East of the River

Checking In: Clifford Janey

QnA with DCPS Superintendent and Staff on Rightsizing, Education Reform

by: Gabriel Pacyniak

For the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), this may just be the tough period where things seem to get a little bit worse before they start to really get better. Closing in on the end of his second school year, DCPS Superintendent Clifford Janey’s preparation and planning stage has reached maturity. On almost every facet of public education, major changes are coming, and many of them may initially be painful. Before next school year, up to 30 schools will be closed, combined or co-located to free up 1 million square feet of space; the adoption of rigorous new learning standards may mean that some students are going to find making the grade that much more difficult; and a brand new test aligned to the new standards may very well show some disappointing results if the transition is anything but flawless.

But if DCPS can rise to the challenge, there is reason to hope that serious positive changes may result - $2.3 billion dollars is in the pipeline to fund new school buildings; school closures bring a promise of arts and music teachers at every school; parental resource centers are on the horizon; and if parents, students and teachers can make the new standards work in practice, substantial academic gains will hopefully be visible in the next few years.

When the Hill Rag came to the DCPS headquarters at 825 North Capitol St., the superintendent was finishing up negotiations with the Teachers Union, so we grilled two of his top lieutenants, Michelle Walker, chief of Strategic Planning and Partnerships, and Tom Brady, chief business officer, until Janey could join us.

East of the River: Many parents are understandably anxious about the upcoming school closings, consolidations and co-locations. How will this “rightsizing” benefit parents and students?

Tom Brady: The important thing is that right now we don’t have the critical mass [enough students in each school] to have a proper curriculum, to have all the necessary specialty teachers such as art and music, to have a top of the line, fully-staffed media technology lab in each school. Rightsizing will make that possible.

EOR: Is DCPS abandoning the idea of community schools by closing schools?

Brady: Are quality community schools simply about having a small school in a community? Or is it important to support a neighborhood by having all the educational and curriculum resources in place?

EOR: There have already been several public hearings and forums about the criteria for DCPS closings. Has anything valuable come up in these meetings?

Brady: We have learned a lot, for example, about the strength of concern about special education facilities, about the public commitment to neighborhood schools, about how we should take into account public-private partnerships. One thing that has come out very strongly is the desire to use empty schools as centers of the community.

EOR: There will also be public hearings held after the superintendent presents his recommendations for “rightsizing,” potentially in schools being considered for closure. What can you expect to learn in those hearings?

Brady: I don’t have a good answer. I have been involved in other school districts that have gone through school closings, and people, for good reasons, get very emotional. It is never easy.

EOR: The District Council passed legislation adding an extra $1 billion of funding over the next 10 years for school modernization. How much of an impact will this have?

Brady: This is huge. You won’t recognize the schools 10 years from now. But first you have to have a plan and an organization. We are not getting the money for the next six months; after that, it will be pretty quick -- we will be handing out general construction contracts for five schools at a time.

EOR: Will the order that schools are modernized reflect the fact that a disproportionate number of west-of-the-river schools have been modernized up to this point?

Brady: I hear that argument all the time, and from all different parts of the city. The bottom line is that there is enough money to modernize all schools. But the answer is, yes, we are looking at existing facilities as we work on the master facilities plan.

EOR: One of the other developments this year is the release of the superintendent’s Master Education Plan. Michelle Walker, since you were one of the chief architects of this plan, can you tell us why this plan is important?

Michelle Walker: The Master Education Plan is an educational blueprint for the school system. The question of how to achieve great quality education is what the master education plan tries to answer.

EOR: One major component of the plan is the emphasis on the adoption of rigorous learning standards. How will this help students?

Walker: One of the critiques that DCPS had received was that the central administration “abdicated its education leadership to the schools.” Some schools may have been providing a great education, but many others were not. The learning standards allows us to be specific in what we expect our students to learn. For example, we can specify what level or reading comprehension we want a third grader to reach, and how we should expect them to demonstrate that.

EOR: Should parents worry that this will create a gap for their students from one year to the next - that what was required to pass last year will not be enough to pass this year?

