FOCUS DC News Wire 10/9/13

 

 

The District should boost funding for public education by more than 15 percent — or nearly $180 million — to ensure that schools have adequate resources to lift student achievement, according to the preliminary recommendations of a study commissioned by the city government.

 

The study calls for raising the basic per-pupil allocation, from $9,306 to $11,356, to provide for smaller class sizes, more technology, and more counselors and student-support workers. It also recommends providing more money for “at risk” students.

 

The recommendations are likely to trigger debate about how much money the schools, which have some of the country’s highest per-pupil spending rates, really need. And they are likely to stir discussion about how the city divides funds among charter and traditional schools, which compete for students and resources.

 

“This is not going to be easy, but I think it’s important that we’re taking [head-on] the question of what resources it will take to deliver on our goals for kids, and the issue of how [we] can do that equitably across sectors,” Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith wrote in an e-mail.

 

The study is the result of a 2010 city law that requires an examination of the per-pupil funding formula used to distribute taxpayer dollars to schools. Two outside consulting firms looked at spending patterns of successful D.C. schools and convened panel discussions with dozens of city educators.

 

The consultants also recommended adding about $3,400 for each student in a new “at risk” category, which includes those who are homeless, in foster care or receiving benefits through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program.

 

D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), who has been pushing to overhaul school funding as chairman of the Education Committee, said he is largely pleased with the recommendations and will make funding them a “top priority.” But the “at risk” definition is a sticking point, he said, calling it too narrow to reach many students living in poverty.

 

Catania has introduced a bill that would provide extra dollars for every student eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, a program that requires a student’s household income to be less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level. Families must be far poorer to qualify for TANF, earning less than about 30 percent of the poverty line, he said. “I’m hoping there can be compromise in hammering out the details,” he said.

 

The study echoes long-standing calls for greater transparency in D.C. school budgets, with all expenditures made public online.

 

It also attempts to address charter school leaders’ complaints that they’ve been shortchanged because the traditional school system, in addition to per-pupil funding, receives city services worth tens of millions of dollars each year. The consultants recommend incorporating the cost of those services — such as lawyers and building maintenance — into the per-pupil allocation.

 

Should the recommendations be adopted, the D.C. Public Schools system would receive a net increase of $56.5 million compared with the current fiscal year, and charter schools would see a net increase of $79.2 million.

 

The city would kick in an additional $43 million to maintain buildings for the traditional school system — at least in the near term. That prospect irked some charter school leaders; it also caused concern among traditional-school advocates, who worry that the subsidy would shrink over time, forcing the school system to use instructional funds to cover maintenance.

 

School system officials said they recognize that the city faces hard choices and appreciate the chance to comment.

 

“Establishing fair policies for charter and DCPS schools is challenging. Clearly, DCPS schools operate under a series of requirements that make their work more difficult,” schools spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said.

 

Smith said the city can shrink the maintenance subsidy by pushing under-enrolled traditional schools to share space with charters and city agencies. The school system maintains more than 4 million square feet of space that it doesn’t need, the study found.

 

But Smith said it seems fair to subsidize school system maintenance to some degree. Unlike charter schools, traditional schools — with their pools, athletic fields and meeting spaces — serve as community centers, she said. And the school system must maintain enough buildings to accommodate any D.C. student who wants to enroll.

 

Smith told school leaders and advocates at a public meeting Monday that city lawmakers are unlikely to make a new $180 million investment all at once and that it would instead have to be phased in over several years.

 

She said she expects that the recommendations will evolve as her office reviews the study and considers community input. Comments are due Friday.

 

The study does not address the $3,000-per-student allowance charter schools get to defray facilities costs; consultants said they didn’t have enough information to recommend changes. Charter school leaders have argued for years that the allowance is inadequate compared with the city’s multibillion-dollar effort to modernize traditional schools in recent years.

 

 

The majority of D.C. charter schools and all schools in the city’s traditional school system plan to participate in a single unified lottery to determine enrollment for the 2014-2015 school year, officials in the office of Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) said.

 

Details about how the lottery will work will not be available for a few weeks, according to a new Web site, myschooldc.org, which went live Monday and will serve as a central clearinghouse for information about the effort.

 

The Web site features a list of schools that plan to take part. It includes all traditional public schools, including selective magnets and out-of-boundary and early childhood programs. The list also includes more than 40 charter schools, which account for nearly nine out of 10 charter seats in preschool through 12th grade, according to Deputy Mayor of Education Abigail Smith.

 

The intent behind the unified lottery is to streamline an enrollment process that can be chaotic and frustrating for families and school administrators.

