Schools Roundup: Vote With Your Feet Edition
To absolutely no one’s surprise, DCPS enrollment hasdropped 8.7 percent, according to a preliminary count by an independent auditor. While late registration will likely raise the final tally slightly, DCPS spokesperson Dena Iverson said that as of last week, 45,135 students were enrolled in the District's 120 schools, down from last year’s 49,422, continuing a trend in declining enrollment that has persisted since the 1960s.
So where did the kids go? Experts say that the popularity of charter schools, combined with the effects of declining birth rates and high housing prices that drive families to the suburbs have all fueled the loss. Charter school officials are projecting a 20 percent gain in enrollment this year (although this is partially due to the recent conversion of seven Catholic schools to charters), to approximately 26,500 students, or roughly 37 percent of District students.
Charter school advocates love numbers like these, which seem to indicate that parents are responding to the failure of DCPS by taking their students elsewhere. For example, a recent WJLA report about a Northeast D.C. elementary school struggling with overcrowded classes and unqualified teachers cited parents who are threatening to withdraw their children and place them in charters. While students in the District’s public charter schools haven’t really performed any better academically overall than students within DCPS (for every high performing charter like KIPP or DC Prep, there are others that are embarrassingly bad) they do offer parents a choice and a greater feeling of control over their children’s education.
Photo by sara overby
What this means for DCPS is increased pressure to turn the system around, and quickly. Just last week schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced the creation of an advisory commission to suggest revisions to the enrollment process. The commission will host five community meetings to gather public comment on current attendance boundaries and school choice policy before making recommendations.
One theory that has been active in education policy circles for some time is that charters drive competition, like in a free market, and that districts have little real incentive to improve performance unless faced with losses. Groups like the Washington Teachers’ Union also have a vested interest in preserving the dominance of traditional school districts. As the DC Education Blog puts it, “The math is simple: less students in DCPS = fewer teachers in DCPS; fewer DCPS teachers = fewer due-paying union members.” Kevin Carey over at The Quick and the Ed adds, “The numbers also serve as a reminder to those who think the current DCPS reforms are going too far, too fast. The days of unlimited time horizons for turning around failing school systems are, thankfully, starting to fall behind us.”
Schools Notes: Interested residents can attend a public meeting tonight about plans for the renovation of DCPS school buildings… Dunbar Senior HS football coach pulls his players out of a game after they say they heard racial slurs on the field… Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee on the NewsHour… Dr. Marla Oakes, DCPS’s Executive Director of the Office of Early Intervening Supports, passed away last week.