- District unveils policy to prevent bullying in and out of schools
- Race to the Top: D.C., Maryland and Georgia way back in the field First
- Scholastic Innovation [Yu Ying, LAMB, Mundo Verde, and Elsie Whitlow Stokes PCS mentioned]
- Board urged to revise graduation standards
Race to the Top: D.C., Maryland and Georgia way back in the field First
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton and Emma Brown
February 1, 2013
In the second year of Race to the Top, the Obama administration’s signature effort to improve public schools, nine of 12 jurisdictions that received $4 billion in federal grants made good progress. But three — the District, Maryland and Georgia — have stumbled, federal officials said.
“We have a lot of good news in this report and also some challenges,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan told reporters Thursday.
The Education Department has been closely tracking the performance of the 12 states, praising those that are performing well while identifying others where problems have arisen.
None of the grantees have been ordered to return federal funds, although Georgia has been moved into a “high risk” category.
To win the money, each state and the District crafted its own plan to improve education from kindergarten through 12th grade. All pledged to implement new systems to evaluate teachers, use data to measure how well students are learning, pump new resources into troubled schools and allow or encourage public charter schools.
The states are now in the third year of the four-year grant. The report released Thursday examined progress made in the past school year.
Federal officials said the District’s greatest failure was that it moved to improve only one of 13 low-performing schools that it had committed to turn around under the terms of the grant.
In addition, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education — which is responsible for administering the $75 million federal grant — was 10 months late in releasing a Web site and other resources meant to help teachers transition to a new set of rigorous national standards, known as the Common Core.
District officials also are months delayed in completing a database meant to track students’ progress throughout their academic careers in D.C. schools.
Federal officials pointed to substantial turnover among staff at OSSE as one reason for the delays. Turnover also was blamed for the District’s failure to meet expectations after the first year of Race to the Top.
The federal government is committed to helping the District, but the city must get moving, Duncan said: “We need all states to show results, and the slow pace of D.C.’s progress needs to dramatically accelerate.”
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education was created in June 2007, when D.C. schools came under mayoral control. The office has had troubles since the outset, facing several structural challenges. It serves as a state education agency in a jurisdiction that is not a state, and it deals with a school system with a chancellor who is the city’s dominant educational figure amid a growing number of public charter schools that are separate school districts in the eyes of the law.
“We have been and are currently working to address the problems that were presented,” said Ayan Islam, an OSSE spokeswoman.
Maryland, which won $250 million, has had difficulties hiring qualified staff to run data systems aimed at improving instruction, a key part of its Race to the Top program. And the state had problems developing a new teacher-evaluation system. Officials failed to collect information when new evaluations were piloted last spring, a problem that federal officials attributed to a lack of leadership in Annapolis.
Much of the sputtering occurred during a year-long period when Maryland’s education department was without a permanent superintendent. Lillian M. Lowery assumed the post in July.
“Maryland has had some leadership challenges that the new chief will have to make up, but we have tremendous confidence in her,” Duncan said.
In a statement, Lowery said Maryland is moving ahead. “We have made further strides since this report was completed,” she said, noting that test scores are starting to reflect the impact of the federal grant money. Of the 16 low-performing schools that Maryland is working to turn around, all have met state goals in math and 12 have met state reading goals, Lowery said.
While 22 of Maryland’s 24 school districts are participating in Race to the Top, Montgomery and Frederick counties are not. Leaders in those counties disagreed with the idea of using students’ state test scores as a measure of teacher quality.
District unveils policy to prevent bullying in and out of schools
The Washington Post
By Alex Kane Rudansky,
January 31, 2013
The D.C. Office of Human Rights presented a model citywide bullying prevention policy to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) on Thursday, making the District one of the first cities in the nation to take such a broad approach to protecting young people from harassment.
Gray signed a law in June that requires schools and all other youth-serving agencies — including public libraries, parks and Metro — to develop anti-bullying policies. Each policy must meet certain requirements based on the law, guided by a model policy the city’s Youth Bullying Prevention Task Force developed.
