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The Washington Times
School reform at center stage
By Mark Lerner
Wednesday, October 7, 2009

D.C. advocates for school reform in all three city education sectors - traditional public schools, public charter schools and private schools - testified before a Senate committee chaired by Sen. Richard J. Durbin, Illinois Democrat, on Sept. 16 and 30. D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee; Washington Scholarship Fund President and Chief Executive Officer Gregory M. Cork; and Robert Cane, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, were among the witnesses called. They highlighted accountability and success rates at charter schools, among other statements.

Mr. Durbin signaled conditional but continued support for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on financial services and general government authorized $12 million last year for a federally funded scholarship program for low-income families to attend private schools in the District. Federal legislation requires that federal funds equal to the cost of the opportunity scholarships go to D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and D.C. public charter schools. The 1,716 students in the scholarship program last year each received $7,500 in tuition costs.

Mrs. Rhee, who oversees the city-run public schools, testified that she and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty continued to support the three-sector approach to federal funding of D.C. schools. She noted that despite the reform she has introduced to DCPS, she is still unable to look parents in the eye and tell them that their children will be well-served in the city-run schools. Reform is a multiyear process, she said.

The committee also took testimony from Josephine Baker, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board; Patricia Weitzel-O'Neill, superintendent of schools for the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington; and Mary Levy, project director of the Public Education Reform Project. Ms. Levy has researched and written extensively on the subject of D.C. schools and school reform.

Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, Tennessee Republican, also questioned the school experts.

Testifying on behalf of D.C. public charter schools, Mr. Cane highlighted the superior student achievement and additional school accountability that charter schools offer. He also described charters' spectacular growth since the reform began.

"Charters have grown in student enrollment from 160 kids on two campuses in 1996 to nearly 26,000 on 98 campuses last year," Mr. Cane said. "Ninety-six percent [of students] are African-American, and 80 percent come from economically disadvantaged homes."

Charters schools' popularity with parents was clear from the fact that 36 percent of all public-school students are enrolled in public charter schools, Mr. Cane said, with thousands of children on waiting lists. Two D.C. charter schools, Capital City Public Charter School - which President Obama visited recently - and Two Rivers Public Charter School, had almost 30 applicants for every available space last year, Mr. Cane said.

"Charters are ahead of the curve when it comes to school reform," he said.
Charters' greatest successes have been among the students who are most in need, Mr. Cane told the senators.

"Economically disadvantaged and African-American secondary school students are nearly twice as likely to be proficient in reading and math as their peers in the city-run schools," he said.

Charters also exceed public school graduation rates, he said.
"Charters' graduation rate, which is approaching 90 percent, significantly exceeds the national average, which includes wealthy areas a world away from D.C.," Mr. Cane said.

A key part of D.C. charter schools' success is the level of accountability to which the District's Public Charter School Board holds these unique public schools, Mr. Cane said.

The board, which oversees charters, rejects two in three applications to set up a public charter school and has closed one in four schools that have been chartered, all of which were underperforming academically, he said. Charters also did more with less, Mr. Cane said, receiving less per-student funding for school building compared with the public school system.

Mr. Durbin vigorously questioned the Washington Scholarship Fund's Mr. Cork, asking him to account for all of the children in the opportunity-scholarship program at the Sept. 16 hearing. Mr. Durbin said he was satisfied that "the kids are accounted for."

"We've got to demand the same standards" for voucher schools as for public and public charter schools, Mr. Durbin said. He also said he was insisting on more oversight as a condition for his continued support for the voucher program.

Students in the District's charter schools have opened a solid academic lead over those in its traditional public schools, adding momentum to a movement that is recasting public education in the city.

The gains show up on national standardized tests and the city's own tests in reading and math, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Charters have been particularly successful with low-income children, who make up two-thirds of D.C. public school students.

A dozen years after it was created by Congress, the city's charter system has taken shape as a fast-growing network of schools, whose ability to tap into private donors, bankers and developers has made it possible to fund impressive facilities, expand programs and reduce class sizes.

