- D.C. leads nation in strength of charter school laws, report says
- Baltimore City to end 24% of contracts for schools of choice up for renewal [Friendship PCS mentioned]
- DCPS to announce final school closures Thursday
- Report: Savings marginal after D.C. Public Schools closes schools
- Barras: Saluting D.C. teachers, then delivering a smack in the face
- D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray 'open' to armed guards in all schools
D.C. leads nation in strength of charter school laws, report says
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
January 16, 2013
The District leads the nation in terms of the strength of its public charter school laws and their implementation, according to a new report issued Wednesday by a national group that supports charter schools.
The Center for Education Reform released its annual report card, in which it examines and rates the charter school system in every state, and found that less than half the states have good, effective charter school laws.
Charter schools are publicly funded but privately run schools, some of them by for-profit organizations. First created 21 years ago, there are now about 6,000 charter schools across the country, educating roughly 2 million students, according to the center.
The District, where more than 40 percent of public school students attend charters, leads the nation in terms of the amount of financial support given to charters and the amount of autonomy they possess, among other things, the center said. The District was ranked at the top last year as well.
In contrast, Virginia and Maryland were ranked among the worst states in terms of public charter laws and implementation.
The report card is available at www.edreform.com/
Baltimore City to end 24% of contracts for schools of choice up for renewal [Friendship PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
January 16, 2013
Carol Beck, director of Supporting Public Schools of Choice and a member of the Baltimore New and Charter School Advisory Board, writes in the Baltimore Sun that Baltimore City Schools CEO Andrés Alonso has recommended that six schools of choice in his system not have their contracts renewed. 25 schools were up for review this year which represents a termination rate of 24 percent.
Schools of choice in Baltimore City include charters, transformational schools that are managed in cooperation with the Baltimore City system, and operator run schools. D.C.'s Friendship Public Charter Schools has four transformational schools in Baltimore City. Two were recommended for a one year contract extension, Friendship Academy of Engineering and Technology and Friendship Academy of Science and Technology. It appears that two other Friendship transitional schools were not up for contract renewal this year. You can see the schools report card's here. These documents may be able to provide the Public Charter school Board with ideas for expansion of their Performance Management Framework.
The decision to not renew contracts included three charters, one transformational, and two operator run schools.
Ms. Beck describes the renewal process in which she was a participant. "In this renewal process, the advisory board developed recommendations for each school, based on an overall rating in three areas: academics, school climate, and governance and fiscal management. Those ratings were based on a range of quantitative and qualitative data, including state test scores and other test data, surveys and an extensive school visit. Teachers and school leaders were interviewed and classes were observed."
Baltimore City has been trying innovative ways to improve their schools including the creation of 33 charters, 14 transformation schools and a few contractor operated schools. Now, as in the District of Columbia, the system is holding these facilities to a much higher level of accountability.
DCPS to announce final school closures Thursday
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
January 17, 2013
D.C. school officials said Chancellor Kaya Henderson will announce final decisions about District school closures Thursday, two months after she first proposed shuttering 20 city schools for low enrollment.
Henderson argues that she must close half-empty schools in order to use resources more efficiently, redirecting them from administration and maintenance to teaching and learning.
The chancellor initially said that 20 schools must close, but in recent weeks she has appeared to soften, leaving parents, students and teachers hoping that their schools might be among those spared.
“We don’t have to have 20 necessarily,” Henderson said earlier this month on WAMU’s (88.5-FM) Kojo Nnamdi Show. “We haven’t quite decided ... how many will ultimately make the final list.”
The chancellor has urged parents not just to plead for schools to stay open, but to offer concrete ideas for increasing enrollment. Many parents responded to that call, offering a raft of alternative proposals.
The prospect of closures has triggered intense debate about the future of the city school system, including at community meetings across the District and at two D.C. Council hearings that together lasted longer than 14 hours.
Some parents and activists worry that shuttering schools will drive District families into the city’s fast-growing charter schools, which could lead to declining enrollment and further closures.
Critics have also argued that Henderson has not said how much money would be saved or how, exactly, closing some schools would strengthen others. Former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee’s closure of 23 schools in 2008 cost millions more than initially reported, according to an audit released in 2012.
“We’ll provide detailed savings estimates when we release our final plan later this week,” Henderson tweeted on Monday.
Many community members are hopeful that Henderson will outline plans Thursday for the future of shuttered schools. The chancellor has said that in 2008, the school system erred when it closed buildings without a clear plan for how they would be used again.
“My commitment is to find a new use for each of the buildings that are no longer occupied by our schools,” Henderson said in November.
Report: Savings marginal after D.C. Public Schools closes schools
The Washington Examiner
By Rachel Baye
January 15, 2013
Closing 20 DC Public Schools will save the school system barely more money than it will cost to close them, according to a report released Tuesday by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, or DCFPI.
While closing the proposed schools could save DC Public Schools $10.4 million in the 2013-2014 school year, consolidating them could cost $10.2 million, significantly reducing the overall savings, the analysis by D.C. education finance analyst Mary Levy found.
When the District closed 23 schools in 2008 -- the last time the District shuttered a large group of schools -- the process cost the school system $39.5 million, roughly $30 million more than anticipated, according to a D.C. audit released in September.
DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson proposed in November closing 20 schools at the end of the current school year to conserve resources, but she has not said how much money she expects to save with the plan. The final list of school closings is scheduled for release this week.
