NEWS
- Graduation rates up in D.C. public schools, down for charter schools [Maya Angelou PCS, Friendship PCS, IDEA PCS, Washington Latin PCS, and KIPP DC PCS mentioned]
- D.C. charter board receives six applications for new schools [Democracy Prep PCS, Lee Montessori PCS, and DC Prep PCS mentioned]
- DC Charter Board receives 6 applications for new schools [Democracy Prep PCS mentioned]
- Maryland, D.C., other states should be kinder, gentler to charter students
- High school graduation rates for minority students improve faster than rest of U.S.
- A Federal Funding Fight Over D.C. Vouchers
Graduation rates up in D.C. public schools, down for charter schools [Maya Angelou PCS, Friendship PCS, IDEA PCS, Washington Latin PCS, and KIPP DC PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
March 17, 2015
Graduation rates for D.C. Public Schools increased last school year by two percentage points to 58 percent and fell by nearly seven points in the city’s public charter schools to 69 percent, according to data released by the Office for the State Superintendent of Education.
The District-wide average for the Class of 2014 — 61 percent — was almost unchanged from the year before. The city’s graduation rate remains far below the national average of 81 percent.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson in an interview Monday said she was pleased, but “not thrilled,” by the incremental growth — cumulatively five points in four years. “Still too few of our young people are graduating,” she said.
But she said the slow pace “makes the case for why I’m investing $13 million into improving our high schools and ensuring our young people have the courses they need, the extracurricular and athletics they need to come to school to graduate on time.”
After significant investments in course offerings and extracurricular programs in elementary and middle schools, Henderson dubbed next year “the year of the high school.”
Her budget, introduced last week, includes enough staffing to offer at least six Advanced Placement courses and 20 elective courses at every comprehensive high school. Many schools have been lacking enrichment opportunities often associated with the high school experience, such as marching band, yearbook and debate.
The four-year graduation rate was calculated by following a cohort of students who started as freshmen and graduated with a regular diploma four years later during the 2013-2014 school year. It accounts for students who transferred in or out of a given school.
OSSE also reported a five-year graduation rate for the District, which was 68 percent last year — 63 percent for the traditional school system and 80 percent for charter schools.
The city is focusing new attention on reducing the high number of high school drop-outs. A report released in September offered the most comprehensive analysis to date of early risk factors that lead students to drop out. The report also found that graduation rates varied widely school-by-school even among students with similarly high-achieving or low-achieving profiles.
Charter school graduation rates last year ranged from 43 percent at Maya Angelou Public Charter School to 92 percent at Friendship Public Charter School Collegiate Academy.
Several charter high schools had double digit declines from the previous year. Booker T. Washington’s graduation rate dropped from 64 to 49 percent and IDEA’s rate fell from 75 to 48 percent. Graduation rates at Washington Latin and KIPP dropped 11 and 10 points respectively to 85 percent this year.
Three traditional high schools had double-digit increases. Woodson High’s graduation rate grew from 44 percent to 60 percent; Roosevelt High increased from 48 to 62 percent; and Columbia Heights Education Campus, a selective high school, increased from 73 percent to 84 percent.
Among the city’s comprehensive high schools, graduation rates ranged from 39 percent at Anacostia to 76 percent at Wilson High School. Coolidge High dropped from 60 percent in 2011 to 51 percent last spring, a drop that Henderson attributed to a high rate of turnover in administration of the school.
Banneker High School, a selective high school, had a 100 percent graduation rate. The city’s alternative schools — Luke Moore and Washington Metropolitan — had a 37 and 38 percent graduation rates, respectively, both down from the year before.
Henderson said she plans to look at the successful schools to borrow best practices to boost graduation rates elsewhere.
D.C. charter board receives six applications for new schools [Democracy Prep PCS, Lee Montessori PCS, and DC Prep PCS mentioned]
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
March 16, 2015
Six applicants have submitted proposals to the D.C. Public Charter School Board this spring to open new charter schools in the District, representing a variety of schools across all grade levels.
The applications include proposals for a school focused on service learning, a Montessori elementary program, an alternative school and a competency-based program for teenagers and young adults.
