- The Washington Post announces 2013 Distinguished Educational Leadership and Agnes Meyer Awards [Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
- Op-Ed: District of Columbia student achievers poised for success [Friendship PCS mentioned]
- Hidden power of teacher awards
The Washington Post announces 2013 Distinguished Educational Leadership and Agnes Meyer Awards [Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
April 8, 2013
The Washington Post recognizes 18 principals with the Distinguished Educational Leadership Awards and 20 teachers with the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards. These educators were chosen by their school systems for going above and beyond their day-to-day duties to create exceptional educational environments for D.C. area students. “Thirty years ago, The Post introduced the Agnes Meyer Award as a way for our community to spotlight local teachers who, through their work, exemplified Meyer’s steadfast commitment to education and, most importantly, our local students,” said Katharine Weymouth, publisher of The Washington Post. “It brings me such pleasure to see how this program has grown and, with the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award, recognized so many great educators year after year.”
Recipients of the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award will be invited to attend a three-day seminar focused on media and crisis communication training as well as sessions addressing current issues in the field of education. Todd Whitaker will give the keynote presentation. Whitaker is one of the country’s leading authorities on staff motivation, teacher leadership, and principal effectiveness and the author of the national bestseller What Great Principals Do Differently.The winners will be honored at two separate award ceremonies at The Post in May and will be featured in a congratulatory ad that will run in the paper.
The winners of the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award are:
· Debra Bowling, Benjamin Banneker Elementary School (St. Mary's County Public Schools)
· Angela Burnett, Weems Elementary School (Manassas City Public Schools)
· Corina Coronel, Carlin Springs Elementary School (Arlington Public Schools)
· Carol Goddard, Gaithersburg Middle School (Montgomery County Public Schools)
· Daria Groover, Hampton Oaks Elementary School (Stafford County Public Schools)
· Kimberly Hill, North Point High School (Charles County Public Schools)
· Harry Hughes, Harriet Tubman Elementary School (District of Columbia Public Schools)
· Adrianne Kaufman, Marriotts Ridge High School (Howard County Public Schools)
· Robert Kosasky, St. Andrew's Episcopal School (Private School)
· Cheryl Logan, Parkdale High School (Prince George's County Public Schools)
· Clint Mitchell, Bel Air Elementary School (Prince William County Public Schools)
· Alexandra Pardo, Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School (District of Columbia Public Charter Schools)
· Steven Parker, Cedar Lee Middle School (Fauquier County Public Schools)
· Janet Platenburg, Steuart Weller Elementary School (Loudoun County Public Schools)
· Stephen Raff, Centerville Elementary School (Frederick County Public Schools)
· Walter Reap, Germantown Elementary School (Anne Arundel County Public Schools)
· Timothy Thomas, Westfield High School (Fairfax County Public Schools)
· Rick Weber, Huntingtown High School (Calvert County Public Schools)
· Jennifer Alexander, Osbourn High School (Manassas City Public Schools)
· Rolf Arnesen, Huntingtown High School (Calvert County Public Schools)
· Michael Bell, Southern Senior High School (Anne Arundel County Public Schools)
· Joel Block, George Mason High School (Falls Church City Public Schools)
· Kathy Crane, W.G. Coleman Elementary School (Fauquier County Public Schools)
· Barbara Elliott, Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School (Private School)
· Barbara Ferguson, Linganore High School (Frederick County Public Schools)
· Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Home School (Alexandria City Public Schools)
· Jacqueline Matise Fludd Peng, Paint Branch High School (Montgomery County Public Schools)
· Tanya Green, Hampton Oaks Elementary School (Stafford County Public Schools)
· Crystal Harney, Westlake High School (Charles County Public Schools)
· Lisa Hawkins, Deerfield Run Elementary School (Prince George's County Public Schools)
· Tracy Holland, Cougar Elementary School (Manassas Park City Schools)
· Monique Marshall-Ferguson, Eastern Senior High School (District of Columbia Public Schools)
· George McGurl, Burleigh Manor Middle School (Howard County Public Schools)
· Melissa Porfirio, Crestwood Elementary School (Fairfax County Public Schools)
· Julia Renberg, Battlefield High School (Prince William County Public Schools)
· Lisa Roth, Dominion Trail Elementary School (Loudoun County Public Schools)
· Erica Russell, Francis Scott Key Elementary School (Arlington Public Schools)
· Maureen Wysham, Greenview Knolls Elementary School (St. Mary's County Public Schools)
The Distinguished Educational Leadership Awards were established in 1987 to spotlight principals who create exceptional educational environments for their students. The Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards, which began in 1983, acknowledge teachers who work hard to ensure children receive a high-quality education.
For more information on the 2013 recipients, visit www.washingtonpost.com/community.
Op-Ed: District of Columbia student achievers poised for success [Friendship PCS mentioned]
The Washington Examiner
By Donald Hense
April 7, 2013
Just before Spring Break, I was privileged to recognize the success of 111 young scholars from Friendship Collegiate Academy in earning Achievers scholarships, which help promising District of Columbia students from low-income families pay for college. The sought-after scholarships -- funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and administered by the nonprofit College Success Foundation of the District of Columbia -- provide as much as $55,000 toward the cost of college. The scholarships also provide mentoring, counseling and other forms of support during their senior year, and throughout college. In addition to this college scholarship success, we were able to announce a new partnership with Hanover College in Pennsylvania. DC Achievers Scholars who are accepted there will now receive a full-tuition scholarship; grant and work-study funding valued at an estimated $100,000 annually for four years; and student and staff mentorship.
