PCSB

Charter board’s embarrassing testimony to D.C. Council

mlerner10 Charter School Enrollment, Charter Schools, D.C. Council, PCSB Leave a comment

After being tipped off by the Washington Post’s Lauren Lumpkin that there has been a D.C. Council Committee of the Whole hearing regarding the sudden closure of Eagle Academy PCS, I watched the three hour session. I have to say that the representatives from our the Public Charter School Board, Dr. Michelle Walker-David, executive director; William Henderson, chief operating officer; and Shantelle Wright, newly elected chair, did not inspire confidence.

I truly wish the three of them would have offered from the start that the charter board completely missed the sad situation about the financial demise of Eagle. Instead, the Council representatives were given assurances that improvements would be made and assertions that the responsibility of the school is up to its volunteer board of directors. These explanations only created frustration from those sitting on the dais.

However, the story of this charter school is relatively simple as explained by Friendship PCS CEO Patricia Brantley in her testimony and by Chairman Phil Mendelson in his observations. For years, the enrollment of Eagle was dropping and not just by a few students here and there. Over about four years the student body dropped by more than half. As Ms. Lumpkin reported, “More than half the student body left between fiscal years 2019 and 2023, falling from 838 to 412 children.” Charter school funding is directly tied to the student count, so this institution was doomed much earlier than last summer when the board finally got around to issuing a financial corrective action plan. The result of this malpractice by the PCSB was that the families of over 350 students and about 100 staff members had to scramble to find new places to go six days before the start of the school year.

However, instead of the board taking responsibility for a situation it helped create, by a 4 to 3 vote it rejected the takeover of Eagle by Friendship. As an exasperated Mr. Mendelson posed to the charter sector representative, “What did you think was going to happen to Eagle” after this decision was made? The school had no more money, so it was left with no choice but to relinquish its charter. Its fate was sealed.

Now, the D.C. Council is considering legislation to prevent this scenario from reoccurring. It may require members of charter boards to undergo annual training in reading school balance sheets and in understanding their role in managing these facilities. In the good old days, when there was a D.C. charter school movement, I would argue that as an independent sector, the board could tell the Council to take a hike. But now, with weak and perhaps incompetent leadership, the PCSB will simply bow their heads and let the legislative body do with it as it wishes.

It is time for a change at the top of the PCSB.

Jeanne Allen for U.S. Education Secretary

mlerner10 Center for Education Reform, Charter Schools, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

I, together with numerous others, are highly disturbed by many of the recent cabinet nominations by President-Elect Donald Trump. One way that he could turn this pattern around for the good would be to nominate Jeanne Allen to be the next Secretary of Education. Since 1993, Jeanne has been the founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform. A week ago I attended her organization’s STOP for Education event at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. After listening to the many educational pioneers who are creating options for families and children not offered by their traditional school systems, it made me realize that she is the right person for this job at the right time. Ms. Allen has been a fierce fighter for the ability of families to pick the school right for their kids from the time her group was formed.

I was introduced to the idea of school choice by David Boaz, the long-time executive director of the CATO Institute, shortly after learning about the libertarian think tank perhaps in 1992 or 1993. My profound interest in this approach led me to spend over 25 years in D.C.’s charter school movement, serving as a volunteer on three charter school boards and becoming chair of two of them. I am most proud of leading Washington Latin PCS in its acquisition of a permanent facility, and significantly strengthening its finances.

The charter sector has made a lot of sense to me. Schools receive freedom to operate while being accountable to the public for their performance. But now, after observing the recent antics of our local Public Charter School Board, I realize that this bargain is in the eyes of the beholder. For example, if you take a look at the DCPCSB’s Transparency Hub you will get an idea of the plethora of ways charter schools are regulated in this city. Freedom is certainly not the word that would come to mind. In regard to accountability, there is a sliding scale there as well. At the last PCSB monthly meeting, a school that has not been following the law in regard to caring for special education students since 2022 received a Notice of Concern.

I have come around to the thinking of Ms. Allen. Forget the accountability based upon test scores. Let’s create as many options as we can for parents and let them drive the educational marketplace. I remember when I first became involved with charters, critics said parents, especially those from low income neighborhoods, would never be able to make a wise choice regarding where their children should be taught. From day one, I found that nothing could be further from the truth.

