Last week, public school parents and advocates in Ward 6 sent a letter to the council demanding that the proposed FY17-FY22 DCPS capital budget not be approved before clearer rationales are presented. They are asking parents and advocates in other wards to sign on before May 1. (Here is the link; a link to the … Continue reading Sign This Letter Before May 1, and You Just Might Save a Public School

Now that PARCC testing is well underway in DC public schools, test scores and their correlation (or not) with student achievement and teacher quality, hiring, and turnover seem to be in the air we breathe. In January, in a report titled "Teacher Turnover, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in DCPS," researchers found that some relatively high … Continue reading Does Testing Produce Better Teachers–or Just More Contracts for Consulting About Them?

Mayor Bowser’s call for a citywide vote in November to make Washington, DC the nation’s 51st state was planned to coincide with the 154th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation.  That reminded me of one of Lincoln’s best-known speeches, his “House Divided Speech” where he said “a house divided against itself … Continue reading A Public School System Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

The DC Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI) recently wrote about a study by budget analyst Mary Levy on how DCPS is proposing to use its FY17 at risk funds, which are supposed to be set aside specifically for students meeting the law’s definition of “at risk” (homeless; in foster care; high school students at least one year … Continue reading Risky (School) Business

With sad food options, neglected kitchens, and no viable, noncorporate, way to deliver food to its students, DCPS doesn’t appear to value the quality of what students put in their mouths during the school day. Turns out, school food may not be the only consumable hazard for DC public school kids. Back in the hazy … Continue reading Putting the “Lead” in DC Education Leaders

Over Spring Break, Kristina Vidal and I did an extreme makeover to a couple bathrooms at Eliot-Hine Middle School. Both Kristina and I have daughters who are going to attend 6th grade at Eliot-Hine next fall.  Stories about the bathrooms at Eliot-Hine are infamous.  A couple years ago there weren’t stall doors in the girl’s … Continue reading Extreme Attitude Makeover?

Just a week from today, on April 1, more than 20,000 DC school kids will find out whether they have “won” a seat at one of up to 12 schools they might have selected. Despite David Grosso’s recent attempts to elucidate from the deputy mayor for education (DME) what, exactly, lottery data say about why … Continue reading Fun with Numbers, Lottery-Style

Below are some (OK--many) items that particularly struck me from the recent performance oversight hearing for the deputy mayor for education (DME) before the education committee of the council on 3/2/16. I have boldfaced the themes, which relate to all public schools in DC. The DME position, directly under the mayor, now has a bewildering … Continue reading Performance Oversight Tidbits: Deputy Mayor for Education

So, here are my (of necessity, idiosyncratic) take-homes from performance oversight hearings by the council’s education committee for the charter board (PCSB; 3/3/16) and for government witnesses for DCPS (3/4/16). (An earlier blog post covered public witnesses for DCPS’s performance oversight hearing on February 18 here.) Note: all agencies also submit written responses to questions … Continue reading Performance Oversight Tidbits: DCPS and PCSB

Even though a data warehouse for all DC public schools was supposed to have been under way by December 2015--per the report last year on mayoral control of schools (the PERAA report) and promises to the council (see especially page 15)-- our education leaders (including the deputy mayor for education, DCPS's chancellor, council member David Grosso, … Continue reading Let’s Talk DC Public School Data: March 29