At the D.C. public charter high school which my organization founded, we take college preparation -- and college graduation -- very seriously. Some 74 percent of our students are eligible for federal school lunch subsidies. In total, our students have earned nearly $40 million in college scholarships. The scholarship students we celebrated this week raise the total number of DC Achievers Scholars to 614 from our school of nearly 1,700 issued by the College Success Foundation in D.C. since 2007. With our partnership with District of Columbia Public Schools at Anacostia, Friendship was responsible for nearly half of the students to earn DC Achievers Scholarships this year. Students also have earned 24 Posse scholarships for strong academic students from low-income families; and three Gates Millennium Scholarships, which pays a full ride through an undergraduate and a postgraduate degree.
These scholarships have enabled our students to attend Columbia, University of Virginia, University of North Carolina, Morehouse College, Georgetown, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Bucknell, Hanover College and University of Maryland, among many others. Coupled with the D.C. Tuition Assistance Grants, which provide city students up to $10,000 toward the cost of tuition at out-of-state public colleges, the scholarships make college possible for our students. Unusually for a DC public charter school, Collegiate Academy, located on Minnesota Avenue in Northeast D.C.'s Ward 7, has a 60-percent male student enrollment and graduates nearly 250 students each year. Our on-time -- within four years -- high-school graduation rate is 91 percent. To place that in perspective, that is 35 percentage points higher than D.C. Public Schools, and 14 points higher than the D.C. charter high school average. Fully 100 percent of our graduating class is accepted to college. In fact, with Friendship's partnership with DCPS at Anacostia, Friendship graduates 43 percent of the on-time high-school graduates in D.C.'s most neglected wards, 7 and 8.
Critical to getting our often vulnerable and at-risk youth to graduate college is the provision of educational opportunities and supports that are typically available in suburban public, private, magnet and academically selective schools, or at home, and that are often absent in urban areas. In that spirit, we pioneered Early College in the District, whereby students can take college-level courses and earn up to two years of college credit. We accomplish this through a relentless focus on coursework and character attributes necessary to succeed at college, often with our partners at the University of Maryland. We also offer high school students, at increasingly early ages, Advanced Placement courses. More academically rigorous than regular high school classes, these are critical to developing the skills necessary for success at college. More than 2,500 students have taken these classes since we first offered them in 2006. The future success of the neighborhoods where our students live depends upon their return as college graduates who contribute to their communities. Our latest scholarship winners mean that more college graduates are on the way to change D.C. -- one student at a time.
Donald L. Hense is chairman and founder of Friendship Public Charter School in the District of Columbia.
The Washington Post
By Jay Mathews
April 8, 2013
I used to think student test score gains were a good way to rate teachers. I don’t think that any more. Grading individual teachers with scores is too approximate, too erratic and too destructive of the team spirit that makes great schools. Rating schools, rather than teachers, by test score gains is better, at least until we find a way to measure deeper indicators of learning. That could take many years. What do we do in the meantime? How can we counteract the growing emphasis on test scores in teacher ratings, salaries and promotions? Perhaps the just-announced winners of The Washington Post’s 2013 Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Awards can provide a clue.
The Agnes Meyer awards are similar to teacher-of-the-year prizes presented all over the country. These ceremonies recognize people who get little attention, which is nice. But think for a moment about the qualities revealed in the citations. The descriptions offer more than just a warm glow. Those who choose the winners are looking for something special. What is it? What I have read about these educators in the Agnes Meyer award-night program reminds me of the teachers I have written columns and books about, such as Jaime Escalante of Garfield High School in Los Angeles; Phil Restaino of Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck, N.Y.; Erin McVadon Albright, Bernie Glaze, Betsy Calhoon, Emmet Rosenfeld and Dan Coast of Fairfax County; Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin of the KIPP school network; Rafe Esquith of Hobart Boulevard Elementary School in Los Angeles; Harriet Ball of Houston; and Frazier O’Leary of Cardozo High School in the District. That is just a small sample of the many people who have impressed me with their accomplishments. What do they have in common with the Agnes Meyer winners? Their salient qualities, at least to me, are creativity and vitality.
They are full of ideas. Most mornings they can’t wait to get to the classroom. They love conferring with colleagues. Students, parents and other educators gravitate to them. The D.C. schools’ IMPACT teacher assessment process has many good points, but it also puts too much emphasis on student test scores. It rarely mentions creativity and vitality. It makes a big deal out of, to quote its guidelines, “following all school policies and procedures” — one of the biggest innovation killers. The teachers I most admire are not afraid of breaking rules that make no sense to them. Many of the Agnes Meyer winners insist on helping kids even when policy gets in the way.
The Post will give each of the Agnes Meyer winners a check for $3,000. That’s great. But I suspect they would also be pleased if school systems spent less time checking off points on a clipboard when evaluating their work and spent more time looking for ways to back their best ideas and increase the time reserved for conferring with colleagues. We would be better off rating teachers the old-fashioned way. Let principals do it in the normal course of watching and working with their staff. But be much more careful than we have been in the past about who gets to be principal, and provide much more training. Give them the power to hire, compensate and fire staff members as they see fit. If student achievement lags, the principals should be in the hot seat. Give them warnings. Give them help. But if the school doesn’t improve, remove them. Both the Agnes Meyer winners and the great teachers I know say principals make all the difference. The better the principal, the more creative and vital the teachers. The best principals I know were great teachers, like the Agnes Meyer winners. They know student test score gains are not the best way to measure what teachers do.
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