Ms. Allen has been a pure choice advocate since she entered this arena. With the recent emphasis across the country on the power of parents in public education, her time for a formal national leadership position has arrived. Her selection for Education Secretary would bring a smile to the faces of many who have not been happy in recent days.

The D.C. charter board is broken

mlerner10 Charter Schools, D.C. Council, Mayor Bowser, PCSB Leave a comment

A few days ago a well-written Washington Post article by Lauren Lumpkin regarding Seed PCS and its failure to obey the law in caring for special education children caught my eye, so I decided to watch on video the May meeting of the DC Public Charter School Board. What I witnessed shocked me.

An audit of the charter’s special education program demonstrated violations of both the federal Individuals with Disabilities Act and D.C. Municipals Regulations Chapter 30, according to PCSB staff. The audit was completed due to complaints made to the board by at least three Seed staff members. Seed did receive a Notice of Concern, and several board members expressed their consternation about the school’s inability to properly care for their students. But here’s the part that really disturbed me as a supporter of our local charter school movement. From the charter board’s staff findings:

“DC PCSB staff identified similar instances of noncompliance in SY 2022 – 23 through Effective Organization Meetings (EOM) in November 2022 (Attachment A) and February 2023 (Attachment B), and a special education audit in March 2023 (Attachment D and F). Despite these interventions, SEED PCS remains out of compliance, indicating a patten of repeated violations” (page 2).

If a charter is notified that it is not following the law, and then fails to immediately correct the situation, then a Notice of Concern is inappropriate. This school should have its charter revoked. It appears that the board had information that it failed to act upon.

The situation with Seed echoes the board’s action regarding the closing of Eagle Academy PCS six days before the start of the school year. Clearly, there were signs much earlier that the charter was in financial difficulty. In fact, the sudden shuttering, and failure to allow Friendship PCS to takeover the school, generated a list of 21 questions from D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson to Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis, executive director of the PCSB, most of them revolving around when the charter board realized that the school was short of cash. You can read the inquiries and responses here.

Why is the PCSB failing to act in an expeditious manner when issues with schools arise, and why did the board fail to allow Eagle to continue to operate as a part of Friendship’s network” One education reformer I spoke to about these matters attributed the board’s dysfunction to the fact that Mayor Muriel Bowser no longer consults with the charter community before nominating trustees to serve on the board. The individual stated that the consequence of this process is that board members join who have no knowledge of the sector or the PCSB’s role.

My own take on the situation is that we have a lack of leadership at the PCSB. Early in the sector’s history it had the team of Tom Nida as chair and Josephine Baker as executive director. The pair seemed in perfect harmony regarding their emphasis on quality and growth. The same strategic direction characterized a succession of strong chairs working with executive director Scott Pearson. Now we have a chair who apparently changed her vote to “no” shortly before the board was to decide whether Friendship would get the green light to run Eagle. There is speculation that pressure by Ms. Bowser to reduce the number of elementary school seats in Ward 8 was the reason behind Ms. Lea Crusey’s reversal.

As is said in education, it is time to get back to fundamentals. The same goes for DC Public Charter School Boards mission of quality and growth.

Friendship reacts to DC charter board’s decision blocking the network’s takeover of Eagle Academy

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter School Facilities, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

Yesterday, I received the following statement from Friendship PCS regarding the DC Public Charter School Board’s recent vote disallowing the charter’s takeover of Eagle Academy PCS:

“I am saddened for the children, families and staff affected and wish there had been another outcome that prioritized stability and a stronger educational experience. While we are disappointed in the outcome, we recognize there were many factors that the DC PCSB had to weigh. Eagle’s finances, which led to the PCSB citing Eagle for fiscal mismanagement, presented significant challenges. Yet, Friendship remains steadfast in our belief that Eagle’s children and families should not suffer for decisions they did not make,” said CEO Pat Brantley.

“Our commitment to our little Eagles and their families remains stronger than ever. While we were fully prepared to transform Eagle Academy by ensuring both Eagle campuses opened on time fully staffed and fully resourced, we are continuing to do everything we can to ensure Eagle’s children start the new school year strong,” Brantley continued.