With freedom to experiment, the independent, nonprofit charters have emphasized strategies known to help poor children learn -- longer school days, summer and Saturday classes, parent involvement and a cohesive, disciplined culture among staff members and students.

The emergence of a thriving charter system has altered the dynamics of education in a city struggling to repair its reputation as one of the country's most troubled school districts. Since taking control of the traditional public schools 18 months ago, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee have pushed for major reforms. But enrollment has continued to shrink, falling 42 percent since 1996. The growth of charters has accounted for almost all of that decline.

The city's charter system is now one of the largest in the country, fueled largely by word of mouth among parents looking for better public schools. Charters have grown to 60 schools on 92 campuses with 26,000 students, more than a third of the city's public school enrollment. In a few years, charters could become the dominant form of public education in the District.

Not all charters are successful. Many struggle to raise money and attract students. A few have gone out of business or been absorbed by other schools. Some officials who oversee the charters have also been involved in making private loans to them, creating possible conflicts of interest.

District children in both systems still fall short of national averages on standardized tests. But students in charter schools have been more successful at closing the gap. According to a Washington Post analysis of recent national test results for economically disadvantaged students, D.C. middle-school charters scored 19 points higher than the regular public schools in reading and 20 points higher in math.

On the city's standardized tests, the passing rate for charter middle schools was 13 percent higher on average.

District school records show that charters also have better attendance and graduation rates than the regular public schools and that their teachers are more likely to fit the city's definition of "highly qualified," meaning that they have expertise in what they are teaching.

Charter schools were envisioned as a way to prompt public school reform and give low-income families better educational options. They are publicly funded, and any D.C. student can attend for free. But the schools operate independently of the regular school system under rules set down in their charters and with the oversight of the seven-member Public Charter School Board.

The two public systems are, in general, educating students from similar backgrounds. About two-thirds of the students in both systems live in poverty, and more than 90 percent are minorities, according to school records. The traditional schools enroll a slightly higher percentage of special education students and students with limited English.

Charter schools must accept any student who applies, using a lottery if they have more applicants than spaces. That prevents the schools from cherry-picking applicants. But each school is free to set its own rules on expelling students.

Susan Schaeffler, who heads the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) charter schools in the District, said expulsions have not been a major factor. Almost all of the students at KIPP's three D.C. middle schools come from poor backgrounds, but the schools are among the highest-performing in the city. Within a decade, KIPP, a national charter network, plans to have 10 schools in the District, with a total of 3,400 students.

"Our success is not from moving kids out," she said, but is attributable to a highly unified school culture that teachers and students embrace.

Four days into the start of school this July, a teacher gave a hand signal to 80 fifth-graders waiting for lunch in the white cinder block cafeteria at KIPP KEY Academy in Southeast Washington. The students were already well drilled in the mind-set of their school, and the room immediately fell silent. The teacher began the call-and-response: "What room is this?"

Shouting at the top of their lungs, students and teachers belted out one of KIPP's signature rhythmic chants:

This is the room

That has the kids

Who want to learn

To read more books

To build a better tomorrow,

To build a better tomorrow.

The teacher responded quietly: "What year do you go to college?"

The 11-year-olds bellowed: "2016."

Even the youngest students toe the line. From a room labeled "Class of 2021," a single file of kindergartners emerged in khaki pants and orange shirts and trailed silently down the hallway. A KIPP LEAP Academy teacher quietly reminded them of the rules -- to stay within the second row of tiles.

A Well-Funded System
When advocates teamed up with members of Congress to launch the city's charter schools, they designed a system with plenty of funding.

For each elementary student enrolled, a District charter school receives $11,879 in tax dollars, including $8,770 to match per-pupil academic spending in the regular public schools and a $3,109 facility allotment to help pay for buildings. Charter schools get more for older students.

