Jack Jacobson - Greater Greater Washington

Proposed graduation requirements lack transparency

Thu, 04 Oct 2012 10:21:00 EDT

The DC State Board of Education's proposed new graduation requirements include many worthwhile proposals. However, some changes are more troubling, and the report does not give parents and other members of the public enough information to really comment.

Photo by clevercupcakes on Flickr.

Social studies courses will decline

In social studies, the board recommends reducing the requirement from 4 units to 3 units overall, given that "only 2 units [are] typically required for college entrance." The 3 units must include a unit of combined World History/Global Studies, a combined unit of US History/Government, a half unit of DC History/Civics, and a half unit of student choice.

The report does not discuss what reducing social studies requirements by 25% means for teachers. DCPS currently employs 148 full-time secondary social studies teachers and another 95 teachers who teach at least part-time social studies.

Nathan Saunders, President of the Washington Teachers Union, also has concerns with the proposed reduction in social studies requirements. Saunders says, "I am a certified high school social studies teacher myself, and our increasingly complex world makes social studies more important, not less important. Furthermore, social studies teaches valuable conflict resolution skills."

Fewer electives deprive students

Under the proposal, students will only be able to take an elective course in 6 semesters of their 4-year high school careers. That means one full year will include no elective courses at all.

This is a worrisome development. Students need to learn how to make well-informed decisions and that their decisions (such as course selection) have real-world consequences for career or college preparation. If a student only wishes to fulfill the minimum number of units required to graduate, the proposal unwisely limits course options that could motivate or inspire students to continue learning.

Reasons for changes are sketchy at best

Most disappointing is the lack of an accompanying analysis or a formal report for the public, parents, and guardians on how the proposed changes will improve student achievement. The report only gives at most 8 words of explanation for any of the changes.

The reason for cutting required social studies courses? "Only 2 units typically required for college entrance." The reason for another year of arts? "Promotes well-rounded students."

Does social studies not promote well-rounded students? How many years of arts are required for college? There may be good reasons for these changes, but the board does not give them. It should provide detailed rationale for each change and only then initiate a formal public comment period.

Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) spokesperson Brandon Frazier said that the current request for public comment is not "the official public comment period." Frazier says that OSSE will "provide context behind the graduation requirements" in advance of an "October 2012-February 2013 public engagement timeline."

Holding public meetings on the proposed changes is also only the first step in persuading the District to embrace the proposal. Most parents don't have time to attend Board of Education meetings, and are unable to engage with the proposed changes without knowing the reasons for them.

OSSE and the State Board of Education are currently accepting public comments on these proposed changes to the high school graduation requirements. Anyone wishing to comment on the proposal can email osse.comments@dc.gov. OSSE will propose rules based on the State Board's recommendations in October 2012; a final rule will be adopted in November or December.

7 comments

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DC may tighten school graduation requirements

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:16:00 EDT

by Jack Jacobson

The DC State Board of Education this summer released a proposal to update graduation requirements for DC public school students. Many of the proposed changes have merit. Others seem overly prescriptive and raise some questions which the board does not explain in its report.

Photo by Sarah Ross photography on Flickr.

The proposal is the culmination of a year of intense behind-the-scenes work and public meetings by the Board and staff at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Students will have to take some advanced mathematics, more visual or performing arts, and physical education.

Students will also need to take some college preparatory courses and complete a thesis or culminating project. These proposals have merit, though there are ways they can serve students' future even better, and they raise some questions about how DC schools will staff programs and prepare students for the requirements at many middle schools.

2 units of required world languages stays the same under the proposal, and the number of required english, math, and science units holds steady at 4 units each. A half unit is a semester, so 4 units is 4 full years of each subject. 4 years of each, according to the Board's discussion document, is a national best practice and a requirement for most colleges.

Other requirements decline, including social studies and opportunities for electives, which pose some cause for worry that I will discuss in part 2.

Include financial literacy in mathematics

Students can receive credit for advanced mathematics courses they previously took in middle school. The high school math requirements will include one unit "above Algebra II or its equivalent," basically a calculus, trigonometry, or other challenging mathematics course.

While this higher math requirement will promote critical thinking and analysis for students, it could be more useful to offer many students a personal financial literacy course that can count as a mathematics unit.

Students leaving high school without a "real world" math class to ensure financial literacy does a disservice to all students, whether they go on to college or not. Most students entering college leave high school with little understanding of how student loans work, how expensive college and living expenses are, and how easy it is to get mired in an endless cycle of credit card debt.

Students directly entering the workforce following high school need to know how to put a household budget together, how to save for major purchases, and, again, how easy it is to obtain credit and how difficult high-interest credit is to pay off. For many DCPS students, high school is the last opportunity they have to learn personal finance best practices.

