Long one of urban America’s ugly ducklings, Washington D.C. is beginning to shine as a national showcase for school reform.
Two developments this week burnished the capital city’s growing reputation as a laboratory for tough-minded reforms in the areas of school choice and teacher accountability. Education Secretary Arne Duncan named Washington along with nine states as winners in Round 2 of the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grants. And a new Fordham Foundation survey, America’s Best (and Worst) Cities for School Reform ranked D.C. second among the 26 cities most receptive to change.
The $4.3 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) program is arguably one of President Obama’s most successful and cost-effective initiatives. To qualify for the competitive grants, states have been obliged to change their laws to make them more reform-friendly. For example, many states have lifted legislative caps on charter schools, adopted common performance standards, and, perhaps most controversially, agreed to use student test scores in evaluations of individual teacher performance.
Reformers and skeptics alike nonetheless slammed this week’s awards as arbitrary and political (some pointed out, for example, that a lot of the winning states happen to have Democratic governors.) Reformers fretted that RTTT’s vague selection criteria rewards states for winning teachers’ union acquiescence in modest reforms, while overlooking states like Colorado that have pursued bolder experiments. In any case, Washington will receive $75 million to be shared by the traditional school system headed by Chancellor Michele Rhee and the city’s robust charter school sector.
So what makes Washington, D.C. so special?
The Fordham study gave the District high marks for attracting talented educational entrepreneurs and organizations, like Teach for America and the New Teacher Project, that recruit and train highly qualified teachers. It praises D.C.’s new contract with the Washington Teachers’ Union, which permits teachers to be paid according to performance, and merit-based layoffs.
The study notes that, with the help of private philanthropy, the District invests generously in school improvement and innovation. The city’s “thriving charter sector” also comes in for praise (full disclosure: I’m a member of the Public Charter School Board here), though the chronic shortage of suitable and affordable facilities for charters is also acknowledged. D.C. also gets high marks for quality control in both the traditional and charter sectors.
Rising test scores in the District attest to Rhee’s single-minded devotion to closing achievement gaps, as well as the charter board’s increasingly tough stance toward persistently low-performing schools in its portfolio. Last spring, 40 D.C. elementary schools achieved double-digit gains in pass rates on the citywide math exams, while 19 had double-digit losses. In reading, 26 elementary schools gained at least 10 points in pass rates on standardized tests, while 19 lost ground. Scores also rose at public charter schools, which enroll fully 38 percent of D.C.’s students. While far from perfect, these numbers represent dramatic progress for a school system that has habitually dwelt in the cellar in comparisons with other urban systems. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081402168_pf.html)
Rhee also has done battle with the school system’s notoriously inefficient central bureaucracy. Now the schools open on time with a full complement of textbooks. Now we know how many people the system employs. And then there are the all-important intangibles: A new cultural of accountability is being systematically instilled in the system as bad schools are closed or merged with better ones, new principals are brought in and teachers are evaluated and paid based on classroom performance.
On a less positive note, the survey highlighted a polarized D.C. municipal environment. No doubt there’s been a backlash against Rhee’s disruptive reforms and hard-charging style. Lots of comfortable employment arrangements have been upended. Here’s the Fordham Foundation survey: “respondents report that Mayor Adrian Fenty is the only municipal leader willing to expend extensive political capital to advance education reform.” Fenty is locked in a tough reelection battle against D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray. If he loses, it’s widely assumed that Rhee will have lost her lone protector and will be forced to step down as Chancellor. (She may be gone soon anyway; next month she’s getting married to Sacremental Mayor and former NBA standout Kevin Johnson.)
Whatever happens, Washington’s business, political and civic leaders need to find a way to unite behind a firm commitment to finishing the job Fenty and Rhee have begun, as well as strengthening the innovative charter sector. It’s the only way to give D.C. students a decent shot at a quality education, to close achievement gaps between black and Latino kids and others, and to staunch the steady flow of middle class families with kids from the city to the suburbs.
Photo credit: marada’s photostream
