Month: July 2022

Exclusive interview with Lea Crusey, chair DC Public Charter School Board

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I had the honor of meeting recently for an interview with Ms. Lea Crusey, recently elected chair of the DC Public Charter School Board.  Ms. Crusey got started right away.  “It has been an extremely busy time.  I am visiting as many schools as I can to see classrooms, students interacting with their teachers and more.”

I wanted to learn about Ms. Crusey’s professional background.  “I grew up with parents who were VISTA volunteers in 1969.  They taught me the importance of participatory democracy.  I grew up in Princeton, New Jersey and remember speaking at a school board meeting making an argument in opposition to a charter school application.” 

After receiving her bachelor’s degree at Claremont McKenna College, the PCSB chair began her career as a fourth through eighth grade teacher through Teach for America, following in the professional footsteps of her paternal grandmother and her own mom.  In fact, it was her own mother’s work teaching English as a Second Language at the local YMCA at night that made her realize that there were numerous children whose needs were not being met by traditional public schools.  After completing graduate school at the University of Chicago and working for a few years in transportation, she joined Michelle Rhee’s organization StudentFirst.  She found her work there fascinating, as she enhanced her upbringing in participatory democracy by attempting to advance public school reform to places like Jefferson City, Missouri and Des Moines, Iowa.  This was during the heyday of the Race to the Top competition run by the U.S. Department of Education.  One of her proudest achievements during this period was her contribution to the creation of the Missouri state-wide charter authorizing body.

After about two and a half years at StudentsFirst, a position as Deputy Director with Democrats for Education Reform brought her to D.C. working under Joe Williams, who was based in New York City.  After more than two years at DFER, she moved over to the U.S. Education Department as a senior policy advisor toward the end of President Obama’s Administration.  As is evident from Ms. Crusey’s resume, she is more than qualified to assume the position of chair of the DC Public Charter School Board.

I wanted Ms. Crusey’s opinion as to how well she thought the PCSB was operating.  She answered without hesitation.  “The DC charter board is the most effective charter authorizer in the country.  I have been on the board for four years.  Last year we released our three-year Strategic Roadmap.  We also managed the process around the recruitment and selection of our new excellent executive director Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, and I am extremely proud of how it worked out.  We have an amazing opportunity now to fulfil the Board’s vision, which is to ensure that “every D.C. student receives a quality education that makes them feel valued and prepares them for lifelong learning, fulfilling careers, and economic security.”

I brought up the fact that the PCSB has begun the process of revising the Performance Management Framework.  I asked the leader of the charter board what the intended outcome of this review would be.  “The goal,” Ms. Crusey detailed, “is to allow our oversight body to have good information to evaluate the quality of our schools.  Having a summary rating for a charter is important, however, now that there are very few Tier 3 schools remaining, there are a number of Tier 2 institutions.  We want to understand how we can move the needle.  Our concern had been mostly around the middle school framework that relied heavily on standardized test scores.  Staff has worked hard to account for demographic and socio-economic differences in the student bodies between charters.  One aim for the final accountability tool is to be able to disaggregate student population measures.  Our belief is that if a school is able to create great gains with a hard to reach student population, then we should celebrate this amazing accomplishment.”

I then inquired about new members being added to the PCSB as there are now only four [as of the time of our interview].  Ms. Crusey informed me that shortly Shantelle Wright, known primarily as the founder and CEO of Achievement Prep PCS; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, executive director of D.C. Reading Partners and former exectuvie director of Democracy Prep PCS and Imagine Southeast PCS; and Nick Rodriguez, CEO of Delivery Associates, will be joining the board in July bringing the body back up to its full complement of seven officers.  “There is a lot going on,” Ms. Crusey added.

The PCSB last year paused the new school application process for a year as well as enrollment increases.  I asked the chair the purpose behind these moves.  “The questions around where the Performance Management Framework lands, how many tiers we end up with, the way that we define excellent schools, are at the heart of what we do.  We have a broad range of student achievement coming out of the pandemic.  We acknowledge that there are gaps around the academic offerings at different schools.  Our mission around equity means that we need to address the unique needs of all students.  We are now addressing how we approve new schools and allow others to grow in light of our revised framework of how we evaluate quality.  Simultaneously, D.C.’s population growth is uncertain.  We need to understand how these shifts are impacting the delivery of public education.”

