Ward 6 parents request to Catania and Henderson on Middle Schools

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12/17/2013 09:27

Subject: Ward 6 parents request to Catania and Henderson on Middle Schools

quote

Anonymous

These are the suggestions made by the Capitol Hill Public School Parents Organization ( CHPSPO ) on behalf of Capitol Hill Parents and submitted to CM Catania and Chancellor Henderson last week.

Some good ideas in here. Will this improve our middle schools?

Recommendations for Improving Middle Schools
December 13, 2013

Ward 6 Middle School Plan

1. The Ward 6 Middle School Plan is a good example of school communities working together with DCPS to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure successful middle schools. But the plan, approved in 2010, hasn’t yet been fully supported by DCPS.

- DCPS has kept their commitment to begin the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme at Jefferson and Eliot-Hine Middle Schools. IB coordinators were hired for each school. However, certification of the IB programs was delayed, and funding for professional development for teachers was difficult to obtain.
- DCPS included language in last year's budget stating that beginning in SY2014-2015 IB coordinators at Eliot-Hine, Jefferson, and Eastern High School would be funded out of the per student allocation rather than be an additional position. The schools will have to absorb these positions out of their budgets.
- Capitol Hill Montessori at Logan (CHM@L) began expansion to 8th grade.
- Stuart Hobson’s museum studies program has been slow to get off the ground, and DCPS hasn’t funded a museum studies coordinator. A coordinator position is essential for the staff to adequately plan for and sustain the program.
- Stuart Hobson's modernization remains incomplete, with no clear plan forward to finish the full scope of the design including the much needed outdoor athletic space. The extreme difficulty the Stuart Hobson parent community has faced at every step of the modernization process speaks to a lack of institutional support from DCPS and the city. Eliot-Hine and Jefferson have had their modernizations delayed.
- CHM@L cannot take advantage of funds allocated toward textbooks to purchase alternative learning materials required to implement the Montessori academic model.

Budget/Funding/Enrollment

1. Budget is closely linked with enrollment, but small swings in enrollment shouldn’t mean serious swings in funding for middle schools. For SY2013-2014, Stuart Hobson fell just below the new definition for small schools that DCPS began for this school year (small schools grew from 300 to 400 students). Eliot-Hine and Jefferson both continue to be under-enrolled (and in the small school category), and well below their school’s capacity.

2. For SY 2013-2014, Stuart Hobson’s projected enrollment fell just below 400 (the previous year the school had lost approximately 30 students who transferred to nearby and newly opened BASIS DC Public Charter School at the beginning of the year). This projected enrollment drop resulted in approximately a $400,000 budget cut. The budget cut along with falling into the small school category meant the school was set to lose its Spanish program (at the same time DCPS added the requirement that all elementary schools provide world language instruction), technology program, and librarian. These cuts created significant panic and outrage among parents. The resulting advocacy ultimately led Councilmember Catania, who shared parents' worries about the destabilizing nature of cuts that extreme, to facilitate getting approximately $300,000 added back to the budget. However, the restored funds came so late in the year that it made it difficult to hire quality staff. Parents' trust in the school and commitment to DCPS were eroded during the process. Ironically, Stuart Hobson is now overenrolled for SY 2013-2014, with some classes having 32 – 35 students.
3. Textbooks are not part of the core Montessori curriculum and practice. Therefore, CHM@L cannot take full advantage of the resources provided to all other DCPS schools in the form of textbooks. CHM@L is held to the same content standards and held accountable for results in the same way as all other DCPS schools. Because the Montessori approach requires teaching that same content through a medium other than textbooks, Montessori students should not be denied these critical resources that other schools receive. CHM@L has asked that DPCS to shift the resources that would have been reserved for textbooks for CHM@L to augment the materials budget to allow the purchase the Montessori materials that are used to teach in lieu of textbooks.

4. Stabilization of the school budgets is essential. DCPS could consider a “fully-funded” budget for all middle schools for the next five years to enable them to focus on programming excellence and creating a strong identity around their specialty areas, e.g., IB, museum studies, etc. This could set in motion a reinforcing circle, i.e., enrollment increases because the schools become sought after schools of choice for families, as the enrollment increases the school budget increases, and the school is able to expand its offerings leading to increasing enrollment.

5. Middle schools deserve flexibility in their budgets. Constraining most DCPS middle schools to cookie-cutter budgets handicaps their ability to set themselves apart and offer creative niche programs that meet the needs of a community. It is clear budget autonomy helps create distinctive, sought-after programs in charter middle schools. And if that model works, why not afford the same opportunity to our public middle schools?

