The Current
D.C. charter advocate hails movement's achievements
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Charter school advocate Malcolm Peabody - whom some D.C. officials have called the "godfather" of local charter schools - recently touted the independent schools' role in the city at a Rotary Club of Washington meeting.
At the Rotarians' March 31 meeting, Peabody explained that public charter schools got their start with congressional legislation in 1996. Two charters opened in Washington that year. This school year, there are 57 charters with 99 campuses and more than 27,000 students - accounting for about 38 percent of the population of publicly funded schools.
Peabody said the charters' independence makes them stronger than traditional public schools. They have full control of staffing and budgeting, with principals and leaders making the decisions on hiring and firing. The result, he said, "is a much better experience than you will get in a regular school."
Each charter receives public funds based on the same per-student allowance provided to traditional public schools, though staff pensions at traditional schools are funded separately, while those at charters must come out of the general allocation, Peabody said.
In addition, separate funds maintain and construct traditional public schools buildings - which is not the case for charters. Charter schools typically engage in fundraising to supplement their tax dollars.
The night before the Rotary meeting, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray joined Peabody at the awards ceremony at the Carnegie Institution of Washington for the Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, which Peabody founded. Gray praised charters for doing "a fantastic job of opening new classrooms" despite receiving less in facilities funding than traditional schools do. "It should be the same investment for both," he said.
Several charter schools won honors at the ceremony. KIPP: Key Academy - one of three Knowledge Is Power Program middle schools in D.C. - won an award for outstanding performance for its middle school campus. The Southeast school, where 78 percent of students come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, has the highest test scores among D.C. public middle schools. In 2009, 77.3 percent of students tested proficient or better on the city's reading assessment, and 94.2 percent tested proficient or better in math.
Northwest's Meridian Public Charter School, where 84 percent of students are economically disadvantaged, won the elementary school award, having logged major gains in test scores. The percentage of students testing proficient or better in reading leapt from 28.7 per- cent in 2006 to 66.4 percent in 2009. The jump in math was even bigger: from 22.3 percent in 2006 to 72.0 percent in 2009.
Peabody noted that traditional public schools have seen increased scores, but he said that if the share of disadvantaged students is accounted for, charters are doing better.
He said that data on students from traditional and charter schools who tested proficient and above is now available at focusdc.org. "This will be powerful in holding schools accountable as we track their progress," he said.