The board has received 35 new charter school applications since 2012, and it has approved 14 of them. During the same time, though, it has closed 20 schools or campuses for academic or financial reasons.
The number of students enrolled in charter schools in the District has more than doubled during the past decade, from 17,817 during the 2005-2006 school year to 37,684 this year, representing 44 percent of all public school students. Enrollment in D.C. Public Schools also has increased during the past three years, after many years of declines.
The National Alliance of Public Charter Schools estimates that 2.9 million children now attend charter schools across the country, a 14 percent increase from last school year. More than 500 new charter schools opened nationwide in the 2014-2015 school year, while 200 charters closed.
As part of the application process in the District, the board notified advisory neighborhood commissioners throughout the city so that they can comment on proposed programs or potential locations.
Many D.C. residents have called for greater coordination when it comes to the planning and location of new charter schools to prevent duplication of services and to make the city’s education investments more efficient.
The board is scheduled to vote May 18, and people can submit comments until May 11.
This year’s applications include:
●A blended-learning high school program with service learning that would be co-founded by Seth Andrews, who started Democracy Prep public charter schools.
●An alternative high school program that would be operated by an education arm of Goodwill Industries International.
●A Montessori elementary program that would be started in partnership with Lee Montessori Public Charter School and the National Center for Montessori in the Public Sector.
●A college preparatory elementary and middle school for Ward 7 that would be led by a graduate of a leadership training program at D.C. Prep Public Charter School.
●An elementary school in Ward 8 proposed by a Prince George’s County educator.
●A competency-based program for disconnected youths ages 14 to 21 that was proposed by a group of educators in the District.
DC Charter Board receives 6 applications for new schools [Democracy Prep PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
March 16, 2015
After announcing in late February that 23 groups had expressed interest in creating new charters in the District of Columbia, including the exciting news that charter management organizations were trying to start schools from California, Connecticut, and D.C., the Public Charter School Board revealed yesterday that just six applications had been received. If approved these schools would open in the 2016 to 2017 term.
Here is a summary of the new applications. We first heard from Washington Leadership Academy in 2014. One of the founders would be Seth Andrews who was also one of the developers of Democracy Prep, the New York City high performing charter that has now opened here. Last year, Mr. Andrews' proposal included a confusing mix of a non-residential ninth and tenth grade high school combined with a residential eleventh and twelfth grade. This part of the design seems to have been removed, replaced with an emphasis on differentiated learning for low income children. Look for this application to be approved.
Goodwill Excel Academy is also a high school program which serves non-traditional students. This school would be part of a chain that already has 13 campuses throughout Indiana and Texas instructing over 3,000 students. Unless the institution has a poor track record that I am unaware of look for this application to also be given the green light.
Breakthrough Montessori would offer a Pre-Kindergarten program for three and four year old students preferably in Ward 1. The application has to be taken seriously since the founders have an alliance with the CityBridge Foundation and have been working closely with Building Hope on a securing a facility.
Legacy Collegiate wants to open a Pre-Kindergarten four to eighth grade school in Ward 7, eventually teaching 840 children. I'm not as impressed with this application and the natural question is going to be why not open with Pre-Kindergarten three?
Fostering Scholars's goal is to teach 375 pupils in Ward 7 or 8 with a first grade through eighth grade school. I would ask why the school does not want to offer an early childhood program for low income students.
Finally, Sustainable Futures would educate 14 through 21 year olds by providing, according to the PCSB, a "competency-based program serving disconnected youth."
The PCSB points out that going back to 2012 it has evaluated 35 school applications and approved 14 which is a pass rate of 40 percent. For the same period it has closed or is closing 16 campuses.
Maryland, D.C., other states should be kinder, gentler to charter students
The Washington Times
By Deborah Simmons
March 16, 2015
Gov. Larry Hogan is stirring up the public education troth in the state of Maryland, and well he should.
His predecessor and guitar-playing presidential aspirant, Martin O'Malley, used to brag about the state’s traditional public schools and how well the students who attended them fared on standards and testing. Mr. Hogan is taking a different approach.
Mr. Hogan wants to loosen the reins on charter schools, including giving them the power to hire and fire their teachers.
