- Four New Charter Schools to Open in 2013 [Washington Yu Ying PCS is mentioned]
- Can a Charter School Be a Neighborhood School?
- Sela, a Hebrew Language Charter School, Will Strengthen D.C. Jewish Community
- ‘Framework’ for More of the Same in D.C. Schools
Four New Charter Schools to Open in 2013 [Washington Yu Ying PCS is mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
April 24, 2012
Four new charter schools, one with a successful track record in four states, received tentative approval from the D.C. Public Charter School Board on Monday evening to open their doors in August 2013.
Community College Preparatory Academy, which will offer what it describes as “an educational second chance” to unemployed and under-skilled adults, is unusual in that it already has space lined up. Plans call for the school to hold classes in three D.C. facilities: the Backus Campus of the University of the District of Columbia Community College, Shadd School and P.R. Harris Educational Center.
The Washington D.C. Hebrew Language Public Charter School, recently renamed Sela, will be organized around the Washington Yu Ying model, with students Pre-K through 5th grade receiving instruction in English and Hebrew on alternating days. It is loosely affiliated with the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School in Brooklyn and plans to locate in either Ward 1, 4 or 5.
Ingenuity Prep (Pre-K-8) promises an extended school day (8 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and a blended learning model, which organizes math and reading classes around digital content with small groups of students and teachers (8 to 1 ratio).
Somerset Preparatory Academy (grades 6-8) would be the first Washington outlet for a network that operates schools in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California. Board officials said the school has a strong track record with low-income Latino and African American students.
The board selected the four schools from 11 applications. Over the last three years the board has approved 12 of 56 charter candidates.
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
April 24, 2012
Charter purists don’t like it, but there is growing political energy behind the idea, as evidenced by Tuesday’s D.C. Council hearing for the FY13 Public Charter School Board budget.
Right now, charters are open to eligible students citywide, with lotteries to determine admission if demand exceeds space. Traditional D.C. public schools, with the exception of the selective high schools, must take all eligible students within their attendance boundaries.
D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown has been pushing for a closer look at having some charter schools operate with a neighborhood admissions preference. On several occasions, including Tuesday, Brown has described the dilemma of the family shut out from the high-performing charter across the street and relegated to a sub-par neighborhood public school. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) has raised the issue. Deputy mayor for education De’Shawn Wright said in a recent interview that he supports the idea and there are said to be charters in the District that are interested.
Some cities (Chicago, Denver) have established neighborhood preferences for some of their charter schools. But the concept is not popular within the charter movement, which regards it as a potential threat to school autonomy and the breadth of choice for families outside the neighborhoods in question. Others warn that it could adversely impact a charter school if neighborhood families don’t buy into a school’s culture or educational philosophy.
D.C. charter board executive director Scott Pearson, in an interview earlier this year, called it “a very dangerous slippery slope.” But on Tuesday, he sounded a little more flexible, indicating that it might be doable in certain “limited” situations.
Council interest in the neighborhood preference comes from two factors. DCPS is expected to launch a major restructuring in 2013, closing or consolidating underenrolled schools and perhaps reinventing others as charters. Brown is looking for a way to accomodate families who may have their neighborhood public school replaced by a charter.
The IFF school capacity study commissioned by the District found a strong preference for going to school close to home: 74 percent of DCPS students and 57 percent of public charter students attend a school in their neighborhood “cluster.”
The Washington Post
By Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld
April 24, 2012
A Hebrew language public charter school (pre-K through fifth grade) called Sela Public Charter School has recently been granted a conditional charter to open in the District of Columbia.
As a rabbi of an Orthodox synagogue in the District who is not connected to Sela in any meaningful way, I want to congratulate the founders of this school for their important work on this project and to offer some reflections on what this charter school might mean for Jews in the District.
First, we should be clear that this school is a Hebrew language school and it is not in any way a Jewish or a religious school. Although some might roll their eyes and say that a Hebrew language public school is just a back door around the heavy tuition costs of a private Jewish Day School, in this case and in our city that is certainly not true. The school will not be religious and it will not be Jewish. If the school operators do that, then they will lose their charter.
That being said, from my rabbinic perspective, a Hebrew language secular school is a very good thing for the Jewish and non-Jewish residents of the District.
