FOCUS DC News Wire 3/17/2014

 

 

Friday's story about D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray's education record leaves out, thanks to space limits, plenty of details about strengths and weaknesses in the District's schools policies.

 

One area that may get more attention in the coming months is the Office of the State Superintendent of Education — the city agency responsible for monitoring special-education compliance, administering standardized tests and funneling federal grants to schools.

 

Created in 2007 by the same law that brought mayoral control to the schools, OSSE is a low-profile linchpin in the city's education reform efforts. But for much of its young existence, it has been wracked by leadership turnover and mired in management problems.

 

The agency scored a major victory in 2012 when it emerged from court oversight of special-education bus transportation, but it has continued to struggle under Gray (D) as it did under his predecessor, Adrian Fenty.

 

In the past year, the agency has been led by three different superintendents and has made headlines for failing to publicly disclose its scoring methodology for 2013 standardized tests; for paying a Chicago firm $90,000 to present at a one-day parent summit; and for persistently weak financial management of a popular federal college-aid program.

 

"That OSSE is still reeling after all these years doesn't say much good about the mayor," said Robert Cane, executive director of the pro-charter advocacy group FOCUS, which often clashes with OSSE over regulations that FOCUS sees as violating charter schools' right to autonomy.

 

Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith said she believes that the current superintendent, Jesus Aguirre, will strengthen the agency. Aguirre joined OSSE in October after leaving his post as head of the Department of Parks and Recreation.

 

"We all recognize that OSSE has a longer way to go" than other city education agencies, said Smith, who oversees the agency.

 

Aguirre's nomination barely squeaked out of the D.C. Council's Education Committee. Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and David Grosso (I-At Large) raised questions about Aguirre's past, including his leadership of an Arizona charter school that was closed in part because of failure to comply with federal grant reporting requirements.

 

Wells, Grosso and committee Chairman David A. Catania (I-At Large) also questioned whether Aguirre is independent enough from Gray to carry out OSSE's responsibilities - including monitoring the school system, also controlled by the mayor - without political interference.

 

Catania, a frequent critic of OSSE, introduced a bill last year that would give the agency somewhat more independence from the mayor's office, allowing the superintendent to be dismissed only for cause. Now Catania is running for mayor and has pledged to make education a central theme of his campaign.

 

 

Parents are calling on Mayor Vincent C. Gray to restore city funding meant to help provide a permanent home for D.C. International, a new foreign-

language-immersion charter school for students in grades six through 12.

 

Last month, Gray administration officials blocked a multimillion-dollar grant to DCI, calling it an illegal use of capital funds and sparking a wave of protest.

 

"The city has a compelling interest in being a partner in this incredible thing that is unfolding," said Monica Fitzgerald, a parent at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom, one of five language-immersion elementary charter schools that banded together to form D.C. International in an effort to extend language studies into middle and high school.

 

Fitzgerald was one of dozens of parents and children who testified at a hearing Saturday that D.C. Council member David A. Catania (I-At Large) organized to draw attention to the issue.

 

DCI is slated to open in the fall in a temporary space, where school leaders expect to stay until they finish renovating Delano Hall, located at the old Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Northwest.

 

The D.C. Council set aside $6 million last spring to help DCI plan the renovation of its future home. But the Gray administration redirected those dollars to other projects last month, arguing that funneling extra funds to one charter school is unfair and sets a bad precedent. Administration officials also said capital funds may be spent only on governmental entities, not on charter schools, which receive public funding but are operated by private organizations.

 

The disagreement is a sign of the trouble many charter schools face in trying to find and pay for real estate, and it highlights the legal differences between charter and traditional schools - differences that are sure to attract attention as charter schools enroll a growing share of D.C. students.

 

It is also a politically charged dispute, pitting Gray (D), who is seeking reelection, against Catania, who inserted the $6 million grant for DCI into the budget and recently said he is running for mayor in November.

 

Catania argued that Gray could find a way to fund DCI's new building if he wanted to, pointing to other private development projects that have benefited from city resources.

