DC City Schools

The program planning team at Eastern HS have been discussing:

• A full high school curriculum that prepares students for college and career selection. Eastern HS will not be an application high school and will be a school-of-right for neighborhoods of Ward 6.

• A Freshman Campus with staff who will support 9th graders as they adjust to high school and learn how to operate within a small learning community.  The Freshman Campus will expand or contract based on the number of in-boundary 9th graders enrolled; therefore, there may be one or several small freshmen learning communities on the campus.

• Small Learning Communities designed around content or themes in the 10th, 11th, 12th grades.

The small learning community designs most discussed by the community and DCPS planners are:

o 10-1th Grade Communities:  “schools-within-schools” organized around career and academic  themes. They integrate academic and vocational instruction, provide work-based learning opportunities for students and prepare students for postsecondary education and employment, with the personalized learning environment of a small community.

o School Academies: A Health Sciences Academy is being planned.

o   Schools-within-school:   Two or three other themed  “Schools”  will be organized within the larger high school around a theme, such as the Law and Justice theme or  a “Green Campus,” in which students work closely with a core group of teachers and other adults.

More about small learning communities.

Good Reading:

Rethinking High School: Preparing Students for Success in College, Career, and Life

This is the fourth report in a series focusing on secondary reform and redesign. Previous Rethinking High School reports include:

• Rethinking High School: An Introduction to New York City’s Experience
• Rethinking High School: Five Profiles of Innovative Models for Student Success
• Rethinking High School: Inaugural Graduations at New York City’s New High Schools

May 14th, 2009 | Category: Eastern High School, Policy, Small Learning Communities, Ward 6 Schools | Leave a comment

The Washington Post ran an op ed on May 10, 2009 with reports a variety of opinions about Obama’s Compromise on D.C.’s School Vouchers Program.  Of course, I identified with Senator Durbin’s response because it acknowledged that numerous voucher students are enrolled in inadequate private schools.

Senator Durbin stated:

Studies by the Education Department and others have, at best, mixed findings — modest gains by some students in a few subjects, but serious problems with the administration of the program, schools with significant health and safety issues, and teachers lacking college degrees or basic teaching credentials. Most problematic, the Education Department’s recent report could not show that voucher students are performing better than their public school counterparts.

Durbin’s complete response.

May 14th, 2009 | Category: Policy | Leave a comment

The District’s Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization (OPEFM) reports that it has successfully used modular classrooms while modernizing school facilities.  Moving students to on-campus modular classrooms rather than maintaining them in their school while it was under construction, sheltered students, administrators and teachers from noise and dust caused as work crews modernized their facility. OPEFM states that having students and teachers outside the school under construction also saved money because crews worked more efficiently when they didn’t have to worry about disruption of classes and the safety of students inside the building.  Click here to view modular classrooms similar to those used by OPEFM.

March 27th, 2009 | Category: Eastern High School, Policy, Ward 6 Schools | Leave a comment

Community Design Forum for Eastern HS

August 5, 6-8:00 p.m.

Mount Moriah Baptist Church at 1636 East Capitol Street, NE

Eastern HS Programs Advisory Team

Meeting Schedule

All meetings will be held on the last Tuesday of the month, at 6pm

Mount Moriah Baptist Church at 1636 East Capitol Street, NE

March 31, 2009                                  November 17, 2009

April 28, 2009                                     December 15, 2009

May 26, 2009                                      January 26, 2010

June 30, 2009                                     February 23, 2010

July 28, 2009                                      March 30, 2010

August 25, 2009                                  April 27, 2010

September 29, 2009                            May 25, 2010

October 27, 2009

March 17th, 2009 | Category: Eastern High School, Ward 6 Schools | Leave a comment

Career Academies have been functioning inside public high schools in some form or fashion for nearing 40 years.  From their beginnings, the academies were designed to engage students and keep them in school to obtain the academic preparation necessary for postsecondary education and employment.  The design consists of small learning communities with a blend of regular academic content with career-related studies, mentoring, and work experiences. Key are partnerships with employers and, often, community colleges that provide a clear picture of the workplace and the next academic steps needed to pursue a specific career.

Recent research finds that “academy students were more likely to have stayed in school, to have better attendance records, and to be earning more credits toward graduation. The effect was especially strong among students considered to be at highest risk for dropping out of school.” Students also make more money than their nonacademy peers.

EdWeek subscribers check out: Career Academies Seen to Pay Off in Higher Earnings

March 1st, 2009 | Category: Eastern High School, Policy | Leave a comment

Do we really want to fund a feel-good program that can’t demonstrate academic quality? Should we use public money on schools that aren’t governed by NCLB, have under-qualified teachers and can’t meet District safety standards?

Before Congress continues DC private school vouchers, it needs to focus on the underperformance of the program and cut through the illusion that it has lifted thousands of poor children out of dangerous, underperforming DC schools and given poor families the same schooling choices rich folks like the McCains and Obamas enjoy.  Actually, few DC voucher students have come from low-performing DC schools and only a handful of these students have entered the prestigious, high-performing schools of the comfortably rich. Nor have students necessarily moved from poor public schools to better private ones. Nor is there now nor will there be research data that could demonstrate academic achievement to justify continuation of the program. The DC voucher program is a failed experiment that has been a nightmare of poor administration, a ragtag group of participating schools providing less than perfect information about their programs and an evaluation scheme designed to examine a political, rather than an educational proposition. In actuality, the program hasn’t even proven to be a barrier-breaking exemplar of how the free market could increase school choice.  Read More . . .

February 10th, 2009 | Category: NCLB, Policy, Vouchers | Leave a comment

Michael J. Petrilli, vice president at the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, argues that in his National Review opinion piece Leaving My Lapel Pin Behind: Is No Child Left Behind’s birthday worth celebration? that NCLB has caused schools to be “test-prep factories and narrowing the curriculum.”

January 16th, 2009 | Category: NCLB, Policy | Leave a comment

Nationwide school systems face the conflicting challenges of providing a safe, educationally productive school environment while reengaging and retaining students who may threaten that environment. In the District, where nearly 50% of students who enter public high school dropout, school administrators must design truancy and discipline regulations that do not “push out” students, yet protect the academic process as well as the safety of all students, teachers and staff.

In this environment, DCPS is revising its discipline policy and has introduced a draft for discussion. See Draft Discipline Policy. Three public meetings have been held and a revision is expected soon.

January 15th, 2009 | Category: Policy | Leave a comment

As Chancellor Rhee plays out her second year of a visably confrontational gambit to reform the DC Public Schools, everyone seems to have an opinion.  Until there is definitive data, we will hear arguments (discussions?) similar to this one on the January 7, 2009 Kojo Nnamdi Show between Adrew Rotherham, Co-Director, Education Sector and Richard Rothstein, Research Associate, Economic Policy Institute and, of course, Kojo Nnamdi.

January 13th, 2009 | Category: Citywide, Policy | Leave a comment