DC Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson is announcing the list of schools on the chopping block today.   This despite the growing demand for a moratorium on school closings which haven’t resulted in any improvement in test scores or student achievement.  In acknowledgment of today’s announcement, I’d like to remind Chancellor Henderson, the entire administration of Mayor Vincent Gray and public school stakeholders across the city of just a few reasons why this is such a contentious issue.

The epidemic of school closings is not limited to the District of Columbia.  Education Week has published an article on school closings as a national issue.  Part of that article is reproduced below.

In five cities, groups wage war on school shutdowns

As school closures are increasingly used as a remedy to budget woes and a solution to failing schools in many cities, debates are intensifying about their effect on student performance and well-being, on district finances, and on communities and the processes districts use to choose which schools will be shuttered.

Student and parent groups in Chicago, the District of Columbia, New York, Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia gathered in Washington late last month to call for a moratorium on school closings and filed separate complaints with the U.S. Department of Education’s office for civil rights. In those complaints, the groups allege that in previous rounds of school closings, their districts have not been transparent and have been influenced by outside interests, such as charter school operators. They also argue that the closings have had a harmful and disparate impact on minority students and communities. Each of the districts has predicted new closures for the coming school year.

“This has become the strategy of first instance, not of last resort,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, which has affiliates in the cities…

The rest of this article can be found at the EdWeek.org.

The backlash described in the Education Week article made its way to Washington, DC and took the form of a march called the Journey for Educational Justice, which Grassroots Media Project Producers Ben King and Stephan Scarborough report on below.  This is a longer version of a video that we posted on the blog a couple of weeks ago.

Finally, from the DC-based education blog Truth From the Trenches I’m cross-posting this article which I think is particularly relevant to today’s announcement.  It should be noted that the creators of Truth From the Trenches are two DCPS teachers who go by pen names so as to avoid retribution for reporting their observations and opinions about DC Public School “reform.”  What does that tell us?!

On the Chopping Block

Crossposted from Truth From the Trenches
Written by Florence

While everyone is anticipating the proposed DCPS closure list set to be announced tomorrow, those of us who are working at schools that are at risk for closure have endured months of anxiety and turmoil. When a school is on the short list of closures, the academic year begins not with excitement but steeped in a cloud uncertainty that pervades every aspect of the learning environment. It is not an exaggeration to describe the feeling of working at a school that may be shut down at the end of the academic year similar to someone with their head in a guillotine waiting for the blade to drop.

It is important to note that many of the schools on the list have been on the chopping block for years. Not surprisingly, these schools usually have the least resources with the highest concentrations of academically and behaviorally challenged students. In most of these schools parent participation is minimal to non-existent and, therefore, unlike other schools with more involved and more well off parents who can raise tens of thousands of dollars (if not more) a year, these schools at risk for closure are not able to raise outside funds to supplement the schools’ budgets. Plus with low enrollments and DCPS recent per pupil spending cuts many of these schools do not have the adequate staffing and support needed for their high needs populations. With such uncertainty there are increased numbers parents jumping the sinking ship. Why stay in a school that is dying a slow death?

Instead of seriously trying to support these schools, most of the time it appears as if the chancellor makes a half hearted effort for show because in reality she wants a smaller leaner school system to oversee. At my school I often ask myself if central office is setting us up to fail. If they were serious about turning around these “failing schools” each school should have a summit or series of meetings where central office staff, school staff, parents, community members and even students come together to identify the main challenges and identify ways to RETAIN and RECRUIT families and ADDRESS the significant issues that face the school. Imagine if parents, school staff, community members and students could join together and be empowered to make a real turnaround plan. This would put faith back into the school and start the effort to rebuild the school instead of hanging the threat of closure over a school and believing that is what can drive improvements.

At my school I have noticed a big difference in planning for the future now that we are at risk of closure.There is a paralysis of sorts now as we wait to see what school makes the final list before we start fully planning for the school year. It is so incredibly demoralizing. And of course there is the uncertainty of whether we will all have jobs next year since all staff at closed schools are considered excessed. Our high needs students deserve more. Those of us who have made the commitment to work in these schools are worthy of just an ounce of respect. There is a growing voice demanding a moratorium on DCPS school closures because as we witnessed in Round 1 it did little if anything to solve the serious challenges faced by schools.Instead, it embroiled schools in turmoil and led to an exodus of students. To make matters worse, reports show that closing over 20 schools did not save the system money.

Here are some questions to think about:

1) How can a school with low enrollment that has been rumored to close for years work to increase enrollment especially when as in most instances their budget has steadily been gutted?

2) Once the proposed list comes out, how does the school system expect the students and staff to have an engaging and productive year? Remember the mess that was created last time?

3) Is this the way DCPS will continue to address low performing and/or low enrollment schools?

4) As this is round 2 of closures under the competition based corporate education reform model, when is the plan for round 3?

5) Why is Washington DC planning on closing public schools when every year more charter schools open? Is this an acceptable way to reform public education?

Florence