- Charters not outperforming nation’s traditional public schools, report says [Greatly improved DC charter school performance mentioned]
- Study: Poor, minority students see biggest advantages from charter schools; general gains seen
- Standardized test integrity and the Public Charter School Board [Meridian PCS mentioned]
- D.C. school system reduces truancy rate
- Here's how Vincent Gray would spend D.C.'s windfall
- Why test failures can lead to success
Charters not outperforming nation’s traditional public schools, report says [Greatly improved DC charter school performance mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Lindsey Layton
June 25, 2013
The nation’s public charter schools are growing more effective but most don’t produce better academic results when compared with traditional public schools, according to a report released Tuesday. Researchers at Stanford University’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes looked at test data from charter schools in 26 states and the District and found that 25 percent of charters outperformed traditional public schools in reading while 29 percent of charters delivered stronger results in math. That marked an improvement over a similar 2009 study by the same research team. But 56 percent of the charters produced no significant difference in reading and 19 percent had worse results than traditional public schools. In math, 40 percent produced no significant difference and 31 percent were significantly worse than regular public schools. States that shuttered at least 10 percent of their charter schools — the worst performers — had the best overall results, the study found.
In the District, where 43 percent of public school children attend charters, there were significant gains. Children attending D.C. charter schools did better in both reading and math when compared with those attending traditional public schools, the study found. “We’re popping the champagne corks here,” said Scott Pearson, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. “We think it’s a very strong affirmation of the power of charter schools when they’re done right.”
Louisiana, Tennessee and Rhode Island also showed strong results, while Nevada, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania were among the weakest. Several factors helped fuel the success of charter schools in the District, Pearson said. “D.C. is a very special environment,” he said. “We have a model law, an authorizer with an unusual independence and an incredible ecosystem with support organizations that help our schools. Our schools have formed a real community amongst themselves.”
And yet, Pearson said, “the national picture is still dismal.” The District led the pack in shutting down weak charters, with the city closing about one-third of its charter schools. And that effort needs to be mirrored throughout the country, the researchers said. “Low-performing schools are not being shut quickly and low-performing schools are being permitted to replicate,” the study said. Public charter schools are funded with tax dollars but operate independently of the traditional public school system. Most are not unionized and some are run by for-profit companies.
The question of how charter schools compare with traditional public schools is growing increasingly important as they proliferate across the country, thanks in part to federal policies Congress and the Obama administration have promoted. About 2.3 million students were enrolled in roughly 6,000 public charter schools in the academic year that just ended. That is still less than 5 percent of the country’s 50 million public school children. Nina Rees, president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, found the study encouraging. “The numbers are trending in the right direction,” she said.
But critics, many of whom think charters siphon away needed tax dollars from traditional public schools, said the study weakens the case for continued investment. “This seems to go along with a host of other reports that basically says there’s no difference between charter schools and traditional public schools,” said Andy Maul of the University of Colorado’s National Education Policy Center.
Greater numbers of minority and poor students with academic deficits are attending public charter schools now than in 2009, said Margaret Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes. That would seem to contradict a widely repeated criticism that charters attract motivated families while public schools are left to absorb the most challenged students, she said.
The study found that poor children, particularly African Americans and Hispanics, made the greatest gains in charters while children who are not poor — no matter their race — gained nothing or even performed worse than their counterparts in traditional public schools. Hispanic students who are English language learners also made gains in reading and math in charter schools.
The Washington Post
Associated Press
June 24, 2013
Charter schools benefit students from poor families, black students and Hispanic English-language learners more than their peers in other groups, a study shows. Overall, charter school students are faring better than they were four years ago, surpassing those in traditional public schools in reading gains and keeping pace in math, according to the National Charter School Study by the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University.
The study, released Tuesday, updated and expanded upon 2009 findings comparing student performance on standardized reading and math tests. The 2013 study included 25 states, the District of Columbia and New York City, the nation’s biggest city, which was considered separately from upstate New York because of its huge number of students. Together, the studied places enroll 95 percent of the nation’s 2.3 million charter school students.
“The results reveal that the charter school sector is getting better on average and that charter schools are benefiting low-income, disadvantaged and special-education students,” CREDO Director Margaret Raymond said. Researchers did not look into why specific groups benefited more, but charter schools’ greater freedom to direct resources toward specific needs was seen as a factor.
The average charter school student showed reading gains equivalent to those that would be expected from an extra eight days of school compared to traditional school students, the study said. Math gains were about equal among the two groups. The results were much improved from the 2009 study, when charter students lost the equivalent of seven days of learning in English and 22 days in math. “We think that the level of improvement is really noteworthy given that it’s only been a few years,” Raymond said.
The gains were helped by the closure of 8 percent of the schools included in the 2009 analysis because they were underperforming, she said. The report calls closing low-performing schools “the strongest tool available to ensure quality across the sector.” American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten said the findings show that charter schools have failed to live up to “the leaps and bounds that were promised” in student performance.
