Tuesday, February 28, 2006
D.C. School Superintendent's Fatal Conceit
The school superintendent has been working on his master plan for a year. And what is the answer to fixing the worst public school system in the nation? More control by the central administration.
Dion Haynes of the Washington Post explains Mr. Janey's proposal this way:
I predict failure. The only way to do this kind of thing correctly is to allow each school the freedom to innovate as they see fit. Instead of using the 90 million dollars annually to support his plan the superintendent could give out entrepreneur awards to schools that come up with a viable plan to be a center of excellence. Better yet, give 9,000 students a 10,000 voucher to use at the private school of their choice.
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Dion Haynes of the Washington Post explains Mr. Janey's proposal this way:
Janey said he targeted under-performing high schools for his plan to offer more specialized courses of study. Under his proposal, Eastern Senior High School in Northeast would become the District of Columbia Latin School, focusing on studies in the humanities and foreign languages and modeled on the elite Boston Latin School, which Janey attended.So what if a particular school does not want to focus on transportation and aeronautics? I guess it's too bad. You must do as the puppeteer tells you to do. By the way, I didn't see a performing arts school on the list. I guess this is not important to his honor so it can't matter to families and students.
Spingarn, in Northeast, would become a boarding school for students interested in construction trades; Cardozo, in Northwest, a "trans-tech" school for the study of transportation and aeronautics; Ballou, in Southeast, a media and communications school; and Anacostia, in Southeast, a health and medical sciences school.
I predict failure. The only way to do this kind of thing correctly is to allow each school the freedom to innovate as they see fit. Instead of using the 90 million dollars annually to support his plan the superintendent could give out entrepreneur awards to schools that come up with a viable plan to be a center of excellence. Better yet, give 9,000 students a 10,000 voucher to use at the private school of their choice.
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Monday, February 27, 2006
Corcoran Gallery Admits Paintings Are Not On View
For the first time that I am aware of The Corcoran Gallery of American Art has a statement on its web site explaining that many of its major pieces will not be on view until 2007 because they are on tour.
Could my letter to the editor have had an impact?
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Could my letter to the editor have had an impact?
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Sunday, February 26, 2006
Support For Ending The War On Drugs
It comes from a surprising source. Mr. George Melloan is Deputy Editor, International of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. The Wall Street Journal is usually tough on crime. He writes:
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A large percentage of Americans will probably say no, mainly because they are law-abiding people who maintain high moral and ethical standards and don't want to surrender to a small minority that flouts the laws, whether in the ghettos of Washington D.C. or Beverly Hills salons. The concern about damaging society's fabric is legitimate. But another question needs to be asked: Is that fabric being damaged now?Mr. Melloan's excellent column also informs about Milton Friedman's opposition to the drug war, expressed 34 years ago in Newsweek Magazine. My rule is any side Milton Friedman is on is the one that I take.
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Wednesday, February 22, 2006
High School Here We Come
Last evening the D.C. Public Charter School Board approved the William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts opening a high school in the fall of 2006. The school will go from Pre-K to 7th grade, and 9th.
Amazing.
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Amazing.
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MOMA
Last weekend we returned to the Museum of Modern Art to see the Edvard Munch exhibit and to see how much the museum had improved after reading reports that the galleries had been re-configured. Well it was the day the special exhibit opened and admission was not timed so it was a crowded mess. And the galleries have really not changed. Very disappointing.
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Tuesday, February 14, 2006
"Boys Of Baraka" Continued
Turns out that Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post Editorial Board was with me last week during my WEDJ PCS field trip at The Warner Theater to see the movie "Boys of Baraka." Today, she writes movingly about the film and actually knows well one of the directors of the Baraka School. A couple of paragraphs from her column stand out:
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Yet for all the legitimate complaints from many on the left about the straitjacketed rules and underfunded mandates of No Child Left Behind, for all the heartfelt concern about the threats posed by charter schools and voucher programs, it's impossible to watch this film and think anything other than: whatever it takes to give these children and others like them a chance.
Yes, yes, yes! This is exactly the point I made with Colbert King when I talked to him about supporting school vouchers 7 years ago. Here is one last excerpt:
No comment necessary.What you wouldn't have known from the packed house was how hard the sponsors, the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, had to work to get some of the students there. Most were from charter schools, which snapped up the invitations. But organizers made call after call trying to overcome the bureaucratic inertia of the D.C. school system.
Of the city's 37 traditional middle and high schools, students from only seven came.
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Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Governor Pataki Pushes For More NYC Charters
Under his plan, as reported today by Jennifer Medina of the New York Times, the number of charters would go to 250 from the 100 that have already been awarded. The Governor's proposal would also allow New York City to issue the charters in addition to the Board of Regents and State University of New York, which are currently the 2 bodies which authorize charter schools in the state.
This is important since the William E. Doar, Jr. Educational Foundation would like to open a performing arts charter school in New York.
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This is important since the William E. Doar, Jr. Educational Foundation would like to open a performing arts charter school in New York.
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Tuesday, February 07, 2006
WEDJ Field Trip
Yesterday, I took the day off from work to go on a WEDJ field trip. It was a men's day out. Me, 2 other male friends of the school, 4 teachers, and 18 male students from the 5th and 6th grade make a subway trip down to the Warner Theater to see a free viewing of the film "Boys of Baraka" which is a part of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival. It was such an honor to spend time with these extremely well-behaved fun young men.
