Schools Roundup: Graduation Fever Edition
To the discomfort of many a graduate, this week’s heat wave happens to coincide with the last week of classes for D.C. public schools, and students around the city are proudly perspiring beneath their polyester gowns as local schools hold their graduation ceremonies.
In less hot graduation news, Education Week’s annual “Diplomas Count” report has released a dismal assessment of the District’s ability to graduate its students – only 57.6 percent of District 9th graders graduate high school on time, over 10 percent below the national average (which at 71 percent is still pretty darn pathetic). The Examiner reports that “an estimated 11 D.C. public school students are dropping out of the system each day.” Since it’s well known that educational attainment is also a predictor of a student’s future economic prosperity, criminal activity and good health, D.C.’s pathetic ranking should be cause for more anger than embarrassment, especially considering how little it takes to actually graduate from some of our city’s more apathetic high schools.
Nats Play Native Son: One grad who has made good is 23-year-old Emmanuel Burriss, the first DCPS graduate since 1981 to sign with a major league baseball team. An infielder for the San Francisco Giants, former Wilson HS shortstop Burriss had even the home team fans cheering when the Giants played the Nationals last weekend. Nats320 wrote, “And when Burriss lined a single to left off Charlie Manning in the top of the 9th--the first base hit by a DCPS product in Washington in over 38 years--you can bet I--NOT ONLY GAVE HIM A STANDING OVATION--but reminded every single person still sitting in Section 218 the importance of the moment.” Fox 5 has a video interview with Burriss if you want more. (Thanks to the DC Education blog for the link.)
The Right to Choose: It was a week of school choice news in D.C. The Post offered up three pieces yesterday, including a front page story on the closing of a local charter school due to academic failure, and another on the possible end of D.C.’s controversial voucher program. We also saw the introduction of (and protest against) new charter school legislation before the D.C. Council, which would limit the ability of charters to expand without proven academic achievement, and would tie city funding to enrollment. Education Sector’s Kevin Carey has a terrific rundown on the Post coverage, arguing that, “it's not a coincidence that all of the charter revocations in D.C. have been applied to stand-alone "mom and pop" schools, not schools like KIPP that benefit from a fine-tuned model and the support of larger regional or national non-profit charter management organizations. In the not-too-distant future, both research findings and charter school growth patterns will likely show that this is the future of public school choice.”
Charter schools, which are in theory meant to provide greater accountability in exchange for more autonomy, are not a failed movement, as some critics argue, but neither are they a silver bullet. Just like traditional public schools, some work and some don’t, and the best schools, charters or otherwise, are the ones that combine a motivated, talented staff with high expectations and quality instructional methods. But those that would use charters as a means to break the so-called monopoly of public education are doing students a disservice. D.C. already falls only behind New Orleans in its charter market share, and what we don’t need is more charters simply to say that we have them.
Schools Notes: DCPS teacher and local rocker Eric Axelson ponders social networking’s potential in the classroom… new DCPS database will actually (gasp) record data about students…Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee gets a jump on school enrollment for the fall…