- Henderson not convinced that D.C. education plan will help schools [FOCUS mentioned]
- Local Editorial: Failing schools should be converted to charters
- D.C. Council passes anti-truancy bill
- D.C. students would ride buses for free under legislation
- Two Rivers PCS students shine at spring showcase [Two Rivers PCS mentioned]
- Bill to Alter Bush-Era Education Law Gives States More Room
Henderson not convinced that D.C. education plan will help schools [FOCUS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
June 4, 2013
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said she is not convinced that a wide-ranging package of education legislation introduced Tuesday will improve educational outcomes for the city’s children. “I need more information, because on the face of it, I just don’t believe that these seven proposals are going to move us to where we need to go,” Henderson said of council member David A. Catania’s education proposals. Catania (I-At Large) described his legislative package as an effort to spur stronger academic achievement, particularly among the city’s poorest children. Henderson said pieces of the legislation are intriguing and could be helpful, such as a proposal to send more money to low-performing high schools. But she raised questions about other, more dramatic changes, including one that would give principals far greater autonomy over school budgets and another that would mandate consequences, including closure, for underperforming traditional public schools.
Henderson said the urban school systems that she considers models for improvement, such as Boston’s, have succeeded in part because they’ve chosen an approach and stuck with it. “We have to ask ourselves, what is the role of the legislature?” Henderson said. If the council adopts major policy changes every few years, as politicians come and go, she said, “then the school district is slapped around right, left and center, pursuing these things that various people have opinions about.” Henderson said that she still has much to learn about the details of the bills and that she looks forward to further conversation with lawmakers about the proposals. The bills garnered support from multiple council members Tuesday. Measures addressing school funding, social promotion, a unified enrollment lottery and parent engagement each attracted nine or 10 co-sponsors.
Council members David Grosso (I-At Large), Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) co-sponsored all seven bills. “I don’t agree with everything in here, that’s not the way it should be,” Barry said. “But during these hearings we’re going to have a great time debating this as a community.” Some parents frustrated by the school system’s budgeting process said Tuesday that they welcome the push to give principals more power over school-level spending. Others said the effort to increase per-pupil allocations for poor children would level the playing field for students across the city. But proponents of neighborhood schools raised concerns that the bills could erode the traditional school system by mandating that chronically underperforming schools be closed, turned over to an outside organization or turned into charter-like “innovation schools.”
Scott Pearson, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said he was studying the legislation. Robert Cane, head of the pro-charter lobbyist group Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, said he too was still in the midst of analysis. “It’s a lot of paper to go through,” Cane said.
The Washington Examiner
Examiner Editorial
June 4, 2013
David Catania, chairman of the D.C. Council's Education Committee, wants to increase DC Public Schools' accountability and academic results. Catania has the right idea but the wrong approach, one that is as doomed as other past attempts at school reform. But he's not bold enough to propose the one thing that just might work. Catania's package of legislation increases per-pupil funding again, this time supposedly to help poor students and those enrolled in vocational training. But most of the money will wind up in the pockets of the same administrators and teachers who have failed to close D.C.'s achievement gap despite millions of dollars in pay hikes and bonuses under former Chancellor Michelle Rhee.
In fact, as The Washington Examiner noted in March, while the District was spending record amounts of money on DCPS between 2008 and 2012 under Rhee's widely heralded "reforms," a third of the city's schools saw "a notable decline in proficiency" in both reading and math test scores. Catania's proposal would financially reward DCPS for its continued failure. Converting failing schools to independently-run charter schools would do just the opposite. Catania's proposals skirt around the real problem but do not address it. Decades of inept leadership, lack of accountability and outright corruption have created a toxic culture within DCPS that is highly resistant to change. As long as the adults in charge had jobs and benefits, they were content to let generations of disadvantaged youngsters fail year after year. And the District's political, business and civic elites let them get away with it.
It was Congress that offered D.C. families trapped in this dysfunctional educational system their only real hope in the form of vouchers and charter schools. The explosive growth of charters, which will soon surpass DCPS in total enrollment, is District parents' clear vote of "no confidence" in DCPS. Catania wants to allow Chancellor Kaya Henderson to set up charterlike "innovation schools" not bound by central office dictates or teacher union contracts, and giving principals more control over finances and personnel. Mayor Vincent Gray made a similar proposal.
Why stop there? There is no way to "fix" DCPS. Previous efforts -- including turning the system over to mayoral control, giving teachers and administrators generous pay hikes and bonuses, bringing in Teach for America graduates -- have failed. The one thing that hasn't been tried is converting all DCPS' still-failing schools into independent public charter schools.
