D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey mounts defense of current reforms and planned improvements for city schools
In his first formal public statement since his future came into question when Mayor-elect Adrian M. Fenty said in September that he might seek to take over Washington, D.C.’s Public Schools (DCPS), D.C. Superintendent Clifford Janey has mounted a vigorous defense of the reforms he has already put in place and his future plans to continue improvement of the city’s public schools. During his first "State of the Schools" address, Mr. Janey responded to criticism that reform is moving too slowly. He outlined several accomplishments, including hiring a record 85 principals, rehabilitating more than half of the 90 elementary school libraries, and establishing dozens of family literacy centers at schools in Southeast D.C. Mr. Janey also unveiled his plan to address failing schools. With 118 of 146 schools identified in the spring as having failed to make academic progress, he said that next fall three senior high schools, two middle schools, and one elementary school, which he did not identify, would be overhauled by replacing principals and teachers. The intervention, called "reconstitution" or "restructuring," is a remedy under the federal No Child Left Behind law for schools that have failed to make adequate yearly progress on standardized tests for at least four years. He promised that those schools will have "partial or full replacement of staffs" and will receive more training and funding.
The district has used that method with various names under various superintendents with little success, according to Mary Levy, director of the Public Education Reform Project for the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. "The new staff they brought in had not been better than the old staff," she says. "They tend to get new teachers [for the reconstituted schools]. You shouldn't give new teachers the toughest assignments." She adds that system wide disruptions were caused by the dispersal of bad teachers from the reconstituted schools to other city schools. Mr. Janey has previously stated that he would not support a plan calling for stripping the school board's autonomy but would welcome a takeover if it involved removing obstacles that impede his attempts to improve. School board member Victor A. Reinoso, who is Mr. Fenty's choice for the newly created position of deputy mayor for education, has been a harsh critic of the superintendent. However, he agrees that DCPS has made progress under Mr. Janey. "We want to do everything we can to support that direction [from Janey], but move it along faster," says Mr. Reinoso. "We want to strengthen the partnership with him."
Washington Post
By V. Dion Haynes & Theola Labb
[Full story]
[Editor’s Note: For background, see the first link below. In the op-ed at the second link, Council of the Great City Schools executive director Michael Casserly criticizes the proposed takeover. He argues the move would not solve DCPS’s problems of "overreaching and redundant decision-making authority above the school system and … weak capacity for solving the system's own problems" and "might continue the debilitating turnover of school superintendents and add to the system's instability." Mr. Casserly believes an alternative could be to shift some of the school system's current responsibilities to a beefed-up State Education Office (SEO) reporting to the mayor. NSBA General Counsel Francisco Negrón previously served as General Counsel to the SEO, which he notes submitted a July 2001 report of recommendations to the D.C. mayor and city council based on a study of ten additional proposed responsibilities to be assumed by that office. Those responsibilities are listed at the third link below. Subsequent changes on the D.C. Council ended the momentum toward this approach. As Mr. Casserly suggests, local voters have tended to be skeptical of attempts to marginalize the school board in D.C., where passions over elected representation run high.]
[NSBA School Law pages on proposed D.C. takeover]
Washington Post
By Michael Casserly
[Full op-ed]
[SEO list of possible additional responsibilities]