“We should use the CREDO findings as an opportunity to pause and ask ourselves why we keep pitting charter schools against neighborhood public schools — a strategy that has created little more than a disruptive churn,” Weingarten said. When broken down into groups, the study showed that black students gained the equivalent of 14 days of learning by attending charter schools but that black students living in poverty saw even greater benefits, the equivalent of 29 days in reading and 36 days in math. Hispanic English-language learners saw even higher gains, though Hispanics in general scored similarly to Hispanics in traditional public schools.
White charter school students posted lower growth scores in reading and math than traditional public school peers, the study found. But noting a trend toward specialty charter schools in affluent white communities, the reading and math scores alone may not paint a full picture of the schools’ performance, researchers said. Students may have started out above average and showed smaller gains in those subjects while gaining in other areas such as language or arts, they said.
The study analyzed student data from Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, New York City, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
Standardized test integrity and the Public Charter School Board [Meridian PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
June 25, 2013
First, let's hear it for Public Charter School Board meetings at THEARC. The auditorium is beautiful. There are plenty of seats. You can actually hear and see the meeting's proceedings and there is parking. I move to have all of the monthly sessions at this location.
There were a couple of highlights of last night's PCSB meeting. First, the Board approved the charter amendments that will create the middle and high school consortium of five bilingual charters. As I've written about previously this may be one of the most exciting charter school projects to come about in years.
Secondly, the PCSB accepted without a vote the ten part action plan submitted by Meridian PCS to improve the problems identified with its administration of the 2012 DC CAS. As you may recall the Office of the State Superintendent of Education identified five classrooms which it says demonstrated an unusual number of wrong to right answer erasures involving 60 percent of the school's students. The oversight role of the Board in this area is confusing.
Last Friday the D.C. Public Charter School Board took the unprecedented and highly welcome step of holding a press briefing regarding the agenda for the organization's monthly meeting. When the topic of Meridian PCS's DC CAS test integrity plan came up PCSB's director of communications Theola Labbe-Debose asserted that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) administers the examination, and therefore it is that body that has authority over the school's corrective plan. She said that the topic for Monday's meeting was for discussion only.
I questioned that view because it seems that something as important as the accuracy of DC CAS scores should be something the PCSB would insist on regulating, especially since results play a predominant role in the Performance Management Framework school rankings. It seemed to me that if the Board was truly interested in improving the quality of charters having some control over how the DC CAS is administered is vital.
Well at one point the PCSB may have shared my interpretation. Prior to last month's PCSB meeting a letter was sent by executive director Scott Pearson to the four schools that were identified by OSSE as having test irregularities on the 2012 exam. In the document Mr. Pearson asks the schools to identify actions taken as a result of these findings and the plan to avoid these issues from arising in the future. Then he comments, "If the PCSB's Board is not completely satisfied with the actions taken by you and your fellow board members, the Board will ask its staff to create a plan of action for the PCSB Board to consider. Such action could include issuing a charter warning, the first step in revocation proceedings."
In the supporting documentation to yesterday's meeting the staff recommends that the Board vote to accept Meridian's corrective steps, the main one being the replacement of the school's principal. But when Chairman McKoy asked Mr. Pearson if a vote was needed he was told it was not.
Sounds like we need some clarity around this important issue.
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
June 24, 2013
Fewer students were chronically truant this year from the District’s traditional public schools, but absenteeism is still a rampant problem at many high schools, Chancellor Kaya Henderson told the D.C. Council Monday. “It is clear that we need a different approach to successfully address high school truancy,” Henderson said, outlining an effort to focus “specifically and immediately” on ninth-grade students, who have among the worst attendance citywide. Overall, the proportion of DCPS students who missed three weeks of class or more fell from 11 percent during the 2011-12 school year to 8 percent in the 2012-13 school year.
The change came as schools officials, pressed by the council to take action, convened “student support teams” to help families address the root causes of children’s absenteeism. Officials also complied far more often with a law requiring that truants be referred to the city’s child welfare agency or court social services. Referral seemed to spur improved attendance for younger children ages five to 13. About half of students referred to child welfare went on to accumulate fewer than five unexcused absences throughout the rest of the year. But older students ages 14 to 17 were not as likely to change their behavior. More than half of those teens who received referrals went on to accumulate more than 15 additional unexcused absences.
At Anacostia High, six in 10 students missed more than a month of school this year, up from 45 percent last year, said Council Member David Catania (I-At Large). At Ballou, 58 percent of students missed that much class, up from 46 percent last year. Rates also ticked up at schools including Cardozo, Coolidge and Woodson, Catania said. Henderson said she aims to reduce those truancy rates by changing the trajectory of freshmen, who she said often disengage after struggling with high school-level academics.
Nine high schools across the city will open this fall with “ninth grade academies” dedicated to instructing first-time freshmen. Each will be run by a team of teachers, and a a counselor and social worker, all tasked with ensuring that students have the extra support and guidance they need to get off on the right foot as they enter high school. Henderson said she would follow up with the council to provide more information about the cost of the initiative at each school. A school system spokeswoman said it would cost $2 million in federal Title I funds.
