NEWS
- Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill Is Among D.C.’s ‘Most Challenging High Schools’ [Cesar Chavez PCS, Thurgood Marshall PCS, and KIPP DC PCS mentioned]
- Advanced Placement offerings vary widely in D.C. high schools
- All new D.C. charter school applicants deserve to be approved [Paul PCS mentioned]
Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill Is Among D.C.’s ‘Most Challenging High Schools’ [Cesar Chavez PCS, Thurgood Marshall PCS, and KIPP DC PCS mentioned]
Hill Now
By Andrew Ramonas
April 20, 2015
The Capitol Hill campus of Cesar Chavez Public Charter Schools for Public Policy is one of the District’s “most challenging high schools,” according to a new analysis.
Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill at 709 12th St. SE is No. 13 on a list of 14 high schools The Washington Post deemed the most challenging in D.C. No other Capitol Hill-area high schools made the list. Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill had the highest graduation rate of any high school in Ward 6. The school saw 66 percent of its students graduate in 2014.
The newspaper ranks schools by a score that is found by dividing the number of college-level tests given at a school in the previous calendar by the number of graduates that year.
The school fell between Thurgood Marshall Academy and KIPP College Prep on the list. School Without Walls is the most challenging D.C. high school, according to the Post.
Compared to other schools across the D.C. metropolitan area and the nation, Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill wasn’t ranked as highly as in the District. In the D.C. area, Cesar Chavez-Capitol Hill took the 169th spot, between Governor Thomas Johnson High School in Frederick, Md., and KIPP College Prep. The local list had 174 schools.
Advanced Placement offerings vary widely in D.C. high schools
The Washington Post
By Michael Alison Chandler
April 20, 2015
The number of Advanced Placement classes at high schools in the District ranges from 29 courses at Wilson High School to three courses at Anacostia High School east of the river.
Offerings at Wilson, the city’s largest high school, with about 1,800 students, include studio art, computer science and Chinese. School Without Walls offers the second-highest number of AP courses, at 21, including Latin and comparative government.
The number of high-level courses helped School Without Walls earn the second-highest ranking in the Washington region on this year’s Washington Post Challenge Index, released Sunday night, which ranks high schools according to how many of their students are taking college-level classes. Students at the selective high school can also take college courses at George Washington University through a dual enrollment program.
At Columbia Heights Education Campus, students are required to take at least two of the 18 AP courses offered at the application school.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson included funding in next year’s budget plan to offer a minimum of six AP classes in each neighborhood high school, as well as 20 electives, an effort to promote equity across the system. In addition to Anacostia, Ballou, Coolidge and Cardozo high schools all offer fewer than six AP courses this year. Ballou is in Ward 8, Coolidge is in Ward 4 and Cardozo is in Ward 1.
The AP expansion is also designed to make the city’s comprehensive high schools more attractive to students who are going out of boundary or choosing charter schools in search of more challenging or interesting classes.
“We want students to know their home school is a place that can meet their needs,” said Matthew Reif, director of advanced and enriched instruction for D.C. Public Schools.
In 2010, the city’s high schools were required to offer a minimum of four AP classes. By next school year, they will have funding to offer at least six. The plan is to increase that number to eight by the following year, Reif said.
Along with the three AP courses taught by teachers at the 660-student school, Anacostia High in Ward 8 offers an online human geography course through the Florida Virtual School, Reif said. Roosevelt High School also offers some online AP courses.
Reif said it has been a challenge to support advanced courses in some neighborhood schools, where large numbers of students are behind grade level and enrolled in credit recovery classes.
He said it’s likely that enrollments will be small in some of the new AP courses in the early years, but the school system is creating strategies to build up a pipeline of students in all schools who are prepared for the more challenging course work.
