- DC schools to release standardized test scores; last year saw mixed results
- Councilman Catania at Ward 3 education discussion [Washington Latin PCS mentioned]
- Rand Paul wants more school choice for poor, minority students [DC Prep, KIPP DC, and Washington Latin PCS mentioned]
- DCPS Offers Enrollment Hours
DC schools to release standardized test scores; last year saw mixed results
The Washington Post
By Associated Press
July 30, 2013
WASHINGTON — District of Columbia officials are set to announce how the city’s public and charter school students fared on the city’s standardized tests.
The district evaluates proficiency in math, reading, science and writing for students in grades 3-8 and 10. Students have been tested annually since 2007, and the 2013 results will be announced Tuesday.
Last year, the district showed only modest gains in elementary math and reading. And in middle and high schools, proficiency in reading and math declined slightly.
The district has faced questions about the integrity of its testing since a USA Today investigation that found unusually high numbers of erasures from wrong to right answers at more than 100 schools. Multiple investigations found isolated cheating but not to the extent suggested by the erasure rates.
Councilman Catania at Ward 3 education discussion [Washington Latin PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
July 30, 2013
Last Saturday I attended the Ward 3 community education discussion hosted by D.C. Councilman David Catania. Councilman Grasso, who is on the Council's education committee that Mr. Catania chairs, assisted in leading the session. I was joined by Martha Cutts, the Head of Washington Latin Public Charter School and our spouses. I have to say I was impressed with what I saw.
This was a relaxed Mr. Catania who showed up on this day. He started the two hour mid-morning meeting by speaking for only for a few minutes. He talked about the strong attendance he has seen at his other forums. In fact, the room was packed although the weather outside was warm and sunny. He also spoke about his goal of visiting all of the approximately 200 public schools, both traditional and charters, in the nation's capital. He has completed about 40 percent of this task. In addition, the councilman briefly outlined the seven bills he has before his legislative body.
What was abundantly clear to those in the audience is the command of the material this man has gained. He was knowledgeable about almost any school that the audience brought up. He was perfectly familiar with student feeder patterns from elementary school, to middle school, up to high school. He could also recite from memory many of the DC CAS scores these institutions have recorded.
I had the opportunity to ask the first question. I explained that Washington Latin PCS was now spending $20 million to renovate the former DCPS Rudolph Elementary School which was in horrible condition, and asked why charters do not receive school modernization funds like the regular schools do. He immediately replied that charters receive $3,000 per student in facility funds that DCPS schools do not. This is also the reason, he continued, that charters pay rent that traditional schools also do not have to pay.
His response pointed directly to the problem with the charter facility allowance. The funding was cut by Mayor Fenty years ago from $3,200 to $2,800 a pupil. The Federal three sector money brought it up to $3,000 a student, dollars that the D.C. government now covers.
It has stayed at this amount ever since. Charters find it almost impossible to rent adequate facilities with this amount of revenue. If charters are fortunate enough to obtain a shuttered DCPS site, banks find it extremely challenging to come up with a financial proforma in which building renovation loans can realistically be repaid. Charters face these difficulties at the same time that it is estimated that the traditional schools receive about three times this amount per student in school modernization and maintenance dollars.
Mr. Catania did admit that it was probably time to re-look at the level of the charter school facility allotment. Let's hope that somehow this issue rises to the top of his crowded priority list.
Rand Paul wants more school choice for poor, minority students [DC Prep, KIPP, and Washington Latin PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
July 29, 2013
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wants children — especially minority and poor children — to have more choices in education.
He wants more public charter schools. He wants more vouchers, so that students can use tax money to enroll in private schools. He says students ought to be able to attend any public school in a community, regardless of their neighborhood and property lines.
“I’m talking about opening up all of the lines, so that kids can go to public, to private, wherever,” said Paul, a tea party favorite and potential 2016 presidential candidate. “Some of these schools are absolutely pitiful, absolutely. What I’m really proposing is helping these kids get out from the grind.”
