It is 50 years since the Detroit riot, which followed a police raid on an unlicensed bar in 1967. The intensity of that event was surpassed previously only by the 1863 New York City draft riots during the Civil War, and subsequently by the 1992 Los Angeles riots. By the time it ended, 43 people were dead and over 1,000 injured. The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions and the National Guard were deployed. At least 2,000 buildings were destroyed in a neighborhood that, half a century later, remains largely a wasteland.
The chaos, violence and brutality erupted in a city of multiple ills, with discrimination in policing, housing and employment rife; the quality of public education incredibly poor; and limited access to medical services. The riot erupted in one of the most neglected neighborhoods, in one of the nation’s most segregated cities—and little changed as Detroit continued its decline in the 50 years that followed. The city’s traditional public school system—which could and should have been a great equalizer, helping erase other injustices—has been dubbed the worst in the nation.
Today, as in many other cities where the public education system all but collapsed, public charter schools, which operate independently of the traditional school system, educate a large share of students enrolled in public schools. Taxpayer-funded and tuition-free—like traditional public schools—public charter schools may determine their own school curriculum and culture, while being held accountable for improved student performance by their authorizer, which can demand changes and even close campuses.
[/media-credit] Dr. Ramona Edelin is executive director of the D.C. Association of Chartered Public Schools.
Proficiency as measured by standardized test scores is better than at its nadir, but still far from satisfactory. There are some bright points, however. Charters have helped raise student proficiency. Of those public school students who took standardized tests in school year 2015-2016, 50 percent were enrolled in charters—but 61 percent of those who scored as “proficient” were charter students, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. And nearly half of charter students significantly outperform their Detroit Public Schools counterparts, Stanford University’s Center for Research and Education found.
With 53 percent of public school students enrolled in charters, Detroit has followed a similar path to the nation’s capital, which has a 46 percent charter school share. Only Katrina-hit New Orleans at 92 percent is higher among large cities. Washington, D.C. had similar problems with its public school system, as well as many of the same economic and social issues. Washington also began to innovate in its public schools with charters in the mid-1990s, amid a traditional system that, like Detroit, was seriously in decline academically, organizationally dysfunctional and dangerous to student safety.
If anything, the charter and other education reforms introduced in the District of Columbia have produced even more significant gains for the public education offering in the city as a whole.
Before the charter reform, half the public school students dropped out before graduating. Last year, the on-time—within four years—high-school graduation rate was 73 percent for charters, and 69 percent for DCPS, lower than the national rate, but fast catching up.
Standardized test scores also significantly improved at both charters and DCPS, with the strongest gains in the most underserved neighborhoods—not at the expense of a varied and diverse curriculum, but alongside one.
As public schools of choice, charters have brought options to families who pre-reform would have lacked the means to access alternatives to substandard schooling—especially important in a city where three in four public school children are economically-disadvantaged and half are defined as “at risk.”
The demand for these unique public schools is such that nearly 10,000 students are on waiting lists to attend one or more charter campuses in the school year about to begin. Demand for traditional public schools in the out-of-boundary program also has increased. And parental choice has been simplified by DCPS and D.C. charter participation in the common lottery, which allocates places when schools’ popularity causes them to be over-subscribed.
Charters’ success also has catalyzed improvements in the traditional public school system, following the introduction of mayoral-control of DCPS and the appointment of three reforming School Chancellors.
From Detroit, Washington, D.C. and New Orleans to the 13 other urban school districts where the charter share is above 30 percent, education reform has been a beneficial agent of change. This reform transforms the lives and life prospects of children growing up in our nation’s most troubled and vulnerable urban communities—for both traditional and chartered public school students.
In the next few weeks, I will be closing my time as a summer intern at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and beginning my final undergraduate year at Howard University in Washington, D.C. I’ve learned more about public education at the National Alliance in two months than I have in the past year.
However, even though I work for a charter school advocacy organization, I do not consider myself pro-charter. I am also not pro-district.
I’ve heard many arguments that support charter public schools and many that support district schools – all with valid points and facts to back them up.
So, when I began to find myself truly confused, I did what I always do. I looked up what Black people are saying about this. Black opinion + my own thoughts = a solid case to base my life decisions on. While it may not be the most mathematical equation for success, it works for me. I googled “Black leaders charter schools” and felt a small sense of relief come over me because I was going to get an answer.
