The Washington Informer
PCSB revokes charter of Young America Works, more should come
By Mark Lerner
Thursday, April 29, 2010
I want to turn our attention away from the intergovernmental skirmishing over the new DCPS teachers' union contract with only one additional comment. If the Mayor and City Council find a way to fund the missing $50 million to get Ms. Rhee out of this mess they can most certainly identify a measly $8.7 million to restore the charter school facility allotment back to $3,109 per child. Fair is fair.
The PCSB announced yesterday that it had agreed to revoke the charter of Young America Works. Contained in the press release announcing the decision is this interesting tidbit. During its existence the board has closed 5 schools and another 8 have voluntarily relinquished their charter rather than go through the revocation process. This comes out to about 1 school a year. I think they need to pick up the pace.
What about the 10 schools clustered in FOCUS's School Achievement and Growth Graph demonstrating DC - CAS results under 50 percent proficiency in reading and math and below the average annual growth in these scores of 12 percent? Do we want to be known as a movement of mediocrity?
I think the members of the PCSB need to get together and set minimum proficiency rates for a school to continue. I hope the bar is set high. After all it is a high quality academic program that our movement is supposed to be offering.