- Stuck In The Middle: Will D.C. Get The New Middle Schools That Some Want?
- New graduation requirements could bring radical change to DC high schools
- DCPS Reaches Agreements with Unions
- Jindal says he’s withdrawing Louisiana from Common Core standards
Stuck In The Middle: Will D.C. Get The New Middle Schools That Some Want?
WAMU
By Martin Austermuhle
June 17, 2014
n 2013, MacFarland Middle School in Petworth closed its doors. The last stand-alone public middle school in Ward 4, D.C. School Chancellor Kaya Henderson said MacFarland was under-enrolled, with only 25 percent of its building was being used.
But starting as soon as the 2015-16 school year, MacFarland could reopen. It may not be alone: Under a revised proposal from a committee exploring changes to the city's four-decade-old school boundaries and feeder patterns, Ron Brown Middle School in Ward 7, also closed in 2013, could open to students again, while brand new middle schools could come to a northern portion of Ward 4 and the fast-growing neighborhoods around Logan Circle.
All told, changes to D.C.'s middle schools are one of the committee's most dramatic recommendations. According to an analysis of the proposed changes, while only a small percentage of elementary school students would see a change in their boundary or feeder pattern, almost half of all of the city's middle school students would be assigned to a new school.
And though the new middle schools only exist on paper for now, that the committee has proposed them reflects a growing emphasis by city officials on the middle grades — the same grades that had seemingly been conceded to the city's growing charter school sector. By reinvesting in middle schools, city officials hope to stem the tide of students who attend DCPS elementary schools before decamping for alternatives in middle and high schools.
New Middle Schools?
When MacFarland closed, Ward 4 parents whose children were approaching middle schools were left with a number of education campuses, DCPS schools created in 2008 to serve preschool through eighth grade.
But according to Cathy Reilly, a Ward 4 parent, education activist and member of the D.C. Advisory Committee on Student Assignment, an increase in elementary school enrollment has put pressure on those campuses, and parents have complained that they don't offer the same range of options as stand-alone elementary or middle schools can.
"If you want to make room for those kids in the younger grades and have a sense of future for them, they won't fit in the middle grades at West and Truesdell and Raymond," she says, referring to three education campuses serving the middle and southern portions of Ward 4. "And the middle grades option hasn't worked out to be compatible with what a middle school can offer, in terms of the range of courses and the experience of being in secondary school."
Reopening MacFarland would take pressure off of the education campuses, she says. The same would apply to the four education campuses that serve the northern portion of Ward 4 — Takoma, Brightwood, La Salle-Backus, and Whittier — which could revert to offering only preschool and elementary grades, with middle grades shifting to a new stand-alone middle school.
According to data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, that lack of viable middle school options in Ward 4 — along with stiff competition from charter schools, which offer more sixth, seventh and eighth grade options than DCPS — has led many parents to look elsewhere in the city or opt out of DCPS altogether.
In the 2012-13 school year, only 21 percent of students zoned for Raymond Educational Campus in Petworth actually attended; the number was 20 percent for the Columbia Height Education Campus and 27 percent for Truesdell. On average, from 2010-11 to 2013-14, 39 percent of all DCPS students went from their elementary school to designated middle school — with the numbers being lower for education campuses.
That has put pressure on DCPS high schools in the ward, which have not been attracting local students. (In 2012-13, Coolidge was at 44 percent utilization, Roosevelt at 45 percent.) Under the committee's revised proposal, students attending MacFarland would feed to Roosevelt, while those in a new northern middle school would go to Coolidge.
"Overall, the folks in the community where we felt the pressure did feel that it wasn't comparable to what they could get if they got into Deal or Hardy, where they see those as superior options," says Reilly, who is also working with the Ward 4 Education Alliance, a new group that formed to advocate for new middle school options.
In Ward 5, a new Brookland Middle School is expected to open in 2015, and earlier this year D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced additional funding for academic programs and extended days.
On Paper, But A Reality?
Putting the new middle schools on paper is one thing, but actually planning and building them is another.
Council member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), who is running for mayor and has called for new middle schools, set aside $7 million in capital funds for the coming year to plan for a new Ward 4 middle school. Council member David Catania (I-At Large), who is also running for mayor, put $8 million in the budget to plan for an application-only middle school in Ward 7, to be located at Ron Brown Middle School, which like MacFarland closed in 2013.
