Back in January, when we were young and easy and ran in our heedless ways believing that neither chancellor nor deputy mayor for education would ever deceive us, school advocates petitioned council education committee chair David Grosso to change the budget hearing dates for DCPS and the charter board so that they would not occur … Continue reading Update: Budget & Other Ed. Hearings

The public roundtable on school governance and oversight this past Monday (March 19) was an important, if belated, milestone. In the wake of DC public school scandals (plural!), and the council’s inability to get the mayor to testify about them, the education committee of the city council decided to hear ideas from the public concerning … Continue reading What They Said: Public Education Roundtable

Tomorrow, Saturday March 17, the Washington Teachers' Union (WTU) is holding a candidate forum starting at 10:30 am in room 150 at McKinley Tech high school (151 T St. NE). Sign up is here, with an information sheet here. Candidates are expected to speak about issues surrounding public education in DC. Council candidates from wards … Continue reading It’s An Election Year! Candidate Forum On Education 3/17 & Political Scorecard

Whether we adults agree with our public school governance, our children are moving on. Every day, week, month, and year, our children show up to hundreds of publicly funded schools in DC with the democratic expectation that there will be trained teachers to teach them; decent desks for them to sit at; accurate and timely … Continue reading Educating The Adults In The (DC) Room

Instead of our mayor testifying before our city council about all the stuff happening of late in our public schools (you know, because she's in control of our schools and therefore responsible or something), YOU are on the hot seat! City council education committee chair David Grosso has scheduled a roundtable for the public next … Continue reading Hearing We Go Again: Rat Terrier Edition

Despite council education committee chair David Grosso asking DCPS personnel at the March 1 DCPS performance oversight hearing (find the hearing recording here; Grosso comments start at minute 30) about the existence of residency fraud, and being reassured that it is not common, anectodal evidence suggests that residency fraud and waitlist jumping have occurred regularly in our … Continue reading Fraud–Or Why We Need An Independent School Data Agency

[Herein follows a guest blog entry by school advocate Peter MacPherson] Actor Richard Dreyfuss made that statement in the title above in the 1975 film Jaws, while the character he portrayed examined the mangled torso of a young woman who, we come to learn, has been devoured by a great white shark. The town’s sheriff … Continue reading “This Is Not A Boat Accident”

Below are two recent DCPS items that do not involve muckracking! 1. DCPS is soliciting feedback (see here) on its two proposed school calendars for next school year. New items include longer Thanksgiving and winter breaks; professional development at term ends, along with teacher conferences; more 5-day weeks (resulting in several 2-day weeks); and no … Continue reading DCPS Calendar Survey & Resource Fairs

The Network for Public Education, a national advocacy group, is calling for a day of action and awareness about gun violence in our schools on Friday, April 20, which is the anniversary of the mass shooting at Columbine high school. In that event, which occurred 19 years ago, 15 people died, most of them children. … Continue reading Gun Violence & Our DC Schools

As we reel from some truly awful events of late in DC public education (see here, here, here, and here, the last of which apparently didn’t even merit discussion in the recent 6-hour council oversight hearing for the charter board and deputy mayor for education), let’s talk for a moment about the people who actually … Continue reading Another School Year, More High Teacher Attrition