Last week, on a broadcast of the local (and live!) radio show Education Town Hall, educators from Anacostia High School talked about the Black Lives Matter Week of Action in Schools and connected it to the school’s history and future. As Anacostia HS has only 1 star in our new STAR rating of DC’s publicly … Continue reading Seeing Stars

After more than half an hour of public witnesses laying into the charter board’s proposed transparency policy at the board’s January 28 meeting, it was clear that transparency in DC is completely in the eye of the beholder—the beholder with power, that is. (Testimony starts at minute 14 in the video here.) If nothing else, … Continue reading Talking Transparency (Now, With A Petition)

In the swirl of upcoming performance oversight hearings (see the list below and this site's calendar) and council actions regarding our public schools, what’s notable is what’s not being said. For one, the mayor has just requested for DCPS buildings a lot of reprogramming of money originally slated for other uses--to the tune of $54 million. The … Continue reading What’s Not Said: Hearings & Budgets

Tomorrow, Tuesday January 22, three different events will mark an interesting convergence on the idea of justice in public education in DC. First, at 4 pm, the public charter school board will hold a special board meeting at its headquarters (3333 14th St. NW), to vote on revoking the charter of National Collegiate Prep. (For … Continue reading Three Events: January 22, 2019

Herein a rundown of events on the horizon: DCPS calendar feedback: DCPS is soliciting feedback on calendar proposals. See here for more information. School will start August 26 (traditional calendar) or August 12 (extended year calendar). OSSE school report card feedback: The office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) would like your thoughts on … Continue reading Better School Quality Measures–And Hearings

Amount of money that DCPS is paying this school year to a private charter entity to sublet a DC-owned, former DCPS school in which DCPS is operating a DCPS school that used to be a charter school: $904,166.69 Number of leases of DC-owned, former DCPS school buildings rented out to charter entities available to the … Continue reading Happy 2019! Continuing Odds & Ends From 2018

Silence. That was the response on a sunny afternoon several weeks ago, in a 12th floor DCPS conference room with sight lines to the hills of Anacostia, when three DCPS officials (Sarah Parker; Claudia Lujan; Eli Hoffman) and Jennifer Comey, a staffer for the deputy mayor for education (DME), were asked who made the decision … Continue reading Failing High School, DC Style