“Friendship, along with the greater public education community, has wrapped its arms around, and opened its doors, to Eagle students, families, and staff who face uncertainty. Today, many former Eagles are now students and new team members at Friendship for the 2024-25 school year. That said, we recognize that far too many who were part of the Eagle community are still dealing with the repercussions of an abrupt closure,” Brantley stated.

Here is my original story on the charter board vote:

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.

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D.C. public school reform ended with the charter board’s failure to allow Eagle Academy’s takeover by Friendship

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter Schools, DCPS, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

I have been away for several months studying the charter school movement in California. Upon my return I caught up on the terribly devastating news that due to actions by the DC Public Charter School Board Eagle Academy PCS had closed. The school would still be operating if the board had approved a takeover by Friendship PCS. It is easily the worst decision by the PCSB since its founding 28 years ago in 1996.

Charter supporters in this town have a tremendous problem. I am referring to the four members of the board who turned down the plan. Obviously, they are not school choice supporters. How else do you explain sending children from approximately 353 families, with many of these kids behaviorally and physically disabled, into a panic to find a new school with six days before the start of the new school year? Due to the late date of the move by the board many of these scholars will end up enrolled in the traditional sector. In addition, the building owned by Eagle, the McGogney School, the one with the swimming pool and highly specialized therapy rooms, will almost certainly be turned over to the city. Never would true charter supporters entertain these outcomes for even one second.

There are many reason why the charter board should have voted affirmatively immediately after Friendship made its proposal:

One – Stability for children and families. Friendship was prepared to come in on day one and begin teaching these students. During the two hearings before the board on this subject, Ms. Patricia Brantley, Friendship’s CEO, pointed out that a simulation using the charter board’s new accountability system ASPIRE showed that each of its six existing elementary schools would score at Level 1, the exemplary category. Students that were formally at Eagle would be receiving a stronger academic preparation than they had under the old regime.

Two – Friendship has a proven record of taking over failed charter schools. Friendship created the model of taking over failed schools to provide continuity for students and parents, and to keep these children with a seat in a charter, with the assumption of SouthEast Academy PCS in 2005. The LEA has repeated this procedure with its takeover of the Armstrong Campus and the online institute of the Dorothy I. Height Community Academy in 2015, IDEAL Academy in 2019, City Arts and Prep PCS, formally the William E. Doar, Jr. PCS for the Performing Arts of which I was a founding board member and board chair, also in 2019.

Three- The PCSB might have had a hand in Eagle’s fate. In 2022, Eagle Academy filed a charter amendment request to add the fourth and fifth grades to their current offering of Pre-Kindergarten three to third grades. The school argued that the addition of these grades would provide stability for the children and families attending the school. The board turned down this request because it said that Eagle had missed the deadline for requesting the additional grades. However, the inability of Eagle to offer parents a preschool to fifth grade institution provided a powerful incentive for them to look to other facilities for their educational needs. Indeed enrollment at Eagle decreased sharply after the pandemic, falling from 838 to 412 pupils, according to Laura Lumpkin of the Washington Post. Eagle then failed to react sufficiently to its loss of revenue which is what eventually led to its conclusion to relinquish its charter when the Friendship deal was denied. The school did not have the money to continue operating based upon its number of students.

Four – The decision was an affront to Patricia Brantley. This is an individual who exemplifies the Friendship values of integrity, responsibility, confidence, care, commitment, patience, persistence, and respect. In addition to overseeing the education of over 4,700 students in the District of Columbia and adding campuses to the Friendship portfolio as described above, she incorporated the Capital Experience Lab, CapX, into her Blow Pierce Middle School, after the proposed charter was rejected twice by the board. Ms. Brantley also almost single-handedly saved Monument Academy PCS by volunteering to serve on its board after the school had decided to close in the wake of severe discipline problems occurring at the site.

Ms. Brantley is a hero in our community, and to reject her gracious offer to come to the rescue of the families at Eagle was an affront to her stellar achievements.

