PCSB

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.

D.C. charter board proves equity has its limits when it comes to Eagle Academy PCS

mlerner10 Charter School Enrollment, Charter School Expansion, Education Forward DC, PCSB Leave a comment

When I attended the Education Forward DC event a couple of weeks ago that I recently wrote about, the organization’s new CEO Bisi Oyedele pointed out to me that in the past I used to summarize the proceedings of the DC Public Charter School Board on my blog. I told him that since the COVID pandemic the meetings have not been as interesting as in the past, but I said I would get back to this task. So to be true to my word, yesterday I watched last Monday evening’s session.

On the agenda was a vote on a charter amendment request by Eagle Academy PCS to expand on its two campuses, Congress Heights and Capital Riverfront, its offerings from the third to the fifth grade, with the fourth grade added in 2024 and the fifth grade starting in 2025. This amendment would not involve an enrollment increase. The discussion regarding this change initially occurred as part of the September monthly meeting. Here is some background around this issue.

In September 2021 the DC PCSB announced that it was pausing requests for grade expansion and new school applications for the current year and 2022. I brought this topic up in my interview with board chair Lea Crusey last July and here is what she said about the move:

“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.”

However, despite the fact that the redesigned Performance Management Framework is still in development, charters were apparently informed that bids to add additional grades would now be entertained, with a June 1 deadline for modifications effective with the start of the 2023 to 2024 term. Eagle Academy submitted its charter amendment on June 6th, asserting that this was the due date communicated to the school.

Eagle Academy serves an extremely challenging population of students. I visited the Congress Heights campus in Anacostia six years ago and this is what I observed about the school then:

“The school founded in 2003 has always accepted students with disabilities up to Level 4, the highest category.  Services are readily available for these children.  A sensory room complete with pulleys and other gymnastic equipment allow an occupational therapist to assist with motor skills.  Speech pathologists and mental health workers share a wing of the building where they care for the 120 kids with Individual Education Plans.  Mr. Kline [the school’s principal] related that Eagle follows the inclusionary model in regard to their special education students, placing them in regular classrooms as often as possible.”

As we know, the pandemic has had terrible detrimental effects on our students, with the burden falling particularly hard on those living in poverty. Dr. Joe Smith, Eagle Academy’s CEO/CFO, pointed out to the board that parents have been requesting for years that the school expand to go up to the fifth grade. It is something he has wanted to do but COVID interrupted his plans to seek the enrollment modification. He stated that he believes in consideration of all that his families have gone through, and in light of the special needs of his pupils, he would now try to remove the requirement for a difficult transition to a new school when his kids reached the end of the third grade. However, on this night, the charter board would unanimously deny this plea, focusing on the fact that the school had missed the deadline for the charter amendment by five days. The PCSB did not explain why it entertained the request in the first place if its self-imposed time limit had been reached.

On the same night, Appletree Early Learning PCS brought a proposed charter amendment to the board to add students while staying within it already approved enrollment ceiling. This charter, like Eagle Academy, had missed the June cutoff. However, in this case the board found a workaround. According to the PCSB, “AppleTree PCS submitted its request on July 25, 2022, initially seeking approval to operate a new campus in the proposed facility beginning in SY 2023 – 24. DC PCSB staff informed the school that it was too late to seek authorization to operate a new campus in SY 2023 – 24. However, it was not too late to seek authorization to operate a new facility beginning in SY 2023 – 24. Consequently, AppleTree PCS submitted an updated facility amendment request on August 29, 2022.”

Appletree is seeking to expand into the Spring Valley section of the city. The bid is exciting, for if it is approved, it would be the first D.C. charter school ever located in Ward 3. This would be Appletree’s seventh facility, which would be considered a part of its Oklahoma Avenue N.E. campus, located 8.1 miles away from the new location.

The request, which appeared to receive positive feedback from board members, will be voted on during the November monthly meeting.

