- D.C. Council Overreaches — Again — Into School Priorities
- Edelin: Level Playing Field for DC Charter Schools [Friendship PCS is mentioned]
- DCPS to Refer Truant Students to Child-Protective Services
- D.C. Schools Optimistic on Trimming Truancy
The Washington Post
By Editorial Board
July 12, 2012
Ever since responsibility for D.C. schools was switched to the mayor, D.C. Council members have struggled with what role they have to play. When Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) chaired the council, the tendency was to hector and second-guess then-chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. Former council chairman Kwame R. Brown (D) flitted from issue to issue, trying to distract attention from the legal troubles that eventually forced his resignation. Now comes newly named chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), and it’s not a good sign that one of his first moves is to call a hearing to set educational priorities — a hearing from which Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is excluded.
The committee of the whole, the council’s de facto education committee, will meet to “receive testimony regarding the important issues confronting public education” so as to help establish priorities. We would assume it would be important to include in that conversation the professionals charged with educational policy, but a spokeswoman for Mr. Mendelson told us the chancellor wasn’t invited because the aim was to hear the public’s complaints and comments about the school system. If past hearings are any indication, expect a gripe session in which individual problems — “My child got an unfair report card,” “I got a bad teacher evaluation” — will be trotted out.
Mr. Mendelson, selected by his colleagues to replace Mr. Brown, pending November’s special election for council chairman, has made no secret of his dissatisfaction with the schools. “I’m disappointed with the pace of reform,” he told WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi last month shortly after taking over the council’s leadership. Mr. Mendelson, who voted against the 2007 takeover of schools engineered by then-mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), said, “What we’ve seen is a lot of controversy regarding test results and still an enormous disparity between the very good schools and the rest of the school system. So I think there’s a lot more work to be done.”
We think Mr. Mendelson should give more credit to the progress that has occurred with reforms by Ms. Rhee and Ms. Henderson. But there is no denying that he is right about the poor quality of education still being received by too many students. Nor will he get any argument from Ms. Henderson, who is clearheaded about the problems; she has laid out an ambitious agenda for school improvement in a five-year strategic plan that, to our mind, should be the starting point for any discussion of education priorities.
Instead of trying to set itself up as a newly constituted school board, interested only in litigating individual complaints or looking out for parochial ward interests, the council should help establish broad priorities, ensure that money is well spent and hold school officials accountable for results.
Edelin: Level Playing Field for DC Charter Schools [Friendship PCS is mentioned]
The Washington Times
By Ramona Edelin
July 12, 2012
This summer, as school sports teams train for the upcoming fall season, public charter school students will have the opportunity to compete in citywide championship games in football, boys and girls basketball, and indoor track. Even with this change, because their public schools lack the facilities necessary, many students in the District of Columbia are denied the benefits of competitive sports. Anyone who grew up with access to school sports will be shocked by this situation.
Some 41 percent of students enrolled in District public schools are educated in charter schools, which are free to set their own curriculum and school culture, and are held accountable for improved student performance by the city’s charter board. Nonprofit institutions that do not receive a school building from the city to operate these publicly funded schools receive instead a facilities allowance, allocated according to how many students they enroll, so that they can buy or lease and renovate buildings to house their school.
Many charter schools have had to renovate nonschool space, such as warehouses, retail and office locations - or occupy church space when they first opened. Therefore, they typically lack facilities that purpose-built schools take for granted. Unfortunately, this means that many of the city’s youth do not have access to playgrounds, gymnasiums and playing fields at school. At some charter schools, less-than-adequate public space is used. At others, schools often try to improvise, offering a very small playground rather than none, or half a gymnasium instead of a full one.
To make matters worse, the funding gap between charters and city-run schools has grown in recent years. The funding gap is a serious matter. Let’s not forget that 75 percent of charter students are eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch, according to a recent city study. Former Mayor Adrian M. Fenty cut charters’ facilities allowance from $3,109 per student to $2,800 in guaranteed local funds while he spent $32 million on a major school building program for the city’s traditional public school system. This included $18.7 million on school athletic field improvements, including $11.9 million for a pool at Wilson High and $1.4 million for a gym at Coolidge High.
These investments were badly needed, as city-run schools were neglected for decades. However, D.C.’s public charter schools, whose students are often more lacking in sporting facilities than their peers in the traditional school system, should also have benefited. The city spends about twice as much per-student in school building funds on D.C. Public Schools, the city-run system, as it does on charters.
This funding disparity creates many injustices. For example, the city’s best high school football team, Friendship Public Charter School’s Knights, does not even have a football field on which to play. Instead, student athletes practice on a run-down piece of public land that lacks any facilities. The team has never hosted a home game, and the school has to rent space if it wants to practice on a properly maintained and equipped football field. This is a school with 19 seniors who signed college sport scholarships this year, including with Florida State and the University of Maryland. Many other charter schools’ lack of facilities means they cannot offer sport programs, since training without facilities is impossible.
