Ten percent of eighth-grade students in the District said they had attempted suicide in the past year, blowing past the national average and highlighting the daunting task of improving the city’s middle schools. On the 2010 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey — given to 1,186 D.C. middle school students anonymously — 9.7 percent of eighth-graders said they had attempted suicide, nearly 30 percent said they had sexual intercourse, and 15 percent of students in grades six through eight reported belonging to a gang or crew in the past 12 months.
The 59-question survey is sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. An additional 1,396 high school students took a 99-question version.
| Council members question union contract |
| City officials voiced reservations with the Washington Teachers’ Union contract at a hearing focused on improving the city’s public middle schools. |
| Acknowleding the enormous achievement gap between white and minority students on exams, Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said longer school days and longer school years are proven antidotes; however, “contemplating that would cost a bazillion dollars for us, but it’s a factor,” Henderson said. |
| Teachers at charter schools, which serve 40 percent of the District’s public school students and do not fall under union rules, can be told to sponsor after-school activities, work longer hours or teach on Saturdays. |
| “I hear you saying that our labor union rules constrain the number of options we have to address the achievement gap in D.C.,” Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells said to Henderson. |
| Union President Nathan Saunders did not reply to requests for comment through a spokeswoman. |
| Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry called himself “a strong supporter of labor unions in this country,” but said, “The Washington Teachers’ Union and other unions have to recognize this educational emergency we’re having, and voluntarily do things differently.” |
In 2009, the most recent year for which data are available, just 7.3 percent of ninth-grade students nationwide said they tried to commit suicide in the past year.
“Children are the canaries in the coal mine, and middle schoolers are often the canaries for children’s issues — it’s a very vulnerable time,” said Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children’s Law Center, which represents at-risk children. “A third of all students in the District live in poverty, so the number of those children who have witnessed violence in their homes or communities or schools is extremely high, and as a community, we don’t offer significant assistance.”
The statistics were released as city officials increase their focus on the public school system’s troubled middle schools. Although D.C. Public Schools’ enrollment increased for the first time in 41 years last year, enrollment in the city’s middle grades has dropped steadily over the past five years.
The majority of eighth-grade students fail to show proficiency in math or reading on exams as they prepare to enter high school, yet 93 percent of District students are passed along to the ninth grade.
There, the city sees the lowest promotion rate: Just 59 percent of ninth-graders are promoted to the 10th grade and 53 percent of students who drop out of high school do so in the ninth grade.
“Frankly, I think it’s something we should not be proud of in the District of Columbia,” Council Chairman Kwame Brown said at a Tuesday hearing.
Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson proposed a Middle Grades Literacy Initiative that would increase professional development for teachers, assess middle schoolers more often and create an intensive summer reading program for low performers.
Several council members suggested that falling behind in school — so far that you can’t read as a ninth-grader — can tax a student’s emotional health, making their behaviors riskier and learning even more difficult.
“I think we have been setting up kids to fail,” said Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry. “These kids know they’re not ready.”