The Jewish children who attend the school will learn Hebrew. If they then decide to supplement their Hebrew education with a religious school or an intense synagogue experience, they will have a much easier time.
Before becoming a rabbi, I taught in a synagogue Hebrew School for eight years. The most difficult thing to teach in Hebrew School is Hebrew. It is technical and often complicated to teach. If a child comes to school already knowing Hebrew language then the after-school experience will be much easier to supplement. Instead of focusing on language skills, which can be challenging for even the most gifted teacher, the after-school experience can now focus on spirituality and the joy of Judaism.
Furthermore, as the population of the state of Israel continues to grow, now more than ever, knowledge of Hebrew language is necessary for Jews to feel connected to the future of the Jewish people. Learning Hebrew as a young child will enable these students to connect to people of the land of Israel while also laying the groundwork for an intense religious education if they should so desire.
Just as it makes sense for Jewish parents to want their children to have a strong Hebrew language background, so too it makes perfect sense for the general population of parents to have a desire for their children to learn Hebrew.
Many people study the classical languages of Greek and Latin for a variety of reasons. I know I studied those languages because of my love for languages and my desire to read beautiful ancient literature in its original form. The Hebrew language also has a rich literature and history associated with it. Moreover, it is in my opinion a much easier language to master, and unlike those other languages, it is a living and dynamic language which is of far more practical use.
Since Israel is a growing and thriving economy, it makes sense that a parent would want their child to be able to learn a language that will better help them integrate into Israeli society.
Jewish Day Schools might object that a Hebrew language charter school might draw some students away from their school and thereby cut into their already very tight budgets.
This may be true in the short run. But in the long run, more Jewish children learning Hebrew will translate into a stronger Jewish community, and a stronger Jewish community will eventually translate into stronger Jewish Day Schools.
Finally, from a rabbinic perspective, I want to encourage Sela’s future families to also consider a spiritual supplement to their children’s education. By definition, a charter school is not legally permitted to teach spiritual Judaism or any other religion. So parents interested in a Jewish education will have to figure out on their own how to bridge that important gap. It can be done, but only with a sustained and conscious effort on the part of parents.
The Washington Times
By Deborah Simmons
April 24, 2012
Big doings in the District on Wednesday afternoon, when officials are scheduled to announce plans for the Gray administration’s Early Success Framework, a cradle-to-career initiative that, while perhaps well-intentioned, should be viewed with considerable skepticism and through a lens of benchmarks that measures the effectiveness of traditional public schooling.
Currently, the city stands on high ground for several reasons. Nationally recognized organizations such as the Thomas B. Fordham Institute and the Food Research and Action Center declared the city first in the nation for pre-\school enrollment, breakfast and summer feeding programs, and the implementation of common core standards. The school system’s grade- and course-specific science standards were similarly praised for their content, rigor, clarity and specificity.
Yet, when it comes to the No. 1 mission of classrooms — education — D.C. schools and their overseers leave too much to be desired.
Not only are students unable to reap gainful employment for the benefit of themselves and their families once they become adults, but test results released in 2011 show that the D.C. system may be leaving another generation behind.
According to the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), 58 percent of eighth graders and 56 percent of fourth graders scored below basic in math.
Also, the city’s state-level tests show insignificant gains on the grade-school reading exam, leading D.C. State Superintendent for Education Hosanna Mahaley to say, “This is an area where we agree work is needed.”
Not to come off as a smart aleck, but we have been down this road before.
Many are the D.C. stakeholders who recall that in 1996 the then-much-maligned D.C. control board sounded this astonishing alarm amid little public outrage: “The longer students stay in the District’s public school system, the less likely they are to succeed educationally.”
Here we are, 16 years and hundreds of thousands of young lives later, and the city is in the same boat with a different paddle.
Sure, thank intervening mayors and lawmakers, school officials and human-kindness groups for helping the District earn tops-in-the-nation honors for feeding programs and nudging parents into enrolling their most-precious assets in public baby-sitting programs.
My skepticism of Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s motives is situated at the threshold of government’s insinuation into every aspect of an individual’s life.
I suspect Mr. Gray will prove on Wednesday that he is a good follower of President Obama, who, the year after taking office, outlined his plan to overhaul America’s education system “from the cradle up through a career.”
Look where that got us.
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