- Proposed charter school in DC would advance language study [Washington Yu Ying PCS mentioned]
- D.C. charter school would teach all but math and English online [FOCUS and Rocketship PCS mentioned]
- DCPS prepares to ‘excess’ fewer than 350 teachers
Proposed charter school in DC would advance language study [Washington Yu Ying PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Associated Press
May 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — Students in language immersion programs at public charter elementary schools may have a chance to continue their studies if a proposed middle and high school becomes reality. Currently students at five schools can take part in language immersion programs in French, Spanish or Chinese. The proposed District of Columbia International School would offer language education in grades 6 through 12.
The Washington Examiner reports (http://bit.ly/YP8JoW) that Yu Ying school has received the charter board’s approval to expand into upper grades. The other four schools’ requests will be discussed at a public hearing next week. If approved, the school would open in the fall of 2014 with about 200 seats in the sixth grade and 200 in the seventh grade.
Under the proposal, each student who completes elementary school at one of the schools would be guaranteed a seat at DCI. New students could apply through the charter lottery system to one of the member schools. Mary Shaffner is DCI Board of Trustees president and founding executive director of Yu Ying. She said “Content classes will be taught in the language,” such as social studies being taught in Spanish. Don Soifer, a charter board member, said, “This high school is going to be a real valuable addition to the D.C. public charter school portfolio.”
D.C. charter school would teach all but math and English online [FOCUS and Rocketship PCS mentioned]
The Washington Examiner
By Rachel Baye
May 19, 2013
A controversial computer-based learning model is competing with eight other proposals to be one of the next charter schools approved for the District. The proposed Nexus Academy of DC, run by a subsidiary of publishing giant Pearson, would offer grades 9 through 12 in Ward 2, eventually serving up to 600 students. English and math would be taught by teachers at the school, while every other subject -- from science and social studies to foreign languages and electives -- would be taught online by an expert on various subjects. Some of these experts would be dedicated to the school full time, while others would not.
While students take online classes, they would be supervised by a "success coach" who would be assigned between 35 and 40 students at a time, according to the school's application to the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which is scheduled to vote on which proposals to accept Monday night. All students would receive laptop computers so they can access their coursework at school and at home.
"In the current Nexus Academy approach to true blended learning, the schools are using face-to-face teacher resources in the most universal, most needed and highest stakes areas, which are math and English," explained Mickey Revenaugh, executive vice president of Connections Learning, which is behind the proposed Nexus Academy of DC. The Baltimore company operates five Nexus Academy schools inMichigan and Ohio and plans to open two more this fall in Indianapolis and Royal Oak, Mich. Nexus' model is similar to one that would have been offered at DC Flex, a proposed charter school the Public Charter School Board rejected in February. But the charter board has approved other schools with blended learning models, like Rocketship Education D.C., which was approved in February, said Robert Cane, executive director of the charter school advocacy group Friends of Choice in Urban Schools. Cane's group worked with Connections Learning to help it prepare the Nexus application.
In rejecting Flex, the charter board wasn't making a ruling on the blended learning model, but on the specific proposal, he said. The blended learning model has been gaining steam across the country, with hundreds of thousands of students using it. The method is a good option for at-risk students because it allows them to benefit from an individualized curriculum, said Judy Bauernschmidt, executive director of eLearning Network of Colorado, a consortium of schools offering blended learning. But the model also has been heavily criticized.
Virtual schools and blended learning schools tend to serve fewer black and Hispanic students, fewer students from low-income families and fewer special education students, according to a recent report from the National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado Boulder. Despite serving fewer at-risk students, the report found that graduation rates and other performance measures tend to lag those of traditional public schools. "Children learn less in virtual-school kinds of arrangements," said center Managing Director Bill Mathis.
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
May 17, 2013
D.C. Public Schools officials say they anticipate sending fewer than 350 “excess” notices to teachers whose jobs have been eliminated because of budget cuts or changes to academic programs. That number is in line with recent years despite the fact that 13 schools are slated to close in June, displacing hundreds of teachers. DCPS Chief of Human Capital Jason Kamras said the school system has worked closely with the Washington Teachers Union to match educators in closing schools with vacancies elsewhere.
“This is the first year that we’ve made a very aggressive push to try to get principals focused on hiring early,” Kamras said. As of late April, more than 500 teachers who were slated to lose their jobs had not yet found another job. That number is now down to 341 and is likely to shrink further, Kamras said, before official excess notices are delivered later this month. Last year, 355 teachers were excessed; in 2011, the number was 384.
Excessed teachers are not automatically out of a job. They have 60 days to find a new position within the school system. If they fail, their fates depend on their job evaluations. Those rated below effective are fired, while those rated effective or above can choose between a $25,000 buyout; a “grace” year of employment, during which they’re placed in another DCPS school; or retirement, if they have enough years of service. Historically about 60 percent of excessed teachers have been retained.
Excessing decisions used to be made by seniority, and teachers who lost their jobs were guaranteed new ones. But that changed under the terms of the 2010 labor contract negotiated by then-Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Now excessing decisions are based largely on performance and skills; seniority plays only a minor role. And excessed teachers aren’t promised a new job — they will continue to work only if they can persuade a principal to hire them.
Those new terms have been a source of tension between the school system and teachers union. Schools officials say principals must have the power to decide who works in their buildings, while union officials say excessing has become a tool for getting rid of educators in a city already struggling with high teacher turnover. In recent years excessing has contributed to “constant churning” in schools, said WTU President Nathan Saunders, and has not led to significant improvement in student achievement.
“I’m interested in helping people to become better teachers, not creating loopholes to get them fired,” he said.
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