Last month, WTU conducted a survey regarding charter schools and DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson’s school consolidation proposal. Of 155 DCPS teachers/employees who completed the survey,
- 36.8% believe that the closed buildings/ facilities should be converted into public community spaces
- 85% believe that there should be a moratorium concerning the growth of the charter schools in D.C.
- 76.8% believe that charter schools are a significant factor in DCPS’ decision to consolidate schools
We asked teachers what they would tell Chancellor Henderson and local stakeholders about this proposal and its effects on DCPS students and teachers. Here are some of the responses we collected:
- “Do not rely on research/comments provided by elitist DCPS parents. Instead, make outreach to ALL DCPS parents before making outlandish decisions.”
- “Public neighborhood schools are essential to healthy communities. Charter schools are exclusive and do not take responsibility for all children. The increase in the number of charter schools places a greater burden on neighborhood schools to provide additional services to a higher % of students.”
- “I am a 19 year Special education teacher who is 41 years of age. It is quite frightening and disenchanting to know that after all of the years put in, the love of learning for my students, that I am going to excessed with no idea if I will be retained or terminated from DCPS. I am concerned for my future. This is the ONLY career that I chose and am degreed in. How will my employment status get treated? Tenured/career teachers are being punished because we are tenured. I am not trying to place DCPS in the “red” financially. But who works just to keep the same salary? Everyone wants to progress.”
- “Why do you all continue to pursue avenues that are not effective. Rhee came here and closed 23 schools and it did not have a positive effect. Why not try something new. How about actually investing in and trying to build stronger traditional public schools. Charter schools are not the answer. They have not proven to outscore traditional public schools in the least. If we are given the same resources, support and on some level, the autonomy of charter schools, we could succeed in offering a top notch education to the children of DC. Instead, we are continually threatened with losing our jobs, working in underfunded schools with children removed from charter schools/schools west of the park, yet we are required to produce the same results as schools located in more affluent neighborhoods with many more resources and tons of parental involvement. Dare to be different Chancellor Henderson. Dare to set precedent by investing in and building up our existing public school system.”
- “There are pieces of the charter movement that I very much support. I almost worked at a charter and I understand why they exist. But their existence also can also damage the reinvention, reorganizing, and rebirth (if that’s not too dramatic) of a turn-around school’s mission, an effort that takes careful planning as well as time. If a large number of students who are from outside of the turn-around school’s population enter into the turn-around school’s effort–midway through that effort–it is going to affect and very much change the nature of the turn-around project at hand. Because restarting a school and growing it grade by grade is such a nuanced, complex process, this means that unfortunately the turn-around school’s goals and progress could be stalled or even reversed.”
- “It puts a LOT of stress on teachers, knowing we are going to be out of jobs, an issue that is distracting me from my main focus of student achievement.”
This has been a sad seven year period for DCPS students and teachers. The reform to dismantle public schools that have helped Americans grow and flourish has set teachers and students back at an alarming pace. Those students that need the most time and attention to acquire skills and knowledge have been short changed the most. Surely, the communities most affected can be rallied and strategize plans to keep their public schools open. For struggling students, a student-teacher ratio should be 10:1. For accomplished students, the ratio should be 15:1. All programs DCPS pays millions of dollars for that have not worked should be immediately abandoned as teachers have been for the past four years(DCPS has been 10 million dollars in the red with test scores lower than ever). Teachers should not be blamed for the incorrect policies and practices of central office administrators who have not been held accountable. The city council members need to hear from parents and students what the communities want and they should be encouraged to support teachers who are trying harder than any one to help the students thrive. Arne Duncan needs to hear from teachers about the proper pedagogy to be explored and appplied to students that the Core Curriculum does not address. The students do not need more to study at any grade level. That has been a problem for decades. The students need less to concentrate on and master to make the progress we all want for them (and ourselves-in the long run).
Galvanize the communities who are stake holders and get out there with your voices. Set up meetings and be there with the organization that teachers use daily. Recruit parents who want help to save their children’s schools.