From their origins in the 1980’s all the way up until the present day, public charter schools have enjoyed support from elected officials, thought leaders, and constituencies across the political spectrum. Recently, however, we’ve seen a split emerge on charter schools among individuals and organizations on the left.
This issue brief offers a reminder that throughout their history, public charter schools have had strong roots in progressivism and that the current public charter school sector, on the whole, reflects Democratic values of equalizing opportunity and empowering local communities.
Gary Orfield, Jongyeon Ee, Erica Frankenberg and Genevieve Siegel-Hawley
Civil Rights Project – Proyecto Derechos Civiles
As the anniversary of “Brown v. Board of Education” decision arrives again without any major initiatives to mitigate spreading and deepening segregation in the nation’s schools, the Civil Rights Project adds to a growing national discussion with a research brief drawn from a much broader study of school segregation to be published in September 2016. Since 1970, the public school enrollment has increased in size and transformed in racial composition.
Intensely segregated nonwhite schools with zero to 10% white enrollment have more than tripled in this most recent 25-year period for which we have data, a period deeply influenced by major Supreme Court decisions (spanning from 1991 to 2007) that limited desegregation policy. At the same time, the extreme isolation of white students in schools with 0 to 10% nonwhite students has declined by half as the share of white students has dropped sharply.
This brief shows states where racial segregation has become most extreme for Latinos and blacks and discusses some of the reasons for wide variations among states. It calls attention to the striking rise in double segregation by race and poverty for African American and Latino students who are concentrated in schools that rarely attain the successful outcomes typical of middle class schools with largely white and Asian student populations.
Further, it shows the importance of confronting these issues given the strong relationship between racial and economic segregation and inferior educational opportunities clearly demonstrated in research over many decades.
Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles. 8370 Math Sciences, P.O. Box 951521, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1521. Tel: 310-267-5562; Fax: 310-206-6293; e-mail: crp@ucla.edu; Web site: http://www.civilrightsproject.ucla.edu
This report highlights significant investments made by both Republican and Democratic policymakers in state-funded pre-k programs for the fourth year in a row. In the 2015-16 budget year, 32 states and the District of Columbia raised funding levels of pre-k programs. This increased support for preschool funding came from both sides of the aisle–22 states with Republican governors and 10 states with Democratic governors, plus the District of Columbia.
In contrast, only five states with Republican governors and three states with Democratic governors decreased their pre-k funding.
Overall, state funding of pre-k programs across the 50 states and the District of Columbia increased by nearly $755 million, or 12 percent over 2014-15. While this progress is promising, there is still work to be done to set children on the path to academic success early in life. Still, less than half of preschool-aged students have access to pre-k programs.
Increasing the number of students in high-quality preschool programs is broadly viewed as a way to set young learners on a path to a secure economic future and stable workforce. This report includes several state examples and an overview of the pre-k programs they have in place. Data tables on total state pre-K funding and state pre-kindergarten funding by program are appended. [Megan Carolan contributed to this publication.]
Education Commission of the States. ECS Distribution Center, 700 Broadway Suite 1200, Denver, CO 80203-3460. Tel: 303-299-3692; Fax: 303-296-8332; e-mail: ecs@ecs.org; Web site: http://www.ecs.org
In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation’s major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that states ensure those tests align with states’ college- and career-ready standards. However, the law makes significant changes to the role of tests in state education systems.
For example, ESSA requires states to include a broader set of factors in school accountability systems rather than just test scores; provides funding for states and districts to audit and streamline their testing regimes; and allows states to cap the amount of instructional time devoted to testing. It also eliminates the requirement under the Obama administration’s NCLB waiver program that states evaluate teacher performance based on, in part, student test score growth. Taken together, these provisions greatly reduce the stakes of state tests for schools and teachers. They also give states substantially more autonomy over how they define school success and the interventions they employ when schools fail to demonstrate progress.
The likely result would be a significant reduction in the level of angst regarding testing among teachers and parents. Today, states have an opportunity to use the new flexibility embedded in ESSA to develop stronger testing systems without the pressure of NCLB’s exclusive focus on summative tests. They also have the opportunity to innovate: Through a new pilot program that will allow seven states to develop radically new approaches to assessments, states can experiment with performance based and instructionally embedded tests and use technology to advance testing.
These pilot states will have the freedom to imagine a testing system of the future in which standardized tests taken on one day each year are no longer the typical way of assessing student learning.
Over a six-month span, researchers at the Center for American Progress (CAP) interviewed dozens of parents, teachers, school leaders, system leaders, advocates, assessment experts, and policy leaders in an attempt to identify what can be done to ensure that tests are being used in service of teaching and learning. Although they are few and far between, models of coherent, aligned teaching and learning systems do exist.
In these systems, the curriculum and end of year summative assessments are aligned with high academic standards. Interim tests, administered at key points throughout the year, provide a check on whether students are on track to meet the grade level standards. Short, high-quality formative tests give real-time feedback to teachers and parents so that they can use the results to inform instruction and to course correct when needed. School and system leaders use data to determine if all students receive the high-quality education they deserve and to provide more support or intervention if the results show that individual students, entire classrooms, or schools are off track.
Unfortunately, these models are the exception. Because the problems with testing are structural and systemic, they do not lend themselves to an easy fix. Nevertheless, ESSA provides an opportunity for a fresh start, and system leaders can capitalize on the flexibility in the new law to make changes in the short and long run to develop a system of better, fairer, and fewer tests.
