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59-724: Before the school was established, FCPS sent Black students to District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) schools and the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth , later the Manassas Regional High School , a vocational school . Schools in Washington, D.C. , which took Black Fairfax County students included Armstrong Manual Training School , Cardozo High School , Dunbar High School , and Phelps Vocational Center. Jackson, named after teacher Luther Porter Jackson , opened in 1954. At

118-430: A "destination school". Neighborhood schools are elementary or secondary schools assigned to students based on their address. Destination schools are feeder-schools for elementary or secondary institutions from a school a student is already attending. Since the fall of 2009, students may choose a destination school, regardless of their neighborhood location. Locations of all schools and the neighborhood divides can be found on

177-676: A Quality School Review, which uses the Effective Schools Framework to assess schools through rubrics on topics such as classroom observations, interviews with parents, students, teachers, and school leadership, staff surveys and reviewing artifacts (i.e., handbooks, student work). In 2007, Karin Hess of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment conducted an analysis that has also gone into

236-654: A growing presence in the District of Columbia, educate almost 40 percent of the city's public school students.)" Bell HS; Lincoln MS Below is a partial list of superintendents and chancellors of the D.C. Public School system. The head of the school system was known as "Superintendent" until June 2007, when the post was renamed "Chancellor". In 2018, WAMU and NPR reported that a reported increase in graduation rates had been inflated by high schools who granted diplomas to students who should have failed, according to city law. According to The Washington Post , only 46 percent of

295-526: A part of DCPS, they are now considered a separate district controlled by the D.C. Public Charter School Board (PCSB). The D.C. Council passed the Mayor's proposal into law, but since the change amended the Home Rule Act , the change needed to gain federal approval before taking effect. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton introduced H.R. 2080, a bill to amend the D.C. Home Rule Charter Act to provide for

354-607: A petition allowing the mayor to appoint a seven-member board, which then appointed a superintendent of schools. The latest high-profile urban district to move under mayoral control was Washington, DC, where Mayor Adrian Fenty won the right to select the chancellor of schools in 2007. The table below shows the school districts that are now under the governance of mayor-appointed boards and, in some cases, mayor-appointed heads of schools. Other locations have varying degrees of mayoral control over schools: in Oakland, California , three of

413-672: A provision of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), entitled "Academic Assessment and Local Education Agency and School Improvement", the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) of the District of Columbia oversees compliance with Adequate Yearly Progress Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine (AYP). A large portion of meeting AYP is based on standardized-tests performance;

472-566: A request by contralto Marian Anderson to sing at the auditorium of the segregated white Central High School . As justification, he cited a federal law from 1906 requiring separate schools for the District. Meanwhile, the Daughters of the American Revolution had rejected a similar application. When Eleanor Roosevelt resigned from that organization in protest, author Zora Neale Hurston criticized her for remaining silent about

531-448: A reward for high performance; 'Partnership Schools,' which are run by outside organizations that are granted autonomy in the hope of dramatically improving performance; and the 'D.C. Collaborative for Change,' or DC3, a joint effort of some of the District's highest- and lowest-performing schools that have been granted autonomy as a tool for innovating with curriculum and professional development. (Meanwhile, highly autonomous charter schools,

590-501: A school counselor and construct a course plan to reach graduation. River Terrace Elementary School and Shaed Education Campus shut their doors at the end of the 2010–2011 and 2011–2012 school years, respectively. Students attending River Terrace and Emery Education Campus moved to the Langley Building. In 2019, a proposal was submitted to close Metropolitan High School, an alternative school. In accordance with Section 1116,

649-402: A significant drop from the freshman graduation rate of 68.4% in 2002 and 68.8% as recently as 2005. In just the 2008–09 school year alone, 1,075 Black students dropped out of high school. This figure raises concern since 1,246 students dropped out of DCPS schools that year. However, these numbers are not meant to be misleading; the 62.8% freshman graduation rate of Black students in 2008 was above

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708-586: A staff totaling 12,000. This sudden DCPS enrollment drop resulted from the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007, which separated District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS) from District of Columbia Public Schools. The District of Columbia passed charter school legislation in 1996, which went into effect in September 1999. The legislation gave the District the power to grant charters for 15 years. Although this

