The Current
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
19
Report calls for high-performing options in Ward 4 By KATIE PEARCE Current Staff Writer
A recently released study of D.C. public schools found that an area of Ward 4 ranks second in the city in its need for higher-performing options. The study, commissioned by the D.C. deputy mayor for education, ranks each D.C. public and public charter school on one of four tiers of performance based on D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System scores. From there, the study focuses on 10 “neighborhood clusters� (out of 39 total in the city) where demand for performing schools is particularly concentrated. For the Ward 4 area that includes Brightwood, Crestwood and Petworth, the study found that 62 percent of students are enrolled in underperforming schools. Only 38 percent of the neighborhood’s students attend two “Tier 1� high-performing schools: Community Academy Public Charter School and Washington Latin Public Charter School. The study recommends increasing enrollment at those two Tier 1 charter schools, which together are operating at only 55 percent of their buildings’ capacity, to add approximately 835 seats. It also suggests increasing investment in six Tier 2 schools to bring them to higher standards and potentially add up to 1,000 seats. For the lower-ranked schools, the study recommends either turning them around or
closing them entirely. In this neighborhood, the Brightwood Education Campus and Roosevelt High School fall into the lowestranked Tier 4 category. Kamili Anderson, the Ward 4 representative on the D.C. State Board of Education, said the study’s findings aren’t particularly surprising, but its recommendations take a strong new slant. She said the report seems to propose the path of “basically abandoning the schools that aren’t achieving.� “I think there’s a real disconnect between the findings of this report and its recommendations,� Anderson said. “I don’t think the data reveals anything we didn’t already know, [yet] its conclusions differ from conclusions that have been suggested recently.� The study came out a few days after an announcement from Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright that renovation plans for two Ward 4 high schools — Roosevelt and Coolidge — would be delayed due to lack of funding. In addition, rumors have cropped up recently that the city might choose to consolidate those two schools into one facility. At a recent community meeting, Wright did not guarantee that the two schools would remain open but said there’s no active plan to close either. Anderson suggested that the recent study “sets up a conversation by which the closure of some of [the lower-performing] schools is inevitable.� Any modernization plans will be “even more difficult� to achieve given this
backdrop, she said. “It’s shifting the discussion so far away from where many folks want it to be.� Similarly, the Washington Teachers’ Union expressed alarm that the study proposes closing 36 traditional public schools while concentrating resources on charter schools. “We acknowledge D.C. Public Schools’ responsibility to manage efficient public school facilities; however, if a school is slated to close or transform into a charter school, teachers will be forced out of their jobs,� union president Nathan Saunders said in a release. The $100,000 report, “Quality Schools: Every Child, Every School, Every Neighborhood,� was funded through a donation from the Walton Family Foundation. Chicago-based nonprofit IFF (formerly known as the Illinois Facilities Fund), produced the study, which was released late last month. The study notes that two-thirds of D.C. students attend schools within the neighborhood cluster where they live, “yet for most students, a local [high-]performing school is not an option.� Only 34 percent of the school spots available for city students fall into the top “Tier 1� category. “Our goal is to ensure that children across the city have access to high-quality education opportunities in their neighborhood, while maintaining and supporting the diversity of our public schools,� Wright says in a release. According to information from Wright’s office, the study’s findings will be a “starting
Bill Petros/The Current
Roosevelt High School is classified in the study as a Tier 4 school.
pointâ€? for coming up with concrete solutions. Marc Bleyer, capital program manager for the office, said the first step is a series of government-level meetings “to talk about how to reach out to the larger community moving forward.â€? From there, within the next six months or so, community meetings will take place within the 10 neighborhood clusters most in need of improvement. “We’re trying to take a magnifying glass to those areas‌ and work closely with the community ‌ to find what are the right set of solutions to address the gap,â€? Bleyer said. The study found that the neighborhood cluster of Congress Heights, Bellevue, Washington Highlands and Bolling Air Force Base has the highest need for performing schools. In Northwest D.C., the area including Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, Pleasant Plains and Park View landed on the list, in addition to the Ward 4 neighborhood cluster.
Ellington founder touts arts model for inspiring students Current Staff Report Former D.C. school board president Peggy Cooper Cafritz, who cofounded the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, said last week that the city should look to Ellington as a model for success. “A similar program should be in every high school in the District,� Cafritz told members of the Rotary Club of Washington, DC. Ellington has produced higher test scores than any D.C. public high school except for the academically selective programs, such as Banneker and School Without Walls, she said. The key, Cafritz suggest- Cafritz ed, is allowing students to pursue their passions as long as they complete their other schoolwork satisfactorily. “This would require DCPS to set up other themed high schools such as Ellington,� she said. Instrumental to Ellington’s success is that “kids come for something they want� with the school’s arts curriculum, she said. “It makes all the difference in the world. ... Teenagers go to what they are interested in.� But, she noted, Ellington students have to maintain their grades in order to participate in their preferred activities. Students there “spend more time in school than any regular public
high school,� she said, working on music programs and theater productions in the afternoons — the time period when teenagers are most likely to get into trouble. Unlike the city’s regular high schools, the graduation rate of those entering as freshmen at Ellington has varied between 98 and 100 percent, and about 98 percent go on to college, Cafritz said. Yet students don’t necessarily enter Ellington primed for success. About a third of the students come in with reading abilities between second- and seventh-grade levels. “They are not tested until after they are accepted,� Cafritz said. Some students were considered “uneducatable� by their previous schools, but every “special education� student in the school has graduated within four years, she said. Forty percent of Ellington students also come from families known to be below the poverty level. The real number is higher, she said, since many students refuse to accept free lunches. Cafritz described Ellington as effectively the first charter school in the District. Its governing board, which includes representatives of George Washington University and the Kennedy Center, “got a contract giving us complete control,� she said. The only exception was that the school could not fire any of its teaching staff; Cafritz said unwanted staff members were reduced through attrition.
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