- Fewer charter school applications this year [Rocketship PCS, Harmony PCS, Democracy Prep, Options PCS, Yu Ying PCS, Munde Verde PCS, Thurgood Marshall Academy PCHS, Two Rivers PCS and FOCUS mentioned]
- Options Public Charter School reopens with new leadership and new mission [Options PCS and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
- Future of Options PCS dominates Public Charter School Board meeting [Options PCS mentioned]
- New D.C. education ombudsman has a busy first year
Fewer charter school applications this year [Rocketship PCS, Harmony PCS, Democracy Prep, Options PCS, Yu Ying PCS, Munde Verde PCS, Thurgood Marshall Academy PCHS, Two Rivers PCS and FOCUS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
September 17, 2014
The D.C. Public Charter School Board two years ago created a fast track for experienced charter operators with successful records in other cities to apply to open schools in the District.
The effort brought in California-based Rocketship, which plans to open its doors in Anacostia next fall, as well as Texas-based Harmony and New York-based Democracy Prep, which opened schools this year.
But this year, the board received no applications from out-of-state operators, and overall applications dipped slightly compared with recent years.
In 2011, the D.C. Public Charter School Board received 19 applications. In each of the past two years, it received 13. This year it received 10, including two applications the board announced last week that offer plans to restart Options Public Charter School, a small alternative school that is under court receivership.
Charter school advocates said they do not see a waning interest in building charter schools in the District, where the charter school movement has experienced steadily growing enrollment. Numbers of applicants have fluctuated widely in the nearly two decades that charter schools have been operating in the city, but some are surprised that there have not been more applications from high-performing charters from other parts of the country.
“I would have expected, given D.C.’s reputation, that we would have more interest,” said Don Soifer, a member of the D.C. Public Charter School Board.
The city has some of the highest per-pupil spending in the country, charter-friendly politicians, strong philanthropic support, and a metropolitan environment that is attractive to many potential teachers and school leaders. Such key advantages have set the stage for D.C. charter schools to enroll one of the highest shares of public school students in the country, with 44 percent of students enrolled.
But nationally, there is a great deal of competition for a relatively small number of charter school operators that have produced strong results in the most challenging inner-city environments.
“Every one wants them,” Soifer said. Some cities offer buildings to help entice reputable operators. In the District, suitable facilities remain a significant challenge for charters.
Some advocates say the more rigorous application process in the District might also be a disincentive for prospective applicants.
“You cannot underestimate the grueling process of applying,” said Naomi Rubin DeVeaux, deputy director of the charter school board.
She said experienced operators have to show a three-year track record of academic success and must demonstrate a strong understanding of the communities they would serve in the District.
There has been a significant push across the United States, particularly among philanthropists, to spread the academic experience of successful charter schools to more students. But progress has been slow.
“We as an education community talk a lot about the potential benefits of going to scale, but in operational terms, it’s not clear that it’s going to happen,” Soifer said.
Rocketship officials announced recently that they are dialing back ambitious plans to expand and are instead focusing on four regions, including the District. Leaders cited difficulty navigating varying charter regulations and environments. Last year, Rocketship also saw test scores drop amid instructional changes and enrollment growth.
DeVeaux said the board is equally interested in growing new talent from near and far. “Some of our best schools were start-ups,” she said, citing Yu Ying and Mundo Verde as examples. “That’s where the next great idea comes from.”
The process for high-performing charter schools in the District that want to expand is much easier, DeVeaux said. Thurgood Marshall Academy and Two Rivers were recently approved to open new campuses in the fall.
Prospective first-time operators were invited to apply along with experienced operators this fall. Both applications that the board received outline plans to turn around Options, a Northeast school for at-risk students that has been in turmoil since its former leaders were accused last year of diverting more than $3 million from the school through contracts to companies they founded.
One application is from the current leaders of Options, who propose to continue efforts to transform the school and to reopen it as Kingsman Academy. The second is from Phillips Programs for Children and Families, an organization that operates private special education and nontraditional schools in Maryland and Virginia.
Across the country, there is a growing emphasis on charter school quality over quantity, as many low-performing charter schools have closed. Authorizers are looking for more detailed financial and academic plans, advocates say.
“We want good people to charter schools in the District that are going to be successful,” said Robert Cane, executive director of FOCUS, a pro-charter group. “If there are five applications one year, fine. One, fine. Ten, fine. It doesn’t matter. What we are always concerned about is that we want the Public Charter School Board only to charter those schools that are extremely promising,” he said.
Options Public Charter School reopens with new leadership and new mission [Options PCS and Thurgood Marshall Academy PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
September 16, 2014
Options Public Charter School, marred by allegations of financial misconduct last year, was made over “almost from scratch” before it reopened last month under new leadership and with new staff members, according to the school’s court-appointed receiver.