767-568: A survey of school board members compiled for the National School Board Association , 96 percent of respondents report that membership on their board is determined by election. As of October 2011, evidence of existing or attempted mayoral control was found in about 20 major districts around the United States. Perhaps the most high-profile case of mayoral control is New York City where Michael Bloomberg won

826-446: Is longer than the traditional 3–5 year term observed in 31 other states, a required review occurs every five years. 4.4% of public school students enrolled in a charter school for the 1999 academic school year; the 28 schools had a total enrollment of approx. 3,000 students. After the legislation was enacted in 2007, chartering authority was placed under the D.C. Public Charter School Board and disaffiliated from DCPS. The governance of DCPS

885-601: Is now a single, publicly accountable official in charge, rather than nine wannabe mayors immobilizing the school system with their petty squabbles, power grabs, and turf protecting. If citizens are unhappy with the schools, they can now vote the mayor out of office. This does not eliminate democratic control over the schools; it rechannels—and strengthens—it". Former appointed CEO of the mayoral controlled Chicago Public Schools and U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has made his support for mayoral control of schools clear, offering his help to mayors who push to gain sole leadership of

944-623: Is reported that mayoral control "engendered continuity in leadership and a new focus on learning". Opponents of mayoral control typically cite two major issues with the shift. Most importantly, mayoral control represents an affront to democratic , public participation in school governance. Many worry that taking popular elections of school board members out of the school governance formula prevents local neighborhoods from having any say in how their interests are represented. As Hess admits, "some voices are likely to be silenced or marginalized under an appointed board". A related complaint focuses on

1003-560: The Cato Institute 's Andrew J. Coulson showed that DCPS's reported per-pupil expenditures figures were based on incomplete data. That year, the U.S. Census Bureau had reported that DCPS's 2008–09 per-pupil expenditures were $ 18,181, but DCPS officials had neglected to include about $ 400 million in spending. Informed by Coulson's observations, the U.S. Census Bureau revised its data collection methods and reported that per-pupil expenditures were $ 28,170. Those revisions are reflected in

1062-612: The District of Columbia . Many of the District's public schools are undergoing evolving relationships with the central office as they seek to compete for students leaving the system for charter schools. According to school choice researcher Erin Dillon, "In its winning application for federal Race to the Top funds, DCPS, for example, touted its three models for autonomous schools: The aptly named 'Autonomous Schools,' which are granted autonomy as

1121-674: The 10 members of the Oakland Unified School District board members are appointed by the mayor, and the other seven are elected. Mayoral control proposals have also been made in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Seattle . Notably, not all attempts at achieving mayoral control have been successful. Mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa sought to bring the Los Angeles Unified School District under his management, but before

1180-426: The 2011–12 school year. However, adding grades to the charter schools is still increasing enrollment and decreasing from DCPS' numbers. In 2009, 43% of all DCPS public school students were overweight or obese. This was one of the highest rates in the United States. In the graduating class of spring 2008, the average freshman graduation rate for DCPS was 56%‚ compared with a national average of 74.9%. This constituted

1239-486: The 238 public elementary and secondary schools and learning centers in Washington, D.C. These schools span prekindergarten to twelfth grade. As of 2000, kindergarten students entered at 5 years old. School is compulsory for DCPS students between the ages of 5 and 18. DCPS schools typically start the last Monday in August. The school day generally lasts for about six hours. The ethnic breakdown of students enrolled in 2014

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1298-520: The Board President was elected at large. One condition of the District of Columbia Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007 was creating DCPS as a separate cabinet-level agency from the D.C. Board of Education. This moved DCPS within the executive branch of the District of Columbia government—specifically, under Mayoral control. Currently, DCPS is subordinate to District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed putting

1357-507: The Bureau's 2009–10 reports. In FY 2009–2010, the District received 6.7% of its total elementary and secondary education revenues from federal sources. In 2008, in terms of testing 36% of students demonstrated proficiency in mathematics and 39% demonstrated proficiency in reading. The average educator was paid $ 67,000 in 2010. A contract signed in 2010 was expected to raise that figure to $ 81,000 in 2012. All DCPS schools are located in

