Residents feel mayoral control has muffled the public’s voice in education

Mayoral control of DC’s schools may have speeded reform, but many residents feel they have less input into education decisions than they used to, according to a new report. The report also found that people are worried charter school growth is threatening the stability of DC Public Schools.

Community members interviewed for the report complained that it was often hard to know who to approach for help in DC’s confusing education landscape. They also said communication from education officials is often a one-way process that doesn’t allow the public meaningful influence.

“These are things that make it difficult for stakeholders to access the system,” said Heather Harding, a lead author of the report, which focused on community and family engagement in education. “I think it would be a shame to squander goodwill on the part of citizens who really want to be involved in education around the city.”

In addition, many of those interviewed said they wanted to see greater coordination between the charter sector and DCPS, with charters filling in educational gaps in the overall system rather than competing with traditional public schools.

The report is the product of a research consortium called EdCORE, headed by the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at George Washington University. Harding is EdCORE’s executive director.

The 2007 statute that abolished DC’s local school board and introduced the era of mayoral control—the Public Education Reform Amendment Act, or PERAA—also required regular independent reports on how well the new system was working. The report on community engagement is the fifth in a series of reports in response to that mandate, all of which can be viewed on the website of the DC Auditor.

Harding and her team interviewed 14 officials representing all of DC’s education agencies as well as staff of the DC Council. They also interviewed 14 stakeholders drawn from community parent groups and other education-focused organizations.

Some say mayoral control reduced public engagement

PERAA abolished the local school board and gave the mayor direct power to appoint the chancellor and control DC Public Schools. The rationale was that the board’s political nature made it hard to introduce school reforms. But many of those quoted in the report say that without it, it’s hard for parents and others to be engaged in decisions affecting education.

While the officials interviewed said they do want to engage the community, the report says few could point to specifics about how they would do that. And some were ambivalent about how much engagement they want.

One official said that stakeholders “should have a spot at the ‘proverbial table.’” But the official then added, “Do I mean that while someone is creating a curriculum or a new school that’s opening that a parent should be right at the table while you are writing? No, of course not.”

Concerns about charter growth and integration

One thing the report made clear is that those interviewed were wary of the growth of the charter sector. The stakeholders interviewed saw mayoral control as applying only to DC Public Schools and were frustrated that charter schools weren’t integrated into an overall system.

One stakeholder, echoing DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson, complained that the rapid growth of the charter sector is “cannibalizing” DCPS.

Scott Pearson, executive director of the Public Charter School Board, challenged the report’s even-handedness. “We found it surprisingly biased for what we had expected would be a careful and ideologically neutral process,” he said.

Harding responded that the samples used in the report, while small, were representative. She said researchers interviewed and considered the views of PCSB officials along with those of officials at DCPS, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, the State Board of Education, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, and the newly revived Office of the School Ombudsman.

Of the 14 stakeholders interviewed, two identified as charter advocates and two represented DCPS parent groups, Harding said. The remainder were affiliated with ward-level education councils or District-wide groups.

Harding did acknowledge that DCPS stakeholders were probably more heavily represented among those interviewed than those from the charter community, estimating that the split was about 70% to 30%. In the District as a whole, about 45% of public school students attend charters.

One reason for the over-representation of DCPS stakeholders may be that charter school parents are more likely to be active at the school level than in ward or District-level organizations because charter schools operate with more independence than DCPS.

But Harding said that even if members of the parent groups contacted by her team were more focused on DCPS, they also represented the concerns of charter parents. “They would focus on DCPS as an entity,” she said, “because it was the thing you could grab on to. But if you asked about charters, they would tell you similar things.”

Bright spots include parent home visits and the boundary review process

The report did point to a few bright spots in a generally bleak picture. The model of parent engagement promoted by the Flamboyan Foundation, which includes teacher visits to students’ homes, “has been warmly received throughout the city,” the report said.

Interviewees also praised the school boundary overhaul process led by Deputy Mayor for Education Abigail Smith. They saw it as an unusual instance of genuine two-way communication between a government agency and the public.

Some also saw the revivals of the DC Council’s Committee on Education and the Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education as possible pathways for public input. Others, however, warned that neither of these outlets would be enough.

The report refrained from making any recommendations, but it did conclude that the next mayor “would be well advised to articulate a vision that improves transparency on important decisions” and “assures collaboration.”

The National Research Council will issue a more comprehensive report on the effects of mayoral control in DC in April of next year, Harding said. The NRC will draw on the EdCORE reports in formulating its own evaluation.