- New charter high school formed by consortium of language immersion programs [Washington Yu Ying, Elsie Whitlow Stokes, LAMB, and Mundo Verde PCS mentioned]
- Study: D.C. third graders have not improved in math, reading since 2007
- Barras: David Catania for education chairman
New charter high school formed by consortium of language immersion programs [Washington Yu Ying, Elsie Whitlow Stokes, LAMB, and Mundo Verde PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
December 18, 2012
Last evening the Public Charter School Board approved one of the most innovative new programs I have seen in my almost 15 years of watching this exciting movement. Washington Yu Ying, a Chinese language immersion school, was granted a charter amendment with conditions to expand its enrollment to grades 9 through 12 growing from 468 to 850 students. What makes this amendment so interesting is that it is doing so as a partnership with three other existing language immersion institutions: Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School, Latin American Montessori Bilingual Public Charter School, and Mundo Verde Public Charter School.
The way this will work is that all bodies will contract with a non-profit charter management organization, the District of Columbia International School (DCI) created by the schools listed above. DCI will run the middle/high school and offer the International Baccalaureate Middle Years and Diploma Programmes. The students attending DCI would continue to be enrolled in one of the consortium schools and each school is accountable for student academic achievement. However, a pupil attending DCI would be recognized as attending DCI instead of the home school and would attend classes with pupils from the other feeder sites. All four charters will share expenses based upon the per pupil funding formula for instruction and facilities.
Now that Yu Ying has been granted a charter amendment the other three schools involved in the partnership will file identical requests. The entire arrangement was worked out in close cooperation with the PCSB.
You can read the entire charter amendment request here. It's an exciting day in the history of charters in the nation's capital.
Study: D.C. third graders have not improved in math, reading since 2007
The Washington Post
By Emma Brown
December 17, 2012
The math and reading performance of third-grade students in D.C. public schools has not significantly improved since 2007, according to a new study of the city’s standardized test scores released Monday by a nonprofit advocacy group.
HyeSook Chung, executive director of D.C. Action for Children, said her group’s analysis should prompt city officials to examine whether the education reforms initiated five years ago by former chancellor Michelle A. Rhee are succeeding.
“The claim that we’re hearing from the city is that we’re seeing huge improvements, but we started doing some preliminary analysis and we were not seeing those same improvements,” Chung said.
The proportion of D.C. students who are proficient in math and reading has risen since 2007, but proficiency rates don’t tell the whole story, Chung said. Her group analyzed the test scores using a method meant to capture a more fine-grained snapshot of student performance between 2007 and 2011.
Researchers used a weighted formula that scored schools based on the number of students in each test performance category: below basic, basic, proficient or advanced. Schools received between one and four points for each student, based on the student’s performance category.
The average weighted reading score for D.C. public schools fell from 2.26 to 2.19 between 2007 and 2011, while the average weighted math score rose from 2.14 to 2.2. Both changes were statistically insignificant.
The study also found no evidence of significant gains in public charter schools. Charter schools have higher average proficiency rates than traditional public schools, but Monday’s analysis found no significant difference between the two sectors.
The group analyzed third-grade scores because research shows that students who don’t read proficiently by the end of third grade are less likely to graduate from high school.
Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D), said that focusing on third-grade performance misses the growth that students make later in school. Students in third grade in 2007 made double-digit proficiency gains in both math and reading by the time they reached eighth grade, he said.
But Ribeiro agreed with the report’s recommendation that the city continue its efforts to provide high-quality preschool to all children, a priority of the mayor’s. A city analysis released earlier this year showed that students who enrolled in pre-kindergarten fared better on third-grade tests than students who had not.
“There is strong data that indicates that if more students participate in pre-K programs our state proficiency rate would substantially rise to higher levels,” Ribeiro wrote in an e-mail.
The study released Monday is part of the long-running D.C. Kids Count project funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. D.C. Action for Children conducted the analysis with the help of Elder Research Inc., a Charlottesville-based firm.
Barras: David Catania for education chairman
The Washington Examiner
By Jonetta Rose Barras
December 17, 2012
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson likely will decide committee assignments this week. He has lamented the difficulty of his task. A few members are reportedly being investigated by local or federal law enforcement.
Should Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham -- the focus of a probe by the city's ethics board -- be allowed to keep his committee? How about Councilwoman Yvette Alexander? According to published reports, the feds are investigating whether her staff demanded cash on the Ward 7 legislator's behalf in exchange for her vote for the 2009 lottery contract. Should they be sidelined until they have been cleared of any wrongdoing?
There's no doubt about David Catania, however. Assigning him to a newly created Committee on Education would be a sure thing. His oversight leadership of what many consider the most important council committee would send a dual message: The legislature is serious about education reform and it wants to regain the public's respect.
Catania's past stewardship of the Committee on Health over the last decade is prologue. Before he became chairman, the city's health department and services, particularly those to poor and working class families and their children, were absolutely horrible. Today, as a result of his unwavering dedication, uncompromising standard of excellence and unparallel collaboration with the executive, the District's health care delivery system is the envy of many states.
If citizens aren't interested in tracking that history, they can review his performance at the council's recent hearings on D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson's half-baked closure proposal. Catania was one of the few legislators who had read her briefing book. He raised cogent questions about personnel and financial decisions being made at the school level.
Why, for example, the at-large legislator wanted to know, were there more administrators at some schools than instructors? What was the priority: keeping administrators with pay checks or teaching children?
An intelligent and thorough examination of school finances and programs has been absent from education oversight for the last two years. Some people were interested in using the issue as a platform for their political ambitions. Others were satisfied with the fact that Henderson is not Michelle Rhee.
Political potency or the arrival of a less caustic personality isn't an appropriate barometer to measure whether the city's public education system is serving District residents. There are serious challenges that demand consistent and intense attention.
Residents deserve to know, for example, why the chancellor and charter schools repeatedly claim insufficient funds when the annual public education budget is more than $1 billion. What bang are those bucks buying when students at many schools -- charters and traditional -- have not achieved advance or proficient levels on standardized tests? What is the future direction of education reform and what role should be played by the University of the District of Columbia -- not just its community college?
Without micromanaging any institution or reducing the quality of choice, Catania is the legislator best suited as education committee chairman to secure answers to those and other critical questions.