DC City Schools

I’ve started DC City Schools to meet a need for information, idea exchange and for moralization – a little more optimism when we talk about DC public schools.
Ward 6 is first to be highlighted because of its potential and progress.  Sixteen of its current DCPS schools participated in DC-CAS testing and eight made some form of AYP in 2008.  Of the five Ward 6 charter schools participating, three made AYP.  Sure, that means that the other Ward 6 schools need “improvement, correction” or possibly “restructuring.”   But before we go there, let’s focus on what is going right with those 11 schools that did make AYP and let’s admit that several other Ward 6 schools came achingly close to making AYP.
All this may sound like a half-full, half-empty diatribe.  It’s not. It’s just a suggestion to Ward 6 parents that there is something in its public schools worth developing.  Even if they choose a private school option, their engagement with their local public schools will make a difference.
______
Bonnie Cain has been spent unconscionable amounts of time studying, writing about and working for public education in the District of Columbia, first as editor/publisher of a Ward 1 community newspaper, then as a policy analyst for the Board of Education and as education adviser to candidate Fenty, Deputy Mayor Reinoso and Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.  Her doctoral dissertation treated the level and constraints to competition between the traditional public schools, charter schools and the private voucher schools.