Results tagged “dcps”

The Ballou Senior High School Majestic Knights marching band, under the direction of leader Darrell Watson, are the pride of D.C. today after their performance in the Macy's annual Thanksgiving Parade. Ballou's band is a D.C. institution that has even inspired a documentary, and they are the first school from the District ever to perform in the parade. The students have been preparing for this performance since their selection was first announced in April of last year, practicing and fundraising for their trip to New York. The band performed a tribute to Michael Jackson called, "It's a Thriller." Enjoy the clip below, courtesy of NBC, and congratulations on a job well done to Mr. Watson, the fantastic musicians and dancers, and their families!

In a blow to the Washington Teachers' Union, the D.C. Superior Court today rejected the union's bid to reinstate the 266 teachers who were fired by DCPS in October. The teachers were laid off as part of a large reduction in force (RIF) that DCPS has maintained was necessitated by a $4.4 million budget shortfall. According to the Post, Judge Judith Bartnoff argued that the WTU failed to prove any of their allegations against Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, specifically that, "the RIF was not a budget-driven layoff but an illegal mass firing, and that the shortfall cited by Rhee was a sham and a pretext for dumping older teachers."

A congressional report issued yesterday by two ranking Republicans suggests that schools chancellor Michelle Rhee performed "damage control" for her now-fiance Kevin Johnson during investigations into Johnson's alleged sexual misconduct and misuse of Americorps funds at the St. Hope charter school he founded in Sacramento.

Surely even Michelle Rhee must feel like her profile is way overblown after this. The journal Education Next, as part of its entry in the virtual parade of profile articles that've already been done on the D.C. Schools chancellor, has created this ridiculous graphic depicting Rhee as a knight in shining armor (City Desk also takes note).

              

As promised, here are some images captured by DCist photographer Francis Chung during Thursday afternoon's Washington Teachers Union-organized protest outside the John A. Wilson Building.

News broke late last week that Hawk One, the company that was responsible for providing security guards at the District of Columbia's 127 public schools, had gone belly up. The timing couldn't have been worse, as D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee handed out 388 pink slips to teachers and staff on the very day that the Hawk One guards didn't show up to work. The combination may well have exacerbated a skirmish that broke out at McKinley High School on Friday in reaction to the layoffs, during which two people were arrested.

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.

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 coming layoffs could jeopardize the ongoing contract negotiations. Contract talks were recently rumored to be nearing to a close after almost two years of stalemate.

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.

It still amazes me just how little D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty seems to understand about talking to reporters. The more he categorically refuses to answer a single question about the process that took place to enroll his two sons in the high-performing Lafayette Elementary School, even though their neighborhood school is West Elementary, the more journalists are going to keep after this story. If you've ever wondered what it's like to talk to Fenty in the middle of a press scrum, just check out the video below, courtesy NBC4's Tom Sherwood. Mike DeBonis has a write-up with full audio of yesterday's heated exchange over at City Desk as well.

A few D.C. public schools may have been down to the wire when it came to completing renovations and repairs for the first day of school today, but parents at Garfield Elementary School can hardly blame DCPS for a water main break that shut the school down this morning. Repair work began at around 10 a.m. on a 12" water main that broke at 22nd Street and Southern Ave. SE this morning, but in the meantime, the Garfield campus has been left without running water. WJLA is reporting that Garfield students are being moved to Winston and Stanton Elementary Schools until the water comes back on. Talk about a hectic first day for these kids.

After collecting feedback ( i.e., complaints?) from staff, students, and parents for more than two years, DCPS has finally launched the redesign of its web site, and our first impression is that it looks pretty darn good.

We've mentioned it before, but Mayor Adrian Fenty has long promised to enroll his twin sons, Matthew and Andrew, 8, in DCPS starting this fall. But where will they enroll? West Elementary is technically the neighborhood school for the boys, who live in Crestwood, but Harry Jaffe argues that the campus is "in turmoil," and reports this morning that Michelle Fenty has toured five other NW elementary schools: Janney, Murch, Key, Eaton and Lafayette. We agree with Jaffe that it's high time Fenty followed the example of his DCPS chancellor, Michelle Rhee, and sent his children to the public schools under his watch, but we question ruling out West. Turmoil or not, surely the presence of the Mayor's sons would draw some much-needed attention to improving the school, and by enrolling his sons elsewhere, Fenty is sending a sign, intentional or not, that what's good enough for some D.C. kids - his neighbors, in fact - won't cut it for his own.

In an apparent effort to compete with the District's growing number of thematic charter schools, this morning DCPS announced the reorganization of 13 campuses into "theme-based catalyst schools," meaning that they will have an overall curricular emphasis in one of three areas: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math), Arts Integration, or World Cultures. At a morning press conference, Mayor Adrian Fenty described the purpose of the project as "to provide compelling options for students and families at their neighborhood schools, so that in every Ward quality and choice becomes a reality."

A long-anticipated evaluation of the D.C. Public Schools from the U.S. Government Accountability Office was released yesterday. The top line finding? "Important steps taken to continue reform efforts, but enhanced planning could improve implementation and sustainability." No shockers there. The report praised initiatives that have been implemented by schools chancellor Michelle Rhee since 2007, such as increased accountability for central office employees, but also argued that the District should do more strategic planning to better execute their ideas, and make greater effort to engage "stake holders" like parents and teachers.

The first results from the District Of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS) tests are out, and the results are encouraging. Bill Turque summarizes the gains in the Post:

Nearly half the District's public elementary students (49 percent) scored at proficiency levels in reading and math. Reading scores last year were 46 percent; math scores rose from 40 percent proficiency. In 2007, fewer than a third of elementary students were proficient in either category. Gains at the middle and high school levels were more modest. Reading proficiency grew from 39 percent to 41 percent; math proficiency rose from 36 percent to 40 percent.

