The Examiner has a good news/bad news story today, reporting that while more D.C. students are taking Advanced Placement exams, they’re failing in numbers much higher than the national average. Twenty-two per cent more students took AP exams in 2006 compared to the year before — quite a jump — but only 10% are passing. Our neighbors in Maryland and Virginia not only have near the highest participation in the country, but their students pass at rates double that of D.C.
The report comes at a tumultuous time for the city, as Mayor Fenty lobbies his takeover plan to the City Council, while the Board of Education cries foul, offering up their own solution to get schools on track, without surrendering control to the new mayor. Fenty, as part of his “100 Days and Beyond Plan,” wants to create a new Deputy Mayor for Education position as well as an Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education, shifting control of the schools away from the Board in order to overhaul the current governing structure. The plan focuses less on academic standards, and instead leans on restructuring an inefficient system to get facilities fixed faster, community outreach organized, and programs long on the shelf finally realized.
Last week the Board responded to Fenty’s plan with a resounding “Hell no.” They unanimously passed the Emergency Student Achievement Act of 2007 and sent it off to the City Council for approval. The legislation insists that restructuring isn’t the answer, and instead focuses directly on student achievement — for instance, increasing the number of students who test at “proficient or advanced level” by 10%, putting them on par with Maryland and Virginia. The bill holds some similarity to the Mayor’s plan — they both abolish the State Education Office and put power in a new State Department of Education — and also changes the school system’s negotiating powers with regard to certain contracts… which sounds a bit like restructuring to us.
On top of this power struggle, word came down last Wednesday that the D.C. schools nearly failed their annual audit. Although they did, just barely, get a clean bill of health, the Post noted that there were “significant concerns with the school system’s internal controls over payroll, procurement, federal grants and Medicaid services.” The failings here have serious implications, because if they’re not rectified and the schools are given an “unclean” audit next year, the city will be seriously hampered by the resulting downgraded bond ratings, affecting its ability to borrow low-interest funds. Likely, the audit results will help Fenty’s proposal gain support among the City Councilmembers as they weigh both plans.
At the moment all of this is up in the air, since the Council doesn’t plan to vote on Fenty’s plan until April — though some seem to believe they might speed up their decision now that the Board has spoken up with their own plan. D.C. residents with an interest in the school system’s future might want to start contacting their Councilmember before their final decision is made.
Photo by Flickr user EyeCaptain.