Charter schools can use the facilities money for any purpose, and that funding stream can provide a crucial advantage over traditional public schools. For schools with 300 or more students, the funding often exceeds building costs, and the surplus has gone to hire additional staff and buy extra computers and books.

The Center City charters, converted this year from seven Catholic schools, have a surplus of $1.4 million from facility funding, according to their budget.

Friendship Public Charter Schools -- the city's largest charter network, with five schools and more than 4,000 students -- has a surplus of $3.4 million that has funded cutting-edge equipment, including computerized interactive whiteboards that are found even in preschool classrooms.

The extra funding, it turns out, coincides with improved academic performance: The schools with the largest surpluses have ranked at the top on test scores.

Charters also receive bank loans and other funding through the capital markets, although the national financial crisis is tightening access to credit. The schools benefit from a panel created by Congress known as the D.C. Public Charter School Credit Enhancement and Direct Loan Funds Committee, which has lent millions in public money to the city's charters. The committee also guarantees private loans to the schools and to developers who build their facilities.

The financing system has created something of a golden circle for charters: They can invest in facilities and programs that attract students and increase enrollment, which translates into additional public and private funding.

Schools that draw too few students and too little money often lag academically.

Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy in Northeast has 217 students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, fewer than it budgeted for, and it is trying to attract more and keep those it has, according to Executive Director Linda McKay. It also lacks big donors or investors. When it opened four years ago, the school pledged to offer special programs and have one teacher for every 10 students.

"We are struggling financially to maintain this 10-to-1 ratio, and Latin and arts and music and physical education," McKay said. "We are competing with schools that have larger pots of money and can pay more."

Test scores have improved, but last year, the school's passing rate was less than half the rate of the city's top charter middle schools.

At charters that have been able to draw students and funding, teachers marvel at the resources.

"I have a copier," said Alexandra Pardo, who previously taught at Roosevelt High and is now principal at Thurgood Marshall Academy, a high-performing charter high school that has gone through a $15 million renovation. "I used to go out to make copies because there was no working copier in the building."

At Roosevelt, she said, "there were mice and rats walking around in my classroom. I had ceiling tiles falling on my students' heads. We had winter days without heat, wearing coats and hats in the classroom."

Some charter schools have been especially successful at supplementing taxpayer funding with charitable grants from donors as large as the Bill and Melinda Gates and Walton foundations and as small as their friends and neighbors.

Thurgood Marshall charter school, founded by Georgetown University's Street Law Program, expects $1.7 million in contributions this year, accounting for 25 percent of overall spending, according to its budget.

Howard University Middle School of Mathematics and Science pays no rent to the university, saving the charter $1 million a year and allowing it to spend $700,000 in facilities money on school improvements. Each Howard student has a laptop computer to use in class and a notebook computer to take home. The school arranges for Internet access at home for students without it.

Michelle Pierre-Farid, who took over as principal at the Friendship Southeast elementary school last year when she moved from Tyler Elementary, said the additional resources have allowed her to hire people to maintain the building and manage school finances. As a regular public school principal, she said, "I knew every nickel and dime." Now, "I don't even know my budget. . . . That allows me to get back into the classroom and do what I need to do."

Rewriting the Rules
Freed from centralized rules, charter directors have been able to rethink age-old structures, including the Monday-through-Friday, 8-to-3 schedule.

At many charters, students stay until 5 p.m., with the extra hours devoted to more class time and extra tutoring. Many require students to attend Saturday classes and summer school. Schaeffler said KIPP students spend 47 percent more time in class than students do in traditional schools.

It is not uncommon for charters to buy cellphones for the teachers and then tell students and parents to call anytime they need help.

At Friendship's Blow Pierce middle school in Northeast, parents are asked to sign a statement promising that they will get their children to school on time each day, make sure they wear the uniform, complete homework on time, and attend classes on Saturdays and in the summer if their grades fall below a C average. The parents also agree to attend conferences and school events.