 

"At the end of the day, all of these funds are fungible," Catania said. "I don't think we should allow $6 million to stand between us and what can be a real educational gem."

 

The hearing stretched more than five hours, with parents pressing Gray to reverse his decision, pointing to the need for more excellent secondary schools across the District.

 

Children spoke about their excitement for DCI, offering testimony peppered with Spanish, French and Mandarin Chinese. "I think it's a bummer that the government isn't giving DCI as much money as promised," said Nina Gwynn, 9, a third-grader at Latin American Montessori Bilingual. "I hope they change their mind."

 

Gray spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said that the city doesn't have a choice. Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan opined last month that charter schools cannot legally receive capital funds backed by income-tax-secured bonds.

 

Ribeiro accused Catania of making "DCI and these families a promise he knew he couldn't legally make" and of "using DCI, which we think is a great idea and support, as a pawn in his shameless political game."

 

Ribeiro said the administration began talking with DCI about possibilities for a permanent home more than a year ago and is still working to identify such options as moving into a vacant school building or co-locating with another public school. "We want to make this happen," Ribeiro said. "We do have facilities that are available, and we can work with them to find a temporary and a permanent home."

 

Catania argues that the city could use capital funds that are not borrowed and have far fewer strings attached, but the Gray administration maintains that those funds are also off-limits.

 

The Office of the Chief Financial Officer has yet to weigh in on the matter, but a spokesman said he expects the office to issue an opinion soon.

 

DCI Chief Operating Officer Mary Shaffner said Saturday that the school has signed a letter of intent for a two-year lease at 16th Street and Park Road NW, in a building occupied by one of its five partner schools, Mundo Verde.

 

Shaffner said that she is open to any options for a long-term home but that the only concrete one now is Delano Hall. If DCI is to open on time at Delano Hall, she said, it needs the $6 million to secure additional financing and foot critical renovation planning and start-up costs.

 

As currently planned, DCI would grant automatic admission to students in its five feeder schools, with additional seats open for enrollment by lottery. The school is slated to serve 1,200 students at maximum capacity.

 

D.C. Council member and mayoral candidate Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), who also attended Saturday's hearing, said he supports restoring the $6 million but would like to see DCI expand its feeders to include traditional elementary schools with language-immersion programs.

 

DCI leaders said they are open to that possibility.

 

 

D.C. Councilman and education committee chairman David Catania held a hearing on Saturday to put pressure on Mayor Vincent Gray to allow the D.C. International School to receive the $6 million he set aside for the school's permanent facility. Mr. Gray nixed the funds saying that the city cannot give money to a non-profit corporation and it is not fair for one charter to receive these dollars when others do not.

 

I agree on the second point. Until the charter school facility financing problem is solved I'm uncomfortable with one-offs for particular projects. However, there is a solution to this mess. DCPS has more than enough space to house the language immersion middle and high school formed by a consortium of five charters.

 

Many of our public officials state boldly that they are supporters of public school reform. Yet, when a traditional school fails to educate our kids year after year it just continues operating. This is quite different from the charter model in which chronically low performing schools are closed. If we are really for reform then low quality institutions must be shuttered.

 

I can hear the cries now in response to my suggestion. "We cannot close a neighborhood school. It is too disruptive." Well I would point out that it is far more disruptive to society to have adults who cannot find a job because they were not taught the skills they need to school to succeed. In the nation's capital we have accepted educational malpractice for far too long.

 

If you say you are for school reform then close those that are not working and expand those that are. Then, we won't have to spend five minutes on finding DC International an appropriate home.

 

 

The candidates in the Democratic mayoral primary have generally offered voters only platitudes on education reform. What's needed is a plan to increase socioeconomic diversity by ensuring a critical mass of middle-class students in as many schools as possible.

 

For the most part, the candidates' positions on education have been limited to saying that the quality of teachers and administrators should be high on our agenda. They have argued that all children in our public school system, regardless of their socioeconomic background, deserve an excellent education. But these goals, while appealing to voters, are devoid of content.

 

What would a detailed reform proposal include? Whether we support charter or traditional schools, mayoral control or boards of education, teachers' unions or test-based systems of accountability, we should be united in support of policies that increase socioeconomic diversity.

