- Education advocates file amicus brief to dismiss D.C. charters’ funding lawsuit
- Rocketship Officials to Address Charter School Board [Rocketship PCS mentioned]
- School districts uncertain about new tests
Education advocates file amicus brief to dismiss D.C. charters’ funding lawsuit
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
October 30, 2014
Fourteen public education advocates and two organizations filed an amicus brief in support of the attorney general’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the District has failed to provide equal funding to charter and traditional schools in accordance with the law.
The advocates said in a news statement this week that they are concerned that the lawsuit would “further eviscerate” civic influence and local control of public education in the District.
“Should plaintiffs prevail on their proffered basis, the District of Columbia government, and therefore the District of Columbia’s citizens, would be deprived of the ability and right to control public education — to which they devote on the order of 1 in 6 of their locally raised tax dollars,” the brief says.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court this summer by the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools along with Eagle Academy and Washington Latin public charter schools, argues that charters receive less public funding than traditional schools, in violation of the D.C. School Reform Act. That federal law requires the city to set up a “uniform formula” to fund charter and traditional schools equally on the basis of enrollment.
Charter and traditional schools are funded primarily through a per pupil funding formula, but traditional schools receive extra funds largely through support from other city agencies.
That disparity has added up to about $770 million since fiscal 2008, according to the charter schools’ complaint.
Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan’s motion says that policy decisions the D.C. Council has made about school funding are within its powers delegated by Congress through the Home Rule Act in 1973. The law allows the District to have its own popularly elected legislature and delegates it broad authority.
“I am a strong proponent of charter schools,” said Victor Reinoso, former deputy mayor for education, who signed on to the brief. “But the idea that a federal judge could bar District residents from having a role through their elected representatives in managing how and at what level their schools are funded should deeply offend every District resident.”
Other individuals named in the brief include PTA presidents and directors of neighborhood education alliances or advocacy groups. The two organizations that signed on are the 21st Century School fund, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting positive learning environments, as well as SHAPPE, an organization representing high school parents and educators.
Rocketship Officials to Address Charter School Board [Rocketship PCS mentioned]
The Washington Informer
By Dorothy Rowley
October 29, 2014
Officials for a California-based network of elementary charter schools will face the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board for a second time on Nov. 3 to find out if they can proceed with plans to operate a new school in Southeast Washington.
In the meantime, representatives for the nonprofit Rocketship Education chain have been facing opposition from some Anacostia residents about the school they want to open in August 2015 in the 2300 block of Raynolds Place SE. The site is located in close proximity to a halfway house for returning felons.
According to a letter written recently to the charter school board by the Rev. Michael Bell, senior pastor at Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Southeast, the location poses safety concerns.
"As you may or may not know, the proposed location of Rocketship is uncomfortably close to Hope Village, one of the largest halfway houses on the East Coast of the United States," Bell wrote. "We value our children and want them to know that when making decisions on their behalf, we consider the environment and the community."
Bell, who also noted that officials failed to get input from the community, added that the location is within walking distance of three traditional public schools. Rocketship's school would "force unnecessary competition between traditional public schools and charter schools," he said.
A resolution drafted during a September meeting of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners (ANCs) from 8B in opposition to the school noted some of the commissioners' concerns with Kay Venskus, Rocketship's vice president for policy. It also stated that the company's officials failed to conduct a comprehensive community outreach effort in support of the Ward 8 school site.
The resolution further emphasized that company officials failed to partner with any local churches or public housing communities.
As a result, the D.C. charter school board voted earlier to delay authorization for Rocketship to proceed until it addresses the concerns of local residents.
However, Anthony L. Green, ANC 8B, who admitted having reservations initially, said he now supports placement of the school at the site, which faces the 234-unit Woodland Terrace public housing community.
"I had my doubts at first, but now fully support the location," said Green, 28. "Others had raised the same issue of it being so close to the halfway house. But then, we considered that the halfway house had been in our community for more than 20 years with no problems, so I see no reason why anyone should oppose it."