Strong Academics and Differentiated Instruction

1. Some middle school students are leaving for charter schools with perceived strong academics or middle schools in Ward 3 that will feed into Wilson High School. The IB Middle Years Programme and a museum studies program should be strong academic programs attracting families to DCPS, but these programs will need to be fully implemented and marketed in order to attract families.

2. DCPS must make efforts to support students performing at different levels. DCPS could consider supporting programs like the one at Stuart Hobson where students who are below grade level take double math and English in smaller classroom settings where they can get the help they need, with a ninth period class for them to take electives. Then an honors track is offered in core subjects to provide additional academic challenge for students who are significantly above grade level. Aside from these core classes students of all abilities are mixed in all other classes and activities, and they do team building activities in advisory to build a strong community.

Modernization

1. Timely and full modernization of middle school buildings must be part of the plan to build excellent middle schools in DC.

- Stuart Hobson has completed its first phase of renovation.
- Jefferson’s capital improvement plan was pushed back another year. The school was scheduled for $10 million in summer 2014 and $10 million in summer 2015. Now apparently it’s 2015/2016.
- Eliot-Hine’s capital improvement plan has also been delayed.
- CHM@L has requested of DCPS and Council $1 million the summer of 2014 to retrofit the annex on the school property in order to serve the middle year grades, and awaits confirmation.

Lack of modern buildings with adequate and flexible spaces to educate students and implement niche programs is another reason our families and staff will lose confidence in our public middle schools, and another reason for continued loss of enrollment. If we want great middle schools, it's not enough to have dedicated parent advocates pleading for resources. Our elected leaders and the Chancellor have to share the burden, or better yet, lead the way.

Build on Assets

1. One of the advantages of DCPS is that they have buildings that were designed as schools, and usually have an athletic field next to the school. Sports can offer continuity from K-12. The Stuart-Hobson boy’s football team recently won a city championship. The Jefferson field recently had some upgrades, and has a great soccer coach. Stuart Hobson has a newly renovated gymnasium.

- DCPS should see sports as a purposeful and healthy activity for students, and build on the field/gymnasium assets it has by supporting coaches, transportation and uniforms for a variety of sports for boys and girls.

2. Most middle schools have auditoriums that provide opportunities for musical and drama performances. DCPS could consider supporting annual musical/drama productions at each of the middle schools or a combined production for nearby middle schools. In addition, ties with the DC Youth Orchestra Program operated out of Eastern should be strengthened to facilitate students receiving musical instruction.

Marketing

1. DCPS should consider doing more to market what’s good about its middle schools.
2. The principals within a feeder pattern (elementary to middle to high school) should work together to promote the students moving through the feeder pattern. If parents at elementary school learn who their middle school and high school principals are from day one they begin to see a well-thought out path for their child’s education.

Charter Issues

1. The charter middle schools are misaligned with DCPS because they start at 5th grade while DCPS starts at 6th grade. This allows poaching of top students by charters at the 5th grade. The DME office should start an effort to ensure consistency in the grade all middle school starts.
2. Something must be done to prevent the charter schools from weeding out low performing/misbehaving students who end up at DCPS. Perhaps, once you enter the charter system, you have to remain with it for the year, e.g., if a child gets bounced from one charter school another charter school has to take them.

Benchmarking

1. DCPS should sit down with the leaders of the most sought-after DCPS and charter schools and their counterparts at Montgomery, Fairfax and Arlington Counties to learn about best practices in middle school education.

2. DCPS should genuinely engage to provide feedback on their schools. For example, the new DCPS goal to reach 90% of students who "like" their school must come with genuine conversations with students and families about their schools – especially middle schools. Both likes and dislikes should be followed up with specific actions to support and extend what's good and to provide solutions for challenges.

Data

1. We must have more transparency and availability of data to inform the decisions about middle schools. For example, public information should include:
- residency information for all Ward schools (ES, MS, HS), charter and DCPS, with % in-bounds, % in the Ward
- 5th grade attrition rates at every DCPS elementary school and education campus
-Ward% at the DCPS and charter middle schools
- number of children in the current ES grade-level cohorts across the Ward, and how many of the past 3 or 4 years' worth of 4th/5th graders were captured by that Ward’s middle schools
- measurements and comparisons of the % in feeder in addition to % in boundary.

DCPS should use these data – in collaboration with schools and families – to benchmark the current state of middle schools and develop strategies for reducing attrition and strengthening our public middle schools.