Evidence suggests that depriving students of such investments has consequences beyond denying them opportunities to develop the habit of regular physical activity. Department of Health and Human Services research shows that high-school students involved in after-school sports programs are less likely to drop out, use drugs, have school discipline problems or become teenage parents. A University of Michigan study found that high-school athletes had an average grade point average higher than those who did not participate in extracurricular activities.
Beyond test scores and access to college, involvement in school sports is for many students a way to develop social skills and a source of pride. A survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations revealed that student athletes were more likely to be involved in volunteering, voting and other civic activities than other high-school peers. The benefits alone make it clear we should act.
Every student should have access to quality athletic facilities. We need a citywide audit to ensure that investments are made where they are needed most, and we need an interim plan to better share the facilities we have.
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
July 12, 2012
DC Public Schools is planning to combat its persistent truancy problem by strictly enforcing for the first time a law requiring principals to refer the parents of frequently absent students to child-protective services, Chancellor Kaya Henderson said Thursday.
"Jail is not for me -- I have to comply with the law," Henderson told members of the D.C. Council on Thursday. "I'm going to push my people to comply."
But Henderson, principals and even the lawmakers she was addressing acknowledged that reporting children who missed 10 days of school without excuse to the Child and Family Services Agency could ultimately sabotage their efforts to build relationships with these families, causing anti-truancy efforts to backfire.
About 11 percent of DCPS students are chronically truant, with six high schools accounting for 47 percent of all truancy cases. As of May 7, there were 441 truancy cases at Ballou Senior High School, and 410 at Anacostia Senior High School. Students are labeled "chronically truant" after 15 unexcused absences.
The problem starts much earlier than high school, but just 18 percent of the cases coming from elementary schools that should have been referred to the child-protective agency last year actually were, Henderson said. The call doesn't trigger an investigation to remove the child from his or her home -- rather, the agency is tasked with an "assessment" of why the student is missing class -- but the perception is powerful.
"The simple fact that they're from CFSA makes them say, 'Wait, I don't trust those school people anymore, they called CFSA on me,' " Henderson said.
Caroline John, the principal of Stanton Elementary School, admitted that she did not always follow the existing reporting law.
"The situation can be complex, and we don't always feel a one-size-fits-all model is appropriate," John said. "It could be a family that's moved to nine, 10 homes in a year. ... A CFSA referral of truancy is not going to solve that housing problem."
In addition to family services referrals, DC Public Schools is planning to increase staffing at at-risk schools, keep better track of excused absences and expand anti-truancy programs tested this past school years in the system's middle schools and for certain at-risk ninth-graders.
District officials did not have data on the success of these programs Thursday. Henderson said the ninth-grade initiative at Anacostia and Ballou "was not fully successful [but] our hope is that continued efforts will significantly reduce truancy rates."
The Washington Times
By Emily Hatton
July 12, 2012
Officials at D.C. Public Schools told city council members they hope that central monitoring of data, early intervention and more staff will help reduce truancy in the upcoming school year.
According to data presented to the D.C. Council's Committee of the Whole and Committee on the Judiciary by public schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson,11 percent of the District’s students are chronically truant, meaning they have more than 10 unexcused absences. As of March, 13 percent of high school freshmen had more than 30 unexcused absences in the past year. Complete statistics for the 2011-12 school year will be available in two weeks, Ms. Henderson said.
Half of the high school students with more than 30 absences come from six of the District’s high schools, Ms. Henderson said. Anacostia and Ballou high schools, both located in Southeast, had the highest truancy rates.
“Our students have no chance to be successful if they are not in school,” Ms. Henderson said.
To reduce truancyin the upcoming school year, the schools are adding new initiatives, Ms. Henderson said. To get a better picture of the problem, the district will monitor referral and truancy rates centrally.
They will also expand the Byer Court Model - a program that provides early intervention to students at risk of failing - to at least four more middle schools. De'Shawn Wright, deputy mayor for education and co-chairman of the Truancy Taskforce, said preliminary data show student who participated in it increased their average daily attendance.
Additionally, new staff members to work with truant students and their families will be added at the six high schools with the highest truancy rates, and more case management support will be provided to ninth graders at Ballou and Anacostia high schools.
“We have no choice but to take on this challenge,” Ms. Henderson said.
Ms. Henderson and principals from elementary and high schools told council members that having a system for dealing with truant students is not enough. Schools must develop a relationship with the community around them.
Parents must be reported to the Child and Family Services Agencyon the 25th truancy offense, but Caroline John, principal of Stanton Elementary School, said that such reports often create more problems and strain the relationship between parents and the school, she said.
“We don’t believe a one size fits all model is going to reduce the rate of truancy,” she said.
Council member David A. Catania, at-large independent, said parents must be held accountable for their children’s absences.
“We as adults have allowed this to go on for just too long,” Mr. Catania said.
Council members will meet in the fall to revisit the issue. Mr. Wright said that the Truancy Taskforce will have a new report available by then.
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