The four board members who cast their vote against the takeover plan, Lea Crusey, board chair; Shantelle Wright, board treasurer; Shukurat Adamoh-Faniyan, board secretary; and Carisa Stanley Beatty, board member; together with the other trustees and staff, repeatedly referred to the Friendship plan as an asset acquisition. I guess in a technical way that is what it is. But what we are really talking about here is dignity for all the teachers, staff, parents, and students, who would have benefited from becoming part of Friendship.

Teacher testimony details problems at Girls Global Academy Public Charter School

mlerner10 Charter Schools, PCSB Leave a comment

Sandwiched into the voluminous public testimony at January’s monthly meeting of the DC Public Charter School Board were emotional comments by Yolanda Whitted, an engineering instructor at Girls Global Academy PCS. Ms. Whitted is an extremely experienced educator in Washington, D.C., spending over a year, according to her LinkedIn account, at Washington Global PCS; almost four years at District of Columbia International PCS; and now seven months at GGA. 

Ms. Whitted described an extremely toxic environment at the charter in which there are frequent fights between staff and students, leading many to feel “hopeless, helpless, voiceless, and unsafe.” She spoke Monday evening because, she stated, she “is concerned about our charter.”

The testimony contained many other highly negative charges. Ms. Whitted remarked that teachers are disrespected and overburdened, often substituting without compensation for colleagues who have resigned en masse. She revealed that other substitute teachers transition into full-time positions, harming the quality of instruction. She added that the school lacks basic supplies and equipment. Instructors, she remarked, are buying their own resources from their “inadequate salaries.” The teacher described an environment of fear and intimidation leading to student enrollment plummeting. She concluded by claiming that there is no student council or government, and efforts to expand the parent organization to one that includes parents and students was rejected by administration, leading to “a grassroots movement for change.”

GGA opened in 2020 and instructs students in grades nine through twelve. The charter’s most recent annual report for the 2021 to 2022 school year details an enrollment of 155 children in the ninth and tenth grades. Some alarming statistics contained in this document include a 23.2 percent student suspension rate, 26 students withdrawing midyear, and a teacher attrition rate of 40 percent. The school’s approved budget for this school year reveals a negative $610,000 net revenue, with $220,000 of that being comprised of interest and depreciation.

In my experience of observing D.C.’s charter school movement, complaints of one teacher during a public meeting may mean that there is a disgruntled staff member. It could also represent something much deeper, a true problem focused around the education of our kids. Ms. Whitted’s complaints need to be taken seriously and investigated by the DC PCSB.

 

At monthly charter board meeting, public pushes back

mlerner10 Charter Schools, Covid-19, PCSB, School Choice Leave a comment

Yesterday, I attended perhaps the most exciting policy forum around public education that I have been to in decades. Sitting on the CATO Institute’s Hyack Auditorium stage were five educational entrepreneurs who have created highly innovative microschools. Three of the participants were able to take advantage of the existence of Educational Savings Accounts in the states in which they are located to fund their endeavors. ESA’s are dollars provided by states to parents for educational services for their children outside of those provided by the local neighborhood schools.

There is a new educational choice movement on fire in this country, much of it ignited by the closure of regular classrooms during the pandemic. According to CATO, “In 32 states plus Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, many families can use school choice programs to select the learning environment that works best for their children.” I pictured Andrew Coulson, the former long-term director of CATO’s Center for Educational Freedom who passed away in 2016 at the age of 48 from a brain tumor, smiling ear to ear from above as he watched the event.

One of the panelists was Jack Johnson Pannell. Mr. Pannell had formed an all-boys charter school in Baltimore focused on helping those living in poverty. A friend introduced him to the universal ESA’s available in Phoenix. He decided to relocate his school across the country, establishing it as a Christian all-boys private school.

It was most likely not a difficult decision. By going the private school route this educator avoids all of the bureaucracy and regulation associated with chartering. In the audience was Shawn Hardnett, founder and executive director of D.C.’s Statesmen College Preparatory Academy for Boys Public Charter School. His eyes lit up as Mr. Pannell spoke, and why shouldn’t this be the case? His school had its five year review by the charter board recently and, for all its excruciatingly difficult work and the right to continue operating, here’s what it received:

“Statesmen PCS will develop and implement an academic improvement plan. At a minimum, the plan must include specific strategies the school will use to improve academic outcomes for all students. The plan must also include a description of how the school will measure its academic progress toward meeting its goals. Statesmen PCS will report on its progress implementing the plan in its annual report every year leading up to its 10-year charter review.”

