Schools Roundup: Heads in the Sand Edition
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…