By Sarah Livingston, on September 11th, 2013  This past June 20, two and a half years after taking office, Mayor Gray gave an address on “Next Steps” in his plan for public education at the Savoy Elementary School in Anacostia.
Simply put, his plan is to continue the “education reform” of charter schools that began 15 years ago, which mayoral control in 2007 was intended to speed up, into the future. Through three “overarching strategies” he expects to create, “as One City, a comprehensive system of schools that provides high quality options to all children.” He pointed to the “partnership” between Savoy ES and Thurgood Marshall Academy Charter School as a “snapshot of that future.”
Each of the strategies has a number of measures. But, the Mayor said, to reach the goal, “it is imperative that charters and DCPS collaborate” and that people give up favoring one education “reform philosophy” over another, such as advocating for DCPS or for charter schools. They must give up their “fear and distrust” and the “language of competition” and embrace instead “a new spirit of collaboration and problem-solving that ensures parents and students are first.”
Below are the three strategies and their measures, some of which are already in place:
1) Scale up
• by replicating successful programs so they serve more students such as linking a middle school with McKinley Tech High School and merging School Without Walls with Francis-Stevens preK-8
• by giving the chancellor authority to grant charters
• lease more DCPS school buildings to charters
• have DCPS and charter schools look together at city-wide data in making plans to fill gaps, expand, close or move schools.
2) Strengthen
• by raising the quality of pre-K programs with two new tools for quality and assessment
• continue Race to the Top grants for training DCPS and charter school teachers in the Common Core Standards
• build Career and Technical Academies in DCPS and charter schools in line with jobs in demand and the Five Year Economic Development Plan
• develope a Graduation Pathways Project to get off-track students back on track
• continue the OSSE pilot program offering DCPS and charter schools access to a consortium of special education service providers
• expand Flamboyen Family Engagement Partnership to 26 more DCPS and charter schools
• revamp the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula and
• find ways to link LEA payments to enrollment throughout the year while also insisting on more equity between DCPS and charters in providing special education services and truancy prevention.
3) Simplify
• with a single lottery for DCPS and charters using a common application and a common enrollment deadline
• release new standardized state-wide report cards from OSSE for all schools
• create a Re-Engagement Center as a single source of information for dis-engaged youth to re-engage (deadline for blueprint, October 1, 2013)
• use the Malcolm X Elementary School and Achievement Prep Charter School located in the same building as a model of two schools fully integrating the strength of a neighborhood school and the innovation of a charter school
• create by legislation that has been submitted to the Council, the “option for charter schools to elect to provide a neighborhood preference” and for schools chartered by the chancellor to become schools-of-right in high need areas
• allow for cross-LEA (Local Education Agency) feeder patterns in the coming school boundary revisions “where a DCPS school might feed into a charter school, or vice versa.”
This is what the Mayor is referring to when he says we must “stay the course.” It is clearly a plan to knit, link, merge, mush and subsume the city’s traditional public school district, into the charter school ethos of using public money to pay for the private dreams of people who want to run their own school. Or for the private dreams of those who wish to profit by the “steady revenue stream” of public tax dollars going into charter schools and back out to real estate companies, hedge funds or charter management organizations, among others.
But, is this what we the people want? Is this what we expect from our elected leaders who are responsible for using the power we have given them to spend our public dollars in the public, not private, interest?
By Guest Contributor, on August 22nd, 2013
March with Save Our Schools Contingent as we join in the
50th Anniversary
March for Civil Rights in DC
August 24th
Public Education is a Civil Right!
Save Our Schools calls all supporters of Public Education join with the 50th Anniversary March for Civil Rights: A Continuation of the Battle for Jobs, Justice and Freedom! http://nationalactionnetwork.net/mow/Look for the Save Our Schools banner, pick up your signs and march together to the Rally Site at 8:30
Make your voice heard for jobs, justice, & freedom!
Public Education is a civil right!
No school closings!
End high stakes testing!
Kids over profits-End Privatization!!!
Also, join the Journey for Justice Education as a Human Rights Marches, Boycotts, and Rallies in your home city on August 28th and August 29th.
Look for further details on all of these events at the SOS website and in future email updates.