The extra staffing and resources help charters achieve one of their prime goals: interceding in the chaotic home lives of poor children to keep problems from derailing learning.

At Thurgood Marshall, junior Mark Greene said the teachers helped him get into counseling and catch up on his studies this year after his family split up and he became homeless.

Demetrius Suggs, also a Thurgood Marshall junior, said the teachers and administrators "call my home all the time. 'He missed school,' or 'He missed detention.' They send alert notices. They devise a plan. There are no excuses not to get your work done."

Many charter directors said success, especially with poor children, depends on creating a cohesive and uniform environment. Without unions and seniority rules, they can decide who to hire and fire. They try to ensure that all of their teachers are committed to the same approach, and they provide several weeks of teacher training over the summer.

"The school culture is essential," said Schaeffler of KIPP. "It's the same language, the same terminology, the same tactics, room to room. The cool teacher who lets them chew gum and put their feet up on a chair: You're not being a team player. You think you're connecting with the kids, but you're undermining all the other adults in the building."

Discipline and Structure
At many charters, teachers use a meticulous system of punishments and rewards to shape behavior.

Students at KIPP middle schools get a paycheck of "KIPP dollars" every week for getting work done, being prompt, wearing their uniforms, helping out and participating in class. The paycheck also shows deductions for being rude or noisy or missing homework.

The concept is not exclusive to charters. Some of the District's regular public schools have introduced monetary rewards, as well as Saturday classes and programs to involve parents. But charter directors said their ability to design their own programs and then focus staff and students on those efforts has made them more effective.

Tasheanna Johnston, an eighth-grader from Anacostia, earned extra KIPP dollars by helping a teacher clean up after class and more when a teacher saw her carry books for a "teammate" whose hands were full. With her earnings, she bought colored pencils at the school store and won the right to wear jeans to school on a Friday and to go on camping trips and on trips to Disney World and New York.

When she was tardy, she lost a dollar, which was noted in the contract her parents have to sign each week.

Eighth-grader Kem Harris said he lost a dollar once because his shirt was untucked. It was a Monday, and the violations piled up. He looked down when he was supposed to be listening to a teacher -- another dollar. He did not speak up loudly when asked a question -- $1.

"I lose all my money on Mondays," he said. "I'm grumpy, and I don't want to do any work."

Kem said he fought regularly at his traditional public school. "They would just separate us for the rest of the day." But if he fights at KIPP KEY, he said, "I would either get the bench or suspended." Each classroom has a "bench" for teenage-style timeouts. Students who are benched can hear the lesson but not participate, a punishment that is lifted only when their parents go to the school for a meeting with staff members.

Kem earned extra dollars for trying to improve his handwriting. But he feels the sting of missing the big trips. "I've been two people away or three people away," he said, but he didn't make the cut.

D.C. Prep's middle school has similar rules and rewards.

"In the discipline policy, we enforce little things: If you roll your eyes at me, you lose a dollar. If you talk back, $2. Then we call your parents. Then you get suspended," said Executive Director Emily Lawson. "First you lose money. If a behavior escalates, the discipline escalates."

She said the strict rules are needed because most of her students do not have the advantage of middle-class backgrounds.

"This is what our kids need to learn to be successful in life," she said. "Kids in the suburbs might slouch, but they know not to do that in a job interview. Some of our kids have a hard life. They have to do this to succeed."

Some of the city's charters are less rigid. Two Rivers Charter elementary in Northeast encourages students to work out their problems in pairs. The school sets up quiet zones in classrooms with a "peace rug" and a "calm-down chair."

The Howard middle school charter emphasizes building relationships between teachers and students. Still, said teacher Kimberly Worthy, "we have to reprogram them, stop them from disrespecting each other, telling each other to shut up. . . .When that is done on a consistent basis, students feel safe here."

For many charters, the rigorous structure also applies to the teaching.

At the E.L. Haynes charter school in Northwest, fifth-grade teacher Brigham Kiplinger uses a stopwatch to keep his lessons on track.