[/media-credit] Nicole Sahbaee is a rising senior at Howard University and a participant in the Walton-UNCF K-12 Education Fellow program.
I wasn’t going to have to wonder anymore because the Black leaders in education would tell me what their point of view is, why they have it, where the research came from and what they are going to do about it.
Looking back on this now, I’m aware that it sounds like I don’t use my brain to critically think, but we all do this in some form. In politics, people look up what the standard Democratic or Republican viewpoint is; in media people go to their favorite artist’s page to read their view; and in school, students go to their favorite teacher for their opinion.
As I began to read through the articles, I found topics about the NAACP and Black Lives Matter being pitted against Black leaders in education. I was pissed. So, two huge organizations that have Black prosperity at their core are at odds with Black education leaders and parents? I was so irritated that I closed the screen and went to deal with this confusion another day.
Weeks passed and I continued to gain information. I read the letter that had been written and signed by 160 Black leaders in support of charters, I watched clips of the NAACP’s special hearings on charter schools, and I researched teachers unions and their disdain for the charter movement. I turned over every rock I could find for some sort of answer.
Despite all the research and opinions, I still could not figure out who was on the right side of history. I could not look to Black leaders in this situation because they are consumed with the politics of the district vs. charter debate, just like many others in education.
This isn’t the first time I found disappointment with Black role models – Raven-Symoné was a huge heart breaker – but this is too important to ignore. Every second that is spent focusing on which school is better or what should be the dominant structure is doing a disservice to our children. Our children are the ones suffering without a quality education and are then chastised by society for not meeting “the bar.”
I get that money, politics, and power are important, but we can’t afford to fight this fight with each other. We have no choice but to be unified. According to the Civil Rights Data Collection, Black students are suspended and expelled at a rate three times greater than White students. This is something we should be focusing on. If our children don’t make it, that not only affects us but it is on us. The White school leaders that are trying to make change will be heartbroken if the years of work they put into improving public schools don’t pay off, but we will be crippled.
This is not an attack on Black leaders today, this is a cry for help. I’m a 21-year-old intern, trying to graduate from college. I’m doing everything in my power to change the narrative for our children, but I don’t have the power, yet. Black leaders, I’m begging you to use your power to create. Create the schools for our children that also provide jobs for our people. Position it so that Black school leaders have the resources to train up our kids. If you are an organization with the words Black, African American, Negro, or Colored People in your title then this is your duty, this is your fight.
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, just take a page from “Pimp My Ride” and make it better. At the very least, create a space for conversations to flow freely regarding the schools our children go to. We may never reach a consensus and that is okay. There are multiple different ways to learn, to teach, and to lead. If you can’t do it, use your resources to find someone who can. This isn’t a conversation I wish to pick up in twenty years when I am in your shoes and we don’t have twenty more years to wait. I don’t care what structure is used to educate our kids, we just need something that works.
The National Newspapers Publisher’s Association’s 2017 conference began with a call to enrich Black education on June 20 in Washington, D.C.
The National Black Parents Town Hall Meeting on Education, the first event of several that took place during the annual conference, was sponsored by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) and attracted educators and students. Panelists for the town hall included experts in education including, Tia Hill of Fighting For Lives, Chris Stewart of Citizen’s Education, Lynn Jennings from Education Trust and Marietta English of the National Association of Black Educators. These participants shared insights about the current state of Black education, the need for parental involvement, and goals for the future. Elizabeth Primus, program manager for the NNPA and ESSA media campaign, served as the moderator.
Benjamin Chavis, NNPA president, said the association hoped to educate audiences about ESSA, an act signed by President Obama in 2015 that is designed to move some education decision- making to the local level. The bill is scheduled to take effect this September.
There were discussions about the flaws in the approach to education and learning in the Black community, but also anecdotes were shared about the strides and major successes in Black academia. For instance, according to the D.C. Office of the State Superintendent of Education, about 68 percent of Blacks in D.C. public and public charter schools graduated from high school in 2016. About 73 percent graduated from private charter schools in 2016.
Panelists and town hall guests urged the Black press to report more positive stories about strides in education and narratives about achievements in the Black community.