Ms. Crusey then became philosophical, allowing her passion for her life’s work to shine through.  “It would be easy to think that the actions this board has taken are politically based,” the PCSB chair asserted, “however, everything we do in our work is determined by data.  Our principal mission is to serve children.  We need to be realistic about what the future looks like and how to meet those needs.  I’m extremely excited to see the outcome of our efforts.  How will the new accountability framework help drive quality?  We need to have equitable access to schools.  There must be sufficient capacity.  We are wrapping up community conversations and focus groups that will inform the revisions we make to the charter evaluation tool.  Soon we will be onboarding new board members.  We want to have a cohesive group that successfully continues the implementation of the Strategic Roadmap and the new accountability tool.  We understand that D.C. public charter schools are a place where every student thrives and prospers, especially those furthest away from opportunity.”

I noticed that during the June monthly meeting that the board was now considering allowing schools to offer a virtual option.  I asked why this choice for families had not been offered earlier.  Ms. Crusey responded, “We needed to get some clarity from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education on virtual attendance.  All schools are eligible to apply.  There are significant operational challenges to teaching online.  We are supporting Dr. Walker-Davis’s leadership in this area.”

Finally, I wanted to know how the PCSB was doing during this phase of the pandemic.  “We are making strong advances,” Ms. Crusey informed me.  “Staff is coming into the office a couple of days a week.  We are making plans to once again hold our monthly meetings in person.  I just have to say that Dr. Walker-Davis has done an amazing job transitioning into her job during Covid and bringing fresh new talent to the charter board staff.”

Rick Cruz’s term ends on D.C. charter board

mlerner10 PCSB, TenSquare Leave a comment

I was especially eager to tune into last night’s monthly meeting of the DC Public Charter School Board. I had seen the social media announcements that three new members would be joining the board at this session. The charter board had been down to three directors for over six months and people were wondering if Mayor Muriel Bowser would ever submit nominations for replacements. The new additions are Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, executive director of Reading Partners and former executive director of Democracy Prep PCS and Imagine Southeast PCS; Nick Rodriquez, CEO of Delivery Associates; and Shantelle Wright, who needs no introduction.

While DC PCSB executive director Michelle Walker-Davis expressed a couple of times Monday evening about how happy she was to have a full complement of board members, it was announced by chair Lea Crusey that this was the last meeting for Rick Cruz.

This previously undisclosed news then resulted in a roundtable of compliments for Mr. Cruz’s volunteer work over eight years at the charter board by Dr. Walker-Davis and all of the other members of the PCSB. The accolades are well deserved. Mr. Cruz’s tenure on the board, which included two years as chair, was characterized by the same steady leadership and respect for others that defined the leadership of previous individuals who have had this position including Tom Nida, Skip McCoy, Brian Jones, and Darrin Woodruff. I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr. Cruz a couple of times when he headed the board and found him to be approachable and kind. I also had the chance to talk to him when he was chief executive officer DC Prep PCS. He is one of only two people I have had conversations with who have held two important roles in our local charter movement. The other is Josh Kern, who I interviewed as founder and managing partner of TenSquare Consulting and as co-founder and executive director of the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School.

Mr. Cruz thanked everyone for their kinds words. He remarked that he found his efforts on the board to be the most important role he has played. He then added that he felt that the board had accomplished much during his time of service but that there was much more to be done. I could not agree more. Here is my list:

  1. Solve the charter school permanent facility issues. The pandemic has provided an excellent opportunity to set aside commercial real estate for use by charters,
  2. Increase the number of charters by having the DC PCSB rapidly approve school replications and expansions, and significantly raise the number of new schools approved to open. The greater the number of families who send their children to charters, the more advocates for our sector we have,
  3. Settle once and for all funding inequities between charters and DCPS. The newly planned update to the Adequacy Study should play a key role here, and
  4. Close the academic achievement gap. The board can play a tremendous part here. Expand those schools that have figured out how to get this done. Close those that are not doing their part. This includes DCPS sites.

The fact that the level of learning between affluent and low income kids continues to demonstrate a wide gulf of difference after hundreds of millions of dollars has been spent for school reform in the nation’s capital should make our blood boil. Morally, we cannot sit back and do nothing. Do not blow it.