D.C. Public Schools will release its summer reading list for students Friday, and some local librarians have alleged that gay titles under early consideration were removed.

Yesterday evening, we received a tip from a DCPS high school teacher that nearly 20 teachers at their school received termination letters from their principal that afternoon, including the union building representative. This morning, Candi Peterson, a Washington Teachers' Union board member, has letters from two teachers on her blog, and while the exact number of teachers fired has not yet been announced, D.C. Wire reports that four types of school employees were terminated around the district:

Paraprofessionals who work with students, but did not attain the "highly qualified" standard required by federal law under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Continue reading "End of the School Year Brings Teacher Firings"

Now that it's June the inauguration may seem like old news, but these films are refreshingly candid, hilarious, and often-poignant records of what D.C. communities were thinking and feeling back in January. "Most of them have even started caring about their futures," a student at Luke C. Moore Academy says of his classmates. "You can no longer go off the same expectations." An older woman captured in one film explains, "I knew it was going to happen, I just didn't know it would happen in my time." A shy fifth-grader tells the camera that she felt "Excited. Happy. All kinds of words."

City Desk is reporting that Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee and D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray have settled their argument over the $27 million that the Council voted last month to strip from the DCPS budget because of differences in enrollment projections. The Council is voting (any minute now?) to restore $24 million to DCPS in the FY2010 budget, with the remainder being placed in escrow until enrollment counts are finalized in October. Rhee and Gray will also collaborate going forward to create a "uniform method" for projecting enrollment. The Council initially withdrew the money because it felt the projections on which the budget had been based were inflated. DCPS enrollment has been steadily declining for years, but Rhee's budget assumed a growth of about 3,000 students. Rhee countered by threatening that schools would be forced to eliminate teaching positions in order to make up the deficit. She defended the projected enrollment growth, but yesterday conceded in a letter to Gray that, "I cannot guarantee that this will occur.” Strangely, that slight admission seemed to be all Gray needed to release the majority of the money.

We have to admit, when we first started watching this C-SPAN video of RNC Chairman and D.C. native Michael Steele talking to students at H.D. Woodson Senior High School, we were ready to scoff. Really Michael Steele, we wondered, do you actually want to tell students in DCPS, where only one out of ten students ever graduate from college, that while at Johns Hopkins, "I partied my behind off," and "I heard there were classes" and then mock the letter announcing that you had been kicked out?

In case you haven't been paying attention to the ins and outs of the D.C. Council's recently passed FY 2010 budget, here are some of the highlights. Also see Tim Craig, Gary Emerling and Michael Neibauer for more coverage.

D.C. Wire reports that this morning, the D.C. Council voted to strip $27 million from the DCPS budget for next year, on the grounds that that the original funding projected that school enrollment would grow by 3,000 students, an estimate that's obviously unrealistic. The Council says it will not spend the money now, and voted to place it in escrow, to be released in the fall only if an enrollment audit confirms growth. "Given the enormous budget challenges facing the District in 2010," Chairman Vincent Gray argued, "there needs to be a justification why this increase is warranted."

Testing starts this week for the public school students of D.C., which is why the kids you've seen on the bus in the morning may appear a little more dazed – or on time – than usual. The District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) will run through May 1, and is administered to students in grades 3-8 and 10 to measure math, reading, science, and writing.

DCPS released the video footage above today of Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) touring Shaw Middle School at Garnet-Patterson last week with D.C Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Durbin and Miller, both of whom are active on education reform issues in Congress, met with students and teachers as they sought insight from the school regarding the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act, which is soon up for re-authorization. They also discussed ideas about expanding educator accountability with Shaw teachers.

Yesterday, City Paper's Tim Carman spotted a story in the San Francisco Business Times about how Revolution Foods, a California-based group with the admirable mission that "all students should have access to healthy, fresh food on a daily basis," may be expanding to D.C. in the next year. Revolution Foods has partnered with Whole Foods in the past, and places an emphasis on teaching kids good nutrition habits in addition to providing meals.

Citing it as "necessary to ensure preservation of the public welfare in general," D.C. Public Schools passed an emergency rule to the D.C. Register yesterday, revoking "personal determination of appearance, including styles of hair and dress" as a First Amendment-protected right for students. Chancellor Michelle Rhee also posted a revision to the current discipline code, which would -- supposedly -- lay down much harsher punishments for students who disregard current rules concerning clothing.

Eventually, scholars will evaluate whether the incentive works. But for now, the best gauge might be the reaction of students on payday. Interviews with parents, educators and youths reveal that most students compare their earnings as soon as they're handed out, excited by the financial reward. A few, in a show of apathy or rebellion, destroy checks intended to help them. And some walk home disappointed, envelopes closed.

On Friday the D.C. Public Schools quietly released their audited enrollment figured for the 2008-09 academic year, and it shows that there are 45,190 students left in the system, down 8.5 percent from last year's 49,422. This news comes via the Post's Bill Turque, who says he found the report posted on the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education's web site (we can't actually find it available here) on Friday. Normally, the annual public school enrollment audit is released with a formal announcement.

In a letter sent last week to DCPS teachers, D.C. schools chancellor Michelle Rhee directly addressed ten of the most frequent concerns she hears from teachers, ranging from "Some people say that you want to fire all the veterans in DCPS and replace them with Teach For America teachers or DC Teaching Fellows. Is that true?" to "There are too many initiatives going on. I’m worn out and overwhelmed. What’s your priority?"