Join the movement to Save Our Schools!
Together we can change the conversation.
We can preserve and transform public education
for all the children!
 Our mission is to build a national grassroots, people-powered movement, which preserves and transforms public education,
as the cornerstone of a democratic society.
By Guest Contributor, on August 12th, 2013 By Erich Martel
Retired DCPS Social Studies Teacher
At the July 31st meeting of the DC State Board of Education, Ward 8 Member, Mr. Trayon White, said that he had attended the 2013 graduation of Thurgood Marshall Charter HS and wondered why there were so few graduates when four years earlier, as a 9th grade, the class was much larger. No one replied. It’s time that our public officials conducted an independent investigation of this scandal.
Quick Facts about Thurgood Marshall Public Charter School
Between 2007 and 2013, only 45% of starting 9th graders graduated four years later.
Between 2007 and 2011, only 32% of the tested 10th graders are African-American males.
Over the past seven years, 2007-2013, Thurgood Marshall graduated 394 of the original 872 9th grade students enrolled. That’s a completion rate of 45.2%.
What happened to the other 478 starting 9th graders counted by OSSE?
336 or 38.5% were transferred before the 10th grade DC CAS testing roster was set.
142 or 16.3% were transferred after the 10th grade test, but before graduation.
Thurgood Marshall has trouble keeping African-American male students. According to gender data reported on OSSE’s DC CAS website, of the 462 10th graders tested in the 5 years from 2007 to 2011:
– 314 or 67.97% were female.
– 148 or 32.03% were male. In no year, did the % of male students exceed 33%.
Of the 88 Thurgood Marshall students tested in 2011, 62 (70.5%) were female, only 26 (29.5%) were male.
At each of Councilmember Catania’s recent ward education “conversations” and at most of the Council’s Education Committee hearings, Councilmember Catania and/or Councilmember Grosso contrasted Thurgood Marshall as an example of charter school success against DCPS failure. According to the numbers, Thurgood Marshall does not live up to that distinction.
Mayor Gray chose Thurgood Marshall Charter HS as the symbolic site to announce his proposed legislation to give the chancellor chartering authority.
The public has a right to know – and the Mayor, Council and State Board of Education Members should demand to know:
- The reasons why these students were transferred;
- Their receiving schools;
- Their practice scores (DC BAS) were before transfer;
- Their official DC CAS scores after transfer;
- Whether they graduated with their class or cohort;
- Whether any of them dropped out;
And many other questions that public officials holding positions of public trust should feel obligated to answer and not cover up as they make public education policy.
By Liane Scott, on September 17th, 2012  Empower DC member lobbies City Council. The District of Columbia City Council returns from its summer recess this Tuesday, September 20, 2012. It’s time for them to set their legislative priorities for the upcoming year.
The question is, will those priorities include issues that are important to long-time DC residents? Will the laws and policies they ultimately implement positively impact low- and moderate-income communities or will they continue to force folks out of the city in search of a friendlier, more affordable environment? Will families be able to raise their children in the District knowing that they will have access to quality and affordable housing, health care, child care and schools that are responsive to the needs and wishes of the community?
Members of Empower DC’s Education Campaign are working to make sure that Mayor Gray, Schools Chancellor Henderson and the city council are accountable to all the residents of DC and not just those that fund their campaigns. Education campaign members are concerned about the threat of public school closures in our city. School closing have not improved educational outcomes and have not yielded the savings that we were promised. Mayor Gray and Chancellor Henderson continue to publicly express that closures will save money which will be reinvested in schools that stay open, but as we have seen from the recent DC Auditor report, the last round of closures in 2008 actually cost us $30 million more than expected. Time and time again, community members are shut out of the process leading up to the closing of a school. (See Bruce Monroe Elementary School & River Terrace Elementary School)
Education organizer Daniel del Pielago says, “what we need now is better planning to ensue that Public schools are strengthened and are a viable choice for DC residents now and for the future.” To that end, Empower DC will visit the city council this Tuesday demanding that they do the following:
1. Place a Moratorium on school closings, turnarounds and transfer to charters for 5 years.
Why this demand? Because the only data which the city has made public to inform “right-sizing” the school system is the IFF report. a report prepared by a pro-charter, real-estate organization who’s single indicator analysis test scores) on school performance lacks any real information on why students score poorly. Their recommendations to close/turn over public schools to charters needs to be refuted. we need this moratorium to plan and execute an accurate building needs assessment and to develop a process which is more inclusive of parents, students, teachers and the community at large.