Freshmen who have already failed the ninth grade will not be allowed to enroll in academies. They may participate in online credit-recovery programs or afternoon “twilight” classes meant to help students quickly earn the credits they need to catch up with their peers, officials said. Henderson said the school system will also be more aggressive about requiring the furthest-behind students to attend alternative schools such as Luke C. Moore Academy or one of two STAY programs.
The Washington Business Journal
By Michael Neibauer
June 24, 2013
Mayor Vincent Gray wasted no time Monday outlining how he would spend the projected revenue windfall detailed in the finance office's latest revenue estimates. In a letter to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, Gray addressed the additional $92.3 million in local revenue that Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi estimated will come in next fiscal year. The mayor does not propose any tax cuts, but he does suggest that a percentage of the money be available for recommendations of the Tax Revision Commission. Gandhi's new forecast, released Monday,"is tremendous news and is continued evidence of how our strategy to diversify and grow our economy and create jobs is bringing in new residents and increased revenue to the city," Gray wrote.
The forecast calls for the District to collect upward of $600 million in additional revenue over the next five years, due in large part to strong income and property tax returns. In his initial budget proposal, Gray provided a contingency list of items (including a commercial property tax cut) that would receive funding if the District experienced a revenue surge, but Mendelson axed that list from the spending plan. Now, Gray is urging the chairman to adopt an amended version of the list.
Gray's priorities:
$11 million to increase infant and toddler pre-kindergarten slots.
$5.8 million for the Office of Aging to increase reimbursement rates.
$2 million to expand the school-based mental health program.
$7 million to the Commission on the Arts and Humanities to offset federal cuts.
$700,000 to increase Small Business Technical Assistance.
$450,000 for D.C. "self-determination advocacy."
$23 million for public and charter school programs.
$3.5 million to fund a clarifying amendment to restaurant sales tax law.
What's left is $38.75 million, which Gray wants set aside to meet his affordable housing goals, to offset federal sequestration cuts, and for possible tax recommendations of the Anthony Williams-led commission.
The council is scheduled to take a final vote on the Budget Support Act on Wednesday.
The Washington Post
By Jay Matthews
June 24, 2013
When Dylan Presman, president of the Rockville High School PTSA, discovered that a majority of Montgomery County high school students were failing countywide final math exams, he said, “When you’re talking about half a group failing, there’s something seriously wrong.”
Presman is a thoughtful and enterprising parent, and something may indeed be wrong — but it’s not with the tests. Those big failure rates prove that Montgomery is one of the rare school districts that administers end-of-course tests challenging enough to flunk, thereby exposing poor student preparation and weak state standards. I wish the other districts did that.
We usually think of failure as bad, but most successful people don’t believe that. They know that only when they risk failure are they likely to develop the skills and knowledge that lead to success. This is true everywhere. Manufacturers of tires, aircraft wings and playground swings must push them to their failure points so they can be sure they meet quality and safety specifications. Failure gets to the truth.
More than a decade ago, I interviewed the educators who designed Montgomery’s first countywide exams in math, history and biology. They wanted a consistent, rigorous standard for the whole county to replace the immeasurable mess of different exams written by each teacher.
Their county’s high percentage of affluent, well-educated parents demanded the best, but that was not their only motivation. The Montgomery test designers wanted poor children in Silver Spring to be measured against the same standard as rich children in Potomac. They did not want low-income kids to get an easy test and affluent kids a hard one. That would make it more likely that schools in poverty-stricken areas would teach less and reduce the chance that those children would have the reading, writing, math and time-management skills they needed for college or good jobs.
New statewide tests were introduced at the same time in Maryland and the rest of the country under the federal No Child Left Behind law, but they were not much help. State officials knew it was political poison to have many students flunk. They made the tests easier or provided alternatives, particularly if the students had to pass to graduate, as they did in Maryland and Virginia. When too many students were failing Virginia’s Standards of Learning social studies tests, the state school board lowered the passing score.
Experts no longer fear that the new state tests will hurt graduation rates. Last year, 98 percent of 12th-graders met the requirements for graduation in Virginia, and 95 percent met the requirements in Maryland. Graduation barriers are similarly low in most other states, even though in the past 30 years there has been no significant increase in average reading and math achievement for 17-year-old Americans.
Many students fail the Montgomery County tests mostly because they are more difficult than the state tests, which count for graduation. Students can flunk a county test and still pass that course because the exam makes up only 25 percent of the final grade. Teachers tell me the high failure rate on the county math tests comes from overuse of calculators in early grades, failing to train students how to study, accelerating too many students and letting students retake chapter tests they failed the first time.
Montgomery County has an incentive to address those issues because it has tougher district tests that many students fail. The districts without such tests lack that useful goad. Acknowledging failure helps. Covering it up, as most districts do, hurts our schools.
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