School Closings and the Displacement Equation

By Liane Scott, on February 10th, 2012

The administration of Mayor Vincent Gray recently commissioned a study of DC schools by the Illinois Facility Fund (IFF) which was paid for by the Walton Foundation (Wal-Mart) and several other interests heavily invested in charter schools. The study divided DC schools into 4 tiers (Tier 1 being the highest “performing” and Tier 4 being the “lowest performing”). The methodology used to rank the schools into Tiers was by looking at Standardized Test Score Results (DCCAS).

Eliminating poor performing seats poses no threat to children. Only to seats.

Overall the study offers 5 recommendations: Fill seats in Tier 1 Schools. Sustain the performing capacity of Tier 1 schools. Invest in facilities and programs to accelerate performance in Tier 2 schools. Monitor Tier 3 schools. Close or Turnaround Tier 4 DCPS Schools. Close Tier 4 charter schools and replace them with high-performing publicly-funded charter schools.

If you believe that test scores are the only thing that determines whether or not a school is worthy then using them as the sole criteria in the IFF’s study won’t bother you. If, on the other hand, you view a school as an integral part of the community and for that reason should be supported, then you might have hoped the study might look into why so many DC schools are failing academically. Despite the firing of hundreds of teachers from DCPS, academic performance has failed to improve by more than a few points. It would have been nice if the issue was that simple. Closing more than 20 public schools during the Fenty Administration may have increased class sizes and saved the city money but the achievement gap between white students and black students is wider than it’s ever been. Following the recommendations of the IFF study may increase the number of publicly-funded charter schools but as there’s no real evidence that charter schools are actually doing better academically than DC’s public schools, it hardly seems like a recommendation designed to improve the schools.

Please note. I’m aware that the mainstream media has suggested that the publicly-funded charter schools are in fact doing better academically than the traditional public schools but test scores just don’t bear that out. If you doubt this, please research it for yourself. Great Schools is one source for test scores and academic rankings. You might start there. I site them also because they’re rankings take more into account than academics. According to their site, the top-ranked DC schools are all traditional public schools. Although their rankings are hardly conclusive, I’m reasonably certain that they’ve been replicated by other reputable sources. So, if in fact, the best schools in DC are traditional public schools, why would the Illinois Facilities Fund recommend that DC’s “Tier 4” schools be replaced by publicly-funded charter schools? Wouldn’t it make more sense to suggest that these low-ranking schools, which are mostly in Wards 7 & 8, be encouraged to emulate the successful public schools west of the Anacostia River? The cynic in me believes with all sincerity that the real reason behind the IFF’s recommendation that DC’s public schools be replaced by charters has something to do with the fact that the Illinois Facilities Fund is a non-profit lender that lends mainly to charter schools not only in Illinois but soon across the whole of the United States. Increasing the number of charter schools in DC may not improve the academic performance of DC’s student population. It’s not likely to reduce the achievement gap between our white and black students but it may very well help to increase the bottom line of the Illinois Facilities Fund (which given it’s emerging status as a national entity would prefer to be referred to as the IFF).

I’m also confused by the Gray Administration’s confidence in the study, not because of what appears to be a clear conflict of interest, but because the recommendations don’t seem to align with the purpose of the study itself. According to the Washington Post, Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright’s reason for commissioning the study was, “to identify communities in greatest need of more education options.” The report recommends that the communities in greatest need of more education options either close their schools or replace them with charters. I don’t see how closing schools will provide the communities in Wards 7 & 8 with more educational opportunities. Isn’t that a direct contradiction of the purpose of the study? Presumably more charter schools will increase education options but if you’re . . . → Read More: School Closings and the Displacement Equation

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Is It Closing Time Again For More DC Public Schools?

By Grassroots DC, on January 30th, 2012

Crossposted from The Washington Teacher written by Candi Peterson

The headlines from today’s top education stories reads: “Many public schools in D.C.’s poorest area should be transformed or shut, study says; more charters recommended” written by Bill Turque, Washington Post writer while Mike Debonis’ blog: DeMorning Links reads: “School Closings Contemplated” and Channel Fox Five TV news reported the DC School System study recommends making major improvements or close three dozen under performing public schools or expand high performing charter schools.

The Demolition of Bruce Monroe Elementary School

The Washington Teacher blog first reported on October 31, 2011 about future plans to close additional DC public schools. An excerpt from the 21st Century School Fund September – October newsletter stated: “The Deputy Mayor for Education, with a 100,000 dollar grant from the Walton Family Foundation, engaged IFF (Illinois Facility Fund) to study the capacity and performance of DCPS and public charter schools. IFF has authored reports in Denver, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, using a defined method to determine what they term “performing” or “non- performing” seats. This analysis is being done with an eye to “right sizing” district schools which beyond consolidation could include reconstitution and replacement with school management organizations.”

Not unlike other major cities including NY, Chicago, Ohio- DC has been at the forefront of shutting down traditional public schools. In 2008, twenty-three public schools were closed under former DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee and then mayor Adrian Fenty which led to a community outcry to save our public schools. Local education stakeholders voices weren’t heeded by Rhee or Fenty and only one neighborhood elementary school- John Burroughs was saved from the chopping block.

Natalie Hopkinson who authored the article Why School Choice Fails, which appeared in the December 4, 2011 N.Y. Times, discussed how this country’s reform policies in Washington, DC- put in place by a Republican led congress in 1995 led to the birth of many of our charter schools. Hopkinson wrote:” if a school was deemed failing, students could transfer schools, opt to attend a charter school or receive a voucher to attend a private school. The idea was to introduce competition; good schools would survive; bad ones would disappear. It effectively created a second education system, which now enrolls nearly half the city’s public school students. The charters consistently perform worse than the traditional schools, yet they are rarely closed.”

The results of IFF’s study recommend that DC make major improvements or close thirty six under performing schools in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods or expand high performing charter schools. It’s a finding that heralds the continued growth of the charter schools sector at the expense of the D.C. Public Schools, if not its outright domination. While some people are questioning the motives of the Illinois Facilities Fund, the study is “likely to rekindle impassioned debate about possible school closures and the future of public education in the District,” Bill Turque notes. Officials tell Turque, education writer for the Post that any decisions about a “major restructuring” are at least a year and many community meetings away.

What comes as no surprise to anyone is that schools in ward 8 were identified as having the greatest need, according to the IFF study. The study recommended turning around or closing the following public schools: Simon, Patterson, Terrell-McGogney and Ferebee-Hope and closing two bottom-rung charter schools, Center City Congress Heights (pre-K to 8) and Imagine Southeast (pre-K to 5). H.D. Woodson Senior High School which is located in Ward 7 was also recommended for turn around or closure, a school which recently has undergone capital investment which cost millions of dollars in investment.

One of the things that I find disturbing about IFF’s report is the recommendation for DC to consider expanding charter schools in the 10 targeted neighborhood clusters and call for the DC Public Charter School Board to authorize about 6,500 new charter seats (current enrollment is about 32,000) while utilizing former public school buildings as incentives to get the public charter board to actively recruit the highest performing charter school operators to replicate their school models.

The writing should be on the wall for all of us to see. If it’s not, I don’t know what to tell you. From where I sit, this situation looks bleak for working, middle class families and many of our teachers in some of our poorest communities. The loss of our public schools is a disinvestment in our school communities and may lead to . . . → Read More: Is It Closing Time Again For More DC Public Schools?

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