What is going on with Duke Ellington?

[Anonymous]

Saw a tweet saying students are protesting because dcps is taking it over? What does that mean? Wasn’t it a dcps school already?

[Anonymous]

It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Specifically, many of the teachers at Ellington are not DCPS employees and DCPS does not have a mechanism to hold Ellington accountable for following DCPS policies when, for example, a student (or former student) raises concerns about sexual misconduct by a staff member.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Specifically, many of the teachers at Ellington are not DCPS employees and DCPS does not have a mechanism to hold Ellington accountable for following DCPS policies when, for example, a student (or former student) raises concerns about sexual misconduct by a staff member.

That's not even true. Any staff member at Duke Ellington is subject to DCPS rules and regulations, as is the school itself. They go through the same background checks, are beholden to the same policies and any concerns about any conduct, sexual or otherwise, is investigated solely by both DCPS and the police. The school is a public/private partnership with DCPS. The board manages the arts curriculum and hires the staff. Everything else is and has always been 100% by the DCPS book. The only real autonomy is curriculum (which is national recognized by the way) and auditions. That's the model for literally every arts school in the nation because no school district in the country has an actual, legitimate arts curriculum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Seriously how is one cheating kid an embarrassment? It's a freaking school, not a private detective agency. The vast majority of families accused were families with two Moms, or two Dads with different last names and complicated birth certificate issues, or adoptive parents, or divorced with one parent living in MD or VA, or who works in MD or VA and pays taxes in those states. Normal, 21st century family stuff in a city that's only 5 square miles big. Stuff happens.
How many out- of-boundary and MD kids in other DC schools are lying about living with aunts and grandmas? Why would you expect that not to happen at Ellington once or twice. And unlike any school in the city, they've been audited for the last 5 years and have had 100% compliance for that whole time. Can we say the same about other schools in DC?

[Anonymous]

Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Specifically, many of the teachers at Ellington are not DCPS employees and DCPS does not have a mechanism to hold Ellington accountable for following DCPS policies when, for example, a student (or former student) raises concerns about sexual misconduct by a staff member.

That's not even true. Any staff member at Duke Ellington is subject to DCPS rules and regulations, as is the school itself. They go through the same background checks, are beholden to the same policies and any concerns about any conduct, sexual or otherwise, is investigated solely by both DCPS and the police. The school is a public/private partnership with DCPS. The board manages the arts curriculum and hires the staff. Everything else is and has always been 100% by the DCPS book. The only real autonomy is curriculum (which is national recognized by the way) and auditions. That's the model for literally every arts school in the nation because no school district in the country has an actual, legitimate arts curriculum.

So what is changing and what is being protested?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Seriously how is one cheating kid an embarrassment? It's a freaking school, not a private detective agency. The vast majority of families accused were families with two Moms, or two Dads with different last names and complicated birth certificate issues, or adoptive parents, or divorced with one parent living in MD or VA, or who works in MD or VA and pays taxes in those states. Normal, 21st century family stuff in a city that's only 5 square miles big. Stuff happens.
How many out- of-boundary and MD kids in other DC schools are lying about living with aunts and grandmas? Why would you expect that not to happen at Ellington once or twice. And unlike any school in the city, they've been audited for the last 5 years and have had 100% compliance for that whole time. Can we say the same about other schools in DC?

Ellington is responsible for basic recordkeeping and paperwork stuff, and it was a hot mess. Kids were "wrongly accused" in part *because* the school failed to do adequate recordkeeping. Yes, many families were eventually cleared, but a year at Ellington costs about $15,000 so if you have just a few cheating kids, but each for four years, and the poor recordkeeping and tolerance for cheating goes back many years, it adds up fast. Oh, but "stuff happens", so the taxpayer should cover it? Right.

Do you have anything defensive to say about the sexual abuse scandals?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

Yes, the made-up residency fraud scandal and a sexual misconduct scandal mishandled by a previous administration and the police means DCPS should obviously take over. By all means take one of the few high schools in the city that has a nearly 100% graduation and college acceptance rate and let DCPS screw around with it.