He began a reading lesson one day this fall by clicking his watch: the 1 1/2 -hour class was planned down to the minute. Kiplinger spoke for exactly 10 minutes. Every student was quiet. When one boy answered a question correctly, Kiplinger said, "Two snaps for Derrick on 1-2-3," and all the students snapped their fingers in unison.

"Now, do a turn and talk for two minutes," Kiplinger said, prompting the students to face a partner and talk about the books they were reading. Two minutes later, he wrote "10:58" on the board. It was time for the students to read independently. At the end of the lesson, Kiplinger told the students exactly what to do. "Put your book down. Pencils up. Take out your agenda books, and write down this evening's homework."

This year, 53 percent of the students classified as economically disadvantaged at Haynes passed the reading test, and 63 percent passed the math test. That was nearly double the rate in reading of two years earlier and triple the rate in math.

One of the goals at E.L. Haynes and many other charters is to break the cycle of poverty, which has kept many students from succeeding.

Deserhie Henson stepped into the charter community in 2001 when she enrolled her daughter at KIPP's first D.C. charter school in the basement of Garden Memorial Presbyterian Church in Southeast.

"I said, 'I'll just try it,'" she remembered.

Henson had bounced between Eastern and Ballou high schools, got pregnant and didn't graduate. Years later, as a charter parent, she struggled to keep up with KIPP's demands: Students have to be in uniforms every day. Homework must be completed every night. Papers must be signed promptly every week.

But she adjusted and watched her daughter make the honor roll and win admission to Banneker, the city's elite public high school. She has another daughter at a different charter, and her son is at KIPP KEY middle school.

Henson decided to return to school herself and received a diploma last year from Ballou High's program for adults.

"I was showing them that they can do it," she said. "Don't make the same mistakes I did."

A journey in Obama's America

In this article, we look at Washington and spend some time visiting their schools. Looking at the formative years of American children is the best way of understanding the United States. At the time when Barack Obama makes the recovery of state-education a central part of his mandate, certain educational establishments prepare themselves for a teaching revolution.

I am often asked, during a journey, what makes the Americans so optimistic, polite and respectful amongst each other, even when in an economic recession. I have found the answer. Next year, my daughter will leave the French educational system in order to enter the American one. I know that she will learn less than in our French colleges but in leaving the American system, she will be prepared for a socially balanced and well-adjusted life and teamwork. She will not become, in later life, either bitter or angry — due to her teachers instilling within her a sense of self-confidence.

I have visited numerous schools in the United States. If I can, I try to do this in every country that I visit. Schools, it seems to me, are tangible markers of a country?s situation. There is always a link between the investment of countries in their educational systems and their level of development.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, I spent a month in the madrases where teaching has remained the same for three centuries. Children of millions of poor families are abandoned to the hands of ignorant and harsh religious clerics. It is the willingness of local élites who invest their national resources in armies and police forces - that is to say, the means to continue their feudal domination. From Indonesia to Haiti, these forces are justified on the basis of suppressing public riots from the moment that their populations revolt against the injustices that inflicted on them.

I have seen caricatures of situations, such as that in North Korea, where the schools serve to enrol students in a cult-like worship of the glory of dynastic dictatorships. There is also short-sighted policy. In China, state spending in education is minimal. It is for the parents to pay. The results are lamentable. Young Chinese students rush towards the universities in America, Canada and Australia. China offers to the West its best young scholars! Above all, governments are obsessed with following short-term policies. 2The quality of education is not their priority.

In the United States, I am astounded at discovering that their problems are similar to ours. The bureaucracies that regulate schools, whether they be localor federal, have become “mammoths” to quote Claude Allégre. However, the past fifteen years has seen a sweeping revolution in the American state school system - the advent of Charter Schools.