1416-490: The Council of the District of Columbia, Chief Judge of the D.C. Superior Family Court, Superintendent of Education, Chancellor of DCPS, Chair of DCPCSB, and fourteen others. After the 2007–2008 school year, about one-fifth of the teachers and one-third of the principals resigned, retired, or were terminated from DCPS. DCPS initially experienced a powerful negative impact due to the loss. A GAO-conducted study recommended that

1475-417: The D.C. School Choice Incentive Act of 2003. The law established a federally-funded private school voucher program known as the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The OSP distributes vouchers to low-income families to cover private school tuition. Because there are more eligible applicants than available vouchers, they are distributed by lottery. In 2010, a randomized controlled trial conducted under

1534-620: The DAR. To my way of thinking, both places should have been denounced, or neither." Although Anderson later performed at an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial, the board retained its policy of exclusion. The Council of the District of Columbia enacted the DC Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007. This act established a DC public school agency based on authority given to the council in

1593-572: The DCPS website. For the school year ending in spring 2007, the DCPS was governed by the District of Columbia State Board of Education , with eleven members, including two students who had the right to debate but not to vote. Five members were elected, and the Mayor appointed four. The board established DCPS policies and employed a superintendent to serve as chief executive officer of the school district, responsible for day-to-day operations. Four board members represented specific geographical boundaries, and

1652-480: The District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973. The Department of Education that was established under the Mayor triggered several changes. The largest was already discussed—DCPCS gained sole authority over chartering and chartered schools, DCPS became subordinate to the Mayor's office. Secondly, many more minor authoritative changes took place. The first is that the State Education Office (SEO) became

1711-631: The District used the summative assessment called the District of Columbia Comprehensive Assessment System ("DC CAS") through the 2013–2014 school year, after which it switched to tools from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers ( PARCC ) and the National Center and State Collaborative (NCSC). Many schools fail to meet AYP, even though DCPS educators offer support and tools to students to be academically successful. DCPS has created an evaluation tool to assess schools by more than their standardized test scores. They call this

1770-418: The Mayor direct DCPS to establish planning processes for strikes and look to performance reviews from central offices to strengthen accountability. These recommendations were followed, and accountability has increased through academic and financial report generation. Increased accountability made way for other small reforms. One example is implementing a requirement that students entering ninth grade sit down with

1829-666: The Mayor's proposal. H.R. 2080 was passed by the United States House of Representatives under an expedited procedure on May 8, 2007, by a voice vote. After three U.S. Senators ( Ben Cardin of Maryland, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, and Carl Levin of Michigan) initially placed "holds" on the bill to prevent its consideration in the United States Senate , the Senate agreed to pass H.R. 2080 without amendment on May 22, 2007, by unanimous consent. On May 31, 2007,

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1888-494: The State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). The four subsections of the District were reaffirmed through location-based State Board of Education selectees. In addition, the smaller eight school election wards were reaffirmed. Finally, the commission was established through this legislature. The "Commission" is the Interagency Collaboration and Services Integration Commission, which includes the Mayor, Chair of

1947-539: The alignment of DCPS standards and the "DC CAS Alt", the assessment for students with cognitive disabilities. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, DCPS had a budget of $ 1.2 billion and spent $ 29,409 per pupil in FY 2009–10. In 1989–90, DCPS reported spending $ 10,200 (1999 adj. dollars) per pupil. A decade later, in 1999–2000, its reported per-pupil expenditures had increased to $ 11,500. However, those figures likely underreport DCPS's actual total per-pupil expenditures. In 2012,

2006-545: The auspices of the Department of Education examined the impacts of the OSP students, finding that it raised graduation rates. Students who were offered vouchers had a graduation rate of 82%, while those who used their vouchers had a graduation rate of 91%. By comparison, the rate for students who did not receive vouchers was only 70%. The study received the Department of Education's highest rating for scientific rigor. Over 90% of

2065-409: The benefits of a single point of accountability and the power of sustained, aligned leadership. On the point of accountability, supporters of mayoral control point to the extremely low turnout for often off-cycle school board elections as evidence of the lack of school board accountability and relevance. Expounding on this point, Finn and Keegan point out that in districts under mayoral control, "there