What’s important to keep in mind is that in the new education policy world of ESSA, testing systems continue to need to be refined–not discarded. Parents and teachers want annual standardized testing to continue. Despite media reports to the contrary, there remains significant support for tests. But parents also want tests to be useful and to provide value for their children. Within this changing policy landscape CAP recommends that states:
Develop assessment principles;
Conduct alignment studies;
Provide support for districts in choosing high-quality formative and interim tests;
Demand that test results are delivered in a timely fashion; and
Increase the value of tests for schools, parents, and students.
CAP also recommends that schools should provide parents with the data from all assessments–including formative, interim, and summative assessments-along with individualized resources to help their children improve. CAP recommendations for school districts, schools, and the U.S. Department of Education are also detailed in this report.
DALLAS — From underwater robotics to computer coding, the Dallas Independent School District STEM Department briefed trustees on the amazing work happening inside schools.
From underwater robotics to computer coding, the Dallas ISD STEM Department provides students with hands‐on activities and inquiry‐based learning.
STEM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, provides students with opportunities to grow through hands-on activities and inquiry-based learning.
Assistant Superintendent Vince Reyes told trustees that he has made it a directive that Dallas ISD become the public school district that sends the most students on to four-year universities for computer science.
“We have the students that can make that happen,” Reyes said.
The district has been working to ensure STEM programs seamlessly sequence from elementary to high school. Students have the opportunity to earn high school credit in middle school for STEM courses such as Algebra I, Astronomy, Physics, and in Computer Science.
At the board meeting, students talked about the huge benefits STEM learning has on them.
Here are some notable Dallas ISD STEM facts shared at the board meeting:
The number of students participating in the District Science Fair grew by 36 percent this year;
Ten comprehensive high schools and two magnet schools offer the computer science and STEM endorsement;
Dallas ISD is home to 20 SeaPerch Underwater Robotics teams;
35 middle schools teach an Intro to Robotics elective course;
5,140 middle school students are enrolled in classes for high school credit.
Dallas ISD is home to six of the 10 best public high schools in North Texas, according to a new report from a Texas-based non-profit that researched and ranked 211 public high schools from nine area counties.
Additionally, the report from Children at Risk found that Dallas ISD is home to the best middle school in North Texas—William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted.
Children at Risk measured schools by achievement indicators; performance indicators; growth indicators; and college readiness.
The Dallas ISD high schools ranked in the top 10 are:
School for the Talented and Gifted (#1)
Trinidad Garza Early College High School at Mountain View (#2)
School of Science and Engineering (#3)
Dr. Wright Lassiter Jr. Early College High School (#5)
Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School (#6)
Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (#7)
The report also named three Dallas ISD schools as the three Gold Ribbon Neighborhood High Schools, which is a high school that is neither a charter nor magnet, has a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students, and ranks highest on specific math and science indicators. The Gold Ribbon neighborhood High Schools are:
Moisés E. Molina High School
Sunset High School
W.H. Adamson High School
“North Texas has many schools that work hard to ensure they achieve success,” said Dr. Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of Children at Risk. “We are excited for the schools that continue to be at the top of the list, and welcome all newcomers to this group of elite learning institutions.”
Our children today graduate from high school with so many grand opportunities in their world.
But there is no silver bullet. We place the spotlight on R. J. and Arianna, a brother and sister duo with a powerful family, church and disciple lifestyle all of their young lives. A combination that still works. So, first of all, congratulations to the entire family from grandmothers, neighbors, working mothers, a Dad that does not play, works some Sundays, coaches, street teachers, Sunday school scholars. It simply takes a village.
2017 Graduates from David W. Carter High School R. J. and Arianna (A Brother and Sister) Congratulations! To the whole family.
I do not believe the random numbers thrown out to the African American public about our children. I am not naïve, but I refuse to call it a crisis. I do believe that the future will only be kind to the informed mind, but who determines what the ‘informed mind is’. True, we have students that drop out today, but they are not condemned to poverty and social failure. And quite frankly, we should stop saying it.
Education is simple to fix. Parents stay at home and raise your children. Give them a real sense of achieving and surround them with family at every corner of life. If you do not care for the public school system, pay for education, move to a place where your children can succeed instead of fail.
But, the sure essence of education is weaving a network of love, high expectation and precious time with any child in your space. I firmly believe this. I see it often.
Congratulations!! To all our graduates. So proud of each one of you.
Disability advocates Candace Cortiella and Ricki Sabia will provide an overview of key ESSA provisions important to ensuring equity for students with disabilities, share issues identified in their analyses of Consolidated State Plans to date and offer tips on how AUCD network members can be more involved in state plan development. Check out their State Plan Review Guide at goo.gl/IbUVG0.
The commission, which made the move on Friday, plans to take a closer look at civil rights enforcement across the government, including the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development.
The panel is particularly concerned that the Trump administration is seeking to cut the budgets of the civil rights arms of these agencies. And it is bothered by statements by some cabinet officials, including U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, that the commisssion says may demonstrate that the Trump administration isn’t going to take civil rights enforcement seriously. (DeVos is, in fact, the only cabinet official the statement mentions by name)…
Now the Council of Chief State School Officers is expressing concern that some of the Trump Team’s feedback to states would actually go beyond the scope of the law…
Children at Risk measured schools by achievement indicators; performance indicators; growth indicators; and college readiness.