 

Benefits of diversity

 

While the scientific evidence for education reform is not nearly as scientific as many data-driven reformers claim, a strong consensus exists on two things. Low-income kids score significantly higher on standardized tests when they attend non-majority-poor schools than they do when they attend majority-poor schools. And middle-income kids do not suffer academically when they share schools and classrooms with a minority of low-income students.

 

Ideally, we would be able to reduce the number of majority-poor schools in our system. But we have a limited ability to do that, because the vast majority of kids who attend public schools in DC are low-income.

 

Further complicating the matter, many middle-class parents have over the years been reluctant to send their kids to majority-poor schools. (I'm using "middle-class" to include low-income parents with a middle-class commitment to education.)

 

But do schools actually need to have a majority of middle-class students in order to achieve the benefits researchers have identified? That's far from clear.

 

Not all majority-poor schools are the same, and so far researchers haven't been able to distinguish between low-income schools that have, for example, good principals and teachers and those that do not. Nor have they distinguished between schools serving different low-income ethnic groups or focused specifically on schools in diverse neighborhoods.

 

Many people seem to question the sanity of middle-class parents who send their kids to majority-poor schools. But they are in fact enrolling their kids in these schools with a confidence that bucks conventional wisdom.

 

And what their actions suggest is that more and more middle-class parents would send their kids to majority-poor schools if our diverse public schools are able to maintain a critical mass of middle-class families.

 

What's a "critical mass"?

 

What would qualify as a critical mass? I have not found any research on this subject, but personal experience and the statistical data suggest that for many middle-class families living in diverse neighborhoods, 20 to 30% middle-class would win their loyalty and commitment.

 

As a middle-class parent of children enrolled in an early childhood development program at a majority-poor neighborhood elementary school, I am not convinced that socioeconomic segregation is inevitable. I'm also not convinced that low-income and higher-income students have such different academic needs that both groups can't be educated successfully in the same classroom.

 

Even at majority-poor schools, low-income kids surely derive some benefits from their middle-class peers. Middle-class parents may invest their time and energy in the school, and rising test scores and a growing reputation for academic excellence can boost school morale. These benefits are especially likely to arise if there is a critical mass of middle-class families and the school is located in a diverse neighborhood.

 

And what about the effects of a majority-poor elementary school on middle-class kids? In my experience, many poor kids do need remedial help, but the vast majority are not disruptive and are as eager to learn as middle-class kids. As long as early childhood and elementary school classes spend a lot of time working in small groups, students will be able to learn at their own pace.

 

That's one reason attracting and maintaining a critical mass of middle-class families is so important. Middle-class parents need to know that their children will have a group of peers working at the same level in their classrooms.

 

"Controlled choice" focuses on the wrong problem

 

Advocates of a "controlled choice" assignment system have also focused on creating more diverse schools, but they have misidentified the problem. The primary challenge is not to protect low-income students from being displaced by a wave of middle-class parents in gentrifying neighborhoods, as they argue.

 

Rather, the problem is the inability of many elementary schools and nearly all middle and high schools in diverse neighborhoods to attract and maintain a critical mass of middle-class families.

 

To solve that problem, we need to engineer greater coordination between our two public school systems, DCPS and charter. Middle-class parents who enroll their kids in majority-poor schools are under constant pressure to defect before other middle-class families do. And an abundance of charter schools that appeal to middle-class families makes it easier for them to do that.

 

This situation cannot be rectified easily. But if our solution to under-performing schools is to open another charter school, schools that would otherwise be able to attract a critical mass of middle-class parents will suffer defections.

 

Middle schools

 

By middle school, middle-class parents want something more than a critical mass of peers. Majority-poor middle schools will also need a full complement of school courses and extra-curricular activities if they're going to attract higher-income parents. This latter requirement will present our next mayor with his or her greatest challenge.

 

Schools that are presently underenrolled, whether they remain DCPS or are converted to charters, will have to be fully funded. We can't assume that the same middle-class families who have contributed to our elementary school revival will, one brave family at a time, spark a comparable middle- and high-school revival without that.

