The Washington Post
D.C. Misses Payment to 60 Charter Schools: Staffs' Checks May Be Delayed as City Turns to Reserves
By Bill Turque
Thursday, July 16, 2009

The District missed a $103 million payment due to its 60 charter schools yesterday, meaning a payless Friday for some teachers and other cash flow troubles for many of the publicly funded, independently operated schools.

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has asked Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi to dip into contingency cash reserves to come up with $57 million, about half of the amount due, which should be available to the schools early next week.

Charter schools, which are due to receive almost $400 million to serve about 25,000 District school children on 90 campuses, are paid quarterly based on projected enrollment. The District traditionally advances the July payment to the schools against the budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. But the city has been unable to submit a balanced budget for fiscal 2010 to Congress because of persistently deteriorating revenue forecasts. Revised projections released last month by Gandhi showed that the city faces a $340 million deficit spread over two years: $190 million for fiscal 2009 and $150 million for 2010.

Gandhi said the law prohibits any advancing of funds from the 2010 budget until submission to Congress. Fenty is scheduled to deliver a revised budget to the D.C. Council tomorrow. The budget problems come at a difficult time for charter schools, many of which operate on tight budgets in the best of economic circumstances. Unlike traditional public schools, many charters, especially new ones, do not own their buildings and use part of their District allocations to pay for space in the pricey commercial real estate market.

District officials said that when the $57 million becomes available next week, financially strong schools will receive 50 percent of their quarterly payment. Smaller, less sound schools will receive 75 percent. The remainder will be paid once the budget reaches Congress. But school operators said even a three-quarters payment will pose problems.

"We calculate our cash flow down to the day pretty much. We're counting on that to make payroll," said John Goldman, chief financial officer at William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts in Northeast Washington, which has 735 students and 130 staff members. It was expecting $2.5 million from the District yesterday. As it stands, he said, teachers will not be paid tomorrow.

Goldman added that charter schools also rely on the predictability and stability of the quarterly payments to maintain their ability to borrow money. "To mess with this messes with creditworthiness of charter schools as a group," he said.

Wuhaun Dansby, executive director of Nia Community Public Charter School, a pre-kindergarten through sixth-grade school in Northeast, said he was anticipating his full $400,000 payment to help make technology upgrades in classrooms for the coming academic year.

Some school officials wondered why they weren't told until the close of business Tuesday -- in an e-mail from the charter school board -- that the payment was in trouble. They received support yesterday from Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), who said he favored using contingency funds to provide the entire $103 million, given that the city would be reimbursed when the budget is sent to Congress.

"I stand prepared to support an approach that minimizes the negative fiscal impact for public charter schools," he said in a letter to Fenty that his office release yesterday evening.

The July 15 charter school payment is becoming problematic for the District. Last summer it was late with money due to seven former Catholic schools that were converting to secular charter schools. The District said that the Center City Public Charter Schools were opened on an unusually expedited timetable, giving the city less time to plan. The District eventually used $7.5 million from a special education reserve fund to meet the obligation.

The tardy payments are the latest in a series of financial issues charter schools have had with the Fenty administration. Earlier this year, Fenty's proposed 2010 budget included a $26 million, or 26 percent, cut in the facilities allowance for charters. Much of the reduction was restored by the council.

THE CURRENT
School system sees increase in math, reading test scores
By Jessica Gould
July 15 , 2009

Current Staff Writer D.C. Public Schools students made gains in 2009, according to D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System test scores released by the school system on Monday. The biggest jump was in elementary school math, where 49 percent of students tested at the “proficient” level, compared with 40 percent last year. Forty-nine percent of elementary school students were proficient in reading, up from 46 percent last year.

Test scores for secondary school students also increased, officials said, but less dramatically. Forty one percent of secondary-school students were proficient in reading, a slight increase over last year’s 39 percent. And 40 percent of secondaryschool students were proficient in math, in comparison to 36 percent last year.

The numbers are even more striking compared with the scores from 2007, when Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee took control of the system. In 2007, only 38 percent of elementary school students were proficient in reading and only 29 percent were proficient in math. That same year, 30 percent of secondary school students were proficient in reading and 27 percent were proficient in math.