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
June 4, 2013
The D.C. Council on Tuesday gave final approval to a measure meant to reduce truancy in the city’s schools. Under the legislation, police must send a letter notifying parents whose children reach 10 unexcused absences that they are at risk of criminal prosecution. Older children ages 14 to 17 will be referred to court social services and the attorney general’s office if they accumulate 15 absences.
The bill’s sponsor, David A. Catania (I-At Large), had originally proposed mandatory prosecution of all parents whose children reach 20 unexcused absences. Catania agreed to strip that provision after it triggered fierce opposition from council members, student and family advocates and officials in the Gray administration. The council also on Tuesday gave unanimous preliminary approval to ameasure that would make it illegal for school staff to cheat on citywide standardized tests. That bill comes on the heels of persistent allegations that widespread cheating may have inflated test scores in recent years. The council is expected to take a second and final vote on the bill at its June 25 legislative meeting.
The Washington Examiner
By Rachel Baye
June 4, 2013
Students in the District would be able to ride Metro and Circulator buses for free under a bill introduced Tuesday in the D.C. Council. Proposed by Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser, Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh and at-large Councilwoman Anita Bonds, the bill would give students at public -- both traditional and charter -- and private elementary, middle and high schools free access to public buses while they travel to and from school and school-related activities.
Existing policy allows students to buy subsidized fare cards. The new measure would continue to give students discounted access to Metrorail. The measure answers a complaint that has become increasingly common, particularly as D.C. Public Schools plans to close 13 neighborhood schools this month and as more students are traveling to charter schools across the city. "With more students attending schools outside their neighborhoods, the needs for accessible and affordable transportation is absolutely necessary," said Bowser, the bill's lead sponsor. "We don't have a school bus system in D.C., but we should have a free ride to school."
Two Rivers PCS students shine at spring showcase [Two Rivers PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
June 5, 2013
This a guest commentary from Maggie Bello, principal of Two Rivers Public Charter's elementary school. To spotlight the work of our hard working students and staff, we hosted our Spring Showcase Night this week. This exciting event provides the students at our elementary and middle school campuses opportunities to demonstrate and explain their expeditions—the hands-on, in-depth learning projects they undertook this spring.
These academically rigorous expeditions allow students to learn new material, grow their learning skills, and apply what they have learned to solve an authentic problem. A good example of this approach in action was our first graders’ habitat expedition, in which they were working to find out if we should be scared of insects. At Showcase Night students demonstrated how they researched, designed and drew trading cards explaining how insects interact with the environment, beneficially and negatively. In this expedition students learned how to evaluate each other’s work and use feedback to strengthen their own in order to help others evaluate the usefulness and danger factor for many different insects.
Two Rivers Instructional Guide Jeff Heyck-Williams explains: “Students gain a depth of knowledge working on this project that they simply cannot acquire just memorizing information. By gaining early exposure to revision and taking in feedback, students become better at teamwork and being able to communicate and evaluate their ideas. These skills the first graders are learning are needed in the world of work.”
Parent Jane Tobler, whose son is in the fourth grade, echoed Heyck-Williams’ thoughts, “it is fantastic that they’re working on a real challenge, not make believe. This program encourages students to learn. I see the development in my son as he has become more inquisitive and is questioning.”
This year the fourth graders developed proposals for real projects to help clean up the Anacostia River. Through these projects students learned about the river’s history and partnered with the Anacostia Watershed Society to learn what impact they could make. Through their expedition students conducted research of primary documents, which helped them gain experience reading at a higher-grade level. They also analyzed a case study looking at how a local business, Dangerously Delicious Pies, incorporates environmental stewardship into their business plan.
During the course of the project each student had to design their own plan for the river and then work in groups to evaluate and combine proposals. In designing the expedition Two Rivers teachers Ryan Free and Jessica Nelson wanted to give students the ability to integrate what they were doing in all of their subjects so they have a greater understanding of how learning material will prepare them for challenges they will meet in their education and beyond.
Fourth grader Nyah Barrett said this expedition not only taught her about the river but also connected what she is learning in math class through data collection to the clean up. This expedition enabled her to expand her vocabulary, develop strong research skills, and help make learning more exciting, she said. To help inspire learning and creativity Two Rivers organizes expeditions at each grade level. Our kindergarteners designed a website as part of their expedition to teach outsiders about the community meetings at Two Rivers. The website can be seen here.
Through this expedition, kindergarteners collected survey data about community meetings, compared our community meeting to other schools’ meetings, and used this research to communicate their findings through a website. The unique and challenging academic environment created by our use of student expeditions is one of the main reasons for our academic success. We are one of only 22 District public charter schools ranked high performing by the D.C. Public Charter School Board. This success is shown in our growing popularity with students and families across the District. Earlier this spring we had 1,840 applicants for only 32 spaces.