2. The council needs to have the evaluation of PERA (Public Education Reform Act) as soon as possible.
The DC Public School System has been under mayoral control since 2007 without a valid evaluation of its actual effect on the schools. Many decisions have been made (namely, school closures/turnovers to charters) that have not resulted in any considerable improvements of DCPS. We cannot wait until September 2014 (changed from September 2012 by the 2009 Budge Support Act) for this evaluation.
3. The council needs to hold hearings and vote on any school closing proposed this year.
Currently there is no process to involve those who will be directly impacted by closures and for the community at large to weigh in on these decisions. We need council leadership to ensure that DC residents aren’t left out of this process.
Join Us…
Tuesday, September 18
10 am ’til noon
John A. Wilson Building (City Hall)
1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (meet in the lobby)
In addition, SHARC (Shelter, Housing and Respectful Change) will be joining Empower DC members as we visit the council. They will be focusing on the displacement of the poor, highlight the impending threat of losing 1,200 or more shelter beds in 2013 and demand affordable housing for ALL low-income residents of DC. The District of Columbia Government and business community (including landlords) are creating and instituting policies that displace tens of thousands of low- and no-income residents, many of whom have called DC “home” for a long time. At least 39,000 Afro-Americans have been gentrified out of DC over the past 10 years by high rents. Schools, libraries and clinics have been closed or relocated away from the communities that need them most. High-priced amenities such as street cars have been brought to poor neighborhoods, forcing the rent up and many residents out. Social services are being eliminated and 1,200 to 2,000 of DC’s 7,000+ homeless people may lose their shelter in 2013, only to be arrested under a vagrancy law being considered by the council.
For more information contact daniel@empowerdc.org or 202-234-9119 ext. 104
By Guest Contributor, on June 8th, 2012 Cross-posted from The Washington Teacher
Written by Candi Peterson
 With another school year coming to a close, more excess letters will be handed out by DC Public Schools to another group of Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) members as well as Council of School Officers (CSO) union members. Among those impacted will be DCPS School Psychologists. Historically, school psychologists’ have been itinerant workers who were centrally funded and supervised directly by the Office of Special Education. School psychologists were generally responsible for several schools in most cases (sometimes more). Last school year, itinerant school social workers whose positions had previously been centrally funded by the Office of Special Education (OSE) were excessed and are now paid from the local school budget.
“WTU school psychologists will be officially excessed from their central office positions on June 1, 2012. The effective date of the excess will be the last day of school June 14, 2012”, according to a revised May 2012 “SEC and School Psychologist FAQs” that was sent to relevant staff on May 18, 2012 by Jason Kamras, Chief of Human Capital. By definition an “excess is an elimination of a Teacher’s position at a particular school due to a decline in student enrollment, a reduction in the local school budget, a closing or consolidation, a restructuring, or a change in the local school program, when such an elimination is not a ‘reduction in force’ (RIF) or ‘abolishment.” Not unlike 333 DCPS teachers who were excessed on May 4, 2012, DC school psychologists will no longer hold their current positions at the end of the school year.
DCPS Question: The SEC and school Psychologist FAQs packets posed the following question, “What will happen to the centrally-funded Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU) school psychologists who currently report to the Office of Special Education (OSE) ?
DCPS Answer:
WTU (school) psychologists “will have until August 15, 2012 to find a budgeted position at a school. If they cannot find a position by then, and if they meet certain qualifications, they will have access to the three excessing options in the WTU contract: 1) a $25,000 buyout; 2) early retirement, assuming 20 years of creditable service; or 3) a one year placement at a school during which they will continue to search for a budgeted position. To qualify for the three excessing options, WTU members must meet three criteria: 1) earn an Effective or Highly Effective IMPACT rating for 2011-12 school year; 2) attain permanent status (which one earns after two years of service in DCPS) by the effective date of excessing; and 3) have not opted into the IMPACT plus system.” Since Council of School Officers School Psychologists who are twelve month employees have a different collective bargaining agreement , they will be subject to a different set of rules than WTU members.