Walker: That is a very good question for parents to be asking. There has been a lot of training for staff to implement these standards - we have also beefed up after-school hours, tutorial programs, and specialty staff. Are we still going to have some students who are not used to these new levels? Yes.

EOR: There have been a lot of calls for vocational education programming. How will DCPS address this?

Walker: We are going to expand what we call Career and Technical Education - this is not woodshop and metal shop. It is directed at a variety of viable industries; one of the things Dr. Janey has recommended would be a hotel and hospitality school. But right now, most high schools are in a structuring phase, and getting the education fundamentals right in those schools is our priority.

EOR: Superintendent Janey, the Master Education Plan notes that it was created “through a highly collaborative planning process,” yet in the east-of-the-river forums I witnessed, parent turnout was very small. Were you satisfied that this turnout constituted a substantial input from East of the River community members?

Janey: It’s just not true that this was the extent of our outreach. Having community forums was just one method; we had a telephone poll taken, and just under 15,000 parents responded, to help us determine what kind of parents responded.

EOR: In the past five years DCPS enrollment has decreased while charter school enrollment has increased. Would school closures still be required if not for charter schools?

Janey: I don’t think so. A great amount of our enrollment loss has been to charter schools.

EOR: As many communities in the District are changing with the influx of affluent, often white households, how is that challenging DCPS?

Janey: Race and class always have some role in urban districts, largely because of choices in housing. What we care about is not so much external complexion, but inequities. And that is real. Certain communities have the power to subsidize local schools. For instances, they can hire art and music teachers. That is why we have made art and music teachers a necessity that no longer requires local funding.

EOR: As DCPS is trying to attract more parents overall, is there a specific role for DCPS to play in addressing some of these issues of race and class in the city?

Janey: We would like to get parents more invested in every part of the city, in schools of various quality. We think one opportunity will be through the development of parent resources centers. Initially we are building three, in wards 1, 7 and 8. I hope that these will be spaces were we can talk and have conversations [about race and class] that in this “post civil-rights era” are referred to as an anachronism. We have a duty morally, when it comes to education, to have these conversations.