“I’m absolutely delighted that we have a new set of programs coming out to strengthen education starting this fall,” said Richard Campbell, whose children go to school in Howard County, MD. “I’m also very happy that they’re doing listening tours, as they did in Washington, D.C., in all the wards, and that the schools, and the systems, and counties are actually working to listen to parents. Today was a listening session for parents. When you go to those kind of sessions you get the better output, so as a parent, we’re really happy to see that this kind of program is doing this.”
English, of the National Association of Black Educators added, “This is our opportunity to be in there in the planning of how our schools will get resources, what will be the curriculum, how children will our children be involved.”
Markus Batchelor, who at 24 is the youngest D.C. school board member, said “I think broadly, ESSA is a way for educators and policymakers to really get creative in a way they haven’t been able to. I think No Child Left Behind gave us a top-down testing sanction form of education accountability and education policy, and so the fact that the Every Student Succeeds Act is going to really provide that personalized attention to our students and our schools in the community is going to be great, both for the country, but definitely for the children of Ward 8.”
Seventeen state plans to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act have passed the U.S. Department of Education’s initial completeness check and are ready for peer review, the next step in the approval process, the department announced Friday.
“Today’s announcement is a big win for ESSA implementation. I am committed to returning decisionmaking power back to states and setting the department up to serve the support and monitoring roles intended by Congress,” U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a statement. “The department worked with states to ensure their plans included all statutorily required components laid out in the…
Roughly a quarter of states have turned in their accountability plans for the Every Student Succeeds Act. Having trouble keeping track of all the ins and outs of each state’s plan? We’ve got you covered.
So far, 12 states and the District of Columbia have informed the U.S. Department of Education about their long-term academic goals, the weight that various indicators will have in their proposed accountability systems, and how schools will be rated under ESSA. There’s a lot of variety in those states’ goals, indicators, and rating systems.
However, it’s worth noting that the Education Department has already informed two states, Maine and Massachusetts, that the plans they submitted are incomplete. That’s an early indication that the department might not be afraid to call states out about omissions or other issues in those plans.
Without further ado, here’s that handy ESSA plan chart in PDF form. Bookmark it, print it out, hang it on your wall, we hope it’s useful.
One of the most closely watched issues in states’ Every Students Succeeds Act plans will be how they plan to assign ratings to schools. Thanks to several states that turned in their plans by the April 3 deadline, we have an early idea of where states on headed on this.
One important decision is whether to issue schools single, summative ratings (like an A-F school rating), or use a “dashboard” approach that displays how a school is doing on different indicators, but doesn’t give the school an ultimate rating.
You might remember that how to handle school ratings was one of the most contentious issues in the development of the now-discarded Obama ESSA accountability rules. The Obama Education Department initially wanted to require states to assign a single, summative rating to all schools. But Republicans in Congress and others objected, arguing that this was not a requirement in ESSA itself and was an unfair, onerous requirement…
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, which replaced the previous version of the nation’s main K-12 law, states have a lot of leeway in deciding what their long-term academic goals will be. That means that, unlike with the No Child Left Behind Act, there’s no requirement that all states ensure that 100 percent of students are proficient on state English/language arts and math exams by a certain school year. In the ESSA plans submitted to the U.S. Department of Education that we’ve seen so far, states have laid out a variety of long-term as well as interim goals, and a vastly different set of timelines with key dates ranging from next year all the way to 2039.
Read on to see what some of these long-term goals are in eight states and the District of Columbia. We’ve included some information about goals for graduation rates as well, but we’ve put aside English-language proficiency goals for now. Want to jump to a particular state or the District of Columbia? Just click on one of the links below:
One important note about Massachusetts: The state did not set out any academic goals in its ESSA plan. Read on or click on Massachusetts above for more info about that…
One of the parts of the Every Student Succeeds Act that excited educators the most was the chance to look beyond test scores in gauging school performance, to factors like absenteeism, access to advanced coursework, and even grit.
There are some common themes, at least among this first batch. For instance, chronic absenteeism is super popular. In fact, five states Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Tennessee are all using it in some fashion. (We will be updating this post periodically as more plans come in.)…
By Ramona Edelin Special to the AFRO