The task force recommended language that agencies can adopt, including provisions that require each agency to define bullying and outline how victims and witnesses can report bullying incidents. The model policy also suggests investigation procedures and possible consequences for bullies, from reprimands up to a ban from certain government facilities.
Suggested language in the policy defines bullying as “any severe, pervasive or persistent act or conduct whether physical, electronic or verbal” that singles someone out based on race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, age, appearance, sexual orientation or other characteristics. Such bullying could create fear of physical harm, affect physical or mental health, interfere with academic performance or the ability to participate in activities, according to the policy.
Bullying “is an enormous problem that at best is understated in D.C. and across the country,” Gray said Thursday. “The most important thing is to ensure we can take this work and make it into a reality.”
The policy is designed to prevent bullying, not just address it after it occurs, by aiming to reach all District students and adults, regardless of whether they have been bullied. The policy also outlines a plan to address those who are at a higher risk of bullying or being bullied, said John Roman, one of the co-authors of the policy.
“This is groundbreaking,” said Shawn Gaylord, director of public policy at the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. “We certainly know that youths face discrimination and bullying not just in school, but in a lot of different settings.”
There is no federal law that directly addresses bullying, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Every state except Montana has some form of bullying prevention law.
“What is key is the directive to create a culture of respect and safety in all of the agencies,” said Caltha Crowe, a retired elementary school teacher who consults with schools across the country on bullying prevention. “When children are taught to include, respect and take care of each other, then bullying is far less likely to occur.”
The schools and youth-serving agencies will submit their individual policies to the task force, which will review them to ensure they are compliant with the law. The task force includes representatives from government agencies and advocacy organizations, school administrators and teachers, mental health professionals, parents and students.
Roman said the District’s policy is different because it comes from a public health perspective rather than a justice system perspective.
“This is radically different than typical policies that are about rules and regulations,” said Roman, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, a D.C. think tank. “It’s all about trying to change the climate of places and changing norms.”
As with any policy that aims to change a social norm, this one has its challenges, Gaylord said. He said some states struggle with implementation.
“Given the size of D.C., it should be less of a challenge,” Gaylord said. “But implementation is always a key part of protecting young people.”
Scholastic Innovation [Yu Ying, LAMB, Mundo Verde, and Elsie Whitlow Stokes PCS mentioned]
The Current Newspapers
January 30, 2013
One of the key benefits of encouraging school choice and charter schools is innovation.
Four language-based elementary charter schools in D.C. are great examples of this. They provide immersion programs in Spanish, French and Chinese. And now they’re coming together to add a middle and high school, with hopes that it will gain accreditation through the well-regarded International Baccalaureate program. We think it’s an excellent idea.
Yu Ying Public Charter School obtained rights to space at the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center, where it will place a middle and highschool in 100,000 square feet at a former nurses’ residence. Latin American Montessori Bilingual won rights to another 35,000.
The two schools decided to join forces — and enlist two others: Mundo Verde Bilingual and the Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom School — in order to strengthen the upper school’s offerings. A larger student body will enable broader academic, athletic and cultural offerings. The planned school could accommodate up to 1,000 students.
The partners have also decided to open a merged middle school in fall 2014 at a temporary site. Finding incubator space may prove a challenge, but it should help the new school hit the ground running when it moves to Walter Reed.
Creating the District of Columbia International Public Charter School from four member institutions will certainly pose administrative and logistical challenges. But if school officials can fulfill their aspirations, it will benefit the city greatly by providing a rigorous education for D.C. youth ready to truly become “world citizens.”
Board urged to revise graduation standards
The Current Newspapers
By Deirdre Banana
January 30, 2013
Public testimony last week at the D.C. State Board of Education meeting on proposed changes to high school graduation requirements showed an overwhelming interest in increasing sexual health education, making the thesis requirement optional, and reinstating U.S. government as a required course.