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Checking In: Clifford Janey
QnA with DCPS Superintendent and Staff on Rightsizing, Education Reform
by: Gabriel Pacyniak
For the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), this may just be the tough period where things seem to get a little bit worse before they start to really get better. Closing in on the end of his second school year, DCPS Superintendent Clifford Janey’s preparation and planning stage has reached maturity. On almost every facet of public education, major changes are coming, and many of them may initially be painful. Before next school year, up to 30 schools will be closed, combined or co-located to free up 1 million square feet of space; the adoption of rigorous new learning standards may mean that some students are going to find making the grade that much more difficult; and a brand new test aligned to the new standards may very well show some disappointing results if the transition is anything but flawless. But if DCPS can rise to the challenge, there is reason to hope that serious positive changes may result - $2.3 billion dollars is in the pipeline to fund new school buildings; school closures bring a promise of arts and music teachers at every school; parental resource centers are on the horizon; and if parents, students and teachers can make the new standards work in practice, substantial academic gains will hopefully be visible in the next few years. When the Hill Rag came to the DCPS headquarters at 825 North Capitol St., the superintendent was finishing up negotiations with the Teachers Union, so we grilled two of his top lieutenants, Michelle Walker, chief of Strategic Planning and Partnerships, and Tom Brady, chief business officer, until Janey could join us. East of the River: Many parents are understandably anxious about the upcoming school closings, consolidations and co-locations. How will this “rightsizing” benefit parents and students? Tom Brady: The important thing is that right now we don’t have the critical mass [enough students in each school] to have a proper curriculum, to have all the necessary specialty teachers such as art and music, to have a top of the line, fully-staffed media technology lab in each school. Rightsizing will make that possible. EOR: Is DCPS abandoning the idea of community schools by closing schools? Brady: Are quality community schools simply about having a small school in a community? Or is it important to support a neighborhood by having all the educational and curriculum resources in place? EOR: There have already been several public hearings and forums about the criteria for DCPS closings. Has anything valuable come up in these meetings? Brady: We have learned a lot, for example, about the strength of concern about special education facilities, about the public commitment to neighborhood schools, about how we should take into account public-private partnerships. One thing that has come out very strongly is the desire to use empty schools as centers of the community. EOR: There will also be public hearings held after the superintendent presents his recommendations for “rightsizing,” potentially in schools being considered for closure. What can you expect to learn in those hearings? Brady: I don’t have a good answer. I have been involved in other school districts that have gone through school closings, and people, for good reasons, get very emotional. It is never easy. EOR: The District Council passed legislation adding an extra $1 billion of funding over the next 10 years for school modernization. How much of an impact will this have? Brady: This is huge. You won’t recognize the schools 10 years from now. But first you have to have a plan and an organization. We are not getting the money for the next six months; after that, it will be pretty quick -- we will be handing out general construction contracts for five schools at a time. EOR: Will the order that schools are modernized reflect the fact that a disproportionate number of west-of-the-river schools have been modernized up to this point? Brady: I hear that argument all the time, and from all different parts of the city. The bottom line is that there is enough money to modernize all schools. But the answer is, yes, we are looking at existing facilities as we work on the master facilities plan. EOR: One of the other developments this year is the release of the superintendent’s Master Education Plan. Michelle Walker, since you were one of the chief architects of this plan, can you tell us why this plan is important? Michelle Walker: The Master Education Plan is an educational blueprint for the school system. The question of how to achieve great quality education is what the master education plan tries to answer. EOR: One major component of the plan is the emphasis on the adoption of rigorous learning standards. How will this help students? Walker: One of the critiques that DCPS had received was that the central administration “abdicated its education leadership to the schools.” Some schools may have been providing a great education, but many others were not. The learning standards allows us to be specific in what we expect our students to learn. For example, we can specify what level or reading comprehension we want a third grader to reach, and how we should expect them to demonstrate that. EOR: Should parents worry that this will create a gap for their students from one year to the next - that what was required to pass last year will not be enough to pass this year? Walker: That is a very good question for parents to be asking. There has been a lot of training for staff to implement these standards - we have also beefed up after-school hours, tutorial programs, and specialty staff. Are we still going to have some students who are not used to these new levels? Yes. EOR: There have been a lot of calls for vocational education programming. How will DCPS address this? Walker: We are going to expand what we call Career and Technical Education - this is not woodshop and metal shop. It is directed at a variety of viable industries; one of the things Dr. Janey has recommended would be a hotel and hospitality school. But right now, most high schools are in a structuring phase, and getting the education fundamentals right in those schools is our priority. EOR: Superintendent Janey, the Master Education Plan notes that it was created “through a highly collaborative planning process,” yet in the east-of-the-river forums I witnessed, parent turnout was very small. Were you satisfied that this turnout constituted a substantial input from East of the River community members? Janey: It’s just not true that this was the extent of our outreach. Having community forums was just one method; we had a telephone poll taken, and just under 15,000 parents responded, to help us determine what kind of parents responded. EOR: In the past five years DCPS enrollment has decreased while charter school enrollment has increased. Would school closures still be required if not for charter schools? Janey: I don’t think so. A great amount of our enrollment loss has been to charter schools. EOR: As many communities in the District are changing with the influx of affluent, often white households, how is that challenging DCPS? Janey: Race and class always have some role in urban districts, largely because of choices in housing. What we care about is not so much external complexion, but inequities. And that is real. Certain communities have the power to subsidize local schools. For instances, they can hire art and music teachers. That is why we have made art and music teachers a necessity that no longer requires local funding. EOR: As DCPS is trying to attract more parents overall, is there a specific role for DCPS to play in addressing some of these issues of race and class in the city? Janey: We would like to get parents more invested in every part of the city, in schools of various quality. We think one opportunity will be through the development of parent resources centers. Initially we are building three, in wards 1, 7 and 8. I hope that these will be spaces were we can talk and have conversations [about race and class] that in this “post civil-rights era” are referred to as an anachronism. We have a duty morally, when it comes to education, to have these conversations.