“Additionally, Statesmen PCS will develop and implement a procurement contract compliance improvement plan. At a minimum, the plan must include strategies the school will use to improve internal procedures for both bidding and submitting procurement contracts. The plan must also include a description of how the school will measure the plan’s success. Statesmen PCS must comply with DC PCSB’s Procurement Contract Submission and Conflict of Interest Policy and Data and Document Submission and Verification Policy. Should DC PCSB recognize noncompliance, it will engage Statesmen PCS’s board about needed improvement or take additional action as appropriate under each policy.”

A shocking alternative to the energy I found at the CATO conference was observing Monday night’s monthly meeting of the DCPCSB. The sessions are held virtually, a reminder of the horrible days of the pandemic. The connection via Zoom made it clunky and awkward to connect sequentially the over 20 people who volunteered to speak as part of the public comment period. Almost all testified passionately against a proposal by the Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy PCS’s plan to relocate its 16th Street, N.W., campus to Takoma Park Baptist Church located on Aspen Street, N.W. Apparently, the school failed to communicate or miscommunicated the move to those living in the area around the Church, including the ANC. The District’s charter movement is almost 30 years old but I found the entire two hour get together to be a replay of those that I first attended in 1999.

So, while listening to the back and forth discussion between members of the board and the school, I thought about the day that ESAs would come to the nation’s capital. Imagine a parent going on My School DC and picking a private school for their child instead of the regular one in their neighborhood. Then in the mail would come a credit card pre-loaded with almost $13,000 in educational dollars to pay for a year’s tuition in one of the 135 private schools that at one time operated as charters.

People are allowed to dream, aren’t they?

D.C. board overseeing charters spends $6 million a year on salaries

mlerner10 D.C. Council, PCSB Leave a comment

Data from the DC Public Charter School Board Transparency Hub demonstrates that it spends over $5 million a year in employee salaries to administer the charter sector. The data, however, is from the year 2022. It lists 47 staff members. A review of the current organizational chart shows a total now of 56 employees. With an average annual salary of almost $107,000, again from 2022, this would mean that the line item for labor expenses, without benefits, reaches just about $6 million.

The DC Public Charter School Board now has 0.8 employees for each of the 69 LEA’s under its jurisdiction. How do we assess if this number is the right amount of staff members per school?

One way would be to look for information from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. The most recent data from 2020 shows that across the country authorizers that oversee LEA’s have four schools per authorizer. If this was the case in DC., then the DCPCSB would have a little over 17 staff members.

It is interesting to consider whether Washington, D.C. taxpayers are getting their money’s worth with all of these staff members and salaries. A charter school has not been shuttered for years, and it has been quite a while since a new one has been approved. Charter school standardized test scores proficiency rates for the 2022-to-2023 school year are actually lower than those of the traditional schools, including the category of economically disadvantaged students. Moreover, the share of total public school students that the charter sector instructs has been stuck at 48 percent. One other point that needs mentioning is that the charter board’s major decisions are made by members appointed by the Mayor who serve as volunteers.

There are incentives for increasing both the number of staff members and salaries of those working for the DCPCSB. The Uniform Per Student Funding Formula has gone up by at least four percent each budget cycle and last year the charter school facility allotment increased by three percent. These jumps have been supported by the board. This expansion in revenue for schools means more dollars for the PCSB since its revenue comes from a one percent fee on the income of each charter, although the group’s budget information for 2021 demonstrates that schools received a ten percent discount on this charge. 

The D.C. Council provides oversight for the DCPCSB, but since the city no longer supports its budget there is not much of an incentive to questions its spending. I doubt that the individual charter schools would push back against the organization’s budget since it is their regulatory body. Moreover, from years of watching DCPCSB meetings, the board members generally defer to staff on the matters before them.

Another interesting finding for me is that the 2023 DCPCSB Annual Report contains no financial information.

I contend that more questions need to be asked regarding the DCPCSB annual budget.

