Good day, CharterFolk.
Recording an in-person WonkyFolk interview with Andy and Pat Brantley at Friendship gave me reason to be in DC this week.
It happened to occur in the same week that Pat learned that she is among the new inductees to the National Charter School Hall of Fame!
Talk about a great time to be in DC!
(Be on the lookout for the interview’s release tomorrow.)
All the talk in the city right now is about the inside-the-park grand slam that was hit on Tuesday night.
But for my money, another inside-the-parker achieved that night was even more impressive.
2,000 CharterFolk in the park …
… at Charter School Night!
With Ariel Johnson, CEO of the DC Charter School Alliance, throwing out the first pitch.
Need I mention she threw …
DC’s been the talk of the nation for other reasons of late.
As I covered last week, new reporting has come out showing just how badly academic achievement has languished in most cities across the United States.
But DC, at least as it relates to showing growth relative to other cities, has been hitting a grand slam.
But others focused on raw proficiency percentages deem DC’s performance little better than a swing and a miss.
What better time to be having a conversation with Pat, who helped Andy and me make sense of it all?
Trips to DC always afford me the chance to learn about more amazing schools and amazing school leaders. In the park on Tuesday night was Peter Anderson …
… whose school I had a chance to see last year.
It was a visit that led to Peter writing one of our most compelling Contributor Columns …
… which has now been nominated for a Brian’s Voice Award.
You only have another week left. Get your votes in for your favorites, CharterFolk!
This time around, I had the great privilege of swinging by Statesman College Preparatory Academy for Boys Public Charter School, a grade 4-8 school in Southeast DC that I have been eager to see.
School Co-Founder Dr. Rictor Craig showed me how the school has given new and distinctive expression to the four R’s.
Rarely do I see a charter school making use of its autonomies to create such a completely unique experience for students, including the red carpets that are rolled out before students enter school every day.
Or the morning meetings faculty have every day, or the specialty spaces created for both students and staff, or the hallways lined with pictures of the school’s students themselves, or the 7th-grade trip all students take to Europe, or the 8th-grade trip students take to Africa.
It was, in short, another visit likely to result in Contributor Columns full of ideas that Folk across the country are sure to find of great interest.
I end with another form of charter school presence growing in DC.
Not just in the city’s major league ballpark, but in the major leagues of advocacy and politics.
Earlier this spring I highlighted how the outgoing mayor’s last budget shortchanged charter schools by nearly a couple grand per student. Ariel was quick to announce the charter school world’s objection.
Charter school students in DC are supposed to be guaranteed full funding equity within the city budget. In order to get around it, the mayor proposed directing funding to district schools outside the education budget.
Of the two main candidates for mayor this spring, one is a known, longtime supporter of charter schools.
The other is a self-avowed democratic socialist candidate whose views on charter schools have heretofore not been well known.
But because the DC Alliance’s C4 arm has developed the charter school world’s presence in the political realm, it was possible to put the question to both candidates.
Every dollar should flow through the education budget so that charter schools and district schools receive funding parity, because both charter schools and district schools are public schools.
That, CharterFolk, is what you call yet another perfect strike.