"Boys of Baraka" is a documentary about how 18 underprivileged boys from Baltimore City spend a year at a middle-school in Kenya for at-risk youth. It was fantastic. At the beginning of the film a 10 year-old WEDJ student asked me if the movie was about people who had made bad choices:
Me: No, I think its about kids who had made bad choices but now were making good ones.
Student: Well I hope it is about the bad choices.
Me: Why is that?
Student: Because then I will know what not to do.
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"Boys of Baraka" is a documentary about how 18 underprivileged boys from Baltimore City spend a year at a middle-school in Kenya for at-risk youth. It was fantastic. At the beginning of the film a 10 year-old WEDJ student asked me if the movie was about people who had made bad choices:
Me: No, I think its about kids who had made bad choices but now were making good ones.
Student: Well I hope it is about the bad choices.
Me: Why is that?
Student: Because then I will know what not to do.
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Evaluation Of D.C.'s Voucher Program
The William E. Doar, Jr. Public Charter School for the Performing Arts just received it annual review from the D.C. Public Charter School Board and we received a glowing report. This started me thinking about how Congress would measure the success of the 2 year-old private school voucher program. Here are some criteria and my score:
1. Public Demand - A+, their are more people that want to take advantage of the scholarships then slots.
2. Satisfaction of parents/children - A+, from what I have read the families love it.
3. Satisfaction of participating schools - I don't have information in this area but it would certainly be interesting to have feedback from the schools. It looks to me like over 65 private schools are participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program and that this list is growing.
4. Retention rate. A+, the program is over enrolled at its Congressionally capped limit of $1,700 students.
5. Attendance - Do we see that kids attend school at a higher percentage than traditional public school students who wanted to take advantage of the voucher but could not get a slot?
6. Standardized Test Scores - this is the criteria that will make or brake the program. And although people will want this information now, my research has shown that it takes at least 5 years to have a statistically significant impact in this area.
Now that I have taken my guess as to how the program will be evaluated you can see exactly how one was completed. Click here for an evaluation of the 1st year of the use of vouchers in Washington, D.C. as performed by Georgetown University. I believe you will see a lot of areas of overlap.
I also learned this from the study, "...according to a Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the DC Mayor and DCPS, public schools that lose students as a result of the Opportunity Scholarship program will be reimbursed for any lost resources, thereby eliminating any fiscal impact of the program on specific public schools, at least in the short run" (p. 50). Perfect.
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1. Public Demand - A+, their are more people that want to take advantage of the scholarships then slots.
2. Satisfaction of parents/children - A+, from what I have read the families love it.
3. Satisfaction of participating schools - I don't have information in this area but it would certainly be interesting to have feedback from the schools. It looks to me like over 65 private schools are participating in the Opportunity Scholarship Program and that this list is growing.
4. Retention rate. A+, the program is over enrolled at its Congressionally capped limit of $1,700 students.
5. Attendance - Do we see that kids attend school at a higher percentage than traditional public school students who wanted to take advantage of the voucher but could not get a slot?
6. Standardized Test Scores - this is the criteria that will make or brake the program. And although people will want this information now, my research has shown that it takes at least 5 years to have a statistically significant impact in this area.
Now that I have taken my guess as to how the program will be evaluated you can see exactly how one was completed. Click here for an evaluation of the 1st year of the use of vouchers in Washington, D.C. as performed by Georgetown University. I believe you will see a lot of areas of overlap.
I also learned this from the study, "...according to a Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the DC Mayor and DCPS, public schools that lose students as a result of the Opportunity Scholarship program will be reimbursed for any lost resources, thereby eliminating any fiscal impact of the program on specific public schools, at least in the short run" (p. 50). Perfect.
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Monday, February 06, 2006
Cars And Cash
That's what some schools are giving away to kids as incentives for them to show up everyday.
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Thursday, February 02, 2006
No Wonder There Is No Educational Competition In D.C.
Fascinating policy forum the other day over at The Cato Institute. A financial review of D.C.'s Opportunity Scholarship Program (supporters refuse to refer to school vouchers) by Susan Aud of the Friedman Foundation and Leon Michos of George Washington University demonstrates that the way the program is structured it is in the city's interest to have as many kids as possible attend private schools. For example, the first year after Congress approved the measure 1,000 students elected to take advantage of the scholarships. Keep in mind that the funds for the vouchers come from the federal government. So, at an average of $8,000 per child that DCPS is awarded per child, the city saved 8 million dollars in expenditures due to them exiting the public schools. DCPS also lost 8 million in revenue. But because my friend Kaleem Caire came up with the idea of bribing lawmakers to pass the voucher scheme by providing money for vouchers and both traditional and charter schools (called the 3 sector approach), DCPS gets a grant of 15 million each year. Therefore it is a net gain of 7 million dollars for DCPS.
Even this year with the program filled at $1,700 students, DCPS loses $13,600,000 dollars. The federal grant still provides a net gain to the school system.
I pointed out during the question and answer period that a analysis that our school has performed showed that at a voucher amount of $7,500 in insufficient to provide an incentive for new schools to open. Therefore, this fact combined with the results of this study, reveal that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program has some definite financial shortcomings.
You can watch a video of the event here.
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Even this year with the program filled at $1,700 students, DCPS loses $13,600,000 dollars. The federal grant still provides a net gain to the school system.
I pointed out during the question and answer period that a analysis that our school has performed showed that at a voucher amount of $7,500 in insufficient to provide an incentive for new schools to open. Therefore, this fact combined with the results of this study, reveal that the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program has some definite financial shortcomings.
You can watch a video of the event here.
