The Year in Review

2014 has been successful year for the public charter school sector in Washington, DC. Here are the highlights:

More Students Attend Tier 1 Public Charter Schools

The number of students attending high-performing schools increased. As students in DC continue to attend public charter schools – 44% of all DC public school students in 2014 – judging the quality of the education programs becomes increasingly important.

New Public Charter Schools Opened 

As the sole entity in DC with the power to open new public charter schools, PCSB is committed to creating an outstanding network of charter schools in Washington, DC. Five new public charter schools opened or expanded their programs in August 2014 offering students and families more quality options. Four new public charter schools will open in August 2015.  

Growth with Quality

For the ninth straight year, students attending DC public charter schools performed above the District average in math and reading on the DC Comprehensive Assessment System (DC CAS) test. Overall, public charter school students scored 59.6 percent in math and 53.4 percent in reading, up by 1.0 and 0.4 percentage points, respectively. Public charter school proficiency rates climbed every year of the DC CAS in five of seven wards with public charter schools.  By comparison, the state proficiency averages for math and reading were 53 and 49.5 percent.

Focus on Quality and Choice

PCSB uses a Performance Management Framework (PMF) to rate a school’s academic performance (including student achievement and student growth/improvement over time), and places schools in one to three performance tiers, Tier 1, 2 or 3, with Tier 1 being the best. In 2014 :

 

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  • The top 10 Tier 1 schools are located in almost every part of the district - Wards 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 – and five of them are middle schools.

  • Eight of the top 10 schools serve between 75% and 100% low-income student populations (measured by free and reduced lunch status).

  • Seven of the top 10 schools serve more than 90% African American student populations.

 

Attendance is Up, Suspensions Decreased & Truancy has Declined  

More students are attending school on a consistent basis rising from 90.7% in 2012-13 to 91.5% in 2013-14. That's over 300 more students in class every day. Similarly, suspensions and expulsions are on the decline. Expulsions were cut in half year over year, from 0.8% in 2012-13 to just 0.4% in 2013-14. This is well within the national norm. In school year 2013-14, the truancy rate, the number of students with 10 or more unexcused absences, fell to 14.9%, down from 18.8% the previous year.

National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Rated DC as Healthiest Charter City

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools released a new report that ranked DC #1 in a report about the “health” of the public charter school movement in 26 states across the country. The report focused on the factors essential for a strong charter school movement such as growth, quality, and innovation.  

Dell Calls PCSB an Outstanding Authorizer 

Dell released a case study highlighting our best practices. Calling PCSB a "national exemplar in charter school authorizing, as evidenced by the number of students attending high-performing schools,” Joe Siedlecki, Program and Policy Officer at the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation believes "any stakeholder can learn from PCSB.” Read the executive summary here and view the entire case study and appendices. 

More Schools Have Nurses 

Sixty-eight public charter schools have nurses on staff. This number will continue to rise in 2015 as 12 requests are currently pending.

IDEA PCS Exits Probation

After two years, IDEA PCS is no longer under probationary status. This is one year earlier than the anticipated three year mark. The graduating class of 2015 celebrated the school’s exit from probation alongside Mayor Vincent C. Gray, PCSB Executive Director Scott Pearson, and many other members of the community.

We had a great year in 2014 and are looking forward to an even better year in 2015. Happy New Year!

What a year in 2014--the District's public charter schools made a lot of progress.