Go Home Already: Shouts and Murmurs
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Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
It’s been a bizarre week in D.C. education, as ostriches rallied on 14th St. and seemingly everyone from Katie Couric to Al Sharpton had their eye on the District’s schools. Thursday was the last day of classes for DCPS students, and while Mayor Adrian Fenty and Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee commemorated the one year anniversary of the schools takeover at a press conference at Langdon Elementary, a smaller gathering at the corner of 14th and U streets NW attracted some curious looks and the occasional honk of support. DC Voice, a local organization focused on community involvement in schools, was introducing their new mascot, an ostrich meant to push parents and community members to “get their heads out of the sand and become involved in public education.”
Jeff Smith, the director of DC Voice, told DCist that the rally was also meant to encourage volunteers to join their Ready Schools Project, in which community members “audit” local schools to collect data and assess their preparation at the start of each school year. There was good cheer at the rally (perhaps because of the giant ostrich prancing about) but there also appeared to be a lot of kids around for a school morning, even if it was the last day.
Anniversaries: Meanwhile, at the press conference, Fenty and Rhee were presenting a list of 46 initiatives that had been introduced or accomplished in the year since the takeover, and laying out plans for the year to come, including finalizing contract negotiations with the Washington Teachers Union, creating a five-year financial forecast, restructuring as many as 33 failing or low-performing schools, and developing a master facilities plan. You can read the entire list in more detail here (PDF). The Post explains that no one is expecting these improvements to translate to gains in test scores, however.
Even Katie Couric took note of the anniversary, and highlighted Rhee and Fenty’s efforts on the CBS Evening News in an interview during which the Chancellor remarked, “Nobody hired me into this position and said, 'Make the adults feel good, Michelle.' When the mayor hired me into this job, he said, 'Improve the schools.’”
Photo by Rachael Brown
Education in ’08: Rhee continued to be in the national spotlight last week by joining with civil rights leader Al Sharpton, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and former Los Angeles superintendent and current ED in ’08 chairman Gov. Roy Romer to charge the presidential candidates with making education reform a priority, specifically by addressing the achievement gap for low-income and minority students. The group called education equity “the civil rights issue of our time,” and pointed out that, “by the time they near high school graduation, black and Hispanic teenagers on average have math and reading skills no higher than that of white middle-school students four years younger.”
Considering D.C.’s high minority and low-income student population, this issue hits home, and hard. At last week’s student forum on the achievement gap hosted by D.C.’s State Superintendent of Education Deborah Gist, students were floored when confronted by data that ranks them so far below their white or wealthier peers. D.C. Wire reported that “the auditorium, filled with District education officials and school advocates, fell stone silent when they heard the students' reaction.” Marquis Battle, an Anacostia High senior who said, "It makes me feel really bad. If I went to a better school people would think I was a dummy.” Another student asked, “"What makes us so different? Why are we so far behind?"
Schools Notes: The Wall Street Journal continues to freak out over D.C.’s threatened voucher program, even though new data doesn’t really support its value…D.C. City Council approves the conversion of seven Catholic Schools to charters…City Desk maps the closing D.C. schools’ proximity to the receiving campuses...D.C. College Access Program honors DCPS college graduates…
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can we please, please, please keep al sharpton away from dc schools. that's all i want for christmas—i'll even give you my two front teeth
That's one scary goddamned mascot. I'd give anything for Gary the No Trash Cougar to show up with a gun, yelling "Give a larbage! Throw out your garbage!"
Man. That PDF contains some stuff.* Impressive, considering how much of it had to be learn-by-doing and how much was just dealing with legacy issues.
*Stuff /= garbage. Please, I don't need Gary the No Trash Cougar pointing a gun at my head until I recycle the pdf.
The Post also had an editorial slamming Norton's efforts to kill the voucher program. I don't know what to make of the Dept of Ed stats - on the one hand, there's been no huge improvement, although there has been improvements in subgroups; on the other hand, the program has been in effect for about 2 years and is wildly popular with parents. The teachers union hates vouchers, but parents love them (and 99% of recipients are black or Hispanic). Catholic schools obviously have a self-interest in supporting vouchers since the majority of recipients attend Catholic schools. But again, parents love the program and demand far outweighs supply. I take offense with Norton's snide remark that the parents are all befuddled and that's why they support vouchers. That's pretty douchey of her.
Also, while I empathize with the high school kids seeing that data that showed how badly they did, why were they shocked? Had they missed the never-ending drumbeat of news on how badly DCPS does?
The quoted student is right - if they went to an actually functional school, their academic deficiencies would be recognized, acknowledged and dealt with. Instead, with DCPS they just keep on advancing up the grade levels and graduate while being functionally illiterate.
The other student asks why they are so far behind. It's a combination of things: generational poverty, delinquent parents, peer pressure, pathetic teaching environment, no academic support system, and a political environment that for decades was content with the status quo.
Old Poster - good points re: factors influencing the achievement gap. However, on vouchers, my understanding is that the parents who were polled about vouchers were either people who had received the vouchers or people who had applied for vouchers and not received them (who made up the study's control group). So naturally the parents who got vouchers were happier than those who had also wanted them and weren't chosen.
That being said, I'm not sure that what parents want should necessarily trump what data shows about student achievement. Others may disagree, but it doesn't strike me as a balanced situation to say, on one hand, there's no real growth for the students, but on the other hand, parents like it. As Rhee said above, it's not about making adults happy. It's about making sure kids learn.
Here's a link to the Post editorial supporting the program, for those who are interested, and this is Norton's response.
Personally, I think Norton shouldn't be against the vouchers for the simple reason that if the program is revoked, there'd be 1,900 more kids in the DCPS without a cent more in money. The vouchers were always "found money", they never took a cent away from the DCPS budget. All they do is lower the costs.
Even people against the vouchers admit that what they really want is more kids in the DCPS. With Rhee finally closing unnecessary schools, the unions see this as a last chance at forcing the DCPS to remain bloated.
But Rachel, here's the key issue: Is less than 2 years sufficient to make a final determination as to the program's effectiveness? We're one year into the Rhee chancellorship. Have test scores improved? Nope. If this time next year test scores have still not improved, is that sufficient time to pull the plug on the whole thing?
And here's another key thing: My understanding is that vouchers are paid with federal appropriations, meaning there's no cost to DC taxpayers. Free money! Is the anti-voucher group's hope that that federal money will simply be re-routed into the $1B entity that is DCPS?
So, my view is that if we're getting free money for this, that kills the argument that this is "costing" DCPS money. Plus, I don't think there's been enough time to really gauge this program's effectiveness. Finally, all the parents I have seen quoted discussing the program absolutely love that it takes their kids out of DCPS. The fact that far more people are applying for vouchers than there are available vouchers shows the continuing strong support for these among poor families who are sick and tired about being sick and tired of DCPS sucking and failing their kids.
I see Norton's goal of killing the voucher program as nothing more than her sucking up to the teacher's unions that hate these types of programs for the same reason many hate charter schools - they lose their monopoly on public education and have to share suckling at the taxpayer teat. I really hope Norton hears an earful from District residents that will be screwed by the ending of this program. Not that she will really care since she's delegate-for-life Norton.