Now back to Eagle Academy and the closing words by Mr. Smith regarding his school’s amendment that was turned down:

“We are coming out of COVID and I think one of the key things we have to do is to think about what’s best for our students in terms of COVID. And I think coming out of COVID and having a chance to start working with our kids again, it’s very important for them to have stability. Their lives have been disrupted for the last two years. I have a daughter that graduated college in the middle of COVID. She got a master’s degree in the middle of COVID. So, I know how this affects even people who are adults, but children, it’s even worse. And that’s part of the reason I think my board has pressed me and why I have agreed to present this to the Public Charter School Board to see if there was some kind of way you could look at this and realize we’re not asking to add additional students. That’s not what we’re trying to do. All we want to do is to keep the students we have and grow them through grade four and grade five, and COVID is a very big pusher of us for us to go ahead and do this because these children — I understand what you’re doing and your policies, but I’m looking at the children I have in our schools, and for them, I’ve got to make a pitch and see if I can get you to see the importance of this for these kids. It’s important for them to have the stability of being in the same school with the same staff, you know, and also having the same teachers for fourth grade they had for third grade so that they can have that stability running through. So, I think that’s very critical for us and I think that’s what my board, if all of the board members were on, I think they would be saying exactly the same thing. And if you read all of the things that our parents wrote about attending the meetings, those are some of the pushes they’re giving us, that it’s very important for their kids to have additional stability beyond COVID and we can’t provide that unless you let us go to fourth grade.”

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

mlerner10 Charter Schools, PCSB Leave a comment

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Public school reform advocates should vote for Muriel Bowser for D.C. Mayor

mlerner10 Charter School Facilities, D.C. Council, DCPS, Mayor Bowser, OSP, OSSE, PCSB, SBOE Leave a comment

I have to admit that Robert White Jr.’s comments on public education scare me. As WAMU’s Martin Austermuhle pointed out, when the Mayoral candidate was asked during a May 4, 2022 debate as to whether schools should remain under the control of the city’s chief executive, he apparently answered in this way:

“We need a mayor who’s not just going to go to the easy talking points, but who’s going to get in the details. And this mayor has not gotten into the details. And that’s why she doesn’t have a clear understanding of why so many students are leaving our schools. Right now, 30% of elementary school students leave D.C. Public Schools before middle school. There is an urgent problem, and we need a mayor with a sense of urgency on public education.”

Mr. White’s vague answer on this critical issue brought a strong response from current Mayor Muriel Bowser, according to the WAMU reporter:

“D.C. residents want a mayor they can trust. And if your answer shifts depending on which way the wind blows, they can’t trust you with their kids. And the most important thing you have to do as mayor is provide mayoral leadership of the schools. I think it is a seminal issue in this race. And I think what we’ve heard are councilmembers who are equivocating and waffling. I’m straight forward.”

For close observers of the education scene in the nation’s capital, the unified opinion is that we cannot move backward to the time when the D.C. Board of Education ran the public schools. Going to a public school was dangerous then, and there was a distinct lack of pedagogy going on in the classrooms. The buildings were crumbling literally and figuratively. We just cannot allow this to happen after so much progress.

Mayor Bowser has been a supporter of public education reform but has not been as strong as charter school advocates have desired. She has consistently annually raised the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula, the baseline money allocated each year to teach a student, but has lagged in her willingness to also increase the per pupil facility allotment. The most glaring weakness of her Administration has been the unwillingness to turn over surplus DCPS facilities to charter schools. While recent previous Mayors Adrien Fenty and Vincent Gray have given buildings in the double digits, I believe that Ms. Bowser has relinquished two. Her almost total avoidance of following the law when it comes to these structures resulted in an End The List Campaign in 2019 that mobilized the charter school community in an effort to force her to do the right thing.

The Mayor has also put pressure on the DC Public Charter School Board not to approve new schools. This is an area where the board has to find a way to stand up to her. Finally, she has been exceedingly slow to nominate replacement members to the PCSB.

Ms. Bowser has also been a steadfast supporter of continued operation of the Opportunity Scholarship Program, the private school scholarship plan for low income children living in D.C. A 2017 letter from D.C. Chairman Mendelson to the U.S. Congress to bring an end to the vouchers was opposed by the Mayor, and interestingly, was not signed by Councilmember Robert White.

There is one aspect of Mr. White’s proposed education program with which I strongly agree. I have advocated, as he is doing now, that the Office of the State Superintendent should be independent of the Mayor. I think OSSE should be separated from political pressure. However, although we agree on this one concept, I do not believe that education reform would be in steady hands if he won the upcoming election. Despite her failings in the area of public education which I have documented, Muriel Bowser is my choice for Mayor.