Rhee and Mayor Adrian Fenty often invoke the importance of data in determining D.C. Public Schools policy. They said yesterday’s scores — from annual exams given to third- through eighth-graders and 10th-graders — show that reform efforts are making a difference. “Two years in, we are diligently continuing to lay the foundation for sustainable school reform,” Fenty said in a release. “While the increases in DC-CAS scores are just one indication, it is powerful evidence of the incredible work being done by teachers, principals, and most importantly our students — across the District.”

In addition to the point gains in math and reading, the test scores released this week also demonstrate a narrowing of the difference inscores between black and white students. “The achievement gap between African American and white students continues to close across all grade levels and subject areas,” the release says, noting that the gap between secondary school math students closed 20 points — from 70 percent to 50 percent — over the past two years. Meanwhile, the achievement gap between elementary school students narrowed by eight points in math and six points in reading.

“Narrowing the achievement gap continues to be a top priority. It is our responsibility to do everything we can to ensure that every child in the District, regardless of their background and circumstances has the opportunity to realize their potential,” Rhee says in the release. Numbers released by the school system also demonstrate increased proficiency among special-education students, English language learners and the economically disadvantaged.

But one data set was less encouraging. Only 34 of the District’s 128 public schools made Adequate Yearly Progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act this year, a decrease from last year’s number. Twenty-eight elementary schools and six secondary schools met the requirements, the release says. D.C. Public Schools officials distributed the preliminary test scores to principals on Monday, but said it would be 10 days before individual school results are made public. Wilson High School principal Peter Cahall declined to discuss the specific scores, saying only, “We made progress.” Cahall said he was “pleased” but “not satisfied” with the results. “I think now it’s really drilling down in the data. You have to go kid by kid now; find out where kids are and what they need,” he said.

Charter schools also showed gains, according to Barnaby Towns, spokesperson for Friends of Choice in Urban Schools. Unlike D.C. Public Schools, he said charter schools’ biggest gains were in secondary schools. Reading proficiency increased from 46 percent to 53 percent, and math proficiency increased from 48 percent to 57 percent.

Meanwhile, elementary school students’ reading proficiency increased from 45 percent to 46 percent, he said, and elementary school math increased from 42 percent to 42.5 percent. Towns said the data shows that charter schools boost students’ achievement over time. “The longer D.C. kids stay in charter schools, the better they do,” he said.

THE WASHINGTON POST
D.C. Schools Show Progress on Tests
By Bill Turque
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

D.C. public school students continue to improve their reading and math skills, and the achievement gap between African American and white students has narrowed, according to preliminary test results released yesterday.

The biggest gains in the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exams were in the elementary grades, where almost half of the students tested were deemed proficient: 48.6 percent in math (up from 40.5 percent in 2008) and 49.4 percent in reading (up from 45.6 percent in 2008). In 2007, fewer than a third of elementary students were considered proficient in either category.

Gains at the middle and high school levels were more modest. Reading proficiency grew from 39 percent to 41 percent; math proficiency, from 36 percent to 40 percent.

The annual exams, given in grades 3 through 8 and to high school sophomores, provide a much-awaited snapshot of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's effort to transform the District's 45,000-student school system, widely regarded as one of the country's weakest.

The results also are important because federal officials use them to assess whether schools have achieved "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward proficiency benchmarks established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Persistent failure to reach those targets can trigger provisions in the law that would require Rhee to make drastic changes in a school's staff or academic programs.

On that count, District schools lost ground this year. Just 27 percent of public schools -- 34 of 128 -- made AYP. That is down from 31 percent -- 45 of 143 -- in 2008. Rhee closed and consolidated some schools at the end of the 2008 academic year because of low enrollment.

This year's AYP targets require D.C. elementary schools to show that 60.5 percent of students are proficient or better in reading and 55.2 percent in math. In secondary schools, 57.6 percent of students are supposed to meet that standard in reading and 55.4 percent in math.

D.C. officials said test scores are only one factor used in determining yearly progress. Attendance, graduation rates and student turnout for the tests are other important elements.

In announcing the systemwide scores yesterday, Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who is up for reelection next year after staking out school improvement as his top priority, focused on the rising numbers.

"We're thrilled at the progress we've made this year," Rhee said at a news conference on the steps of Drew Elementary School in Northeast Washington, attributing the improvement to the hard work of teachers, principals and students. She added, however, that "we still have an incredibly long way to go."

Test scores also rose at public charter schools, which serve about 25,000 District children. They registered their biggest gains at the secondary level, increasing math proficiency by nine percentage points and reading by nearly seven points.