 

An alternative (perhaps complementary) solution would be to open schools in middle-class neighborhoods that already have great schools and reserve a percentage of seats at both new and old schools for the out-of-boundary lottery. That may seem unfair, but it would ensure that schools in those areas would be both diverse and majority middle-class.

 

At the same time, we have to acknowledge that, given the socioeconomic imbalance in our school system and the economic segregation in the District, most DC parents will be sending their kids to schools serving only low-income families for the foreseeable future.

 

If those parents don't win a lottery seat at a diverse school, they should be given a choice between their neighborhood school or a nearby charter school with a proven track-record of serving low-income kids.

 

But these kinds of decisions need to be made in the spirit of cooperation, not pure competition, because a school system cannot plan rationally for the future if its two parts are making decisions independently of each other.

 

Our next mayor will have a chance to set our public school system on a path of sustainable long-term improvement. But if we merely "double down" on present strategies, as the incumbent mayor says he would do, or take refuge in platitudes, as his competitors have largely done, we won't solve the problem of middle-class dispersal. And a set of enrollment patterns will get entrenched that will be very difficult to reverse.

 

 

The number of K-12 students receiving free breakfast at school is rising across the country, and the District is seeing the fastest growth, compared to all 50 states.

 

Between 2009 and 2013, the number of students served free breakfast in the nation's public schools jumped by about 2 million, according to the Agriculture Department, which oversees the free breakfast program.

 

Nationally, the number of K-12 students eating free breakfast at school grew by an average of 18.9 percent in the past five years, from 11.1 million in 2009 to 13.2 million in 2013.

 

But in the District, the rate ballooned by 72 percent over those same years, from 20,431 participating students to 35,038.

 

Maryland also outpaced the national growth rate in the breakfast program, feeding 154,317 students in 2009 and 211,651 students in 2013, or a 37.2 percent increase. Virginia's growth rate was below the national average at 16.3 percent; it fed 234,396 students in 2009 and 272,501 in 2013.

 

Sandra Schlicker, deputy superintendent in the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education, credits the jump in participation with the D.C. Healthy Schools Act of 2010. The law directed public schools to provide free breakfast to students in their elementary school classrooms.

 

For middle- and high-school students, the law requires breakfast to be provided in alternate forms to a central cafeteria - bagged breakfasts in a kiosk or items offered in a cart in the school lobby, for example.

 

The idea was to make breakfast as convenient as possible and not require students to have to go to a cafeteria to eat, Schlicker said. Having students eat together in classrooms reduced the stigma attached to free breakfast, she said. "They can sit and eat, everybody together, and listen to announcements at the start of the school day," she said.

 

The District also leads the country in the percentage of hungry children. In 2011, New Mexico and the District had the highest rates of children in households without a consistent food supply - about 30 percent, according to Feeding America, a national nonprofit organization. That same year, 20 percent or more of the child population in 36 other states lived in households where they did not get enough to eat, the group said.

 

Serving breakfast in the classroom is catching on in school districts around the country, said Kevin Concannon, USDA's undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services. Breakfast in the classroom makes sense, especially for young children, he said. "It doesn't send the children trundling down the hall to a central location," he said. "It brings breakfast to them."

 

Several other factors have contributed to the nationwide jump in the number of students eating free breakfast at school, Concannon said.

 

Program officials saw a spike in the years following the 2008 recession, he said. School meals started featuring more fresh fruits and vegetables as a result of the 2010 federal Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act. "The quality of the food is better," he said.

 

"The champions of school breakfast are not just the school nutrition directors," Concannon said. "It's principals and superintendents. They see the results. They see kids who aren't falling asleep, who are doing better in classes."

 

Still, the increase in number of meals served does not necessarily translate into more meals eaten.

 

District officials have not been measuring the amount of "plate waste," i.e., uneaten food tossed into the garbage, said Schlicker. That kind of monitoring is expensive, so school officials have been relying on anecdotal evidence from teachers and administrators, she said. And they're reporting that waste at breakfast has been decreasing, Schlicker said.