In a speech last week, US Education Secretary John B. King offered up a fundamental—if somewhat counterintuitive—insight that academics outside the field of education have agreed on for decades: If you want children to learn to read, don’t just teach them reading. Inside the education world, that insight has been largely overlooked. And therein lies the root of many of our problems—in particular, the huge divide between rich and poor students that we call the achievement gap. “We know … [Read more...]
Test scores may rise or fall, but the achievement gap persists
On Tuesday, officials released dismal scores from the new Common Core-aligned tests students in the District took last spring. The next day, another set of scores showed DC students improving faster than those in the rest of the country. One thing that was consistent in the results was a large gap between rich and poor. The first set of scores, on standardized tests known as PARCC, showed that only 25% of DC high school students were "college and career ready" in English. Even worse, … [Read more...]
How school choice can make it harder to solve the problems of poverty
For those who believe a system of school choice is the answer to our education woes, DC is a model for the rest of the nation. But the decline of the neighborhood school can make it harder to address the needs of poor children in a comprehensive way. DC is a bastion of school choice, with only about a quarter of students attending their assigned neighborhood school. Overall, 44% of DC students are in charters, which draw from across the District, and many go to traditional public schools … [Read more...]
To narrow the achievement gap, teach kids knowledge in elementary school
Standardized tests are commonly blamed for narrowing the school curriculum to reading and math. That’s one reason Congress is considering changes in the law that could lead states to put less emphasis on test scores. But even if we abolished standardized tests tomorrow, a majority of elementary schools would continue to pay scant attention to subjects like history and science. Consider this: In 1977, 25 years before No Child Left Behind ushered in the era of high-stakes testing, … [Read more...]
Some DCPS schools have to cope with an influx of midyear transfers
Thousands of DC students switch schools midyear, especially at some high schools that are part of the DC Public School system. That has negative consequences both for the students who switch and the schools they enter. A recent report from DC's Office of the State Superintendent of Education found that over 92% of DC students remain in the same school throughout the year, based on data from 2011 through 2014. Some have hailed that as proof that the system is fundamentally stable. But … [Read more...]
A new charter school for foster kids aims to provide stability
Monument Academy, an innovative charter boarding school designed to serve children in foster care, opens in DC in August. The school will try to provide the stable family environment kids in the foster system often lack. The school will open with 40 fifth-graders, divided into two classes. It will add one grade a year through eighth grade and eventually serve 160 students, with hopes of expanding through high school. During the week, students will live in groups of about ten, along with two … [Read more...]