"These results underscore the continued success of D.C.'s vibrant public charter school reform," Robert Cane, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a charter advocacy organization, said in a statement. "These superior growth results reveal that the longer students remain in D.C. public charter schools, the better they do academically."

As with public schools, however, the number of public charter schools making AYP also declined, from 18 of 58 in 2008 (31 percent) to 13 of 73 (18 percent).

Test scores for individual schools will be available in about two weeks, the district said.

Perhaps most striking was the change in what many education experts regard as the most alarming of all testing statistics -- the gap between scores of white and African American students in public schools. Rhee reported yesterday that last year's narrowing of the achievement gap continued in 2009 across all grade levels and subject areas. The gulf between secondary math students closed by 20 points, from 70 to 50 percent.

Public school scores overall did not improve at the same rate as they did between 2007 and 2008, when elementary proficiency levels in reading and math rose eight and 11 points, respectively.

Some parent activists reacted cautiously to yesterday's announcement, saying they wanted to scrutinize the school-by-school numbers.

"The one thing Rhee and the mayor seem to be very focused on is PR. I'd want to be able to slice the data myself before I'd get really excited," said Mary Melchior, a parent at Langdon Education Campus, a school in Northeast that runs from pre-kindergarten through grade 8.

This is the second round of test scores on Rhee's watch. Most experts say it takes at least three rounds of testing to determine the effect a school district's leadership is having on classroom achievement.

Rhee attributes the continued progress to improved teaching methods that are starting to take hold, including "differentiated" instruction tailored to the individual needs of students and more strategic use of test data to identify academic weaknesses. A new school staffing model added 144 full-time "professional developers" to help teachers improve their skills

Rhee mobilized the schools to prepare students for the annual assessment tests, establishing "Saturday academies" to offer extra instruction to students on the cusp of proficiency-level scores.

She also diverted significant amounts of classroom time to test preparation, with a special focus on the written portions of the reading and math tests, or the "Brief Constructed Response." In the weeks leading up to the April exams, the BCR Initiative required students in all classes, including music and art, to practice writing the short essays.

Rhee also cited the leadership of the many principals she put in place at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. She and Fenty selected Drew Elementary as the backdrop because of the leadership of Kimberly Davis, a young principal promoted by Rhee. Drew's reading scores grew by 18 percentage points, and its math scores rose by 28 points this year, Rhee said.

The District will learn more about where students stand relative to their peers in other cities this fall when it receives math test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The test evaluates math, reading and science skills of fourth- and eighth-graders in 11 urban school systems, including the District, New York, Chicago and Atlanta.

The most recent scores, from 2007, showed D.C. schoolchildren at or near the bottom in every measure. Reading and science scores are expected to be available sometime next year.

Link: http://www.news8.net/news/stories/0709/640024_video.html?ref=newsstory

The Washington Post

Charter Schools Welcome Special Needs
Letter to the Editor
Friday, July 3, 2009

The June 27 Metro story "Special-Ed Problems Continue in District" quoted a federal court monitor as saying that some D.C. public charter schools discourage students with special needs from applying. But the statistic cited later to support this assertion is inaccurate.

In fact, 10 percent of District public charter school students are special-needs students, compared with 13 percent for the city-run public schools -- not 23 percent, as the story said -- according to the 2008 audit undertaken for the District's Office of the State Superintendent of Education. This percentage difference exists even though only one D.C. public charter school is exclusively devoted to the education of children with special needs, compared with six in the city-run school system.

Many public charter schools provide more intimate learning environments, developing stronger bonds among students, teachers and parents. This allows charters to avoid the unfortunate habit in too many urban public school systems of classifying students as having "special needs" when in reality the school is simply unable to meet the students' needs adequately in the regular program.

Nonselective by law -- unlike some city-run public schools -- D.C.'s public charter schools are serving a share of special-needs students that is similar to that of the traditional public schools. By more closely meeting their students' diverse, individual needs, many charters serve them better.

JULIE CAMERATA

Executive Director

DC Special Education Co-Operative

Washington

The Virginian Pilot

Charter school success
Letter to the Editor
03 July 2009

Re 'Charter schools face uphill climb in Virginia' (front page, June 29): Lauren Roth's report quotes a union spokeswoman claiming that most charters perform no better and are frequently worse than traditional public schools.This assertion is flatly contradicted by charters' performance in the nation's capital. Our public charter schools have given hope to some of D.C.'s most underserved children.

