How NCLB Affects DCPS

Republicans tend to promote vouchers, which are state-supported tuition grants given to students in public schools who wish to apply to private schools participating in the voucher program. In the District of Columbia, fifty-four schools are participating in a voucher program for the 2004-05 school year, including every member school of the Archdiocese of Washington, where 61% of the roughly 1,000 students who are participating attend. The program is administered by the Washington Scholarship Fund (W.S.F.), which in three weeks processed applications from 2,600 students. Each student will receive up to $7,500 in voucher funds, and if the student needs more money, there are financial aid programs. People for the American Way, an advocacy organization which opposes vouchers, recently claimed that only 75 of these participating students are poor, a claim disputed by Sally Sachar, president and chief executive of the W.S.F. For the 2005-06 school year, applications for voucher funds were accepted beginning in December, and approximately 1600 students are expected to participate.

Then there are, of course, charter schools, whose clientele and test scores vary wildly. Penniman & O'Brien funds a non-profit organization which aids two inner-city charter schools in D.C., the Cesar Chavez Public Charter School for Public Policy, and the Maya Angelou PCS. Ninety percent of the graduates of these schools attend college, but most of the students, who for various reasons entered these high schools with 3rd to 6th grade-level skills, still have to catch up when they enter college.

Much was made recently of test scores released in August of 2004, the first to compare fourth graders’ lower test scores in charter schools to fourth graders’ scores in traditional public schools. Charter schools fashion their own curriculum and school day schedule, but they must still abide by the federal No Child Left Behind rules. Charter schools, however, accept a disproportionate number of students who have been through the criminal justice system; who have just emigrated and speak no English; or have special needs. Charters must accept students by lottery, but if a charter has a particular mission or specialty, then certain students may gravitate toward it. Charters can afford much smaller classes because, although they are granted the same per pupil appropriation that every traditional school has, they usually choose to pay less on physical plant, supplies, and bureaucracy, than a traditional school. Some charters, like the SEED Public Charter School in Southeast D.C., are privately funded to a lavish extent. Finally, most charters emphasize standardized testing much less than traditional schools, emphasizing holistic teaching methods, cultural experiences, and personal growth for their students.

Despite the freedom granted charter schools, some charter schools are forced to close. The California school system, citing financial improprieties, announced the closing of approximately sixty charter school campuses in late August of 2004, stranding 10,000 students.

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