• In D.C. Schools, 59 Percent of Students Get Diploma on Time [Washington Math, Science & Technology PCS, SEED PCS, Booker T. Washington PCS, Friendship PCS Woodson campus, Cesar Chavez PCS Capitol Hill and Parkside campuses, Perry Street Prep PCS, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS are mentioned]
• High School Graduation Rates of D.C. Charters Approach Those of Affluent Suburbs [Washington Math, Science, & Technology PCS, SEED PCS, Booker T. Washington PCS, and Friendship Collegiate Academy PCS are mentioned]
• 9 D.C. Students Win Trachtenberg Scholarship to George Washington U. [Cesar Chavez PCS and SEED PCS are mentioned]
In D.C. Schools, 59 Percent of Students Get Diploma on Time [Washington Math, Science & Technology PCS, SEED PCS, Booker T. Washington PCS, Friendship PCS Woodson campus, Cesar Chavez PCS Capitol Hill and Parkside campuses, Perry Street Prep PCS, and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS are mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
April 5, 2012
Less than 60 percent of D.C. high school students graduated on time in 2011, according to a new and more rigorous calculation of completion rates announced Thursday.
Figures released by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education show that 58.6 percent of students in the Class of 2011 obtained high school diplomas within four years. That’s a nearly 20 percent decline over the 73 percent rate reported for 2010.
The new numbers also revealed a widening gap between the city’s public charter schools and traditional public high schools in the ability to graduate students on time. Eight in 10 charter seniors received diplomas last year, compared with slightly more than half of those in traditional schools.
D.C. officials said they were prepared for the overall drop-off. States and school systems across the country have seen similar slides since the federal government required in 2008 that they tighten up their counting methods, which often involved simply dividing the number of students receiving diplomas by the number of those who started ninth grade four years earlier. The new rules call for schools to track individual ninth-graders and follow them if they move.
In Montgomery County, for example, the new “cohort” method pushed graduation rates from 90 percent to 86.7 in 2011. Fairfax County, which has been using the new calculus for several years, reported a 91.4 percent completion rate in 2011.
District educators said the new numbers, while not revelatory, were another stark reminder that they have a long way to go in preparing a huge number of high school students for college and the workplace. The D.C. school system has employed a number of different programs to identify and support students at risk of dropping out. Last month, the D.C. Council passed legislation sponsored by Chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) that would establish “an early warning” system to spot at-risk middle and high school students.
“For years, we’ve known that our graduation rates did not accurately reflect our successes,” Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said in a statement. “With the new calculations, we have a clearer understanding of the work we still need to do, and the public has a more reliable way to hold us accountable.”
Of the 29 D.C. schools that serve high school students, the city’s four selective, application-only schools — Banneker, McKinley, School Without Walls and Duke Ellington — are at the top of the revised list. One hundred percent of Banneker’s students graduated on time. The other three had rates between 91 and 93 percent.
Of the city’s open-enrollment high schools, the top seven were publicly funded, independently operated charter schools: Washington Math, Science & Technology; SEED; Booker T. Washington; Friendship (Woodson campus); Cesar Chavez (Capitol Hill and Parkside campuses); Perry Street; and Thurgood Marshall Academy. The rates ranged from 91.3 percent (Washington Math, Science) to 75.4 percent (Thurgood Marshall). The traditional open-enrollment public high school with the highest graduation rate is Woodrow Wilson in Northwest, where 73.7 percent of the Class of 2011 finished on time.
Seven of the 10 high schools with the city’s lowest rates — 60 percent or less — are traditional public schools: Dunbar, Coolidge, Woodson, Ballou, Spingarn, Roosevelt and Cardozo. The eighth of the 10, Anacostia, is a D.C. public school is operated by Friendship Public Charter Schools under a contract with the city.
Overall, charter schools outperformed traditional public high schools in on-time graduation, 79.7 percent to 52.9 percent. That differential is larger than the 2010 totals calculated under the old formula, when charters showed an 86.6 percent graduation rate compared with 75.5 for traditional public high schools, according to the state superintendents office.
Scott Pearson, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said the performance of the charter high schools was “a testament to the hard work of all D.C.’s charter school leaders.”
“D.C.’s public charter schools serve a high percentage of at-risk students, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college,” Pearson said.
But others said that the two school sectors operate differently and that traditional public schools have less control over determining their student bodies. Charter schools, untethered from collective-bargaining agreements and the municipal bureaucracy, are also free to extend their school days and pursue other innovations.
“It’s not a totally level playing field,” said Mary Lord, a member of the D.C. State Board of Education. “Charter schools use lotteries, and DCPS schools are by definition the default schools so they have to take all comers.”
