Rachael Brown

Recent Actions

• Posted 229 D.C. Teachers Received Pink Slips Today to DCist
  This afternoon, DCPS released final details of the budget reductions that have caused an uproar in the schools community since probable staff cuts were first announced last month. In total, 388 employees will be let go across the District, 229 of whom are teachers. According to a DCPS release, "60 percent of schools will lose one or zero teachers and 80 percent of schools will lose two or less." Twelve campuses lost five or...
• Posted WTU 'Outraged' Over Coming Teacher Layoffs to DCist
  WTU President George Parker. Photo by Meaghan Gay for DCist. As we mentioned in the Morning Roundup, the D.C. public schools announced yesterday that an unexpected $40 million budget shortfall will require spending cuts and personnel reductions by the end of October. In a letter to teachers, George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers' Union, expressed anger that the WTU was not notified of the cuts prior to yesterday's announcement, and suggested that the...
• Posted Family Education Expo Planned for Saturday to DCist
  Earlier this week, the D.C. Double the Numbers Collation launched a new website, doublethenumbersdc.org, featuring interactive tools and advice aimed at guiding D.C. students through the college application process. Many D.C. students are woefully uninformed about how to apply and pay for higher education, and a 2006 report found that only 9 percent of D.C. 9th graders graduate from college within five years of earning their diploma, less than half the national average. D.C.'s...
• Posted DCPS Enrollment Surpasses 44,000 to DCist
  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...
• Posted Educators Fired For Cheating at D.C. Charter School to DCist
  Remember the early allegations of cheating on the DC-CAS (the standardized test that determines school progress under NCLB)? Bill Turque has done some digging, and reports in the Post that two teachers and one administrator at Howard Road Academy Public Charter School in Southeast have been fired after realizations that the two teachers were given advance copies of the exam so students could have "extra practice." The scores of 27 4th and 6th grade students...