In an earlier blog post, I wrote about the (generally unknown) fact that different DC public middle schools administered different PARCC math tests to their students last year without any accurate or obvious public acknowledgement of this. The lack of sunshine is extensive: test scores reported on all four publicly available websites for DC public … Continue reading When Standardized Testing, and Its Reporting, Are Not Standardized

Now that we are in July, it’s instructive to see how many issues of public education in DC in the last calendar year have simply, well, disappeared from public view. Here are a few--feel free to chime in with others, since the darkness is expansive: 1. An independent entity to assess public education in DC. … Continue reading Oh, The Places You’ll (Not Be Able to) Go . . .

The NY Times recently ran a story on what school choice means in Detroit. If you have not yet read it, I urge you to do so, because the parallels between DC public schools and those in Detroit are eerie. Let's count just a few ways: Poor students comprising the majority; a history of poor … Continue reading Must Read: The Eerie Parallels of Detroit’s Public Schools

So, in a kerfluffle of activity last week, the city council received two proposed food contracts from DCPS for next school year (yes, the school year starting in, oh, 7 weeks), for which the council would have had 10 days to review and approve the contracts (or not). That meant a deadline of July 4--after … Continue reading July 6 Hearing on DCPS Food Contracts–Sign Up NOW

As previously noted, there is a constitutional convention ongoing today about DC statehood. There is also a draft constitution being circulated. Comments on this draft are due by midnight tonight, Saturday June 18. You can comment on the draft constitution here, and learn more about statehood here. This relates to DC public schools rather intimately, … Continue reading Sign Up TODAY for Local Control of Schools

On Monday July 11, the council's education committee will hold a hearing on legislation proposed by the committee chair, David Grosso, on amending existing laws governing the master facilities plan for public schools in DC. The new legislation (called the Planning Actively for Comprehensive Education Facilities act, B21-777) would require a 10-year (not 5-year, as … Continue reading Changing Up Strategic Planning for School Buildings–or Same Old, Same Old?

Given the number of parents who have looked at me, stunned, when I uttered those words above to them in the last month, it seems a given that this statement--different DC public middle schools use different PARCC math tests--is not common knowledge. Nonetheless, it is true: starting at the 6th grade, different DC public schools … Continue reading Different DC Public Middle Schools Use Different PARCC Math Tests

This Friday, June 17, marks the last day of my 9-year run as a Watkins Elementary parent. My first child started there in the fall of 2007, and my second will have her last day on Friday. At the time I became a Watkins parent, the school had all its original windows, which leaked such … Continue reading The Unbearable Lightness of Being [a Public School Family in DC]: Part 3

Between graduations, moving-up ceremonies, and the rush toward the end of the school year, June is a busy time. But after reading this article, titled "Worlds Apart," published this past weekend in the New York Times Magazine, I hope you can find some spare time to read it--and then to share it with others in DC. … Continue reading Must Read, Public School Edition

[The following is reprinted by permission of the writer, Max Kieba, co-chair of the Maury (DCPS) Elementary SIT team. No word on a reply.] June 9, 2016 at 5:22:54 PM EDT To: Beers, Nathaniel (DCPS), Tuch, Joshua (DCPS), Davis, Patrick (DCPS), kaya.henderson@dc.gov, Monique Forrest monique.forrest@mckissackdc.com, Marcos Miranda, marcos.miranda@mckissackdc.com, dme@dc.gov, chris.weaver@dc.gov Cc: Allen, Charles (Council), Marks, … Continue reading Different School, Same SIT Story