, the schools' indicator of poverty, and where fewer than 40 percent of students are proficient in math and reading.
The bundle of bills also includes a measure to require students to take the SAT or ACT, and apply to college or another postsecondary institution, before they can graduate from high school.
Finally, the legislation would create an "early warning and support system" to identify as early as elementary school those students at risk of dropping out of school.
Although funding for all the bills hasn't been pinpointed, the efforts concerning early interventions and community-centric schools -- buildings would stay open after hours to provide tutoring, health services and adult education courses -- have enjoyed almost universal support.
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson has said she supports the measures to lure top teachers -- who have been concentrated in affluent Ward 3 -- to low-income, low-performing schools. Critics told the D.C. Council that a good teacher in one environment may not be good in another; and the teachers' union questions what rewards will be given to top teachers already working in these high-need schools.
Henderson also supports the college-readiness measures, although her chief academic officer, Carey Wright, testified that she believed lawmakers shouldn't impose another graduation requirement on D.C. Public Schools, from which fewer than half of students graduate.
Scott Pearson, executive director of the D.C. Charter School Board, testified that the effort was "overreaching" and that the city's charter schools -- which enroll 41 percent of the city's public school students -- are already preparing students for college in most cases.
Brown spokeswoman Allison Abney said the chairman decided to group the bills into one -- creating an all-or-nothing decision for his colleagues -- because "if you only have pieces, it's not as supportive for kids all the way through" from pre-K through 12th grade.
The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
March 19, 2012
For far too long, truancy was seen as a problem for schools to solve. But the causes of truancy, like its impacts, are felt far beyond the classroom. That’s why it was a welcome development when D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) reactivated a task force that brings together different agencies and disciplines to develop strategies to keep children off the streets and in school.
The task force, which brought together education, human services and criminal justice agencies, unfortunately fell by the wayside during the previous administration, even though it had generally been credited with helping to reduce truancy. Former mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) apparently preferred that attention and resources go to other parts of his aggressive school reform.
But truancy undercuts reform; habitual truancy often leads to students dropping out of school. Recent years have seen some improvement in school attendance, but some 20 percent of secondary students in 2010-11 missed 15 or more school days. That 36 percent of D.C. adults are functionally illiterate is due in part to the city’s failure to come to grips with truancy issues. Those numbers translate into youths who get caught up in the criminal justice system and adults who are ill-prepared to enter the workforce.
Chaired by De’Shawn Wright, the deputy mayor for education, and Superior Court Judge Zoe Bush, who presides over Family Court, the Citywide Truancy Taskforce is helping to pilot programs that aim to deal with the root causes of truancy that afflict many low-income, single-parent households, such as inadequate housing, family members with unresolved health issues and the need to care for younger siblings. Particularly promising is an intensive, non-punitive program that partners judges with social workers to provide family-centered supports that remove the obstacles that keep children out of school.
Resources are an issue. The D.C. Council is poised to expand school-based mental health programs, but it’s unclear whether there will be full funding. Already many traditional and charter schools are without attendance officers, and the cost of scaling up the promising family-centered pilots is likely to be steep. Some who serve on the task force worry whether the city is making the best use of its limited money, questioning, for example, a pricey media campaign that exhorted students to stay in school. “You know how many social workers I could have hired for that $700,000?” one advocate asked us derisively.
As Mr. Gray puts the finishing touches on his budget for next year, we would urge him to direct resources to identifying and helping the children most at risk.
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