2124-530: The bill was presented to the President, and President Bush signed H.R. 2080 into law on June 1, 2007. After the standard Congressional review period expired on June 12, 2007, the Mayor's office had direct control of the Superintendent and the school budget. On June 12, Mayor Fenty appointed Michelle Rhee the new Chancellor, replacing Superintendent Clifford B. Janey . In January 2004, Congress passed

2183-625: The connection between strong mayoral involvement and student achievement outright, researchers at the Institute on Education Law and Policy at Rutgers University— Newark "were unable to establish conclusively that the change in governance had any causal relationship to improved performance, or that, using nationally normed test data, our [mayoral controlled] cities had greater improvements than anywhere else". Additionally, an analysis of top-down market-based reform efforts in three mayoral controlled cities, Chicago, New York City and Washington DC, indicate

2242-496: The efforts "deliver few benefits, often harm the students they purport to help, and divert attention from a set of other, less visible policies with more promise to weaken the link between poverty and low educational attainment." Alternatively, a 2013 study by researchers at the Center for American Progress found that, of the eleven districts governed by some degree of mayoral leadership, five made substantial improvement in narrowing

2301-443: The fact that the board had also excluded Anderson. "As far as the high-school auditorium is concerned," Hurston declared "to jump the people responsible for racial bias would be to accuse and expose the accusers themselves. The District of Columbia has no home rule; it is controlled by congressional committees, and Congress at the time was overwhelmingly Democratic. It was controlled by the very people who were screaming so loudly against

2360-461: The former high school campus in September of that year. District of Columbia Public Schools The District of Columbia Public Schools ( DCPS ) is the local public school system for Washington, D.C. It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter schools in the city. DCPS is the sole public school district in the District of Columbia. As of 2013, DCPS consisted of 111 of

2419-422: The frequent turnover in board membership and the shifting winds of local interests. In cities where the mayors provide job stability for superintendents and focus the energy of the public and private sectors of a city on designated education priorities, the theory goes that more will be accomplished in areas ranging from improving student achievement to ensuring sound fiscal management. In Boston, for instance, it

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2478-609: The head of the school system, called the CEO , superintendent or chancellor. Also known as integrated governance , mayoral control of schools is in contrast to the structure it replaces: an elected board that governs schools independently from the formal influence of the mayor. Mayors govern the school districts in two of the United States' three largest cities: Chicago (since 1995) and New York City (since 2002). Mayors also control various other medium-to-large districts as well, including District of Columbia Public Schools . According to

2537-450: The lack of transparency that accompanies appointed school boards . Comparing appointed school boards to the board malfeasance in private sector companies such as Enron points to the danger of having a single-minded board take control of any entity. Overall, the question of whether to elect or appoint boards of education requires a thoughtful consideration of the "appropriate balance" between responsiveness and responsibility. Perhaps

2596-491: The mid-20th century, most shifts from elected to appointed school boards took place after 1990. Starting in the 1990s, mayoral control was viewed by its supporters as a way to address the chronic underperformance and jumpstart reforms in medium to large urban districts. The first major urban district to move toward mayoral control of schools was Boston, where, in 1991, the Massachusetts governor and legislature approved

2655-492: The most important piece of evidence in the debate between the proponents and opponents of mayoral control is whether mayoral control has measurable impacts on student achievement. After collecting and analyzing the research on school board effectiveness produced over the past twenty-five years, scholar Deborah Land concluded that there is "not yet convincing evidence that appointment of school board members produces…greater academic achievement." Similarly, while unwilling to dismiss

2714-417: The origins of a system in which lay individuals were given the authority to govern their local schools dates back more than 200 years. From the inception of school boards, there was skepticism about the ability of distant politicians to see and meet the needs of local neighborhoods when it came to education. As a result, boards of education were morphed over time to ensure maximum local control of schools. It

2773-569: The plan could be brought into effect in 2007, a court ruled that it violated the California Constitution . In Detroit in the late 1990s, a reform board appointed by the mayor and governor replaced the elected board of education in response to allegations of mismanagement. This reform was reversed in city referendum in 2005 which reinstated an elected school board. Proponents of mayoral control point to two major reasons for shifting from an elected to appointed governance structure:

