This coming Wednesday, September 28, at 6:30 pm, at the Columbia Heights Education campus (3101 16th St. NW), DC Education Coalition for Change will hold a debate and (brief) question and answer forum for a variety of state board of education and council at large candidates. Scheduled participants include council education committee chair and at … Continue reading Candidate Education Forum: September 28

[The following is by Peter MacPherson, DC schools activist; see his original on Ellington here.] There are few who will dispute that the new Duke Ellington School of the Arts building being constructed on the periphery of Georgetown is going to be a stunning piece of architecture. The District of Columbia Public Schools will have … Continue reading Ellington and the Disappeared Western High School

A few weeks ago, the office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) sent out notice of proposed amendments to rules for residency verification. The comment period ends October 24; comments can be sent in via email (information at the link above) or snail mail (ditto). The purpose of the rule making, according to a … Continue reading Determining Residency for Schools

[updated: see 9/23/16 update below] The school nurse situation as we DC residents have known (and loved/hated) it will be no longer come January 2017, barring changes by the mayor and/or council. Specifically: January is when the current contract for school nurses will expire. A new plan will provide what is effectively 1/2 nurse per … Continue reading School Nurses: Going Extinct in DC?

Now, more than halfway through September, racing toward an October deadline for picking the next DCPS chancellor, the chancellor selection committee--the 17-member advisory body that is advising the mayor on the next DCPS chancellor--will have its next public meeting on Tuesday September 20. The meeting will take place at the Main Hall, Trinity Washington University, … Continue reading Tuesday September 20: Chancellor Selection Committee Meets–and More

On September 15, the DC board of elections published a list of candidates for the November general election. But the candidate for the state board of education with perhaps the largest campaign chest—Jacque Patterson--was not on that list. The reason? Lack of qualified signatures on his ballot petition, identified in a challenge brought by the … Continue reading At Large State Board of Education Election: Money, Might, and a Missing Candidate

(Screen shot of video provided by DC office of cable television, DC council channel on demand) This picture, of deputy mayor for education Jennifer Niles, is from hour two, minute 24 (2:24:02) of a video of a July 11 hearing held by the education committee of the city council, on proposed legislation to rework the master … Continue reading “How Does That Comply With The Law?”

[NB 9/10/16: See comment below in response.] From a 8/12/16 post on the blog of David Grosso, chair of the city council education committee, summarizing conversations with 50 DC public school teachers from 12 charter and DCPS schools at two summer educator townhalls on July 18 and August 2: “Teachers are pressured by school leaders to reduce their reliance … Continue reading Lost In Translation

A few days ago, on August 30, the first of three community meetings was held (at Roosevelt HS) to get feedback from residents and others in the DCPS community about what they would like to see in the next DCPS chancellor. The other two forums are September 7 and September 14, Eastern HS and Savoy … Continue reading So, How is The Chancellor Selection Thing Going?

[the following was sent via email to Martin Austermuhle, reporter at WAMU] Dear Martin, I saw your recent story online, of the 20th anniversary of charter schools in DC, and was moved to write to you. As evidence of lack of success, you cited how DCPS had lost kids from 1971 to 1996, when charters … Continue reading Do You See How This Works?