That has turned into a dicey proposition for charter school legislation before the Maryland General Assembly, where a stalwart of Maryland’s Democratic machine, Mike Miller, has served as Senate president since 1975.
Mr. Hogan, a Republican, assumed office in January, and as you can imagine, Mr. Miller, 72, who grew up in the southern part of liberal Prince George’s County, doesn’t naturally cotton to Republicans or fiscal conservatives running things in Annapolis.
An infusion of pro-choice perspectives may be just what’s needed — and they needed it yesterday.
A study released Monday by the Center for School Reform shows that Maryland students and parents just can’t seem to get a break in the Old Line State, which didn’t pass charter school laws until 2003 and where lawmakers and the O’Malley administration have been moving slower than molasses ever since.
The study, which ranked the District and the 42 states with charter laws, said this:
“Maryland should be ranked dead last on this scorecard. However, despite the odds being stacked against them, charter schools in the Old Line State shine. Maryland has one of the weakest charter laws in the country because of the enormous obstacles charter applicants face from school boards the minute they show interest. Charters face outward hostilities from boards, [and] are micromanaged, operationally limited, poorly funded and are not even allowed to hire their own principals and staff to ensure success under their model. Lawmakers in Annapolis are poised to change that in 2015 with a modest, yet promising, proposal on the table.”
Charters were birthed in hostile environments of unions, progressives and beholders of the status quo, and school-choice supporters continue to battle those same elements.
Take charter school staffing. The individual schools do not have carte blanche to draft and cherry-pick to hire. The schools don’t even have carte blanche to fire a teacher who doesn’t measure up or can’t handle the academic truth.
That authority — that power and that cherry-picking — rests in the hands of the various school districts, which abide by state law when it comes hiring, firing, retirement and the like. The districts also control operational matters and spending.
He who controls the purse strings holds the power.
Enter Mr. Hogan and his budget, which are trying to get Annapolis to do right by Maryland families. Mr. Hogan is trying to get lawmakers to think about charter students instead of charter schools.
Sometimes D.C. is an example
On Tuesday, a slew of education overseers are scheduled to release a new audit of D.C. charter schools, and there is room for concern, especially considering a press release that said an audit found that the chartering authority and the state superintendent “had room for improvement.”
On the other hand, the Center for Education found that the District “has the strongest charter school law in the country,” which is a very, very good thing for families.
D.C. charter schools enroll about 44 percent of city students compared with traditional public schools, and have higher academic proficiency and advanced rates — even among special-education and socioeconomically disadvantaged students.
Charter schools, meanwhile, are underfunded, and students get short-shrift regarding sports/recreational and other facilities.
That’s because the purse strings that affect D.C. students are controlled by the mayor and the lawmakers, as is the case in the Maryland.
Critics of charter schools are right: Charters take money from traditional public schools. But that is because the money is supposed to follow the student into the charter schoolhouse.
Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t, which is why a lawsuit on behalf of charter students was filed against D.C.
He who controls the purse strings
High school graduation rates for minority students improve faster than rest of U.S.
The Washington Post
By Lyndsey Layton
March 16, 2015
The high school graduation rate for African Americans, Latinos, American Indians, students with disabilities and poor students increased between 2010 and 2013, narrowing the gap in rates between those groups and their white counterparts, according to new data released Monday by the U.S. Department of Education.
The graduation rate also increased for English language learners, though they still graduate from high school at the lowest rate of all student subgroups.
“The hard work of America’s educators, families, communities and students is paying off. This is a vital step toward readiness for success in college and careers for every student in this country,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement. “While these gains are promising, we know that we have a long way to go in improving educational opportunities for every student — no matter their zip code — for the sake of our young people and our nation’s economic strength.”
The government reported last month that the overall graduation rate for the high school Class of 2013 was 81 percent, an all-time high since most states began calculating graduation rates in a uniform way in 2010. Here’s a look at how it breaks down by group:
Visit link to view chart.
And this chart shows how the gap in high school graduation rates between students of color and their white counterparts has slightly narrowed in the last three years:
Visit link to view chart.
