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D.C. Public Schools confirmed yesterday that student enrollment in its 127 schools was at 44,397, up from the roughly 37,000 who were registered when classes resumed on August 24. Enrollment counts typically fluctuate at the start of the year, as parents enroll children late, and transfers are finalized.
The high turnout is being credited in part to the District's "Rediscover DCPS" ad campaign, as a number of the schools featured in the campaign significantly surpassed their projected enrollments, as well as the decision to bump the enrollment start date up, from July to April. An official count will be conducted in October.
Bill Turque points out in the Post that the gains put DCPS in close reach of the 44,681 figure that was used as a benchmark in the 2010 schools budget. Earlier this summer, the D.C. Council objected to Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee's initial projection of 45,000 students, believing it to be unrealistic in light of the growing popularity of charter schools and DCPS's history of significant annual enrollment drops. The council stripped $27 million from the schools budget in protest before compromising on the 44,681 figure and reinstating the funds.
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Parents are waking up to the fact that there are a very small handful of decent PCS in DC. They are hard to get into with lottery systems and application procedures unique to each school and they can close without notice (not likely to happen in a DCPS). The PCS test scores are comparable to the neighborhood DCPS scores. With so many DCPS in restructuring status under NCLB any parent can place their child into a receiving school which happens to be one of the top 10 (at least for elementary school) in the city since they are the ones meeting AYP. Although we have a slot elsewhere, my kids can attend Key and DCPS has to bus them there since our neighborhood school in its second year of restructuring is up a creek with descending test scores. The post also fails to mention that parents have a lot of confidence in Rhee. The guarantee of a real shot at access to a decent school and hope of further progress go a long way to restoring confidence int he school system
well, the council sure looks petty now, don't they?
They often do when it comes to the schools. It is really part of the problem that the schools are used a political fodder and political patronage system. Rhee is really doing an amazing job from the perspective of this parent.
Wow, DCPS is a huge success because they only lost a few hundred students this year instead of a few thousand like in most years. Good thing they bought that big ad campaign!