The nine in 10 D.C. charter students who are African American and the seven in 10 who are from low-income families are outperforming their traditional public school peers. Students in middle and high school are nearly twice as likely to be proficient in reading and math as their peers in the regular public schools. Public charter schools have half the rate of teen absenteeism as the city-run schools and high school graduation rates 24 percent higher than the regular public schools, and have 85 percent of their high-school-age students accepted to college.

No wonder President Obama, speaking in Norfolk, said: 'I called for a doubling of our investment in charter schools so that students and parents have choice within the public school system.'
Robert Cane
Washington, D.C.

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is talking to a Los Angeles nonprofit group that has improved one of that city's most troubled high schools about running at least one low-achieving high school in the District, expanding her strategy of pursuing outside partners to manage public schools.

Rhee met last week with Steve Barr, founder and chairman of Green Dot Public Schools, which operates 17 small charter schools in Los Angeles and one in the Bronx, N.Y. He is perhaps best known for his forcible takeover of Locke Senior High School from the Los Angeles Unified School District last year. Green Dot replaced most of the faculty, divided the 1,800-student school into smaller "academies" and dramatically increased spending on security.

Although signs of academic success are unknown -- this year's round of standardized test scores has not been released -- Green Dot has won praise for making the campus safer and sparking significant increases in attendance and student retention rates. That was enough for Rhee to consider Green Dot as a possible partner.

District and Green Dot officials said talks are in a preliminary stage. But Green Dot's possible role signals Rhee's continued interest in partnering with private education management organizations to run some of the District's high schools. This summer, Friends of Bedford, founded by leaders of a successful school in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y., will take over operation of Coolidge and Dunbar high schools. Friendship schools, which runs charter schools in the District and Baltimore, will assume control of Anacostia High School this summer.

Those three schools are among 10 D.C. high schools (Ballou, Cardozo, Eastern, Roosevelt, Spingarn, Wilson and Woodson are the others) required to restructure under the federal No Child Left Behind law because of persistent failure to meet testing benchmarks in reading and math. Rhee has told audiences that she regards the high schools, filled with students who have spent years in low-achieving elementary and middle schools, as her most daunting challenge.

To walk into those schools is to "just be incredibly jarred into facing reality," she told a group of young educators last year. "It's astonishing to me and completely unacceptable."

Rhee met with Barr last week in the District at a national conference of charter school leaders. Jennifer Calloway, Rhee's spokeswoman, said they "spoke in general about what Green Dot has done in L.A. and the need for reform on the high school level in D.C." Calloway said that over the next few months, Barr would be meeting with Rhee's staff "to see if Green Dot could bring value to" D.C. public schools.

In California, Green Dot gets about $8,400 per high school student from the state. It also relies on philanthropic money. The per-pupil allotment for high school students in the District is $10,376 for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

Barr did not return a phone message this week, but in a posting last week on Education Week's Politics K-12 blog, he was quoted as expressing eagerness to bring his turnaround model to a nationally prominent stage such as the District. He said he wanted to create a model that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan could use as an example of how to turn around the country's worst high schools.

A collaboration with Green Dot would place Rhee in partnership with one of the education world's most outspoken and unorthodox leaders. Barr, a former Democratic fundraiser and television reporter, began Green Dot in 1999 and built California's largest group of charter schools, which are publicly funded and independently operated. The test scores at Green Dot schools are higher than the Los Angeles Unified average, and they are run with unionized teachers, highly unusual in the charter world. Last month, Green Dot signed a three-year contract with the American Federation of Teachers for its charter school in the Bronx.

When Los Angeles officials resisted his bid to take over Locke, Barr successfully took advantage of a provision in California law that allows schools to abandon a district if at least half of the tenured teachers sign a petition. His challenge at Locke -- and possibly in the District -- would be to run a large neighborhood public high school legally obligated to take all eligible students rather than a small charter school with an attendance cap.

Marco Petruzzi, Green Dot president and chief executive, acknowledged that the company hasn't proved its ability to dramatically raise academic standards at Locke. But he said the nonprofit group has learned enough to bring its approach to other cities.

"People in education like to wait for 10 years for final proof," he said. "And you've lost 10 generations of kids."