Making the impossible, possible at The Children’s Guild Public Charter School

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I have to say it has been years since I have become so emotional during a visit to a charter school.  But there I was in the highly hospitable company of The Children’s Guild PCS principal Bryan Daniels, and Kathy Lane, chief education officer, listening to the story behind the school’s founding.  “Scott Pearson [past executive director of the DC PCSB] was not sure the board was open to another charter school in the district,” Mr. Daniels recalled, “but then we explained to him that our goal was to serve a student body of which fifty percent have disabilities, and his eyes lit up.”  As Mr. Daniels detailed, The Children’s Guild began operating in 2015 with 385 students in grades Kindergarten through eight, and get this, the charter opened with all grade levels at once.  This was definitely not the norm of a charter starting with a couple of grade levels and gradually adding additional classes to meet its enrollment target.  

“The first year was really tough,” Mr. Daniels explained.  “We had all of these children, half of which did have special needs.  We bus in all of our scholars, who come from each of the city’s eight wards, but mostly from 7 and 8.  OSSE was on-site, since they send ten to twelve buses a day, the charter board was here, and it was not going well.  We really thought we were going to have to re-evaluate what we were doing.  But we figured it out.  By the end of the first year, the PCSB was singing our praises.”

Ms. Lane revealed that the school’s parent organization, The Children’s Guild, has been around since 1953.  According to the group’s website it was founded by “Dr. Leo Kanner, father of child psychiatry and the discoverer of childhood autism; Dr. Matthew Debuskey, pediatrician; and Sadie Dashew Ginsberg, prominent child advocate.” The Children’s Guild, as specified by Ms. Lane, operates three charter schools, a preschool,  and three non-public schools in Maryland.  A common characteristic of The Children’s Guild schools, Mr. Daniels mentioned, is their provision of wraparound services, such as foster care, mental health care, psychiatry, trauma related services, and services for children and youth with autism and their families.  The Children’s Guild PCS is evaluated by PCSB on an alternative accountability framework due to the volume of students with disabilities served.  Mr. Daniels related that the charter was created to accept the students who were often unsuccessful in more traditional settings.

The school’s mission is to “use the philosophy of Transformation Education to prepare special needs and general education students for college, career readiness, and citizenship in their community by developing their critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills, self-discipline and a commitment to serve a cause larger than themselves.”  Mr. Daniels offered that this is accomplished by providing both an inclusionary model in a general education setting and through self-contained classrooms led by teachers with the support of dedicated aides.  “Our aim with the self-contained setting is to be much more therapeutic and allow these students to attend school with their siblings who may not require the same level of instruction,” Mr. Daniels said.  “The goal is to transition the self-contained students to a less separated environment.”

When I asked how the school can manage students with such variations in learning ability, most with their own Individualized Education Plan, the two leaders simultaneously looked me in the eyes with smiles on their faces and practically recited in union, “at the Children’s Guild we are here to make the impossible, possible.”

This is probably when tears started flowing down my face.  

The school sits off Bladensburg Road, N.E., in Ward 5.  The rented building is large for the school’s post-peak of the pandemic enrollment of 215 students.  The charter’s current enrollment ceiling is 450 pupils.  There are specialized rooms for social workers; physical, occupational, speech therapy; and some just so kids can expend their energy.  Colorful murals adorn all of the hallways and common spaces, making the walls come alive, infusing optimism as you traverse the structure.  The Children’s Guild’s work is centered around an organizational philosophy called Transformation Education (TranZed).  The model has eight pillars that include:

  • Value-Infused Culture,
  • Focus on Well-Being,
  • Enriched Environments and Experiences,
  • Brain Literacy,
  • Behavior Motivation Continuum,
  • Arts Enhancement,
  • Community Influence, and
  • Ownership Mindset

There seems to be no bounds to the depth of the program at The Children’s Guild.  Beside TranZed, Ms. Lane handed me her Culture Card, and its printed material includes the purpose of the school, seven Foundational Beliefs, and sixteen Workplace Expectations.  Among the expectations are, Number 6:  “Own it!,” Number 7:  “Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk,” and my personal favorite, Number 16:  “Make the Covert, Overt.”  I have a feeling that Mr. Daniels also especially liked this one as he repeated it to me several times throughout our conversation.  “We hold daily Culture Card meetings across all schools, programs and the corporate office each morning specially designed to focus on a discussion around each one of the expectations,” Ms. Lane commented.  I can tell by the worn nature of her card that the information contained within did not lack from being referenced.