The school now has clean financial records and a mission to raise the bar for serving a group of at-risk students who have been let down by the system, the receiver, Joshua Kern, said in a report to the city’s charter school board.
“The new Options is up and running, and I feel confident that it has been transformed with students’ needs first and foremost in mind,” Kern told the D.C. Public Charter School Board at a meeting Monday night.
In October, the city filed a lawsuit alleging that former leaders of Options had engaged in a scheme to divert more than $3 million to companies they founded. A former senior official at the charter school board who was responsible for financial oversight of the schools, Jeremy L. Williams, also was allegedly involved in the scheme.
Now the charter board is attempting to arrive at a long-term vision for the school, in Northeast Washington, that serves students with serious learning disabilities and behavior challenges.
The process got off to a slow start last year. The charter board considered revoking the school’s charter, but parents and advocates argued that the school should remain open because many students had nowhere else to go. A proposal to have the traditional public school system take over management was unsuccessful because officials said they were not prepared to take on the students.
More than six months after the city’s lawsuit was filed, the charter board decided to extend the school’s charter for one more year. Kern hired a new leadership team to prepare for the next school year.
“Turning the key and opening the doors on August 25 was a very big deal,” said Kern, a founder of Thurgood Marshall Academy in Anacostia, a high-performing charter school. “It was a huge, backs-to-the-wall accomplishment for a staff that created a new school almost from scratch in less than five months.”
More than 40 of the school’s 116 teachers and staff members are new employees, and many of those who returned were assigned to new positions.
Gone are the outside management companies — now the subject of litigation — that previous managers set up to provide bus transportation and other services under contracts with the school.
“Now everyone who is on staff reports to school every day, and there are clear roles and responsibilities for every staff member,” Kern said.
The new school has a personalized learning plan for each student and offers a greater range of special education services, longer learning blocks for students who are performing below grade level, and advanced classes for students who are at or above grade level.
The administrators closed a second Options campus, called “the Academy,” which was reserved for students with severe socio-emotional challenges, and absorbed those students into the main school. Merging the two campuses has been challenging, Kern said.
Even with the highly publicized financial scandal and the prolonged uncertainty about the school’s future, the vast majority of families sent their children back to Options, Kern said, which he called “startling.”
“More amazing, the parents of 44 new students chose the school as the best answer for their needs,” he said. “These figures speak volumes about the demand for a school that provides programs and support for at-risk young people. These . . . are students who have not succeeded in traditional public or public charter schools and, if it were not for Options, would have no realistic opportunity for an education.”
In August, Kern invited prospective operators to apply to take over the school permanently. Last week, the charter board announced that two groups, including the current leadership team at the school, had submitted plans to operate the school.
Future of Options PCS dominates Public Charter School Board meeting [Options PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
September 17, 2014
Anyone at all interested in the current state of public education in the inner city needs to watch the video of the February meeting of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. But let me warn you. The discussion that took place regarding the most recent quarterly report on Options PCS is not for the faint of heart. The conversation revolved around educating children with severe emotional and physical disabilities.
Two guests opened the public hearing. Testimony was provided by Julie Camerata, executive director of the D.C. Special Education Cooperative, and Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children's Law Center. The picture they painted was not pretty.
It was explained that Options is not serving its students well. Both the staffing and programs are inadequate. Kids are afraid to walk the halls. There is a lack of needed licensed professionals. Employees do not fully understand their obligations to these students under the law. Individualized Education Plans for special education kids are incomplete. The academic program is not meeting the needs of pupils and parents.
Then the really fascinating part began. The witnesses were plummeted with questions from board members. "Can you identify a charter or DCPS school that is doing a good job educating this population of students? Is there a place where we should transfer these students who could take better care of them?" "Where in the nation is a program we can look to as an example of the way it should be done?" You get the idea.
The answers were not encouraging. No, Ms. Camerata and Ms. Sandalow asserted, there is really not a location more appropriate to send these kids right now. They pointed out that no one has really figured out how to properly educate these pupils who have ended up in Options because there is nowhere else for them to go. While the hope is that in the future that the need for an Options type school would become obsolete, right now they indicated that the city is fortunate that the charter exists.
After a further philosophical discussion detailing the academic care of special education students it was now time to hear from the Options PCS court-appointed Receiver Josh Kern. His remarks could not have contrasted greater with those of the two women. He revealed that Options reopened its doors this past August with 281 students, the enrollment was 388 last term. With all of the severe legal problems the charter has experienced and the constant talk of shuttering its doors, a wildly impressive 84 percent of students from last year returned to the school. 44 new students signed up for admission. From here the story only grew in optimism.
Besides the significant financial improvements Mr. Kern has brought to Options he spoke about nine concrete steps instituted in order to provide a quality education to the student body. Among these include an enhanced leadership team, individualized focused instruction, coursers designed to bring kids up to grade-level and beyond academically, and a wide variety of extra-curriculum offerings. A revamped special education program is designed to meet the needs of each and every pupil. What he described was nothing less than a complete turnaround.