DCPS question: What will happen to centrally funded Council of School Officers (CSO) (school) psychologists who currently report to Office of Special Education (OSE)?
DCPS answer:
“They will receive reassignment letters on June 1, 2012 explaining that they will be working at a school site, not for OSE, next school year. They will have until June 11, 2012 to identify a principal willing to hire them. After that point, the DCPS Office of Human Capital will begin to place them into remaining vacancies. This process will be completed by June 15, 2012.”
Another reorganization is also underway for school year 2012-13 in DC Public Schools which includes a Reduction In Force (RIF) for many Special Education Coordinators (SECs).
Earlier during the DC Public Schools budgeting process for SY’ 2012-13, funding was no longer provided to local schools for Special Education Coordinator (SECs) positions. Many DC Public school principals complained about not being funded to keep their SECs. After an uproar by administrators, funding was made available to local schools for a small number of Special Education Coordinators (SECs) -approximately 40-50 according to my source. It is my understanding, that monies alloted for school social workers funding,which initially was part of the required school budget for 2012-13 was changed to flexible spending – thereby allowing principals to decide whether they wanted a school social worker or not. Last school year, all schools were required to have a .5 (half-time) school social worker at a minimum depending on the student population. Having the option to decide whether to hire a social worker or not, some schools used the monies for other positions such as the SECs position. It is sadto say that the majority of SECs will be losing their positions at the end of the school year.
DCPS question: “When will SECs who are losing their positions be officially notified?”
DCPS answer:
“Affected SECs will receive official notification that they are part of a Reduction in Force (RIF) from DC Public Schools on the last day of school, June 14, 2012. The reductions will go into effect on July 15, 2012, according to the revised May 2012 SECs and School Psychologists.
You might be wondering by now, why is DC Public Schools jumping on yet another educational bandwagon? The short and dirty answer is that DCPS claims that they are shifting to another model which no longer includes Special Education Coordinators (SECs). According to an April 26, 2012 press release by Chancellor Kaya Henderson titled: Increase in School Psychologists to Help DCPS Better Serve Students, she states: “…DCPS will shift to a new staffing model for 2012-13 school year that better utilizes the expertise of school psychologists. The change will allow schools to improve student achievement by leveraging the skills of school psychologists to build a student network that collects data, identifies students at risk for poor academic or behavioral outcomes, provides evidenced based interventions and monitors student progress.”
So here’s when being a critical thinker really comes in handy. Not for a minute do I buy the hype that this change in staffing is what is in the best interest of DC’s children. We must ask what’s really behind these changes? I for one believe that the Henderson administration and company wants to make us think that the central office is saving a boatload of money yearly when in fact they are just playing a game of musical chairs with staff. They are just shifting the funding from the central office to the local schools budget. Don’t be fooled into thinking that the reduction the central office will show in personnel costs is a cost savings measure. Not!
RIFing special education coordinators while a temporary cost saving measure to the District is a mistake and when the word gets out about the layoffs of special education coordinators (SECs), special education advocates and attorneys will be lining up to sue DCPS, litigation costs will sky rocket once again like they did pre-special education coordinator days. From where I sit, special education coordinators have been a God-send to the District of Columbia Public Schools, our students and staff.
It has been a long arduous battle for both school psychologists and special education coordinators (SECs) and their unions who have voiced concerns adamantly about the dismantling of SECs positions whose duties will probably be absorbed by local school staff and the excessing of school psychologists from the central office to local school psychologist/special education coordinator ordinairre. Here we go again-jumping from one educational bandwagon to another.
Someone has to set the record straight about what’s really happening in our schools. I’d love to hear from DC Public Schools special education coordinators and school psychologists and others about what they think the real motivation is behind the move. Feel free to email me c/o thewashingtonteacher@gmail.com or saveourcounselors@gmail.com Confidentiality assured.
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This past June 20, two and a half years after taking office, Mayor Gray gave an address on “Next Steps” in his plan for public education at the Savoy Elementary School in Anacostia.
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