Lord said the divide in graduation rates reflects “the challenge of educating kids in high poverty neighborhoods writ large.”
Robert Balfanz, director of the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, which has tracked and reported graduation rates annually since 2002, said the city has a steep hill to climb.
“They have a huge problem,” he said. “There’s no work in the 21st century if you don’t have a high school diploma and no way to support a family.”
High School Graduation Rates of D.C. Charters Approach Those of Affluent Suburbs [Washington Math, Science, & Technology PCS, SEED PCS, Booker T. Washington PCS, and Friendship Collegiate Academy PCS are mentioned]
Examiner
By Mark Lerner
April 6, 2012
The D.C. Public Charter School Board yesterday released Office of the State Superintendent of Education figures on four year high school graduation rates for D.C. public schools. Charter schools overall graduated 80 percent of 2011 students in four years.
Fairfax County had a 2011 graduate rate of 91.4 percent, according to the Washington Post's Bill Turque. The reporter states that the rate for Montgomery County for the same year was 86.7 percent.
Some of the highest charter school graduation rates included Washington Math and Technology (91 percent), SEED (90 percent), Booker T. Washington (86 percent), and Friendship Collegiate Academy (86 percent).
Scott Pearson, executive director of the PCSB, reacting to this data commented that "“DC’s public charter schools serve a high percentage of at-risk students, many of whom will be the first in their families to attend college.”
Unfortunately, DCPS demonstrated a graduation rate of 59 percent. This shows there are clear implications for a child's future depending upon the school system in which they are enrolled.
The method for calculating this statistic changed this year to the Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate. According to Mr. Turque this means that students are tracked even if they leave a particular school. High schools have seen their rates drop as a result of the revised counting technique.
The Public Charter School Board has listed graduation rates for all its school's on their web site.
9 D.C. Students Win Trachtenberg Scholarship to George Washington U. [Cesar Chavez PCS and SEED PCS are mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Megan Buerger
April 5, 2012
It began like any other school day: Samantha Brew was sitting in her first-period biology class, waiting for the bell. But when it finally sounded, her teacher held the class.
“Nobody knew what was going on,” said Brew, 17, who is a senior at McKinley Technology High School in Northeast. “And all of a sudden, a huge Colonial head popped into the doorway.”
The Colonial was George Washington University’s mascot, George, who was accompanied by the university’s president, Steven Knapp, and a camera crew. They were there to surprise Brew with a full, four-year scholarship to the university.
“I was so shocked, I just stared at him,” Brew said. “I’m the first one in my family to go to a four-year college, so this is huge for all of us.”
Brew was among nine District high school students awarded a full scholarship to the university as part of the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarship Program, named after the school’s previous president. On March 22, Knapp stopped by each student’s school to hand-deliver the scholarship, which amount to more than $200,000 each.
Karen Felton, GW’s director of admissions, said scholarship delivery day is when she loves her job the most.
“The reactions are always a combination of intense excitement, pride and relief,” she said. “The parents are thrilled that their child has the opportunity to attend a world-class institution, and the students are proud because they’ve earned it.”
Brew is no exception. In addition to being active in her school and community, she co-directed a public service announcement on sexually transmitted disease prevention that was targeted at young people in the District and collaborated with a local office of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to promote an HIV/AIDS awareness program on MTV.
In college, she plans to study international affairs and global health so she can follow her dream of becoming a prosecutor to combat human trafficking. Brew has a cousin in West Africa whose parents sold her on the labor trafficking market to pay for the family’s medical bills. Brew’s family brought her to live with a grandmother in Togo.
“I was young when we visited her, but the poverty really struck me,” Brew said. “Model U.N. went from an extracurricular to a passion.”
Although Brew was immediately drawn to GW’s global health program, she knew she would need financial assistance. Tuition at the private institution is more than $45,000 annually. The Trachtenberg scholarships cover tuition, room, board and books.
After being nominated by their high school counselors, students undergo a thorough application and interview process. They are selected based on several factors, including academic talent, extracurricular involvement, teacher’s recommendations and demonstrated need.
Above all, Felton said, the university is looking for seniors who will fit in with the school’s student body. “We want students who are looking to change the world,” she said.
The program has awarded 142 D.C. students more than $16 million in scholarships to date. To apply, recipients must be D.C. residents attending an accredited city high school.
Along with Brew, the recipients are Taylor Young of Duke Ellington School of the Arts; Avonda Fogan of the Maret School; Tinsley Harris and Edwin Musibira of Woodrow Wilson Senior High School; Darielle Anderson of Cesar Chavez Public Charter School; Nia Christian of Benjamin Banneker Academic High School; Francisco Palucho of Cardozo Senior High School; and Ayodele Akosile of the SEED School of Washington, D.C.