- D.C. creates five-year schools plan
- What's the rush to close D.C. schools?
- Cool Schools: Getting Ready for the Global Market [Elsie Whitlow Stokes mentioned]
- Parents concerned that DCPS does not require lockdown drills
D.C. creates five-year schools plan
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
December 18, 2012
The D.C. agency that oversees DC Public Schools and the city's charter schools has created a five-year plan detailing goals for improving students' academic progress and graduation rates, The Washington Examiner has learned.
Under "The District of Columbia State Education Plan," created by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, schools would need to cut in half the number of students "who are not academically performing as expected" and reduce the number of students who do not graduate from high school by 10 percent each year.
Currently, about 61 percent of D.C. public high school students graduate within four years. The goals would have 75 percent of students passing their DC Comprehensive Assessment System tests and 75 percent of high school students graduating.
Ayan Islam, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the plan was shared at OSSE's Parent and Family Engagement Summit in September. She characterized the five-year plan as repackaging the District's waiver for flexibility from the federal No Child Left Behind law, which would have required 100 percent of students to be proficient in math and reading by 2014.
The benchmark for getting 75 percent of students to pass their standardized tests was the hallmark of the District's successful waiver. But other elements of the plan, such as the ambitious goal to increase the graduation rate, were not previously touted as part of the waiver. And a spokeswoman for DCPS, as well as several education advocates, said they were not aware when contacted of what the State Education Plan was.
DCPS announced its own five-year plan earlier this year, with some slightly conflicting benchmarks. For instance, the traditional school system aims to have 70 percent of its students proficient in reading and math, with double the number of students scoring in the "advanced" range. Others are right on the mark: DCPS also aims to have 75 percent of high school students graduate within four years.
After being shown a four-page document and a PowerPoint presentation on OSSE's plan, DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said in an email, "The overall goals of this plan are aligned with our overall goals of providing all our children with a great education."
David Pickens, executive director of DC School Reform Now, said he questioned whether OSSE had any authority to implement its goals. While in Maryland and Virginia the local schools are clearly beholden to the state education departments, both DCPS and OSSE report to the mayor.
"You'd almost have to have the mayor reporting to OSSE," Pickens said. "The agency has always been set up for failure. They're doing the best they can given the circumstances, but its setup doesn't lend itself to real power."
What's the rush to close D.C. schools?
The Washington Post
By Mary Levy
December 18, 2012
Regarding the Dec. 2 Local Opinions commentary “Do school closings knock kids off course?” by Umut Özek and Michael Hansen:
The 2008 D.C. school closings did not benefit students. At best, the test scores of the students studied by Mr. Özek and Mr. Hansen went down, then reverted to their pre-closing levels. The learning gains and savings predicted by the backers of the closings never materialized, and total enrollment among the affected schools declined by about 3,000 students.
Parents of children in the D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) justifiably fear that more closings will lead to a continued downward spiral. DCPS will become a rump system west of Rock Creek Park, while the rest of the city will be served by DCPS schools enrolling largely very poor and special education students and lottery-admission charter schools for students whose parents can get them in. This would no longer be a true public education system.
Most of the schools now on the chopping block have become under-enrolled because they sit close to an increasing number of competing charter schools. But there’s no plan for relating the two sectors. A master facilities plan and an operating-cost study covering both are in progress, as is a study on school boundaries and feeder patterns. What’s the rush to close so many schools before study and planning are done?
At Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s community meetings, the turnout of parents passionately opposed to closings has been impressive. To her credit, Ms. Henderson says she is rethinking the list. We cannot take for granted these fragile communities that believe in their neighborhood school.
Mary Levy, Washington
The writer is an independent budget and policy analyst who has worked as a consultant for the D.C. Council, the Office of the Chief Financial Officer and D.C. charter school organizations.
Cool Schools: Getting Ready for the Global Market [Elsie Whitlow Stokes mentioned]
WUSA9
This video can be found at the link above.
Parents concerned that DCPS does not require lockdown drills
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
December 18, 2012
As my colleagues Donna St. George and Lyndsey Layton reported Tuesday, parents across the country are asking questions about school security following the fatal shooting of 26 students and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn.
In the District, some parents are raising concerns that children and teachers haven’t practiced what to do in case of an armed intruder.
Susan Messina, the parent of a student at Deal Middle School in Northwest, said she was shocked to learn that her daughter could not recall ever doing a lockdown drill during her nine years in D.C. public schools.
“Children need practice in remaining silent and away from doors and windows,” Messina wrote in an e-mail. “In the unthinkable event of an armed killer, one child making noise could mean death to an entire classroom. Having a plan on paper, with no practice, seems useless.”
DCPS trains all principals in crisis response and encourages them to conduct lockdown drills among other emergency-preparedness drills, said school system spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz.
Many principals do conduct lockdown drills, Salmanowitz said, but they are not required to; nor are they required to report whether they conduct them to the central office.
Over the summer, all DCPS principals received active-shooter training. Central office administrators reminded principals of that training Friday and sent them a copy of training materials.
All DCPS schools have at least one school security officer, and many schools have metal detectors and other security systems, such as alarms and cameras.
“We’re really confident in our security systems,” Salmanowitz said. “These scenarios obviously draw bright lights on the importance of keeping security protocols tight and relying on them in times of crisis.”