School-by-school Advanced Placement course offerings:
Anacostia (three courses)
English language/composition, U.S. history, world history
Ballou (five courses)
English literature/composition, U.S. history, world history, U.S. government, calculus AB
Banneker (nine courses)
Art history, English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, world history, U.S. government, calculus AB, statistics, biology
*Also offers advanced courses through the International Baccalaureate Diploma program
Cardozo (five courses)
English language/composition, English literature/composition, U.S. history, U.S. government, comparative government
Columbia Heights Education Campus (16 courses)
English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, U.S. government, French language, Spanish literature, Spanish language, calculus AB, statistics, biology, chemistry, physics B, music theory, studio art/2-D design, studio art/3-D design, computer science
Coolidge (five courses)
English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, world history, calculus AB
Dunbar (six courses)
Studio art/drawing, English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. government, calculus AB, biology
Eastern (six courses)
English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, human geography, psychology, environmental science
*Also offers advanced courses through the International Baccalaureate Diploma program
Ellington School of the Arts (12 courses)
Art history, studio art/drawing, English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, world history, U.S. government, French language, calculus AB, biology, chemistry, music theory
McKinley Technology (eight courses)
English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, U.S. government, world history, human geography, calculus AB, statistics, biology, chemistry, physics
Phelps ACE (eight courses)
Studio art/drawing, English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, psychology, environmental science, biology, music theory
Roosevelt High School @ MacFarland (seven courses)
Studio art/drawing, English literature/composition, U.S. history, U.S. government, psychology, Spanish language, calculus AB
School Without Walls (21 courses)
Studio art/2-D design, English literature/composition, English language/composition, U.S. history, world history, human geography, psychology, comparative government, French language, Latin, Spanish language, Chinese language/culture, calculus AB, calculus BC, statistics, environmental science, biology, chemistry, physics C, physics 1-algebra-based, music theory
Wilson (29 courses)
Studio art/drawing, studio art/2-D design, studio art/3-D design, English language/composition, English literature/composition, U.S. history, U.S. government, world history, human geography, economics: macro, economics: micro, psychology, U.S. government, comparative government, French language, Latin, Spanish language, Chinese language/culture, calculus AB, calculus BC, statistics, computer science, environmental science, biology, chemistry, physics: mechanics, physics: electricity/magnetism, physics 1: algebra-based, physics 2: algebra-based
H.D. Woodson (seven courses)
English language/composition, English literature/composition, U.S. history, world history, U.S. government, statistics, environmental science
Source: D.C. Public Schools
All new D.C. charter school applicants deserve to be approved [Paul PCS mentioned]
The Examiner
By Mark Lerner
April 21, 2015
When we last talked about applicants for new D.C. charter schools to open in the 2016 to 2017 school year last March there were six proposals before the Public Charter School Board. However, it was determined that one of these bids lacked sufficient substance to make it to last night's hearing. Therefore, at Paul PCS last night five schools presented 30 minute summaries of their programs. The meeting included members of Washington Leadership Academy PCS, Goodwill Excel Center PCS, Breakthrough Montessori PCS, Legacy Collegiate PCS, and Sustainable Futures PCS. More detail about these schools can be found here.
While I write this with great hesitation I believe that each of them should be given a charter. The reason that I am reluctant to make this claim is that in its history the board has never approved all of the potential new schools that come before it. In fact, the approval rate is about 40 percent. However, I witnessed something unusual yesterday evening.
It was as if the representatives of each school had gone through the same public hearing preparation course. Consistently the individuals before the board appeared exceptionally knowledgeable, confident, and professional. Even the one charter that last March I thought had submitted a comparatively less strong application, Legacy Collegiate, hit it out of the ballpark. In fact, if you closed your eyes and simply listened to the men and women speaking at each panel it was difficult to tell them apart. I essentially noted the same thing looking at their applications.
There is another practical reason that all five will not be permitted to open. These schools at full enrollment would add 2250 charter school seats. Therefore, there is the potential that their student bodies would through off the balance between charters and traditional school coveted by executive director Scott Pearson and board member John "Skip" McKoy.
However, despite this fear and the past approval rate percentile, I think the board should do the right thing and reward the fine efforts of each of these applicants.
__________