 

Smith worked with representatives from the traditional school system and charters to develop the shared lottery, and sketched the outlines of the effort when she first announced the effort in May.

 

Parents are likely to be asked to rank both traditional and charter schools in order of preference. Then a computer algorithm would run the lottery, admitting each child to only one school and maximizing the number of students who are matched with one of their top choices.

 

Currently, dozens of charter schools operate separate enrollment lotteries. The traditional school system holds its own lottery for students seeking a seat in pre-kindergarten or in magnet schools and other so-called out-of-boundary schools, which draw children from outside their neighborhoods.

 

Children can win admission to multiple schools across both sectors, leaving other youngsters on long waiting lists that shift throughout the summer and into the fall as families decide where to enroll.

 

The unified lottery is meant to cut down on that waiting-list shuffle. It also allows parents to submit one application for all participating schools rather than juggling multiple forms.

 

The online application will be available Dec. 16, according to the Web site. Applications for high schools, including selective magnet schools, will be due Feb. 3. The deadline for early childhood, elementary and middle school applications is March 3.

 

Participation in the unified lottery is not mandatory for charter schools. Those who do not take part will continue accepting separate applications and conducting separate lotteries. Among the charters not listed on myschooldc.org are: Washington Yu Ying; Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom; Meridian; Latin American Montessori Bilingual; Options; Booker T. Washington; SEED; Tree of Life; Roots; Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science; and St. Coletta.

 

D.C. Council Member David A. Catania (I-At Large) has also been advocating for a shared lottery. He introduced a bill in June that would require the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to develop and implement a unified lottery to determine enrollment beginning for the 2015-2016 school year.

 

 

Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School has opened a second campus to serve adult learners in Washington D.C. The campus will focus on teaching work skills to as many as 500 students.

 

Sonia Gutierrez, after whom the new campus is named, is the school's founder. She says in the new campus, they're able to offer 500 students workforce training classes — that's five times more than before.

 

"And now in the new campus we had 500. We have three academies: the academy of culinary arts, the academy of nursing aides, the academy of IT," Gutierrez says.

 

The school has been inspired by a Washington State model of education that has proven so successful it's being implemented in 20 states, including Maryland. Employers help develop curriculum and there's an emphasis on "soft skills," including punctuality, discipline and teamwork. Classes are also taught by two teachers together — an academic instructor as well as a language teacher, who can help with grammar and vocabulary.

 

The traditional "sequential" model of adult education where you first learn English and then join a career training program, typically takes two to three times longer.

 

Allison Kokkoros, the chief academic officer, says they only offer fields where there's high demand from local employers for bilingual staff.

 

"We know when our students graduate, this is the beginning for them of entering true family sustaining work that has upward mobility," Kokkoros says.

 

The school is looking to expand into Maryland and Virginia in the future.

 

 

Some buildings are described as letting in an abundance of natural light. When you first enter the brand new Sonia Gutierrez Campus of the Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School the first impression you get is that light graciously allowed steel to be erected around it. The facility appears to sail, as if it is not made of classrooms and offices but is instead comprised of four stories of wings delicately layered upon one another.

 

I had the amazing opportunity to tour the site yesterday morning. Most of us are already familiar with Carlos Rosario. It is the award winning adult education school for immigrants that has served over 60,000 people since it began as a community organization in 1970. 2,500 students a year now pass through its doors. My wife and I still talk about the gala honoring founder Sonia Gutierrez which we attended a little over a year ago. It was perhaps the best organized event we have been to in the nation’s capital.

 

Tuesday, two reporters and I received an introduction to Carlos Rosario in the second floor boardroom from Allison Kokkoros, the school’s chief academic office. The guests were provided with a general overview of the history of the charter. We then learned about this new building which just opened late last month. The structure is 50,000 feet in size, was an old warehouse located near the Rhode Island Avenue metro station, and is filled with over 500 students on any particular day. It was now time to embark on a tour with Principal Dr. Jorge Delgado.

 

After spending 30 seconds with Dr. Delgado you learn that he must have won a prize for enthusiasm at some period in his life. His face beamed as he showed us classroom after classroom, all located off gleaming white corridors, which were uniformly filled with state-of-the-art equipment. We passed computer rooms full with students following lessons projected on smart boards. I marveled at the humongous stainless steel kitchen which was a perfect replica of those found at the Culinary Institute of America. Since I work in healthcare, I was especially interested in watching in another part of the building certified nurse assistant trainees trying to perfect applying a splint to the leg of a mannequin.

