Outrages (Susan Ohanian Speaks Out)

Outrages

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Nonprofit Groups May Run Failing D.C. Schools

Kevin Johnson, a twelve-year veteran of the National Basketball Association, is to be applauded for his work for disenfranchised youth. In August 2003, his nonprofit corporation St. HOPE Public Schools (SHPS) partnered with the Sacramento City Unified School District to open PS7. According to Johnson's webiste, this elementary charter school currently offers "a rigorous curriculum for nearly 400 children in grades K-8."

Also in 2003, SHPS opened five small schools on the old Sacramento High School campus, and in April 2006 Johnson was recruited by a community-based national campaign called STAND UP to be their national spokesperson. This campaign receives substantial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As part of the kick-off to the STAND UP campaign, Johnson and Bill and Melinda Gates appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on April 12, 2006, calling for "parents, teachers, administrators and students to demand excellent high schools that prepare students to succeed."

In 2006, the New York City Department of Education entered into a partnership with St. HOPE Academy to help revitalize the Choir Academy of Harlem, a struggling 500-student K-12 public school. A St. HOPE operated charter school is scheduled to open in Harlem by the 2008-09 academic year, marking the first expansion of St. HOPE outside Sacramento.

So with this background, is St. HOPE ready to make a sizable expansion into Washington D. C.?

In July 2007, Green Dot Public Schools announced a $7.8 million investment from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "to open 10 new high schools in the community served by Alain Leroy Locke Senior High School in Watts. This investment builds upon a September 2006 grant of $1.8 million for five charter high schools surrounding Jefferson High School, also in south Los Angeles."

These new schools double the number of Green Dot schools. Green Dot claims a record of success but they are a fledgling operation. With this background, is Green Dot ready to make a sizable expansion into Washington D. C.?

Ask Bill Gates. And Eli Broad, also a big contributor to the Green Dot enterprise and the Stand Up campaign.

By Theola LabbÃ© and V. Dion Haynes

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is considering bringing in national nonprofit charter school operators to manage at least two dozen of the city's lowest-performing schools, one of the first indications of how she might proceed in reforming the 49,600-student school system.

The charter operators were one of several options for improving failing schools that Rhee outlined Monday to school leaders at Roosevelt and Cardozo high schools, according to Rhee spokeswoman Mafara Hobson. The Northwest schools are among those in the system that have not reached benchmarks in reading and math test scores in the past five years.

Under No Child Left Behind, schools that fail to reach benchmarks for five straight years enter into "restructuring" mode. In that phase, the school system must devise a plan that changes the schools' governance structure, replaces most of their staff, contracts with an education management organization to operate the schools or turns the schools over to the state. In the meeting with school leaders, Rhee outlined how those options could work in the District.

Hobson emphasized yesterday that Rhee was not leaning toward any particular option and that no decisions had been made on how to handle the low-performing schools.

"This was the first meeting, and it was basically to get input from the community," Hobson said. "All she did was talk through the options under the U.S. Department of Education."

Cardozo teacher Kerry Sylvia, who chairs the school's Local School Restructuring Team, which includes teachers, parents and administrators, said that if she had been given more notice about the meeting, held on the morning of Veterans Day when schools were closed, she could have been better prepared to discuss the options.

"If I had known that we were going to have this kind of meeting, I would have looked up the law to see exactly what it said and seen what other school systems similar to us have done," Sylvia said. "I just felt like she was coming to the table with something and we were empty-handed."

Sylvia said that the discussion at Cardozo lasted for a little more than an hour and that there were four teachers and one parent present. Hobson said a larger series of citywide meetings is planned.

Cathy Reilly, a school advocate at Roosevelt and director of Senior High Alliance of Parents, Principals and Educators, a nonprofit group focused on high school reform, wrote in an e-mail yesterday to alliance members that Rhee talked with the restructuring team to "get their thoughts and preferences prior to her decision."

"She was very clear, however, that the decision was her decision," Reilly wrote.

State Superintendent Deborah A. Gist, who monitors how the school system addresses its failing schools, said yesterday that she was not surprised by any of the options Rhee was weighing. She said she had spoken to her twice yesterday and that her staff was working closely with school officials on the plans Rhee was considering.

Hobson said there are 25 traditional public schools in the restructuring phase, while state education officials put the number at 27. Four charter schools have also failed to meet testing benchmarks.

The charter schools and the D.C. system must turn in their restructuring plans to Gist by the end of the month.

"This is the planning year, but there is no more room for talk," Gist said. "I expect to see action."

According to Hobson, Rhee told the parents and teachers she met with Monday that three nonprofits potentially could run some D.C. schools: St. Hope, a charter operator in Sacramento; Green Dot, which operates 12 charter schools in the Los Angeles area; and Philadelphia-based Mastery Charter Schools.

Rhee has a personal connection with St. Hope. She recruited teachers for St. Hope in her former position as chief executive and president of the nonprofit New Teacher Project. She also was a board member of St. Hope for about a year until she was appointed chancellor, according to a St. Hope official.

At her confirmation hearing before the D.C. Council in June, former NBA star Kevin Johnson, who serves as president and chief executive of St. Hope, flew from California to testify on her behalf.

St. Hope recently started operating in New York City. In a statement, a St. Hope spokeswoman said the organization is "certainly open to considering Washington DC as another expansion site given the great things that are happening."

Steve Barr, chief executive of Green Dot Public Schools, said a woman from the District called him about four months ago inquiring about his services. The organization offers a prep school program for 4,000 students at formerly failing traditional public schools in troubled urban areas such as Watts. "I talked to . . . somebody with D.C. public schools. We had a half-hour conversation," Barr said, adding that the woman, whose name he couldn't recall, never asked the group to work with D.C. schools and never called back.

Mastery has 1,500 students in grades seven to 12 in four charters, three of which were converted from failing traditional schools. Ben Rayer, chief operating officer for Mastery, said Rhee contacted the organization.

"All I know is the chancellor has e-mailed the CEO of Mastery," Rayer said. "I'm sure there is no contract or agreement."

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