But the new Center City Middle School — which would serve fast-growing portions of ward 1 and 2 — remains little more than a proposal. While Henderson said last year that closed schools could eventually reopen if the demand is demonstrated, DCPS has not yet commented on the committee's proposals. Bowser and Catania have also refrained from comment on the new proposal, though both have hinted that the committee's work — which is set to produce final recommendation this fall that go into effect in 2015 — should be put on hold.
"We do need a middle school, but there's no specifics as to timeline, [or] if we're going to use one of the currently vacant buildings," says Stephanie Maltz, an ANC commissioner in Dupont Circle and member of the Ward 2 Education Network. She lives in one of the neighborhoods that would feed into the new Center City Middle School, and works with Ross Elementary School, which would send students there.
"Programmatically, what's it going to look like? How are they going to work with the community to make sure it's a success? They just shut down Shaw a couple of years ago, so what are we going to do to make sure that it's a place that can be successful?" she says. "I need some more information on how it's going to work."
Critics of the committee's work have also said that while redrawing school boundaries and feeder patterns — as well as planning for and building new schools — may be necessary, the city should double down on increasing the quality of its current stock of schools. Members of the committee say that both can happen at the same time.
For Reilly, the proposals for new middle schools may only be an idea for now, but it's important that they're out there.
"These proposals are a vision and a plan, and if you don't put it out there, getting the money into the capital budget and planning for it will never happen," she says.
New graduation requirements could bring radical change to DC high schools
Greater Greater Education
By Natalie Wexler
June 18, 2014
The DC State Board of Education will soon propose new graduation requirements that would spell out two basic diploma types, a standard one and another signifying greater accomplishment. They would also introduce a potentially radical new way of assessing students based on competency rather than the number of hours spent in class.
For the past two years the Board has been working on a revision of minimum graduation requirements that would apply to both DCPS and charter schools. Now almost finalized, the proposals would relax the upper-level math requirement, specify that students take all foreign language courses in the same language, and require a senior thesis or project only for a "Diploma of Distinction."
More radically, they also move away from measuring achievement in terms of the number of hours students spend in class and towards a competency-based approach, which allows students to move at their own pace and requires them to demonstrate mastery of material before moving on to the next level.
Currently DCPS has a plethora of diploma types—as many as 27, according to the Board's executive director, Jesse Rauch. Some high schools, particularly the selective ones, have added their own requirements to the minimum specified by the DC government and DCPS.
Charter schools often have their own requirements too, and some have even challenged the idea that the Board's minimum graduation requirements apply to them, according to Rauch. The differing frameworks can lead to problems when students transfer from one school to another, as often happens in DC.
The Board has been working since 2012 to streamline and modernize the requirements. Its staff has consulted with school leaders from both DCPS and charter sectors as well as parents, students, and education nonprofits, and the topic has been up for discussion at public meetings.
On Wednesday, July 9, the Board is sponsoring another public meeting on the proposed requirements and the concept of competency-based learning. The Board hopes to approve new requirements later that month after a period of public comment, although they wouldn't go into effect until the class of 2020 enters 9th grade in 2015.
Senior thesis requirement
A previous proposal caused consternation in the middle of the 2012-13 school year for, among other things, highlighting a requirement that students complete a thesis or culminating project during junior or senior year. That requirement had been on the books for some time but had neither been communicated well nor enforced. As a result, last year's seniors were suddenly confronted with the prospect of failing to graduate.
DC's graduation rate is already among the lowest in the nation, with only 64% of students graduating within 4 years of starting 9th grade.
The Board removed the senior thesis requirement before it could affect the class of 2013. It is now proposing to add back a requirement for a "senior project or capstone," but only for the Diploma of Distinction, not the Standard Diploma.
That project could be a traditional thesis-type paper or it could be something more innovative, like a documentary film, Rauch said. In any event, he said, it would need to demonstrate "high-level thinking and deep learning."
The Board is also proposing a separate diploma for special education students with severe cognitive disabilities. And a proposed Career and Technical Education Credential would be a supplement to the Standard Diploma and signify achievement in a particular career pathway.