 

Dr. Delgado repeated common themes throughout our time together. For each subject area, whether it is information technology, English as a second language, the culinary arts, or preparing pupils to pass their G.E.D. examination, he revealed that the campus relies on best practices and data to drive instruction. One employee specializes in obtaining needed social services for the student body. A job placement office finds positions for those who have completed coursework at the school.

 

We stopped by the cafeteria, again all in white, with the sun reflecting off every surface of the space. Dr. Delgado took us to an area divided off from where the majority of the tables were located. He explained that this was their café where students learn how to master the skills of becoming excellent waiters.

 

We then had the opportunity to say hello to Ms. Gutierrez. She joked that after opening this building she was ready to turn over her work to someone else. I told her that was impossible since she had to create campus number three. She said that she would but she has bigger plans. “People want us to replicate across the country because they yearn for what they see here,” the Carlos Rosario founder explained. Based upon my experience, I’m sure her presence is wanted in each of the 50 states.

 

 

The D.C. Council's education committee approved a bill by council member David Catania to repeal a "ridiculous" rule allowing the city's failing elementary and middle school students to be passed along from one grade to the next.

 

Catania, an at-large independent who chairs the committee, had sought to discourage social promotion with the "Focused Student Achievement Act." The bill passed Oct. 2 in a 3-to-1 vote, with Catania insisting it was "ridiculous" to continue permitting students who lacked academic proficiency to be promoted to the next grade.

 

Mark Jones, Ward 5 School Board representative, agreed, calling it a "disservice to our families and our children."

 

"We're setting them up for failure later in life," Jones said.

 

Traditionally, the concept behind retaining students has been that it would provide them the extra time needed to catch up with their well-performing classmates, instead of passing them along unprepared. Many support the practice, arguing that it enable students to matriculate to the next grade in order to avoid the humiliation of repeating a grade one or more times.

 

"These are the kids who tend to drop out because they've been moved forward unprepared," said Jones, who added that Catania's efforts were not accomplished in a vacuum.

 

"I know that he met with me personally as president of the school board, and some others in meetings and conversations on the legislation," Jones said.

 

The newly-passed mandate is part of Catania's seven-bill package that he announced in June, aimed at aggressive reforming the city's public school system.

 

 

Over a year ago Mayor Vincent Gray launched the Grade.DC.gov program as a way of collecting feedback on various District agencies that interact with the public. As of October 1, DCPS has joined the list of those agencies. But it's not clear that grading the school system on its customer service is the best way of evaluating its performance.

 

The Grade.DC.gov program allows members of the public to comment on the performance of 15 different agencies in a variety of ways. They can submit their opinions through the Grade.DC.gov website, and the program also combs Twitter and other Internet sites for comments. Every month each agency receives a letter grade based on the feedback.

 

The grades are generated by newBrandAnalytics, a local research firm that primarily markets its services to hotels and restaurants. The partnership with DC came about in late 2011, when Gray visited the company to convince it to stay in DC and saw the kind of work it was doing. The District paid the company $170,000 to design the Grade.DC.gov system and also pays an annual fee of $250,000.

 

Some have questioned the value and accuracy of the program. Although grades have fluctuated in the past, the average grade for all participating DC agencies has held steady at "A" for three consecutive months. That sounds suspiciously like a case of grade inflation. Critics have noted that during a period last spring when the Fire and Emergency Medical Services department was being roundly criticized for its performance, its rating on Grade.DC.gov was A+.

 

The other problem is that some agencies draw far more reviews than others. Most of the feedback has focused on four agencies: the District Department of Transportation (DDOT), the Department of Motor Vehicles, the DC Public Library, and the Office of Aging. Last month, for example, DDOT garnered 454 reviews, while the Department of Small and Local Business Development got only 13.

 

Obviously, the number of reviews has a lot to do with whether a grade is an accurate reflection of an agency's performance. The Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration, which DCPS is replacing on the list, got an A+ in September, based on only one review. In June it got an F, also based on one review.

 

How many will review DCPS?

 

How many reviews will DCPS attract? Given the number of DC residents whose lives are affected by the public school system, there should be quite a few. But the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, one of the 15 agencies that has been on the list for a while, got only 52 reviews last month. And for the three prior months it averaged only about 15.

 

OSSE, which got a B- last month, oversees both DCPS and the charter school sector, so you'd think that it would potentially attract more reviews than DCPS alone. On the other hand, parents whose children are in the DC school system are far more likely to be aware of DCPS than of OSSE.