The DCPS "takeover" has been walked back quite a bit. At this point, from what I understand, DCPS and Ellington have mostly worked out an agreement about alternative certification for arts teachers who do not have an education degree. I believe they have agreed that the principal will stay on as DESAP principal, which is overseeing both the DCPS and arts side of things. There are a few sticking points, however. Most importantly, teacher and administrative pay. Teachers at Ellington took a pay cut a few years ago when DCPS cut the budget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

Yes, the made-up residency fraud scandal and a sexual misconduct scandal mishandled by a previous administration and the police means DCPS should obviously take over. By all means take one of the few high schools in the city that has a nearly 100% graduation and college acceptance rate and let DCPS screw around with it.

The DCPS "takeover" has been walked back quite a bit. At this point, from what I understand, DCPS and Ellington have mostly worked out an agreement about alternative certification for arts teachers who do not have an education degree. I believe they have agreed that the principal will stay on as DESAP principal, which is overseeing both the DCPS and arts side of things. There are a few sticking points, however. Most importantly, teacher and administrative pay. Teachers at Ellington took a pay cut a few years ago when DCPS cut the budget.

It wasn't made up. It wasn't as many students as was originally announced, but in the end there was some undisputed fraud. Look at this very slanted article from Jay Mathews- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html 164 students were accused. 87% were cleared. That means that 13% were not cleared, or 21 students. 21 students times $15,000 a year (just a guess) is $315,000 in fraud for JUST ONE YEAR. Yes, it's real and it matters.

As for the graduation rate and college acceptance, wowie wowie wow that a school that hand-picks its students has acceptable academic results. Color me impressed. You know as well as I do that Ellington's academics are actually pretty meh, they're just better than other nearby schools. And I certainly don't understand why these acceptable "results" could justify hundreds of thousands of dollars in residency fraud.

[Anonymous]

https://www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/acclaimed-arts-school-failed-to-keep-teacher-records-before-2017/2950264/

"Washington, D.C.'s acclaimed Duke Ellington School of the Arts admits it failed to keep personnel files or human resources records on its teachers prior to 2017, which may have hindered how it handled two sex abuse claims against the same teacher a decade apart, an investigation by the News4 I-Team found."

Autonomy is a privilege to be earned. Fail your compliance, fail to *protect minors from sexual abuse*, lose your autonomy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

Yes, the made-up residency fraud scandal and a sexual misconduct scandal mishandled by a previous administration and the police means DCPS should obviously take over. By all means take one of the few high schools in the city that has a nearly 100% graduation and college acceptance rate and let DCPS screw around with it.

The DCPS "takeover" has been walked back quite a bit. At this point, from what I understand, DCPS and Ellington have mostly worked out an agreement about alternative certification for arts teachers who do not have an education degree. I believe they have agreed that the principal will stay on as DESAP principal, which is overseeing both the DCPS and arts side of things. There are a few sticking points, however. Most importantly, teacher and administrative pay. Teachers at Ellington took a pay cut a few years ago when DCPS cut the budget.

It wasn't made up. It wasn't as many students as was originally announced, but in the end there was some undisputed fraud. Look at this very slanted article from Jay Mathews- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html 164 students were accused. 87% were cleared. That means that 13% were not cleared, or 21 students. 21 students times $15,000 a year (just a guess) is $315,000 in fraud for JUST ONE YEAR. Yes, it's real and it matters.

As for the graduation rate and college acceptance, wowie wowie wow that a school that hand-picks its students has acceptable academic results. Color me impressed. You know as well as I do that Ellington's academics are actually pretty meh, they're just better than other nearby schools. And I certainly don't understand why these acceptable "results" could justify hundreds of thousands of dollars in residency fraud.

NP what in the world did Duke Ellington do to hurt you? You seem to have a lot of misplaced anger at a school. Throwing out 315k as "fraud" does nothing to impress me either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

Yes, the made-up residency fraud scandal and a sexual misconduct scandal mishandled by a previous administration and the police means DCPS should obviously take over. By all means take one of the few high schools in the city that has a nearly 100% graduation and college acceptance rate and let DCPS screw around with it.

The DCPS "takeover" has been walked back quite a bit. At this point, from what I understand, DCPS and Ellington have mostly worked out an agreement about alternative certification for arts teachers who do not have an education degree. I believe they have agreed that the principal will stay on as DESAP principal, which is overseeing both the DCPS and arts side of things. There are a few sticking points, however. Most importantly, teacher and administrative pay. Teachers at Ellington took a pay cut a few years ago when DCPS cut the budget.