Competency-based learning
Current DCPS graduation requirements are phrased in terms of credits, with 24 credits being required for graduation. The proposed Standard Diploma would maintain that number, 24, with the Diploma of Distinction requiring 26. But instead of "credits," the Board's proposal uses the word "units."
That reflects a fundamental shift in the concept of how learning should be measured. For the past 100 years or so, schools have relied on what is known as the Carnegie unit to calculate credits. Each credit represents one Carnegie unit, which is equivalent to 5 hours of instruction every week over the course of the school year.
Critics say that approach leads to promoting students who have managed to get a passing grade in a course but haven't truly mastered its content. Those students are left with gaps in their learning that get compounded over time.
Some school districts have given schools the option of using a system that promotes students only when they demonstrate competency. Students move at their own pace and can accrue the necessary learning through traditional classroom methods, online, or through "extended learning opportunities"—internships or other experiences outside the classroom.
That is the system the Board is now proposing for DC. So far, only one state, New Hampshire, has adopted competency-based learning for the state as a whole. Each school district in the state is free to develop its own descriptions of the skills and knowledge needed to earn a high school diploma and devise ways to measure whether students have acquired them.
A slow and complicated process
While measuring competency rather than "seat time" makes sense, recent reports from New Hampshire indicate that switching to a competency-based system can be a slow and complicated process.
In the most radical application of the approach, traditional age-based grade levels fall by the wayside. Although New Hampshire adopted the new standards almost 10 years ago, few if any schools have gone that far.
Many schools, in fact, don't look much different than they did before, because their districts have decided to move all students along at the same pace and measure competencies the old-fashioned way, through performance on end-of-term exams. But state education officials are trying to encourage them to move to systems that allow for flexible pacing.
It hasn't been easy to come up with definitions of competency and new ways to assess it, and state education officials have discovered that schools need help. They're now beginning to provide support in the form of professional development and a bank of assessments that can measure learning in terms of mastery.
And the former chair of the state board of education has launched an initiative to recruit thousands of local mentors who can guide New Hampshire students through extended learning opportunities. If he's successful, the role of the teacher could fundamentally change.
Schools free to devise their own approaches
It's not clear at this point how radical a change the DC Board's proposals would effect. They would still require that students take certain subjects and earn a specified number of units in each of them, but schools would be free to devise their own methods of teaching content and assessing competency.
The Board will ensure that schools "have a clear plan" for awarding credits for mastery, Rauch says. "But," he adds, "there could be 3 different schools doing it 3 different ways, or even 16 different ways."
That may strike some as an odd result, given that part of the impetus for revising graduation requirements was the need for more standardization. Rauch says the Board's hope is that schools that want to add requirements to the minimum will adopt the Diploma with Distinction rather than coming up with their own diploma types. But even if they do, the adoption of a competency-based approach opens the door to a huge amount of variation.
It's possible that the Board's proposed requirements will produce a more flexible and meaningful system of graduation requirements for DC. But it's not clear that we'll end up with any more consistency when kids transfer from one school to another. And until we have a better understanding of how schools will define and assess competency, it's hard to know whether students will actually end up acquiring any more knowledge than they do now.
DCPS Reaches Agreements with Unions
The Washington Informer
By Dorothy Rowley
June 18, 2014
Roughly 2,400 D.C. public schools employees can expect to receive a salary increase as the result of new agreements reached with three local union partners.
According to a June 18 statement from the school system, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees Local 2921, Teamsters Local 639 and the Council of School Officers ratified the new contracts with overwhelming majorities. However the contracts, which run through 2017, must meet approval of the D.C. Council.
"Our work together with our union partners to provide these new benefits for our staff represent hard work, compromise and a true commitment to supporting these professionals in our schools," said Kaya Henderson, schools chancellor. "These staff give so much every day in our schools and I’m very proud of our continued collaboration and look forward to future work together."
The new contract, which affects nearly 1,300 employees who include classroom aides and front office workers, will offer members a 3 percent raise each year for four years, more investment in health care and new support to defray the costs of transportation, among other benefits.
"This contract has been a long time coming, this process has been both challenging and disconcerting at times but thank God we stayed the course," said Michael J. Flood, president of AFSCME Local 2921. "I would like to personally salute and congratulate all of our members for all that they do for our children, [District public schools] and our city as a whole."