 

In theory, providing a mechanism for feedback on DCPS sounds like a good idea. But the Grade.DC.gov system is designed to collect customer-service-type feedback: an employee, for example, who is either particularly rude or particularly helpful. While there's nothing wrong with amassing that kind of data, it's probably better suited to an agency like the DMV, where the quality of customer service is of prime importance.

 

Grade.DC.gov will do nothing to address the fundamental critiques many parents and other DC residents have of DCPS's performance and policies. And because all reviews, regardless of their content, are aggregated into a single letter grade, any nuance in the feedback will get lost in the process. A complaint about a single teacher or administrator will presumably receive as much weight as an indictment of the entire curriculum.

 

In a comment included in the press release announcing the addition of DCPS to the Grade.DC.gov program, DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson made the distinction clear. "While our work is primarily focused on what's happening in the classroom," she says, "there is so much more to DCPS, and I'm grateful for a tool like Grade DC to help inform us about what we're doing well and where we need to improve."

 

Perhaps it's not surprising that a system originally designed to grade hotels and restaurants can't accommodate debates about education policy. But be forewarned: if you have a comment about anything that's actually going on in the classroom, you'll need to find some way other than Grade.DC.gov to make your views known.

 

 

Charter schools in New York City have flourished over the past decade, attracting donations from Wall Street, praise from leaders in business and government, and free real estate from the city.

 

But with a changing of the guard imminent in City Hall, many charter school leaders are concerned that the support they have enjoyed during the three terms of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg may be in peril.

 

The leading candidate to succeed Mr. Bloomberg, Bill de Blasio, a Democrat, is a no-bones-about-it critic of charter schools who rose to prominence in part by berating the mayor’s educational agenda. By contrast, the Republican candidate, Joseph J. Lhota, is a fierce defender of charter schools.

 

In one of his sharpest repudiations of Mr. Bloomberg’s tenure, Mr. de Blasio has said he would stop offering many of the city’s 183 charter schools free rent, a policy that has helped turn New York into one of the most vibrant hubs for charter schools in the country.

 

Charter schools, often managed by nonprofit groups, receive public funding but operate independently of the school system and have more freedom in deciding scheduling, staffing and curriculum. The Bloomberg administration is concerned enough about the future of the city’s charter schools that it is racing in its final months to place two dozen more of them into public school buildings. The board that approves school space plans will meet twice this month, an unusual step.

 

Mr. de Blasio contends that Mr. Bloomberg has focused on charter schools to the detriment of traditional public schools, pitting parents against one another and sapping resources that could be used for after-school programs and classes like art and physical education.

 

“It is insult to injury to give them free rent,” Mr. de Blasio said at an education forum this summer. “They have the money.”

 

His aides said he was not looking to overturn all of Mr. Bloomberg’s educational policies. In recent weeks, he has arranged meetings with charter school advocates; in past conversations, he has sought to persuade them that he is not a zealot who will seek to drive their schools from the city.

 

Still, many charter school leaders remain uneasy about Mr. de Blasio’s plans. Some have started preparing for a City Hall that is resistant to their efforts. They are seeking donations in case they are forced to pay rent, freezing hiring plans and prodding teachers and students to speak out.

 

On Tuesday, thousands of charter school parents, students and educators marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to voice opposition to Mr. de Blasio’s rent plan and to demand more money for their schools, which serve about 70,000 children, or about 6 percent of the student population citywide.

 

“De Blasio is just wrong,” said one marcher, Ieshia Sargent, a cosmetologist who sends her 13-year-old daughter to Girls Prep, a Lower East Side charter school. “Every other public school has free space. Why shouldn’t charters have free space, too?”

 

James Merriman, chief executive of the New York City Charter School Center, said plans to charge rent were “schemes to destroy the charter sector” by opponents.

 

“They consider charters to be, simply in their own words, parasites,” Mr. Merriman said. “Those kinds of proposals would be simply disastrous.”

 

Mr. Lhota has accused Mr. de Blasio of seeking to “annihilate” New York City’s charter schools. Mr. Lhota, who has said he would maintain the free-rent policy, has pledged to double the number of charter schools in the city, which would require state approval.

 

“If you oppose charter schools and other choice for minorities, inner-city kids and children of immigrants, you cannot call yourself progressive,” Mr. Lhota said in a speech before business leaders in Manhattan on Tuesday.

 

The details of Mr. de Blasio’s approach to charter schools remain murky, so it is difficult to estimate how damaging it would be to charge them rent. Mr. de Blasio has not said how much he would charge, only that schools with the fewest resources would pay the least. At many charter schools, wealthy benefactors supplement the money the state provides for each student.