The DC Bilingual PCS new addition Ribbon Cutting

mlerner10 Charter School Expansion, Charter School Facilities, Charter Schools, Mayor Bowser, OSSE, PCSB Leave a comment

Last Friday, on a perfectly sunny crisp fall morning, hundreds gathered outside on the grounds of DC Bilingual Public Charter School to celebrate the addition a spectacularly beautiful 27,000 square feet addition to the existing permanent facility. The new space grows the existing structure by 55 percent, and, most importantly, will allow the charter to increase its enrollment from its current size of 494 scholars to over 700.

Head of school Daniela Anello led the festivities that included, besides students and staff, the presence of many leaders of the school, the District of Columbia’s education sector, and D.C. government. In attendance were D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, State Superintendent of Education Dr. Christina Grant; chair of the DC Public Charter School Board Lea Crusey; DC PCSB executive director Dr. Michelle Walker-Davis; and D.C. Council Ward 4 Council member Janeese Lewis George. Following an energetic performance by the Busy Bees, the school’s dance team, there were emotionally charged speeches by Mayor Bowser and the charter’s board chair Nadia Ramey, who both congratulated the school body on this important milestone. The next individual to address the attendees was Ms. Anello.

DC Bilingual is a tremendously successful school on many levels. For example, while educational institutions across the country posted declines in academic achievement coming out of the pandemic, DC Bilingual’s 2022 PARCC standardized test scores were the highest they have ever recorded. After interviewing the head of school in 2017 I came to understand that this attainment is due to a plethora of effort. Perhaps we can glean the reasons behind this feat from the words delivered by Ms. Anello on this day:

“Hello everyone my name is Daniela Anello and I am the incredibly proud Head of School at DC Bilingual.

Thank you for joining us for this special event. Today we will hear remarks from Mayor Bowser, who we are so excited to host, and from our Board Chair, Nadia Ramey. Then we invite everyone to join us in the ribbon cutting celebration. Afterwards, students will return to their classrooms and we invite our guests to join us inside for a reception featuring a historical display of the use of the land that we are so lucky to be on & have a school tour. We hope you will be able to stay the whole time.

Today’s celebration is in many ways the culmination of decades of work by literally hundreds of dedicated staff members, families, and supporters.

This is my fourteenth year working here, which means that I have had the privilege of have made DC Bilingual what it is today.

At the very beginning, our school was located in Columbia Heights and we had shared building space. We had a planter box as a school garden, a playground on the roof of the building that got extremely hot on sunny days, and for gym space we had to walk across several city blocks to the local neighborhood recreation center.

Today, we have the second-largest school garden in the city, two large, age-appropriate playgrounds, access to a large field, designated spaces for each of our six specials classes, brand new and well lit classrooms, a bilingual school library, and we even have a food lab!

We are very lucky–and I am so grateful we have access to so much!

Like many of our students. I am a first generation immigrant.

When I was four years old, my parents moved my sister and me to New York from Viña Del Mar, Chile in search for more opportunities and a better education.

Since then, I have spent my life trying to seize every opportunity presented to me, and I have learned first-hand the power of spaces that allow people to feel fully and completely themselves and to feel like they belong.

It’s a simple thing, but I’ve realized that experiencing a sense of belonging comes from having the opportunity to learn how to be our full selves and having access to resources with which we can thrive. Sadly this is something that not very many have the opportunity to receive.

This mindset is what drives me each and every day in my role as a school leader, and it’s the commitment I have made to our students, our staff and our caregivers.

Over the next five years we are looking to grow our school to serve over 700 students, and our dream is to ensure it remains a beautifully diverse and thriving school community.

This year we adopted the equitable access preference, which gives school entry to any student experiencing homelessness, who is in the foster care system, or receives government benefits. Our dream to grow our school to serve the students we know need the highest quality education came true.

DCB Staff: I feel incredibly honored to be able to serve you in this capacity , and I do not take for granted what it means to me to be part of this learning community here with you, working each day to better serve our students. Your dedication to our mission, your drive and your ability to go “all out” is contagious — even if it means having to join you on a choreographed dance to Olga Tanon in front of the whole school!!