Next year a new organization will run Options as Mr. Kern and the PCSB are now entertaining proposals to make this transition a reality. But the progress that has been made to serve those that others have not wanted is frankly beyond belief. It is almost as if the troubles with Options were really a blessing as it showed what can be accomplished with this most challenging of student populations. We, together as a city, are doing the right thing for these children.
New D.C. education ombudsman has a busy first year
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
September 17, 2014
Just weeks before school started, Jennifer White received a letter from the principal at her son’s middle school in the District. With a pattern of late arrivals in the spring, the letter said, her son was not invited to return.
White was stunned. When her initial calls to the principal were not returned, she approached the city’s new education ombudsman, who helped her set up a meeting with the principal and negotiate a way for her son to return to classes.
The Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education, which was revived this year after a four-year hiatus, fielded 150 complaints or concerns in its first six months. The office’s first report, scheduled for release Wednesday, offers a snapshot of the types of matters that D.C. parents were trying to resolve: credits lost during school transfers, poor services for students with disabilities, long-term suspensions, fears about bullying.
The ombudsman’s office is designed to be a neutral third party that can address concerns so that they do not fester or escalate into court cases, but the present occupant also hopes to elevate the role that parents play in a world of educators and administrators filled with rules and acronyms.
“We want to develop a culture where schools are learning to be more responsive to parents and to see them more as equal partners,” said Joyanna Smith, a lawyer and former charter school official who was appointed ombudsman early this year. “I think a number of parents have been ignored.”
Washington is one of a handful of U.S. jurisdictions that have independent ombudsmen dedicated to education.
The office was established in 2007, offering parents a place to take disputes because one traditional route — school board members — became less effective when the mayor’s office was given control of the city’s schools. The ombudsman position had been left unfunded and vacant since fiscal 2010.
The D.C. Council also approved funding to create an Office of the Student Advocate, which is being activated. That office is intended to reach out to parents to share information about the school enrollment lottery, special education and other services, and to represent families involved in disputes, including some that the ombudsman mediates. Together, the offices cost $582,000 in the 2015 budget.
Advocates say the complexity of the District’s school choice process and a history of resolving disputes through litigation — particularly in special education — create a demand for such mediation and advocacy services.
“The tremendous response from parents underscores the need,” said Brendan Williams-Keif, spokesman for David A. Catania, the chairman of the D.C. Council’s Education Committee and an independent mayoral candidate.
When the ombudsman’s office opened Feb. 26, Joyanna Smith, equipped with a phone and a laptop, started her first day emptying a voice-mail inbox that already was filled with complaints and concerns.
The office has grown to include a full-time associate ombudsman and two fellows. Parents typically call or e-mail, but they also can show up in person.
Of the 150 complaints and other queries recorded up to August, more than two-thirds came from parents of D.C. Public Schools students and about a quarter from parents of charter school students, according to the office’s report. Others came from school leaders or advocacy groups seeking help or information.
Complaints came in from every ward, but nearly half came from families living in Wards 7 and 8.
The office responded to concerns about disrespectful school administrators and inadequate school safety. It helped families retrieve credits that students needed to graduate, returned students to schools after they had been removed, and negotiated classroom reassignments for students who were being bullied. In all, 94 percent of cases reached some kind of resolution, according to the office’s data. Sometimes, the resolution involved explaining a school policy to a confused parent; other times, it involved a conference call or in-person meeting with school officials and family members.
The most common complaints — 22 percent — involved special education, followed by school discipline concerns, at 20 percent. Many complaints touched on multiple issues. In all, the office estimated that 59 percent of the complaints were related to students’ disabilities or school discipline problems.
Special education is a particularly difficult world for parents to navigate, and they need a reliable way to get information about the city’s services, said Molly Whalen, a D.C. parent and special-education activist. She said parents approach her with concerns such as: “ ‘My child’s not learning and I don’t know what to do,’ or ‘My child’s having behavioral problems and I don’t’ know what to do,’ or ‘Do you know of a good autism classroom in the city?’ ”
The ombudsman helps parents research laws and wade through acronyms and agencies. Staffers can make calls during the workday, sit on hold, and add some urgency or leverage to a request.
The office, which sits within the State Board of Education, also is responsible for tracking concerns, developing potential solutions for gaps in services and creating policy recommendations.
“Any child that we help on any given day can be a bridge to help every child,” said Holland Rainey, a fellow in the office.
On Tuesday, Rainey and Smith met with Samuel Bowman and his teenage son. Bowman contacted the office recently because he was trying to enroll his son in school after he missed much of the last school year.
Bowman did not know what kind of programs or services to seek out. He said the ombudsman was helping him find a “safe, structured environment.”
“I’m trying to do better for my child,” he said. “It’s helping.”