Public school improvement

There are three or four or five different aspects of public school reform in the city. (Note that reform doesn't necessarily equal improvement.)

1. Change in political and management structure. (Superpowers given to the Mayor, Mayor hires Deputy Mayor for Education and a Chancellor. Most checks and balances yielded by the City Council.)

2. In theory, a plan for improvement generally, involving lots of things, but mostly thus far, firings and buyouts. (Note that the GAO found that there doesn't appear to be a formal, plan for improving the system. See "GAO report criticizes D.C. schools' lack of strategic plan," from the Examiner.)

3. School system space "rightsizing" and school closures.

Which will necessitate transition and implementation planning, and will involve the dislocation of thousands of students, teachers, and social networks. (I am not against, but it is problematic. See the discussion of the "use value of place" for some insight into the problems:

4. Improvement programs for schools defined as "failing" according to the No Child Left Behind federal law.

It is the latter which DCist has written about today, in the entry "Fenty and Rhee Announce Big Changes for 27 D.C. Schools."

There are five options for restructuring according to federal law:

• Reopen the school as a public charter;
• Reconstitution, replace all or most of the staff associated with the failure to achieve Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP);
• Collaborate with an external partner;
• State takeover;
• Other restructuring.

(I favored some of #4 -- State takeover, with plans, based on best practice examples of urban education improvement, there are many, including some in DC...) This DCPS document outlines the plan for each school.