Eboni-Rose Thompson, chair of the Ward 7 Education Council, said before the city approved the school, both charter school board members and Rocketship officials should have more carefully researched the location of the school and sought input from local officials.
"I've heard some complaints," said Thompson, 26. "I believe that the city needs to do a better job with their planning process. Everything else is a symptom of that – whether the school locates right across the street from a traditional District public school or with the charter school [moving in], then [residents] finding out there's a halfway house close by."
Rocketship officials in 2013 received the school board's approval to open as many as eight schools. Those schools are expected to serve 5,200 District students by 2019.
According to a statement on Rocketship's website, officials for the company believe a school should be located on Raynolds Place in Southeast.
"The [D.C.] community has proven that it's dedicated to ensuring every student has access to an excellent school and we've seen progress, but still less than half of our students are on grade level," the statement read. "Our Southeast neighborhoods demonstrate an even greater need, with less than a third of students on grade level. We need to rethink elementary education; our students deserve better."
Rocketship, which has a regional office in Southeast on Good Hope Road, touts itself as a network of elementary charter schools that primarily serve low-income students.
The chain also seeks to boost student learning through the use of 21st century methods, such as blended-learning. Having opened its first school in 2007 in San Jose, California, the chain also operates schools in Nashville, Tennessee; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Indianapolis, Indiana.
At the Monday, Nov. 3 meeting, Rocketship officials are scheduled to report to the board the steps they've taken to address residents concerns about the school's proposal.
School districts uncertain about new tests
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
October 30, 2014
Leaders of school districts that expect to administer one of two major new standardized tests next spring linked to the Common Core math and reading standards are worried they don’t have enough computers, bandwidth or personnel to administer the new online exams, according to a survey of educators released Thursday.
The Center on Education Policy polled school districts that plan this spring to give students online exams developed by two groups of states.
The groups, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) have spent years developing “next generation” exams designed to be more sophisticated than pencil and paper “fill in the bubble” tests. The groups received more than $330 million in 2010 from the U.S. Department of Education to create the tests.
Federal law requires states to test every public school student in math and reading once a year in grades 3 through 8 and once in high school.
Along with the development of new math and reading standards in K-12, known as the Common Core State Standards, the Obama administration has pushed states to use what it says are better designed tests that will engage students and inform adults. Online test taking will allow for faster scoring and better data collection by districts and states, supporters of the new tests say.
But most leaders leaders of 187 school districts who responded to the survey last spring by the Center on Education Policy, a non-partisan think tank housed at George Washington University, anticipate logistical problems.
About three-fourths, or 76 percent, of districts said they face either major or minor challenges, including a lack of computers with adequate processing speed, bandwidth, and personnel who can handle technical problems during testing.
And leaders of most school districts polled voiced a good deal of uncertainty about the value of the new tests.
A little more than half said it is unclear whether the new exams will be an improvement over their old state tests. About 55 percent said it was too soon to know if the new exams will improve classroom instruction, as promised by their promoters. And 64 percent said they didn’t know if tests results will be understood by parents and students.
The District of Columbia and 11 states — Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Rhode Island — are expected to give the PARCC test in the spring.
Twenty “governing” states are part of the Smarter Balanced consortium: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. In addition, Iowa and Pennsylvania are “advisory” states. It is unclear how many of these states will give the Smarter Balanced tests in the spring.
Both PARCC and Smarter Balanced field tested its exams to millions of students across the country last spring, to figure out any flaws with test questions, instructions to administrators or logistics.
Smarter Balanced Executive Director Joe Willhoft said in a statement that the survey of school districts took place last spring just as the field test was being administered, and that progress has been made since. He said Smarter Balanced has updated administration manuals, online training materials, and has been helping districts with technology planning, so they will be ready to give the tests for real in the spring.