- We have good data about DC's low graduation rate, but little idea how to increase it [Perry Street Prep PCS, KIPP DC PCS, Maya Angelou PCS, and Cesar Chavez PCS mentioned]
- D.C. chancellor says schools on track to speed up progress this year
- DCPS Chancellor cites academic progress, but there is a long way to go
- D.C. teachers union makes no endorsement in mayor’s race
We have good data about DC's low graduation rate, but little idea how to increase it [Perry Street Prep PCS, KIPP DC PCS, Maya Angelou PCS, and Cesar Chavez PCS mentioned]
Greater Greater Washington
By Natalie Wexler
September 30, 2014
Given current trends, 40% of DC's 9th-graders won't graduate from high school on time. A new report gives us a lot of data about what lies behind that figure. Now the question is how policy-makers can use that data to improve the situation.
The report, released last week by a public-private partnership called Raise DC, reveals that a student's characteristics in 8th grade have a lot to do with her chances of graduating on time. But some high schools do better than others at getting high-risk kids back on track. At this point, it's still not clear how they do it, or even which high schools they are.
Eighth-graders who have special education status or limited English skills are more likely to drop out of high school, according to the report. The same is true for those who are over-age, have a lot of absences, score low on standardized tests, or fail math or English. And students who have been involved with the foster care or juvenile justice systems are also at high risk.
While it's good to have all of this quantified, few will be surprised by these findings. The real question is what changes will emerge in response to them.
Raise DC, the partnership that announced the report, launched last year in an effort to bring rationality and a spirit of collaboration to DC's social service sector. The idea is that government agencies and nonprofits will work together to help improve outcomes for DC's children and youth.
The first phase of the joint effort focuses on collecting data. In addition to last week's report on graduation rates, which was done by a consulting firm under the supervision of the Deputy Mayor for Education, Raise DC put out a baseline report card over a year ago.
One of the baseline figures was the percentage of students who graduate from high school in four years: 61%. The goal is to raise that figure to 75% by 2017.
The graduation rate study tracked about 18,000 students who were first-time 9th-graders between 2006 and 2009. The students attended either DCPS schools or one of four public charter schools: Perry Street Prep, KIPP, Maya Angelou, and Cesar Chavez.
While the report ranked high schools on how well they improved students' chances of graduating on time, it didn't attach school names to the results, and DC officials wouldn't release them. But school leaders received data for their own schools, and a working session on Friday gave them a chance to begin formulating strategies to address their school's weaknesses.
Here are some questions they and other policy-makers might want to consider:
How early should we start focusing on kids who look like they're at risk of dropping out?
The report targets danger signs in 8th grade, but other school districts have begun looking for them even earlier. Montgomery County, for example, is now looking for red flags as early as first grade.
While no one wants to stigmatize young children, the sooner schools start focusing on problems with attendance, behavior, and coursework (the ABC's of early warning signs), the less difficult it will be to address them.
How can we help schools that have a lot of high-risk students?
High schools that do the most to help high-risk students graduate have very few of them, according to the report. One conclusion might be that you should spread those students around, so that no school has a high concentration of them.
But that's unlikely to happen. Of the 16 schools that did best in improving students' chances of on-time graduation, only two were neighborhood high schools. The others were selective DC Public Schools or charters, with generally low numbers of high-risk students. You can't just assign high-risk students to such schools.
In fact, it's far more likely that high-risk students will be concentrated in a few schools: the report found that 50% of the students who fall off-track right away in high school attend just seven different schools.
But there's one school, identified in the report only as "School 7," that seems to do well despite the fact that 29% of its students are high-risk. It's a traditional public school with a 59% graduation rate. That may not sound impressive, but it's 20 percentage points higher than predicted, given the school's student body. It would be nice to know what is enabling that school to achieve those results.
What can we do to reduce the number of students who switch schools?
Every time a student switches from one high school to another, the report says, his chances of graduating on time sink by 10 percentage points. And 30% of DC students switch schools at least once during their high school years.
One likely factor contributing to DC's high student mobility is a lack of affordable housing, which can cause low-income students to move frequently or even become homeless. A study released last year revealed that thousands of students exit and enter DC public schools midyear.
This is a problem not just for those students, but also for the DCPS schools that have to take them in. The disruptive effects of that kind of student churn recently led New York City to exempt two struggling high schools from the obligation to admit students mid-year.
The bottom line is that increasing DC's graduation rate, like other efforts directed at closing the achievement gap, is going to require more than just classroom reform. Schools can do a lot, but government agencies and non-profits will also need to address housing problems, mental health issues, and a host of other poverty-related ills.
In theory, Raise DC should make it easier to put in place the kinds of cross-sector strategies that are necessary. But it's still too soon to tell if that theory will translate into practice.
D.C. chancellor says schools on track to speed up progress this year
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
September 30, 2014
In her second annual address on the state of D.C. Public Schools, Chancellor Kaya Henderson said Tuesday night that the District’s public schools are on track to accelerate progress that has been underway in recent years.
Citing topics such as the new Common Core tests, technology initiatives and the recently approved boundary changes, she said the city is working to provide better access to challenging and engaging schools across all neighborhoods.
“I want to be clear,” she said. “We know what we need to do, and we have what it takes to get it done.”
She spoke in an auditorium filled with educators, politicians and parents at H.D. Woodson Senior High School, a recently remodeled school in Northeast Washington that has a new Academy for Science Technology Engineering and Math.
D.C. Public Schools enrollment increased this year to 47,000 students, a five-year high, which the chancellor called a sign that the District’s reforms are working.
The city’s traditional public schools have lost tens of thousands of students over the years, many of them to charter schools that now enroll 44 percent of the city’s public school students.