The data, collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, estimate the graduation rate by dividing the number of high school graduates in a class by the number of students who entered that class as freshmen four years earlier, with some adjustments made for transfers.
Official statistics had long overstated the nation’s high school graduation rates, with the Education Department putting the average above 80 percent and some states reporting rates above 90 percent. States used dozens of different reporting methods, with some figuring into their rates those dropouts who later earned the equivalency certificate known as a General Educational Development diploma, or GED.
In 2005, the Education Department began publishing an official estimate of graduation rates, and all 50 states agreed to adopt the same method of calculating those rates by 2013.
A Federal Funding Fight Over D.C. Vouchers
Role Call
By Hannah Hess
March 17, 2015
Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to protect the D.C. school voucher system, a GOP pet program championed by Speaker John A. Boehner and others.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Republicans are gearing up to move forward on a bill reauthorizing vouchers in the nation’s capital, an initiative known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. They are concerned the White House has again signaled the demise of the federally funded private-school program in its fiscal 2016 budget request.
And in the Senate, the attempt to secure continued funding has gained a bit of bipartisan support.
“I very much believe in choices in education and I don’t believe that only wealthy children should be able to go to private school, so I’ve been a supporter for a long, long time,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the lone Democrat to sign onto a March 2 letter questioning President Barack Obama’s decision to terminate future scholarship funding.
The concern is that reduced funding would block new enrollees, and critics of the president’s budget proposal note public schools in the District of Columbia are some of the worst in the nation, in spite of spending almost $30,000 per pupil.
California’s senior senator told CQ Roll Call she was a key vote in 2004 in favor of establishing the program, which provides low-income students with up to $12,572 to pay for tuition, fees and public transportation to the school of their choice, including private and parochial institutions. “I’m for competition, for schools being able to spend the time that’s necessary with each child,” Feinstein said.
The president’s budget includes $43.2 million to remain available until expended, a reduction from $45 million in fiscal 2015. The administration wants $3.2 million of the proposed figure to be used for an evaluation of the program.
Questioned about the program’s success during a March 4 House Appropriations subcommittee, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said a previous evaluation showed “mixed” results. Democrats have in the past tried to prohibit new scholarships, arguing the funds would be better used in the public education system.
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s position on the proposed cuts is unclear. Spokeswoman LaToya Foster said Bowser has been a supporter of vouchers in the District. When the voucher systems — referred to by supporters as opportunity scholarships — were first introduced, D.C.’s school system was in a very different place, Foster said. But the quality has “improved tremendously since then.”
Asked directly whether Bowser wants to see the program reauthorized to accept new students, Foster said she couldn’t elaborate.
“The mayor is taking all that into consideration at this time,” she said. Foster also would not say whether the voucher program has come up during Bowser’s visits to Capitol Hill.
Congress may ask Bowser for a firmer position. A spokeswoman for Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the committee will hold a hearing on the program. The committee does not support Obama’s decision to “drastically underfund” the scholarships, and is concerned with “the persistent and systemic failings of many schools in the D.C. Public School system, especially those in traditionally low-income areas,” said spokeswoman Melissa Subbotin.
Appropriators in both chambers are expected to restore the reduced funds for new scholarships as they have done in the past, consistent with the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results Act put forth in 2011 by Boehner and then-Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn.
Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., has been spearheading the effort this year to secure funds for the scholarship program. As a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Scott has introduced legislation that proposes expanding student access and mandating excess carry-over funds be used to promote the program and support additional scholarships.
The letter to Obama, circulated by Scott’s office, states the scholarship program may be the only way for some D.C. children to lift themselves out of poverty, noting the enrollment wait list for D.C. public charter schools totals more than 22,000 applicants. The program received more than 3,600 applications for the 2014-2015 school year.
“Sadly, the Obama Administration is again attempting to kill the successful DC Opportunity Scholarship Program by underfunding the program and preventing additional students from receiving scholarships,” Scott spokesman Sean Conner wrote in an email. “You can’t run a quality program year after year on carryover funding that will clearly expire. Senator Scott firmly believes that instead of restricting access to the program for low-income families in our nation’s capital, the President and the Secretary of Education should be doing everything they can to support its expansion, including funding for new children to receive scholarships.”
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