This movement has neither a charismatic leader nor a real structure. Its principle is simple. It is about marginalising those state-school teachers who are content to act as security guards or do the minimum required by freeing the creativity of other, dynamic and entrepreneurial teachers from the corset of their administrative supervisors. The way it works is straightforward - the authorities spend between $12,000 and $50,000 (for handicapped students) per year, per child. If a student moves to another school, this money follows them. The charter schools receive this money for each pupil, equal to the state-schools.

In order to be subsidised, they have some fulfil some obligations. They must be non-profit, charitable associations, free and open to all. They are to be resolutely secular. Aside from that, they organise their teaching as they see fit. They are decoupled from all administrative oversight. The only method of measuring their success is by exam results.

“During the 1980s,” explains Malcolm Peabody, president of the organisation ?The friends of free choice in city schools?, “all the efforts to reform schools flopped. They were formulated by state-school system bureaucrats and teaching unions. When bureaucracy exercises control over schools, it leads to disaster. In 1991, a group in Minneapolis had the idea to separate schools from this bureaucracy. Forty-three states out of fifty have adopted legislation that moves in this direction.

A chance for social advancement for the disadvantaged

Many of the founders or directors of these schools have been to the most prestigious universities in America (Harvard, Princeton, Yale etc.) or from state-education. I am impressed by their enthusiasm towards their districts. Anne Herr founded the ?Capital City? school in Washington. She explained, “Entire communities sank where the population was poorest because the teachers satisfied themselves with their working benefits, not wanting to lengthen or adapt their working hours or enter into a dialogue with local families. The culture of the street became stronger than that of school or the family. Children took drugs because they were out of control.

Those Americans who were amongst the most well-off escaped the mediocrity of free education by sending their children to “private schools”. They are the equivalent of our public schools and are much more expensive ($18,000 minimum per child, per year). Middle and working class families cannot afford them. It is they who suffer the most from collapsing state-schools.

They flee in the direction of the charter schools. The five-thousand or so schools which have been created on this model welcome 1.3 million American children. In Washington DC, charter schools have already swiped 28,033 of the 73,120 children from the state-sector. Their classes never have more than eighteen pupils, the schools are small (250 students on average.

Their exam results are measurably superior to that of the standard state- schools. In Washington, young black and Latino children makeup 91% of charter school recruits and leave the secondary schools with success rates in reading and mathematics that are twice as high as state-schools. The state, without spending one penny more, offers disadvantaged minorities the best chance of social advancement.

Barack Obama has made the recovery of state-schools a central plank of his mandate. Minority groups are the base of his support. He encourages charter schools, even if his Democrat party are generally opposed to them. That is the case with the mayor of Washington, Adrian Fenty. He is rousing strong opposition to charter schools, because he was elected with the support of the teaching unions. The law provides that each time twenty-five students leave a state school, one teaching post is lost. More than 1,200 state-school teachers in the capital have been redeployed, where almost ninety charter schools have flourished. The rage of the teaching lobby against the charter schools is extreme.

I have visited many charter schools. They have become social anchors in districts in the capital where, twenty years ago, people were killing each other. Children in those schools work every day including Saturday. There are no long holidays, even in the summer. The children are rarely left to their own devices. The teachers are paid the same level as those who work in state- schools. But their enthusiasm is infectious. These new schools belong to them.

At the Haynes school, which takes its name from its founder (who graduated from Yale), I arrived in a bright and cheerful gym, in full celebration of the oriental and Asian community. Parents and their children are dressed-up as the Japanese, Indians, Chinese... The atmosphere is warm. “We do this once a month, every month, always for a different community because half of our students are black, a quarter are Latino and the rest are white, oriental and asian; they come from around the world” explains Julie Green, the director of development. The children dance under a banner containing the motto of the school that proclaims, “Be kind, Work hard, Get smart!” Here, they read it together. “It is a contest to read together 5 million words by the end of the year, and they are already up to 4.7 million!” enthuses Caroline, the mother of a nine-year old Chinese boy. “60% of the parents here are below the poverty level, their children benefit from free school meals” explains Steph, a teacher.