Henderson spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz did not return requests for comment.
"One of the main arguments in the DCPS proposal for school closure and consolidation is that the small schools are inefficient and require additional funding from the school system to operate," the DC Fiscal Policy Institute's report says. However, the difference in per-pupil costs at a small school compared with those at a large school turn out to be marginal.
For example, an elementary school with fewer than 350 students receives $8,472 per pupil, 4 percent more than the $8,149 allocated per student at larger elementary schools.
Soumya Bhat, an education finance and policy analyst at DCFPI, also estimated that, based on staffing policies and enrollment projections, roughly 162 staff members will not be necessary after the closings. The 20 schools currently employ 1,042 teachers and staff.
Nate Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, said it was likely that no teachers would be laid off as a result of the closures, especially once teachers retire at the end of the year and others lose their jobs after failing their Impact evaluations.
Levy's analysis does not take into account any continued savings from the staff cutbacks, nor does it factor in new revenue generated by selling or leasing the empty buildings.
Though Henderson's proposal suggests retaining up to 11 buildings for future school expansions and reopenings if enrollment picks up, no suggestions were made for the futures of five buildings.
"We may save something past year one," Bhat said, "but we don't think it will be that much, especially when DCPS has talked about reopening the schools in the next couple of years."
Barras: Saluting D.C. teachers, then delivering a smack in the face
The Washington Examiner
By Jonetta Rose Barras
January 15, 2013
Wicked. That's the best description for D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson's and Mayor Vincent Gray's sense of timing.
The District held its so-called "standing ovation" for teachers and principals at the Kennedy Center during the same week Gray and Henderson are expected to release the final list of schools to be closed. Instructors and administrators from those facilities likely will lose their jobs.
"This is part of the smack in your face and confusing nature of DCPS," said Daniel del Pielago, education organizer for the nonprofit organization Empower DC.
It, several other organizations and tons of residents have called for a moratorium on all school closures. They have said the closings are "unjust and discriminatory because they disproportionately impact communities of color; a coalition led by Empower DC held a summit last week to outline future actions to stop the closings.
"We are going to take legal action. We are in the process of identifying plaintiffs," said del Pielago. Empower DC and District residents also have joined forces with their counterparts in Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia to create a national movement against school closings. They have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education; a hearing has been set for Jan. 29.
Henderson submitted her proposal to close 20 schools last fall. Many of the facilities are east of the Anacostia River in Wards 7 and 8. Since her announcement, she has held community hearings and met privately with dozens of individuals and groups including the Ward 7 Education Council.
Still, the widely held, objective view is that this third round of closures in six years could be the death knell for DCPS.
"We've run out of schools to close if we want to keep a system of walkable neighborhood schools," said Mary Levy, an expert on District public schools. She said she supported previous closures but is against this action.
"I foresee the downward spiral of DCPS," Levy said.
Already the network of independent charters has captured 43 percent of public school students. In 2008, after the closure of 23 facilities, 3,000 DCPS students raced to charters. Henderson has said DCPS recouped that loss.
Del Pielago has called the closures "subterfuge." He said they misdirect the conversation about DCPS' poor achievement results. The Washington Examiner's Rachel Baye wrote recently that Education Week's "Quality Counts" report card gave the District a "B" for standards, assessments and accountability. But the city earned an "F" for K-12 achievement.
Everyone should want to know why education reform policies haven't instigated sufficient improvements in student performance.
Levy said the city needs an "overall plan." That can't be developed until officials have completed several studies and reviews currently in the works: a master facilities plan; a review of current boundaries and feeder patterns; an examination of funding and its adequacy; and an independent evaluation of mayoral control of the public education system.
"Why would you close schools before that work is done and there is an overall plan?"
Good question.
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray 'open' to armed guards in all schools
The Washington Examiner
By Rachel Baye
January 16, 2013
D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said Wednesday that he was willing to consider placing armed guards in the District's schools, a proposal advanced in recent weeks by the National Rifle Association, but one that has drawn a frosty reception from gun control and education advocates.
"I think if it's a way of further protecting our students, I'm open for that discussion," Gray said, though he added that he had not studied the issue extensively.
The District already has school resource officers -- sworn police officers who are armed -- in dozens of its high schools and middle schools. But Gray indicated he might support a plan to install armed guards in all of the city's 125 public schools.
The Democratic mayor emphasized, however, that he would not endorse a plan to allow students or teachers to carry firearms on school property.
The NRA, which has aggressively campaigned to beef up school security in the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson immediately signaled his misgivings about a move toward adding armed guards in a city that has some of the nation's most restrictive gun laws.
"The answer to Newtown is not to arm our schools," Mendelson said. "The response to gun violence is not more guns. We have to deal with more difficult issues: the prevalence of violence, the acceptance of violence in our society and the fact that there are people who should not have guns who do have guns."
And Victoria Sherk, whose daughter attends Hearst Elementary School in Northwest Washington, said the concept worried her.
"I think that's a pretty terrible idea," she said. "My biggest concern is that the gun would get into the wrong hands."
Aona Jefferson, who leads the union that represents school principals, said she would support adding more school resource officers to the District's campuses.
Like Gray, she stopped short of calling on the District to arm classroom teachers.
"I think that's going a bit far," Jefferson said. "I don't think teachers or principals should be responsible for having guns in the classroom ... You move around in the classroom too much."