The school’s principal spoke about the need for another location.  “There is ample room here but there is almost no area for parking, a lack of green space, and it is isolated from other parts of the city,” Mr. Daniels remarked. 

Mr. Daniels pointed out that the charter is now ready to “re-boot and grow.  Many families,” the principal asserted, “especially those living in Wards 7 and 8, did not want their children traveling very far during the pandemic.  This meant literally meeting the children where they were.  Teachers joined students in community centers, recreation centers, and libraries.  They volunteered to bring food to pupils’ homes. We created our own Meals on Wheels program. Each scholar was provided with a Chromebook and hotspot.  When kids did return, we established a hybrid model.”  The outcome of these heroic efforts of the leadership and teachers at the school cannot be underestimated.  “We have seen a 50 percent growth in academic achievement above grade level over the past two years,” Mr. Daniels asserted, “this included quantifiably a 60 to 65 percent increase in math and English language arts.”

It takes a special staff to reach this level of instruction and Mr. Daniels and Ms. Lane smiled most brightly when talking about the employees.  “Our teachers are 95 percent African American,” Mr. Daniels noted, “with 25 percent of them being males.  One hundred percent of our student body qualifies for Free or Reduced Meals.”

Professional development plays a significant role at The Children’s Guild in order to effectively work with D.C.’s most at-risk children.  “Continuing education for teachers occurs each week on Wednesdays and for two weeks before the school year starts.  The preparation includes in-depth training for working with students impacted by trauma,” Mr. Daniels remarked.

“Our enrollment used to include a homeless population of 25 percent,” Ms. Lane intoned, “but then during the pandemic, most members of this group unfortunately seem to have disappeared, despite our efforts to locate them.”

The principal is proud of what The Children’s Guild has been able to establish during its relatively short history.  “We are a place of love and comfort,” Mr. Daniels intoned.  “We once had a child who ran away from home.  She ended up on our doorstep because she felt safe here.”

Mr. Daniels and Ms. Lane have big plans for the future of The Children’s Guild.  Besides identifying a new facility, they would like to increase the quality of their offerings of drama, instrumental music, vocal music, and visual arts.  “We would eventually like to be a feeder school for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts,” Mr. Daniel asserted.  “In addition, perhaps one day we will even offer pre-school.”

With Mr. Daniel and Ms. Lane at the helm of The Children’s Guild, I came away from my visit to the Children’s Guild thoroughly believing that the sky is the limit.

 

 

 

 

 

U.S. Department of Education partially eliminates annoying rules about charter school grant funding

mlerner10 Charter School Finances, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Leave a comment

In reaction to the outcry by many about new rules the Biden Administration was trying to impose regarding charters qualifying for money as part of the U.S. Education Department’s Charter School Program, the government has removed some of the most obnoxious provisions and kept one big one intact. According to a highly comprehensive story on this issue by Linda Jacobson of The74, gone are the requirements for charter schools to demonstrate collaboration with the local school district in order to receive funding to open or expand a charter. However, the Department would still like to see a “partnership” between the two entities. Also, the mandate to demonstrate a need for the school that will not take students away from the traditional public school system has been modified to allow for a charter to show a waitlist as well as other methods to illustrate a need for the school in order to qualify.

Ms. Jacobson explains the part of the rulemaking that is an obstacle for charters:

“Karega Rausch, president and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, described the new rules as “workable,” but said he remains concerned about a requirement that new charters be racially and socioeconomically diverse — or explain why they’re not. The rule says operators must note how their charter school won’t ‘hamper, delay or negatively affect any desegregation efforts in the local community.’

The provision ‘places additional unnecessary and unwarranted burdens on schools proposing to serve large proportions of lower-income students and students of color,’ Rausch said. ‘And there is no clarity on what constitutes a valid desegregation effort and how applicants will know if any effort exists.’”

The other complication for access to the annual $440 million appropriation is that charters only have until August 5th to apply. Apparently, in the past those seeking these dollars have had at least four months to submit the necessary paperwork. This in itself could turn charter operators off about requesting this grant. Again from The74 piece:

“’The fact that they have taken some of our comments seriously indicates the power of advocacy,’ said Nina Rees, CEO of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. But she added that if the added documentation required and the small window to apply ‘dampens interest’ in seeking the funds, that would be ‘victory for our opponents.’”