Not that we here in DC don't have a lot going on politically right now, but a tag line on an email from a teacher this morning just enlightened me about another piece of this, intimately related to the issues of local control and political autonomy that seem to be in the air we breathe this year: … Continue reading Getting (Politically) Educated

at the council, at any rate: On Wednesday June 15, at 10 am, the education committee of the city council is holding a hearing on proposed legislation that creates an administrative entity to handle all DC school-based sports. For anyone who has experienced the heartbreakingly common problems of DC school athletics (buses not showing up; … Continue reading June 15: Time to Speak Up For Public School Sports

In the deep recesses of DCPS's FY17 capital budget, schools activist Peter MacPherson found something that seemed odd, which he shared last week with both the DC attorney general, Karl Racine, and the DC auditor, Kathy Patterson: $20 million for a student tracking database that costs $2 million, tops. In a letter to Patterson, MacPherson expressed … Continue reading The Hunt for $20 Million

Public education consortium C4DC has just posted city council candidates' responses to its 2016 questionnaire on DC public education. The consortium noted that the purpose of the questionnaire was to elucidate candidates' views on DC public education; budgets; evaluations of schools; and testing of students. As interesting as some of the responses are, perhaps more interesting is who has … Continue reading Read Candidates’ Thoughts About DC Public Education

After providing an online survey on the subject this month, the DC State Board of Education (SBOE) will hold hour-long public meetings throughout June in each ward on the new federal law that replaces No Child Left Behind. That law, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), gives more latitude to school systems to determine accountability beyond required annual … Continue reading State Board to Hold Community Meetings on ESSA

Next Wednesday June 1, at 6:30 pm at McKinley Tech HS (151 T St. NE), Dan Willingham, a cognitive scientist at the University of Virginia, will speak about the importance of a rich curriculum from the youngest ages. Willingham writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for American Educator magazine and will discuss how deep … Continue reading Why Knowledge (and Curriculum) Matter

[Ed Note: The city just learned that DCPS wants to contract for food services for most of its schools with Sodexo. The contract is not yet publicly available for scrutiny. To ensure that the contract and its terms are throughly disinfected by public sunshine, the good folks at the DC School Food Project are asking … Continue reading DCPS (New) Food Services Contract–Same as the Old One?

So, after months of internal discussions, DCPS is apparently getting public input into its new and improved educational specifications, which will guide future modernizations and renovations of schools. Well, sort of: Tonight, Tuesday May 24, at the SHAAPE meeting (Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals, and Educators; Dunbar HS, 6 pm), DCPS officials will be … Continue reading Erm, Meet the New Ed Specs–Maybe

According to testimony provided by our deputy mayor for education (DME) last week for the state board of education, the city's department of energy and the environment (DOEE) is hosting a number of blood screenings for lead as a result of the ongoing crisis of confidence in the city's testing and reporting of lead in … Continue reading Lead in Water, Part 3 (of an ongoing series)

In Part 1 of this series, I looked at David Grosso’s contributors to his current campaign. Grosso is chair of the council’s education committee and thus wields influence over public education policy in DC. Here, I took a look at recent donations of $100 or more to DC politicians from education advocacy organizations and people … Continue reading DC Education Leaders and Campaign Money, Part 2: Lucrative Influences