To our parents & caregivers: thank you for choosing DC Bilingual to be part of your family, thank you for being part of our school team, and thank you for trusting us each day with your incredible children. We love them, we are inspired by them, and we are grateful for the chance to be a part of their lives.

To the DC Bilingual Board of Directors: thank you for helping our students follow their dreams, for opening new doors for us, and for always steering our ship in the right direction.

To our donors, and volunteers: you made this all possible, and we hope to make you proud.

To our Mayor, our councilmembers, ANC commissioners & our school partners: thank you for working hand in hand with us to ensure our students are safe and have access to the resources that will ensure the best experience possible at DC Bilingual.

To our project team, Gilbane Construction, Hord Coplan Macht (HCM), and John Breyer. Thank you for the design and construction of the building addition. The added facilities and outdoor spaces are more beautiful than we ever imagined, and we can’t wait to grow to fill all of our new spaces that you built for us.

And finally to our students: You are amazing. I urge each of you to seize every opportunity presented to you and that you proudly become bilingual scientists, mathematicians, avid readers, gardeners, cooks, performers and much more. But most importantly, I wish for you to become fully and completely yourselves. Know that you deserve all of this and remember that you always belong.

At DC Bilingual we have a tagline–“juntos somos lideres” or “Together we LEAD” This tagline couldn’t be more true for all of us right now. Let’s seize the opportunity to lead together and make sure everyone feels safe and welcome in the spaces we create. Thank you for being part of the DC Bilingual community. Juntos Somos Lideres!”

Cesar Chavez Public Charter Middle and High Schools make DC Bold Schools list for academic achievement

mlerner10 Charter Schools, PCSB, Standardized Test Scores, TenSquare Leave a comment

The month EmpowerK12 released the names of 14 District of Columbia schools that made its annual Bold Schools list. According to this organization’s web site bold schools are identified in this way:

“Schools are determined using the 2022 Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) data and their Percent Proficient Above Expected (PPAE) calculations (using four sophisticated mathematical models) that project what percentage of students are expected to be proficient given a school’s demographics. Bold Performance Schools have proficiency rates for students at least 5.5 percentage points higher than how schools with similar demographics achieved pre-pandemic.”

In addition:

“The 14 schools designated as Bold Performance Schools are DC Public Schools (DCPS) and DC charter schools, across elementary, middle, and high school grades; and serve student populations where students designated as at-risk make up at least 30% of the student population. This year’s Bold Performance Schools have 2022 PARCC proficiency rates that were an average of 9.1 percentage points better than other Bold-eligible schools, and their 2022 PARCC 4+ proficiency rates were 2.6 percentage points better than the pre-pandemic average for schools serving similar demographics.”

As you can see it is quite an academic achievement for these schools, especially coming out of the pandemic. Here is the list of facilities that includes those of both the charter sector and DCPS.

However, I want to highlight one of these schools because of its troubled past regarding standardized test scores. Back in 2017, when the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy faced its 20 year review with the DC Public Charter School Board it was nearly shuttered due to low academic performance.
Instead the PCSB prevented its Parkside Middle School from accepting any new students into its sixth grade with the end result of closing this campus. The remaining schools, Chavez Capitol Hill and Chavez Prep would also cease operations if they did not meet specific Performance Management Framework targets over the next three years. The charter board commented that the Local Education Agency was simply “not meeting its goals and student achievement expectations.”

Facing an extremely dire situation, the Chavez’ board turned to the TenSquare Group for assistance. The charter then started making news for something other than pedagogy. Some teachers at Chavez Prep were working hard to bring a teachers’ union to the school. Then, for academic, enrollment, and financial pressures that I described here in 2019, the charter decided to close Chavez Capitol Hill and Chavez Prep and consolidate these institutions at the Parkside location. The plan was always to one day rebuild the middle school.

At the time I described Josh Kern, TenSquare’s leader, to literary hero Howard Roark in Ayn Rand’s book The Fountainhead. Now we can recognize the magnitude of his team’s turnaround efforts. This year represents the first year since 2017 that the middle school will fill grades six through eight. Now, thanks to the analysis by EmpowerK12, both the middle and high schools fulfill the promise to provide a quality education to any student who needs one.