The important thing is team work

The most striking thing, for me as a French citizen, is the teaching delivered in these schools. The students work in groups. There are groups of between three and five students working around communal tables. They discuss, the atmosphere being as informal as that found in a kitchen at home at dinner time. The importance thing is not the notes that they make but their team work. “At six years old, they all know how to speak in public and present a project” explains Dave, the director of studies at the Capital City school.

The dialogue between teachers and students are based on the concept of the “sandwich”. The teacher starts with a compliment, “John, you know how much I like what you have done!” Then the remark “You should work on this, it could be great!” This is followed by a final compliment, “I really enjoy working with you. Well done!” In American schools, to be positive is the norm. “We instil confidence in the children, this confidence is essential if one is to become a sportsman or an entrepreneur” says Anne Herr, the director of Capital City. American schools make individuals who are sure of themselves and skilful speakers.

The defects of this method is that it produces rather uncultivated people and also liars and smooth talkers. In the United States, for example, exaggeration and dishonesty are normal from those seeking employment. The important thing is to get the job rather than being able to do it. George W Bush had left the United States twice before becoming the President. I am certain that he imaged that he could learn on-the-job once elected. This is in contrast to Jacques Chirac who after decades of training, gave the impression of not daring to do anything.

In this way, our two lessons forge two radically different cultures. In France, the remark, “No, I have never done it! No, I do will not know how to do it! No I will not manage to do it” is the daily refrain. We hesitate, we dither, we do not progress, we control everything before taking the slightest decision, for fear of taking a risk. In the United States, we throw ourselves head-first into the unknown, “let?s try” we say, the future is ours!" And we can reach the moon.

As part of the program's ongoing series focusing on education, host Michel Martin talks to Kavitha Cardoza, a reporter for NPR member station WAMU-FM in Washington, D.C.

Cardoza explains a significant development in the education world: recent test scores of public school children in the nation's capital notably surpassed their charter school counterparts, adding yet another layer to the national debate on the value of charter schools vs. public schools.

Listen to the story:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111572292

D.C. Public Schools and public charter school students increased their overall test scores by three points in math and six points in reading, according to the 2009 DC Comprehensive Assessment System results that the Office of the State Superintendent of Education released last week. The D.C. Public Schools central office had released a preliminary version of the citywide data in July.

For D.C. Public Schools students, the biggest jump came in elementary school math, where 49 percent of students tested proficient, com- pared with 40 percent last year. Forty-nine percent of elementary school students are proficient in reading, up from 46 percent last year.

Test scores for secondary school students also increased, but less dramatically. Forty-one percent of secondary school students are proficient in reading, a slight increase over last year’s 39 percent. And 40 percent of secondary school students are proficient in math, com- pared with 37 percent last year.

Charter schools, on the other hand, showed the largest gains in secondary school, where 53 percent of students were proficient in reading, up from 47 percent in 2008. Fifty-seven percent were proficient in math, compared with 48 percent the year before.

Elementary-level charter school students advanced slightly in reading, from 45 percent in 2008 to 46 percent this year, and stayed about the same, at 42 percent proficiency in math, from 2008 to 2009.

The newly released numbers also give insight into individual schools’ performances — showing dramatic gains among a handful of Northwest schools.

Specifically, Barnard, Eaton, Marie Reed, Ross, Shepherd and Stoddert elementary schools showed double-digit increases in reading and math proficiency over last year’s scores. Wilson High School’s scores also increased significantly.

According to Ross Elementary principal Amanda Alexander, the test scores are the highest they have ever been at the Dupont Circle school, where 77 percent of students tested proficient in reading and 70 percent tested proficient in math. She said an infusion of “time and attention” into teaching practices and student achievement led to the improvements. In addition to making frequent visits to classrooms, Alexander said she also circulated articles and books about pedagogy to teachers.