But Henderson cited Powell Elementary School, near Columbia Heights, as an example of a comeback. She said a new principal and team of teachers have helped reengage the community and tripled enrollment in four years.
Henderson described many investments that the city is making in the school system. This year, she said, middle schools have extra funding for counselors, psychologists and enrichment opportunities. And more schools are rolling out blended learning programs, in which students spend part of the day learning on computers.
About two dozen schools adopted a longer school-day schedule, she said, and the city has invested an extra $5 million in making schools more fun, through extracurricular activities, arts, more sports and field trips.
Henderson emphasized the steady gains the schools have made on national and local standardized tests and acknowledged the magnitude of work that remains to be done.
Just under half — 48 percent — of students were proficient in reading on the 2014 DC CAS tests. The average masks a sharp disparity: The proficiency rate was 92 percent for white students and 38 percent for African Americans. Poor students and those who are learning English posted 37 and 36 percent proficiency rates, respectively.
The school system recently created an Office of Innovation and Research to develop strategies for boosting achievement, particularly for African American and Hispanic male students, the chancellor said.
And officials are working to “completely reimagine” and “re-engineer” city high schools so students can graduate with more marketable skills.
Graylan Hagler, a candidate for D.C. Council who attended the speech, challenged Henderson’s record of progress, pointing to the continued low test scores for nonwhite students.
“In reality, the achievement gap is increasing,” he said.
Parent Tha-Lai Simpson brought her second-grade son to the speech. She transferred him to D.C. public schools after he attended a private kindergarten, a move she called “daunting.”
But Simpson said his first year at Tyler Elementary was positive. She likes the Spanish-language program, the school garden and the community of active parents.
She was glad to hear the chancellor talk about high school reforms because she is beginning to think about her son’s future.
“It’s nice to know it’s improving,” she said.
DCPS Chancellor cites academic progress, but there is a long way to go
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
October 1, 2014
The Washington Post's Michael Alison Chandler reports today that DCPS Chancellor Kay Henderson, in her second State of D.C. Public Schools address on Tuesday, spoke about the tremendous progress being made across the traditional school system:
"Henderson described many investments that the city is making in the school system. This year, she said, middle schools have extra funding for counselors, psychologists and enrichment opportunities. And more schools are rolling out blended learning programs, in which students spend part of the day learning on computers.
About two dozen schools adopted a longer school-day schedule, she said, and the city has invested an extra $5 million in making schools more fun, through extracurricular activities, arts, more sports and field trips.
Henderson emphasized the steady gains the schools have made on national and local standardized tests and acknowledged the magnitude of work that remains to be done."
Yes, academically there is much work to be done, especially in comparison to the charter sector that educates 44% of all public school students in this town. Taking a look at the 2014 DC CAS results we see that in math 50.9% of students are proficient in DCPS, compared to 59.6% in charters. Much of this rate is being driven by white students. The math proficiency rate is 92.2% in DCPS for these students and 91% in charters for the same group. But these numbers hide a tremendous difference in these measures for African American and economically disadvantaged kids. For DCPS the proficiency rate in math for African American pupils is 40.8% compared to 57.3% for these students in charters. For economically disadvantaged children 40.9% are proficient in DCPS compared to 57.3% in charters.
A similar pattern exists when it comes to reading. The overall proficiency rates are 47.7% for DCPS and 53.4% for charters. For white students the numbers are 91.6% in the regular schools and 93.9% in charters. For African American pupils the reading proficiency rate is 38.5% in DCPS and 50.5% in charters. For those on the low end of the economic scale the DCPS reading proficiency rate is 38.5% while for charters it is 49.1%.
It appears that there is clear evidence that for those young people that school reform was meant to help, African American and low income students, charters are leading the way to academic progress. Perhaps Ms. Henderson should take a look at what they are doing.
D.C. teachers union makes no endorsement in mayor’s race
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
September 30, 2014
The Washington Teachers’ Union opted not to endorse a candidate for the mayor’s race, saying in a statement that the city’s teachers hope to work more closely with whomever wins.
Elizabeth Davis, president of the union which represents more than 4,500 teachers and other educators, said that during a lengthy process of interviewing candidates and polling members, no clear front-runner emerged.
“We believe a ‘no endorsement’ position is in the best interest of the WTU and its membership,” Davis said in a release.
The direction of the city’s public schools has been a major issue in one of the most competitive general elections in recent years, between the Democratic nominee, council member Muriel Bowser (Ward 4); independent David A. Catania, an at-large D.C. Council member; and Carole Schwartz, a former council member and another independent candidate.
Davis said teachers hope to play a more active role in the next administration by shaping policies around school reform.
Some priorities for the union include focusing attention on high rates of teacher turnover and the achievement gap between different groups of students, she said. The union is pushing for a model of “community schools” that have on-site wraparound services, including a full-time librarian and a social worker on site.
Such an approach would improve neighborhood schools throughout the city, Davis said. “There would be no need for boundary changes,” she said, referring to the controversial plan that Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) adopted in August that redraws attendance zones throughout the city.
And as D.C. Chancellor Kaya Henderson has pushed to lengthen school days as a way to boost achievement, the union’s position is that officials should focus instead on making better use of time during the traditional school day.
“We want the chancellor to look at the schedule from 8 to 3:30 p.m. and see how much time is spent on test prep and how much is spent on actual instruction,” Davis said.
The union’s endorsements in other races include:
For D.C. Council: The Rev. Graylan Hagler (At Large); Brianne Nadeau (Ward 1); Charles Allen (Ward 6).
For attorney general: Paul Zukerberg.
For State Board of Education: Lillian Perdomo (Ward 1); Ruth Wattenberg (Ward 3).