The board has been working on possible revisions to the graduation requirements for the past 14 months, with a goal of providing schools with more flexibility while also creating standards that better prepare students for college or high-skilled careers. The board’s latest proposal, released in December, recommended requiring more art and music education, adding a physical activity requirement, and allowing some units to be fulfilled by
demonstrating proficiency rather than by completing a course. It also proposed increasing the total number of units needed to graduate from 24 to 26.
Geetha Ananthakrishnan, a public policy coordinator with local nonprofit Metro TeenAIDS, was one of several witnesses at the Jan. 23 meeting who gave examples to illustrate what seems to be a dire need for more sexual health education. She testified that her organization worked with one young man who said he and his girlfriend thought they could prevent pregnancy and the transmission of sexually transmitted infections by having sex near a microwave while it was running, and would do so rather than use condoms or other birth control methods.
“We meet youth who are unaware of their own anatomy on a regular basis,” said Ananthakrishnan. She and others from Metro TeenAIDS urged the board to increase its health education requirement from 0.5 units to 2.0 or higher, which they said would better align with national standards and meet the goals of the D.C. Healthy Schools Act.
Other witnesses — including physicians, nonprofit directors, educators and current high school students —provided other examples demonstrating a lack of knowledge of basic reproduction facts as well as other health education subjects including nutrition, exercise and disease prevention.
For the thesis requirement — which was put into place in 2007 but later suspended — many witnesses said it should become optional, and a new diploma of distinction could be awarded to the students who complete one.
“Students doing well should have a chance to demonstrate their abilities in a topic of their choice,” said Sade Brown, a 12th-grader at Dunbar who has an interest in nursing and said she would like to complete a thesis, if she knew how. “Requiring all students to complete this without the proper support will create additional obstacles for people to graduate.”
The thesis requirement is not currently part of a specific class, but an independent project that juniors and seniors take on. Many stakeholders, including Cathy Reilly of the Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators, see it as a barrier to graduation for some students, who don’t have the guidance they need to complete the project. Board members Patrick Mara (Ward 1) and Mark Jones (Ward 5) said at the meeting that they were receptive to the idea of a special diploma for students who choose to complete a thesis.
Students and other stakeholders also urged the board to drop its plans to make U.S. government a social studies elective rather than a requirement, arguing that students can’t become responsible citizens if they don’t know how to participate in the decision-making process.
“How can we have student government in every school if students are not required to learn about government?” asked Dunbar junior J’znee Currie.
Erich Martel, a retired D.C. Public Schools teacher, said it would be “an embarrassment” not to require government in the city that just hosted the presidential inauguration.
D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson joined with leaders of seven charter schools to send a letter to the board expressing concerns with the proposed rules.
Alexandra Pardo, executive director of Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School, signed that letter. At the meeting, she said that adding two more credits to the overall graduation requirements — which she said are already among the most rigorous in the country — would create a burden for higher-achieving students and those who need more help.
She said she wouldn’t want to tell a student that they had to drop an Advanced Placement class, which might span two class periods, in order to take more physical education, art or music courses. Alternatively, Pardo said, failing classes is a reality for many high school students, who need time to recover lost credits. Others may enter high school in need of remedial reading and math classes. Adding two more units to the graduation requirement, Pardo said, would prevent those students from taking extra classes they need.
Dan Gordon of the D.C. Public Schools’ Academic Programming Office testified that some of the proposed changes could substantially increase staffing, scheduling and accountability-related expenses.
Several school board members said they were open to making changes to the current proposal. Ward 4 representative D. Kamili Anderson noted that not all members agree on the recommendations.
Public comment on the proposed requirements ended last week, but board members said they hope to hold roundtables with students and
school principals in the next 30 days for further discussion.
The board will draft a final proposal by Feb. 6 to submit to the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education, which will provide feedback on implementation. The board plans to vote March 20.