Scorecards grading each D.C. Public Schools campus’s performance will be coming home in backpacks Monday and Tuesday — a first for the chronically-troubled school system as it grapples with reforms.
Chancellor Kaya Henderson is expected to release the results of the school-by-school performance data to the public on Tuesday afternoon, but spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said some parents will receive the scorecards on Monday.
“New school scorecards will provide an unprecedented view of school performance so that families can make informed decisions about their child’s education,” according to the press release.
The DCPS scorecards have the potential to create the first apples-to-apples comparison between DCPS and charter campuses, allowing parents more insight as they make choices about their kids’ schooling.
The D.C. Public Charter School Board released its own scorecards in December, assigning each campus to one of three tiers based on scores on a 100-point scale.
Fifteen campuses fell in the underperforming Tier 3, and four were up for revocation of their charters for scores below 20 points. Forty percent of the city’s public school students attend charters.
DCPS’s scorecards are also likely to highlight the achievement gap between the city’s poorest schools and its more affluent, whiter counterparts in Northwest, a recurring frustration as the D.C. City Council holds public hearings on a slew of pending education bills.
For example, 83 percent of Ward 3’s Alice Deal Middle School students demonstrated proficiency in reading on state exams last spring. At Ward 8’s Johnson Middle School, the exact opposite — 17 percent of students — could read proficiently. It’s not difficult to imagine how different these two schools’ scorecards are.
Check back with The Washington Examiner for more details.
