Posts tagged Schools
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Can DC’s public schools survive the coming enrollment surge?
The wave of kids hitting the city in the next decade will be unlike anything the city has seen in half a century. And its public school system might not be ready to accommodate them. Keep reading…
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Montgomery County may ban new homes to try to address lack of school capacity
Montgomery County will place four school clusters under a one-year housing moratorium beginning July 1. So, homes in the process of being permitted or built won't be. This isn't likely to help school crowding, though it is likely to make it more expensive to live in Montgomery County. Keep reading…
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Gaithersburg illustrates how school capacity tests make sprawl worse
Several years ago Gaithersburg adopted an ordinance to ensure that infrastructure keeps up with growth. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, the law turned out to be counterproductive, as it damaged the city’s ability to grow in the right places. Keep reading…
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Candidates for Prince William County chair face off, as the political climate shifts left
Prince William County has recently swung more Democratic, with only one Republican winning in a major statewide election since George W. Bush in 2004. For the first time since the position was created in 1991, the county chair will have no incumbent running in a general election. Keep reading…
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Soon you can use 311 to request repairs at public schools and recreation centers
It's about to get much easier to request repairs for broken equipment at DC public schools and recreation centers. In this year’s budget, the DC Council fully funded the addition of DC Public Schools (DCPS) and Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) facility maintenance requests to the city’s existing 311 system. Keep reading…
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DC students are more likely to attend schools that are economically diverse than racially diverse
DC’s racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic demographics are changing, but are these demographic changes reflected in DC’s public schools? Keep reading…
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The acoustics of public meeting rooms don’t invite participation
Recreation centers and schools are where a lot of important decisions of local government are made. Next to street fairs and festivals, they’re also the most likely places where people can come together to talk about and talk to their government and representatives. Unfortunately, many of these rooms are some of the worst-designed spaces for public dialogue. Keep reading…
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Montgomery County says no new homes in Silver Spring because the schools are full
For decades, school planners assumed that families would move out to the suburbs once they had kids, and made projections for where and how to build new schools based on that. But as that trend begins to shift, Montgomery County is finding school enrollment harder to predict, which creates new challenges in and out of the classroom. Keep reading…
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These 10 DC schools are making big gains with at-risk students. Why aren’t they more popular?
When test scores are announced in the District of Columbia, some public schools are high-fliers every year. They’re the schools that families clamor to get into, and they tend to be in the city’s most affluent neighborhoods, where students come to school with loads of advantages. However, there are other high-achieving schools that we should be paying attention to. Keep reading…
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Are bad boundaries spurring inequality in Montgomery schools?
Montgomery County public schools have been growing at an incredible rate and show no sign of abating. Instead of adjusting boundaries to allow a more equal distribution of students, the county is building additions in its over-capacity and less-wealthy schools. Keep reading…
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School choice can mean trade-offs for families, like an early trek across the city
DC is one of many cities that have expanded school choice options in recent years, through policies such as inter- and intradistrict choice, the growth of charter schools, and tax credit scholarships or vouchers for private schools. But new choices can also mean trade-offs for families, and the school that best meets a family's needs might be on the other side of town. Keep reading…
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DC’s old school and church buildings are getting a new life
We should applaud projects that aim to repurpose closed churches and schools for the benefit of the larger community, and recognize that such efforts can take many forms. Keep reading…
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This video shows you how to pick a good school
Websites and rankings can only tell you so much. If you're curious about a school, schedule a visit, meet with the principal, or talk to neighbors whose kids attend. Keep reading…
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Why trade play space for parking when both are possible?
Many of DC’s elementary and middle schools have both fewer parking spaces than a work site of their size would often have, and less play space per student than experts recommend. However, there is a mutually beneficial solution. Keep reading…
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DC’s charter schools are sharply segregated. Here’s what we should we do about the racial and economic divide.
In order to build a more diverse student body, successful local schools have focused on the deeper issues driving segregation. They've also created a space for parents to have honest and uncomfortable discussions about identity and race. Keep reading…
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How can we close our persistent education achievement gaps in DC?
Despite overall college-readiness gains, race and income-level gaps have actually grown in the most DC student test scores. What should the city do to address this problem? Keep reading…
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To find top DC public schools look beyond demographics, new analysis says
Results on last spring’s tests challenge common notions about demographics and school quality. Keep reading…
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No longer a rookie to extended class time, H.D. Cooke takes on another extended school year
This year, summer break at eleven DC public schools started a month later than the rest of the public schools in the city. Teachers say the extended school year experiment is working, helping students remember what they've learned in the past year and permitting educators to better reflect and plan. Keep reading…
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DC has over 200 public schools named for people. Here’s how they got their names.
Since the first “modern” DC public school was built in 1864, and promptly named for the mayor who built it, the public school and charter school systems have named 255 schools for individual people. Among them are 32 known slave owners, 10 former slaves, 10 abolitionists, 2 people who joined the Confederacy, 17 civil rights leaders, 26 presidents and 32 mayors or other city officials. Keep reading…
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This school year, let’s teach kids to think critically about their city
With the new school year soon to start, it’s a good time to consider how we are or aren’t, teaching our students to think critically about their city. I teach high schoolers in Northern Virginia, and listening to them, I see how they’re primed to think about driving as “normal” and all other transportation choices as undesirable. Keep reading…