The 3 percent pay raises are retroactive to Oct. 1, with the school system providing members with a Metro pass each month to help with commuting costs. School officials and AFSCME also negotiated an increase in the amount of money D.C. public schools contribute toward pre-existing dental and vision plans.
Jindal says he’s withdrawing Louisiana from Common Core standards
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
June 18, 2014
Tensions over the Common Core in Louisiana erupted into an intramural battle Wednesday as Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) declared he was withdrawing his state from the national education standards while the state’s top education officials insisted Louisiana would keep them.
Jindal issued an executive order to remove Louisiana from a consortium of 14 states and the District of Columbia that is creating new standardized reading and math tests based on the Common Core. The tests are scheduled to be given to Louisiana students next spring.
“This gets us out of the Common Core,” Jindal said, adding that he wants state officials to develop “Louisiana standards and Louisiana tests for Louisiana students.”
Minutes after the governor’s remarks, Chas Roemer, the chairman of the state board of elementary and secondary education, and John White, the state superintendent of education, told reporters that Louisiana is sticking with the Common Core standards.
“The state will continue to implement the Common Core Standards . . . This is a long-term plan we have been working on,” said White, whom Jindal appointed. “We are not willing to subject our children to last-minute changes to throw our system into educational chaos.”
White said he was defying his boss because he believes in the Common Core.
The Common Core State Standards, which were fully adopted by Louisiana and 44 other states as well as the District of Columbia, spell out the knowledge students should possess by the end of each grade. They are not curriculum — states and local school districts decide how to teach them and what materials to use.
The standards were designed to inject some consistency into academic standards, which have long varied wildly across states.
Roemer and White said Jindal has no legal authority to unilaterally remove Louisiana from the Common Core.
Jindal, a potential presidential candidate, was an early supporter of the standards. He lauded them as a way to “raise expectations for every child” in a pro-Common Core ad made by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
But as they came under fire by critics — particularly tea party groups — Jindal’s support dissolved. On Tuesday, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan noted Jindal’s flip on “CBS This Morning.” “Governor Jindal was a passionate supporter before he was against it,” Duncan said.
Jindal said Wednesday he changed his mind because he came to see the Common Core as a federal takeover of local education, even though the impetus came from the states and the federal government had no official role. The Obama administration did, however, give $360 million to the group of states that are writing new Common Core tests.
“We won’t let the federal government take over Louisiana’s education standards,” Jindal said. “We’re very alarmed about choice and local control over curriculum being taken away from parents and educators.”
Jindal said he was removing Louisiana from the testing consortium known as the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, because it violates the state’s procurement laws, which require Louisiana to use the lowest-cost vendors when it buys a product or service.
Roemer accused Jindal of trying to ditch the Common Core to appeal to conservative voters as he considers a White House run.
“I don’t take any great satisfaction in saying this — this is a political maneuver,” Roemer said. “His politics are national in scope and focused on a very particular portion of the vote. There is no other way to explain a 180-degree turn from a plan that started in 2004.”
Jindal lobbied unsuccessfully during the recent legislative session for bills that would have required Louisiana to drop the Common Core. But the bills were defeated, and the state board of education reaffirmed its support for the standards.
Roemer said Jindal was trying to make an end run around the will of elected lawmakers.
“It runs contrary to the democratic process and the laws of this state,” said Roemer, a Republican and the son of former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer. The younger Roemer was elected to the state board in 2007.
White said he was concerned that the dust-up in Baton Rouge was going to create confusion in classrooms. “The idea that we change the rules of the game in the seventh inning doesn’t feel good if you’re a teacher,” he said.
A Jindal spokesman had no immediate response to the charges that his actions were politically driven and would not answer questions about what the battle meant for students and teachers in Louisiana.
Jindal’s commissioner of administration, Kristy Nichols, said she would temporarily suspend the state’s contract with the company that manages its standardized testing so that White could not direct it to buy Common Core tests.
In the past several months, amid heavy pressure from conservatives as well as some progressives, Republican governors in Indiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina have signed legislation to withdraw from the Common Core.
Forty-one states — excluding Louisiana — as well as the District of Columbia remain committed to the standards, which were underwritten to a large extent by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.