It wasn't made up. It wasn't as many students as was originally announced, but in the end there was some undisputed fraud. Look at this very slanted article from Jay Mathews- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html 164 students were accused. 87% were cleared. That means that 13% were not cleared, or 21 students. 21 students times $15,000 a year (just a guess) is $315,000 in fraud for JUST ONE YEAR. Yes, it's real and it matters.

As for the graduation rate and college acceptance, wowie wowie wow that a school that hand-picks its students has acceptable academic results. Color me impressed. You know as well as I do that Ellington's academics are actually pretty meh, they're just better than other nearby schools. And I certainly don't understand why these acceptable "results" could justify hundreds of thousands of dollars in residency fraud.

NP what in the world did Duke Ellington do to hurt you? You seem to have a lot of misplaced anger at a school. Throwing out 315k as "fraud" does nothing to impress me either.

I care about the integrity of public programs, that's why.

Do you dispute my calculation? Is Jay Mathews wrong about the numbers? How much do you think it costs the DC taxpayer to educate these non-resident kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is a DCPS school, but it also has an outside board and is traditionally given a lot of autonomy. But DCPS has become concerned about a lot of things-- sexual abuse of students, HR problems, and of course the residency cheating (which blew up in DCPS' face but I think even one residency cheating kid is an embarrassment to Ellington, and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to the city). Autonomy is a privilege and privileges can be lost if not treated with care.

Specifically, many of the teachers at Ellington are not DCPS employees and DCPS does not have a mechanism to hold Ellington accountable for following DCPS policies when, for example, a student (or former student) raises concerns about sexual misconduct by a staff member.

That's not even true. Any staff member at Duke Ellington is subject to DCPS rules and regulations, as is the school itself. They go through the same background checks, are beholden to the same policies and any concerns about any conduct, sexual or otherwise, is investigated solely by both DCPS and the police. The school is a public/private partnership with DCPS. The board manages the arts curriculum and hires the staff. Everything else is and has always been 100% by the DCPS book. The only real autonomy is curriculum (which is national recognized by the way) and auditions. That's the model for literally every arts school in the nation because no school district in the country has an actual, legitimate arts curriculum.

So what is changing and what is being protested?

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Years of scandals means that DCPS wants to take over.

Yes, the made-up residency fraud scandal and a sexual misconduct scandal mishandled by a previous administration and the police means DCPS should obviously take over. By all means take one of the few high schools in the city that has a nearly 100% graduation and college acceptance rate and let DCPS screw around with it.

The DCPS "takeover" has been walked back quite a bit. At this point, from what I understand, DCPS and Ellington have mostly worked out an agreement about alternative certification for arts teachers who do not have an education degree. I believe they have agreed that the principal will stay on as DESAP principal, which is overseeing both the DCPS and arts side of things. There are a few sticking points, however. Most importantly, teacher and administrative pay. Teachers at Ellington took a pay cut a few years ago when DCPS cut the budget.

It wasn't made up. It wasn't as many students as was originally announced, but in the end there was some undisputed fraud. Look at this very slanted article from Jay Mathews- https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/duke-ellington-school-funding/2021/01/30/8c718d66-618d-11eb-9430-e7c77b5b0297_story.html 164 students were accused. 87% were cleared. That means that 13% were not cleared, or 21 students. 21 students times $15,000 a year (just a guess) is $315,000 in fraud for JUST ONE YEAR. Yes, it's real and it matters.

As for the graduation rate and college acceptance, wowie wowie wow that a school that hand-picks its students has acceptable academic results. Color me impressed. You know as well as I do that Ellington's academics are actually pretty meh, they're just better than other nearby schools. And I certainly don't understand why these acceptable "results" could justify hundreds of thousands of dollars in residency fraud.

NP what in the world did Duke Ellington do to hurt you? You seem to have a lot of misplaced anger at a school. Throwing out 315k as "fraud" does nothing to impress me either.

I care about the integrity of public programs, that's why.

Do you dispute my calculation? Is Jay Mathews wrong about the numbers? How much do you think it costs the DC taxpayer to educate these non-resident kids?

Duke Ellington is in year 5 of 100% enrollment audits. You can’t change the past. What more do you want from the school NOW? Or are you just going to whine about 2017 for the next several decades?