2832-477: The public schools under the direct control of the Mayor's Office upon taking office in January 2007. However, this reform to District of Columbia Public Schools was encouraged by his predecessor and constituents at large. It also placed all of the District of Columbia public charter schools under the care of a new board—the District of Columbia Public Charter School Board (PCSB). Although these schools were previously

2891-516: The right to appoint the head of schools in June 2002. Despite limited reach, there are a plethora of mayoral controlled governance structures. In Chicago, the mayor appoints the CEO (superintendent) as well as the entire school board. In Washington, DC , the mayor has power to directly select the chancellor, who must be confirmed by the city council. All D.C. state board of education members are elected but

2950-435: The school district's public school students were on track to graduate in 2018 after the school system began to adhere to stricter attendance policies. Mayoral control of schools Mayoral control of schools is governance over American schools based on the business model, in which the mayor of a city replaces an elected board of education (school board) with an appointed board. The mayor may also directly appoint

3009-417: The schools within their cities. His support is also rooted in a belief that one point of accountability—the mayor—is far more effective than accountability spread across an elected board of education model. The second major rationale used to support mayoral control is the power of sustained, aligned leadership. The average tenure of urban superintendents is less than four years—an unfortunate consequence of

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3068-400: The state average. Under Teacher Leadership Innovation (TLI), experienced teachers can apply for specialized positions in which they spend at least 50% of their time teaching in the classroom and the rest of the time coaching other teachers and leading school teams. DCPS has more than 4,000 teachers as of July 2024. Within DCPS, schools are classified as either a "neighborhood school" or

3127-494: The state board of education acts in a largely advisory capacity to the district education agency. New York’s mayor also has the power to select the head of schools, in addition to appointing eight of thirteen school board members. In Boston, the mayor’s powers extend only to appointing a committee from a list of nominees. It is this appointed board that is entrusted with the job of selecting a superintendent of schools. According to scholar Deborah Land of Johns Hopkins University ,

3186-488: The study's participants were African American, and most of the remainder were Latino American. Further research found that students who received vouchers were 25% more likely to enroll in college than students with similar demographic characteristics who did not receive vouchers. In 1939, writing on behalf of the Board of Education of the District of Columbia now the District of Columbia State Board of Education , Ballou denied

3245-668: The time the school was in operation, about 41% of its students planned to attend colleges and universities. Luther Jackson was a scholar who researched the Readjusters , a Black majority political party that led Virginia under William Mahone from 1879 to 1883. The high school served as the counterpart to the then- Whites only Falls Church High School before closing in 1965 once the Fairfax School District had racially integrated. Luther Jackson Intermediate School, now known as Luther Jackson Middle School , opened on

3304-524: Was 67% Black , 17% Hispanic (of any race) , 12% non-Hispanic White , and 4% of other races. As of 2014, the District itself has a population that is 44% White (includes White Hispanics ), 49% Black and 10% Hispanic (of any race) . Gentrification and demographic changes in many DC neighborhoods has increased the White and Hispanic populations in the city, while reducing the Black population. In 2008, DCPS

3363-443: Was 84.4% Black , 9.4% Hispanic (of any race) , 4.6% non-Hispanic White , and 1.6% of other races. Facilities reform legislation in the District of Columbia has led to many school openings and closings. As of the 2020–2021 school year, there were 49,896 students and 4,335.12 classroom teachers. As of 2020, the student-to-teacher ratio was 11.51, improved from 13.5 in 2006–07. Student enrollment had peaked at 72,850 students, with

3422-405: Was also restructured, and the District was placed under the control of the Mayor . In 2010 about 38% of Washington, D.C. public school students attended 60 charter schools . There are 52 public charter schools in the District, with 93 campuses and 30,000 students. The total number of public charter schools has been reduced from 60 schools on 96 campuses in 2008–09 to 53 schools on 98 campuses as of

3481-468: Was believed that separating governance of schools from state and local elected officials was the best way to realize the Progressive Era vision of schools protected from politics. The trend toward mayoral control represents a reversal of this trend, with arguments for and against discussed in a later section. While mayoral control in some cities such as Jackson, Mississippi , has existed since

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