- PCSB Approves 4 Schools to Open Fall 2013
- Get Rid of the 3 p.m. School Day
Examiner
By Mark Lerner
April 24, 2012
Last night the Public Charter School Board approved four new schools to open for the 2013-2014 term. All received conditional charters. They are:
Community College - Specializing in adult education,
Ingenuity Prep - An early childhood school that will eventually educate 500 students in grades Pre-K through 8,
Sela - The Hebrew language school. They had requested a charter for a Pre-K through 8th grade but were granted approval for Pre-K through 5th grade, and
Somerset - A college prepatory school which is part of a charter school network that runs 13 schools in Florida and Texas. Eventually going from 6th through 12th grade, it will be a school that prides itself in successfully educating children of all academic levels.
If anyone was counting I predicted two out of three schools that would not be approved.
When all of these school reach full enrollment, and assuming Sela is graded a charter amendment to grow to 8th grade, the D.C. charter movement will add 3,100 students to its ranks.
I must say that I was impressed with the way Naomi DeVeaux, the new Deputy Executive Director of the PCSB, took the board through the decision process on these applications. Still troublesome, however, is the unanimity exhibited in votes by the PCSB. There were 11 votes by six board members and not once did anyone differ with the majority decision or the findings of the staff.
An added bonus for me last yesterday is that the PCSB is considering a policy to allow them to close one campus of a school instead of having to revoke the entire charter if one campus is performing poorly. This, of course, was my suggestion.
The Washington Post
By Peter Orszag
April 19, 2012
School hours in the United States were developed during the 19th century, in part to allow students to help their families with farm work in the afternoon. We are no longer an agrarian economy, but most schools still get out around 3 p.m.
It’s time for a change: Schools should remain open until 5 or 6 p.m. The result would be better-educated students and less-stressed parents.
A longer school day, especially if combined with other steps such as intensive tutoring and frequent feedback to teachers from administrators, could improve academic achievement. For example, Roland Fryer and Will Dobbie of Harvard University have found that a longer day is a key aspect of high-performing charter schools in New York. Fryer found similar results for traditional middle and high schools in Houston: Implementing reforms there, including a longer school day, produced large gains in math performance (albeit modest to no gains in reading). More time at task improves student achievement.
A longer school day also would reduce the number of latchkey kids. The Afterschool Alliance has found that 15 million children, sometimes as young as 5, are left unsupervised after school. Not surprisingly, unsupervised children tend to get into trouble.
Teachers and assistants would need to be paid more — and perhaps more would need to be hired. In 2008, the Center for American Progress estimated that expanding learning time by 30 percent — or adding between 90 minutes and two hours to the school day — would add 6 to 20 percent to school budgets. To improve student achievement and worry less about latchkey children, that’s a price worth paying.
Peter Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget from 2009 to 2010, is vice chairman of global banking at Citigroup.
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