David Grosso [council education committee chair] to Kaya Henderson, DCPS chancellor and government witness, March 4, minute 28:47 of the DCPS performance oversight hearing: “So middle schools was one of your three priority areas for FY 15 budget and you’ve made the investments . . . [but] DCPS still has not seen a turnaround in … Continue reading No Comment

On February 17, two events happened in DC public education that will have an effect on all public education families for at least the next year: the release of DCPS budgets to individual schools and the first meeting of the deputy mayor for education’s (DME’s) cross sector task force. There are no publicly available minutes … Continue reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being [A Public School Family in DC]: Part 2

It’s springtime for DC--that means cherry blossoms, budget hearings before the council, and our very own public school lottery, whose results will be released on April 1. Starting off the season, WAMU ran a story of parents abandoning DCPS elementaries at 4th grade to opt for charters that start at 5th. (I seem to have … Continue reading Indexing the Lottery

[Ed. Note: Schools activist Peter MacPherson is circulating a petition to use $500 million of the city's reserve funds (which total now over $2 billion) to ensure that 61 DCPS schools that have received only limited modernizations (or none at all) are all finished by 2022. As he notes below, no ward is untouched by … Continue reading Petition to Fund DCPS Modernizations

So, here it is, almost March, and after viewing more than 3 hours of the February 18 DCPS performance oversight hearing, I am struck by the odd way in which nothing said was new. OK, much of it was new to me personally, but none of it was new in a way in which I … Continue reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being [A Public School Family in DC]: Part 1

The city council’s performance oversight hearing for DGS, the agency in charge of all DCPS modernizations, is slated for February 25. During the hearing, expect to hear the following words uttered regularly, either in testimony or in grave tones by councilmembers on the dais: modernization equity; stabilization funds; debt cap; Ellington. So let’s talk about … Continue reading School Facilities Are Not Just About Doors, Floors, and Windows

In DC, there is no shortage of public education opinion makers--but very few clear lines of decision making, much less public authority in them. The ongoing discussion of testing out of courses in DC public high schools is an excellent example. The state board of education (SBOE), DC's only elected body that directly affects public … Continue reading High School Testing Out–or, the Battle Between OSSE and the State BOE

Soooo, now we have a cross-sector task force meeting schedule, kinda sorta, with the first one starting tomorrow (scroll down on that link above to actually see the dates): Wednesday, February 17, Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (901 G Street NW) Room 417 Tuesday, March 22, Location TBD Tuesday, April 26, Location TBD Tuesday, … Continue reading How About Some Cross-Sector Task Force Meetings to Go Along With Your Snow/Ice/Cold?

Tonight, at 6 pm, the DC Public Charter School Board (PCSB) will hold a public meeting at the Gala Hispanic Theatre. The meeting itself was posted last week on the PCSB website, but did not have any information listed—just a note that it was a “special meeting.” A gala, perhaps, at the Gala? But earlier … Continue reading Now in DC Public Education: Celebrations and Endings

a bunch of things it ought to be discussing keep happening during Education Week: Today, for instance, Mayor Bowser and the Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles announced that several closed DCPS facilities would be turned over to charters. Just up Alabama Avenue from one of those newly minted charter schools is another DCPS school, … Continue reading So, While the Cross-Sector Task Force Doesn’t Meet . . .