At Cleveland Park’s Eaton Elementary, 64 percent of the students were proficient in math in 2008. This year, 80 percent tested proficient. Reading scores also increased, from 74 percent in 2008 to 86 percent in 2009.

Eaton principal Jacqueline Gartrell said she is “thrilled” with the scores and met with teachers on Monday to discuss them.

Gartrell said weekly meetings for teachers in each grade, ongoing professional development and scrutiny of data throughout the year contributed to the gains.

“I think it was a joint effort,” she said. Gartrell commended Eaton’s “really committed” staff and dedicated “instructional supervisor” for their efforts.

In Tenleytown, Wilson High School principal Pete Cahall emphasized that he is “pleased but not satisfied” with the test scores.

In 2009, 72 percent of Wilson students hit the proficiency target in reading, more than the 62 percent who met the mark last year. Sixty- seven percent scored proficient in math, compared with 60 percent in 2008.

Cahall said teachers worked hard to prepare students for the kinds of responses required for the test and monitored test scores throughout the year to keep tabs on their progress.

In addition, Cahall said, he strongly encouraged teachers to strengthen their relationships with students, and he did the same. “I wrote five personal notes to kids every day,” he said. “Anything I could grab on to, to give feedback.”

On Monday, he met with teachers and ticked off a list of “celebrations,” such as the results showing that all “subgroups” advanced their scores in reading.

Asian students showed a 25- point increase, Hispanic students showed a 14-point increase, English language learners showed a 30- point increase, and special education students showed a 12-point increase.

In math, African-American and Hispanic students increased their proficiency rates by 10 percent, while students who qualify for a free and reduced lunch increased their proficiency by 4 percent.

But Cahall said Wilson still has plenty of room for improvement, so that all students are achieving, and achieving equally.

For example, only 58 percent of African-American students are proficient in reading, and 53 percent in math. Seventy percent of Hispanic students are proficient in reading, and 64 percent in math. Sixty-nine percent of Asian students are proficient in reading, and 77 percent in math. Meanwhile, 94 percent of white students are proficient in reading, and 85 percent in math.

Cahall said he plans to use the test scores as a launching pad for a wide array of improvements. “What we need to do is drill down to the individual student,” he said. But “eventually it all goes back to the DC-CAS.”

For Oyster-Adams Bilingual School principal Monica Liang- Aguirre, the 2009 scores were also a mixed bag.

For years, the school — with campuses in Woodley Park and Adams Morgan — has been a jewel of the D.C. Public Schools system. And the 2009 scores remain strong, with 77 percent proficiency in reading and 73 in math.

But for the past two years, Oyster-Adams has failed to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind.

Last year, the school failed to meet the benchmark because it did not show adequate results among two subgroups: English language learners and students from lower- income families.

So, Liang-Aguirre said, teachers worked hard to improve those scores, and succeeded. Both sub-groups made adequate yearly progress this year. “We were very, very happy,” she said.

But this year, the school did not meet adequate yearly progress for special education students. Of the 25 students tested, only 16 percent were proficient in reading, and 20 percent were proficient in math.

“They did not do well at all,” Liang-Aguirre said.

This is the first year the school has identified enough special-education students for their scores to be disaggregated separately, she said. And with no baseline data from previous tests for comparison, the school was unable to make “safe harbor” — an alternative to adequate yearly progress for schools that show a 10 percent reduction in the number of students who are not proficient.

Liang-Aguirre tried to appeal the decision to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, but upon closer review of the data, the agency determined that the school still did not make adequate progress.

Therefore, the school is now in its first year of mandatory improvement under No Child Left Behind.

According to Jennie Niles, “there’s no magic bullet” when it comes to enhancing student achievement. Niles is the founder of E.L. Haynes, a charter school in Petworth where 80 percent of elementary school students scored proficient in math, and 66 percent scored proficient in reading. The school is in the second year of mandatory improvement, having missed the proficiency threshold in reading among its special education students.

“There’s nothing we do that any school couldn’t do,” Niles said.