President Obama and Democrats oppose vouchers, saying that public money should not be used for private schools.
“The president has the money to [send his two daughters] to Sidwell Friends,” Paul said in an interview last week, referring to the prestigious private school in the District. “It’s unfair to tell a poor inner-city kid that he can’t choose to go to a suburban school. Preferably, the more choices, the better.”
Paul is scheduled to host four fellow Republican senators — Lamar Alexander (Tenn.), Mike Lee (Utah), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Tim Scott (S.C.) — at a school choice forum Tuesday to try to draw support for GOP legislation to update No Child Left Behind, a federal education law that expired in 2007.
The lawmakers plan to discuss charters and vouchers with representatives from some high-performing public charter schools in D.C. — including D.C. Prep, KIPP D.C. and Washington Latin — as well as several Catholic schools that educate poor students through the D.C. school voucher program Congress created.
It is the latest in a string of appearances Paul has been making to promote alternatives to traditional public schools. On Monday, Paul and Alexander visited a KIPP public charter school in Nashville. In June, Paul delivered the commencement address at a Philadelphia charter school.
The school appearances fit into a larger effort Paul has been making to win over minority voters, who overwhelmingly chose Obama in 2012. He has been arguing that the criminal justice system unfairly punishes African Americans more harshly for marijuana possession, and that public education is harmful to minority students.
“The people being hurt aren’t the rich white kids in the suburbs,” said Paul, who sends his two teenage sons to a traditional public school. “It’s poor black and brown kids in the inner city.”
Paul shrugged off findings by The Washington Post about quality and oversight problems at some of the 52 private schools where D.C. parents have enrolled their children at a cost of $133 million to the federal government since 2004. The schools are not required to publicly report student performance, and some have questionable curricula and inadequate facilities.
Parents participating in the voucher program should be allowed to send their children to the private schools of their choice, Paul said.
“They’re not using government money,” he said, referring to the tax dollars funneled to vouchers. “It’s our money. We’re getting back some of the money taken from us. I think when you have choice, people choose the better product. I think it’s presumptuous of anyone to question parental authority.”
Paul dismissed new research by Stanford University experts, who found that the nation’s charter schools are growing more effective but that most don’t produce better academic results when compared with traditional public schools. Charter schools are public schools that are privately run, independent from local school bureaucracy. They are often not unionized.
“There’s lies and lies and statistics they say,” Paul said. “People can manipulate statistics all they want. Have you seen the movie ‘Waiting for Superman’?” he asked, referring to a 2010 documentary that was critical of U.S. public education. “I was really moved by ‘Waiting for Superman’. You see the kids and you see their faces. Statistics are one thing, but I think these stories are really powerful.”
DCPS Offers Enrollment Hours
The Washington Informer
By Dorothy Rowley
June 29, 2013
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) officials will be available at several locations across the city to assist students and their parents with enrollment for the 2013-14 academic term.
The registrations, which began on July 24, continue through Aug. 7. Classes resume on Aug. 26.
"It's all geared toward getting the fall enrollment numbers up,” said Keydra Anderson from the DCPS Office of Student Enrollment and School Funding. "We have the enrollment forms and we're going to the different sites as a community service. We're just trying to make sure that everyone has the support they need."
Anderson said all students from pre-K to 12th grade will have to provide proof of D.C. residency.
Remaining registration dates and locations:
9 a.m. - noon, Aug. 1
Anacostia TANF Office
2100 MLK Ave. SE
10 a.m. – 1 p.m., Aug. 3
Shaw Public Library
1630 7th St. NW
9 a.m. – noon, Aug. 5
Congress Heights TANF Office
4001 S. Capitol St. SW
9 a.m. - noon, Aug. 6
Fort Davis TANF Office
3851 Alabama Ave. SE
9 a.m. – 12 p.m., Aug. 7
H Street TANF Office
645 H St. NE
For more information, please 202/719-6613.