We plan on building on our successful Spring Showcase, through an upcoming Winter Showcase that will highlight students’ fall expeditions.
The expeditions students undertook this spring include:
Preschool – Urban Gardening
Pre-Kindergarten – Construction
Kindergarten – Community
First Grade – Habitat
Second Grade – Physics of Flight
Third Grade – D.C. Geography/History
Fourth Grade – Watershed Ecology
Fifth Grade – History Through Protest
Sixth Grade – D.C.’s Ecosystem
Seventh Grade – Equity
Eighth Grade – Genetics
The New York Times
By Motoko Rich
June 4, 2013
Renewing the effort to revise No Child Left Behind, the signature Bush-era federal education law, Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, introduced a new version on Tuesday that he said would “replace the failed tenets” of the law. Less than two years after Congress last tried to update the law, which governs public schools that receive federal money to support the country’s most disadvantaged students, Mr. Harkin, chairman of the Senate education committee, opened what is likely to be a fierce debate over the proper role of the federal government in public education.
No Child, which is the most recent version of the half-century-old Elementary and Secondary Education Act, has been up for reauthorization since 2007. Mr. Harkin’s 1,150-page bill, which was described in a statement issued by the education committee as an effort to get “the federal government out of the business of ‘micromanaging’ schools,” received moderate praise from some quarters and drew criticism from the left, the right and overlapping groups in between.
The bill faces an uphill climb. Although it is co-sponsored by fellow Democrats on the education committee, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the ranking Republican on the committee, will introduce a competing version this week. The bill would also have to pass a fractured House. Jim Jeffries, a spokesman for Mr. Alexander, said that Mr. Harkin’s bill was “congested” with federal mandates and that Mr. Alexander’s bill “will get Washington out of the business of deciding whether schools and teachers are succeeding or failing.”
At its core, Mr. Harkin’s bill retains the most controversial plank of the current law: the requirement that states test all students in reading and math every year from third through eighth grades and once in high school. Schools must report test scores, and how different groups, including racial minorities, students with disabilities and those learning the English language, perform against annual goals. Educators and parents have complained that No Child Left Behind focuses too narrowly on standardized tests and then prescribes stringent consequences for schools that failed to hit benchmarks.
Mr. Harkin’s bill would allow states to use portfolios or projects as well as standardized tests to assess students. And in contrast to current law, which requires states to choose from a short menu of turnaround measures like closing schools or firing staff members at schools labeled failing, Mr. Harkin’s bill gives states and districts more flexibility to devise their own supports for all but the most struggling schools.
The bill would require states to base student assessments on “college and career ready” academic standards for reading, math and science. Already, 45 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core, a set of standards that outline what each student should learn from kindergarten through high school. Legislators and Tea Party critics in states including Indiana and Michigan say the Common Core standards were adopted without consulting teachers or parents and represent federal overreach. Mr. Harkin’s bill explicitly states that it will not “mandate, direct or control” the content of state standards.
The bill also stops short of mandating that districts use test scores in teacher performance ratings. Over the past two years, many states have imposed teacher evaluation systems based in part on standardized test scores. The measures were introduced to qualify for federal grants or waivers issued by the federal Department of Education, which has relieved 37 states from the provision of No Child that requires all students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, praised Mr. Harkin’s bill for backing off some of No Child’s most rigid requirements. “It has a lot more flexibility than current law so that test scores are not the be-all, end-all for either students or teacher evaluations,” Ms. Weingarten said.
But some critics said the bill remained too tough. “To say that this bill provides flexibility is laughable,” said Michael J. Petrilli, executive vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education policy group, who said states should be allowed to decide how to rate schools. “Let states do it differently, and let’s find out how it works.” Groups that have pushed to roll back high-stakes testing were also deeply disappointed. “The Senate bill fails to undo the damage caused by No Child Left Behind to teachers and students and schools,” said Monty Neill, executive director of FairTest, the National Center for Fair and Open Testing.
But some critics said the bill was not tough enough. “It essentially is a bill that is providing flexibility without accountability,” said John E. Chubb, interim chief executive ofEducation Sector, a nonpartisan policy group. In a coming study, Mr. Chubb and the co-author, Constance Clark, look at how students in different states — particularly students from low-income families — have performed on federal tests under No Child Left Behind. While poor students in some states including Maryland, New Jersey and Massachusetts showed significant academic gains, those in states including Iowa, South Dakota and Oregon showed few gains, and in the case of West Virginia, actually lost ground.
“We know over the last 10 years that some states have done a pretty darn good job and some states have just done very poorly,” Mr. Chubb said. “So the idea that they should now be trusted to do the right thing has no basis in fact.”
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