Arts gets a boost, but depends on more teachers and programs at more schools

The board has proposed increasing requirements in several areas, including combining art and music into a single category and increasing requirements from a half unit of each—for a one unit total—to a combined 2 units of "Visual/Performing Arts."

The only rationale the report gives for this increase is that it "promotes well-rounded students." There is no analysis about whether DCPS will be able to hire enough qualified high school music and art teachers by next year to augment the roughly 100 art and 100 music teachers currently teaching at DCPS high schools.

As a student of music and arts myself, I agree that increasing music and arts knowledge and appreciation makes for a more well-rounded graduate. However, some DCPS middle schools do not offer their students music courses, such as the 110 students at Shaw Middle School at Garnet Patterson, or the 50 or so middle school students at CHOICE Academy.

DCPS needs to establish effective, permanent art and music programs at all DC middle schools before mandating 2 full units of art and music courses for high school graduation. Recent DC Council legislation introduced by Councilmember Jack Evans is a good start to correcting this problem.

It might also be more effective and demonstrate to students the interplay between divergent subject areas if some course offerings fulfilled multiple graduation requirement units. There is a direct link between music and mathematics, for instance. A robust music theory course, heavy on mathematics, could conceivably fulfill both music and math requirements, assisting the student in understanding the importance of each aspect of the course to the other subject area.

By tying more subjects to each other through "joint" or "dual" courses and demonstrating to students the importance of their interplay and interdependence, DCPS will produce better students that more fully comprehend the real world interaction of divergent subjects and issues.

More physical education promotes health

The board has also proposed increasing "Physical and Health Education" requirements from 1.5 units to 2 units, to support the Healthy Schools Act and promote physical health. Of the 2 units proposed, a half unit would need to be in health education, and the other 1.5 units would be in physical education, which can include PE classes, team sport participation, or Junior ROTC. Students must also engage in 50 hours of physical activity annually to graduate.

Obesity and preventable diseases continue to plague Washingtonians. Our children have the highest obesity rate in the country at 23%, and a 2010 study found 14,465 DC residents infected with HIV, a full 2.7% of our population and among the highest of any US city. With these stats, it's difficult to dispute this proposed increase.

Students will take college preparatory courses and complete a major project

The proposal will require each student earn at least 2 of the 24 required units through courses that appear on the approved DCPS 'College Level or Career Prep' list. The board hopes this will promote college and career readiness.

For the first time, DCPS students will receive credit for courses taken at regional colleges and universities, a vital step to fully preparing students for college. Guilford County, NC, has produced a successful model for early/middle college preparation that has paid dividends in increasing graduation rates and student achievement.

Allowing our students to earn credit for college courses taken in high school provides students better preparation for college, offers them more elective courses, and continues to challenge those exceptional students who are ready earlier than their peers to participate in a college/university experience.

The same justification—college and career readiness—underlies a new recommendation that students complete a "Thesis/Culminating Project" in the junior or senior year. This would compel students to think critically, broadly, and intensely on a major project. It also provides students an opportunity to experience first-hand what is required in terms of comprehensive research, analysis, and writing in today's global workforce.

It's not clear if DC schools will prepare all students during their freshman and sophomore years to complete a research- and writing-intense thesis project their junior or senior year. If the courses offered to freshmen and sophomores do not offer enough direction, instruction, and preparation, a student may not be able to complete the culminating project. It's also still unclear as to what would qualify as a culminating project and how they would be graded.

That's not all that's still unclear from the report. In part 2, I'll discuss some of the changes which cause concern, and the problems with the information the board has provided parents and the public.

4 comments

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Is there a good alternative to liquor moratoriums?

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 12:15:00 EDT

by Jack Jacobson

Are liquor moratoriums the only way to address issues of peace, order, and quiet in certain neighborhoods, or are there more creative and more effective ways to address noise and traffic issues without stifling commerce or customer choices through public policy?

Photo by MattHurst on Flickr.

Dupont Circle has been struggling with this issue for over 20 years. It instituted the first liquor license moratorium on 17th Street in 1990. There are now also moratorium zones in Georgetown, West Dupont (P Street), and Adams Morgan.

A moratorium zone limits the number of liquor licenses in an area. These were first established to ensure peace, order, and quiet. To a a lesser extent (though equally important to many people), they also address traffic and parking issues and ensure affordable retail space can exist.

Moratorium zones were originally considered temporary. What happens when a moratorium ends?

After over twenty years of experience dealing with moratorium zones, neither the City Council, local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs), the Alcoholic Beverage Regulatory Administration, nor the Department of Transportation have moved to implement any rules or adjust fees to prepare for lifting any moratorium.

In 2009, when the East Dupont (17th Street) moratorium was last renewed, several members of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board stressed that moratoriums were not designed to be a permanent solution to peace, order, and quiet, traffic and parking, and retail space issues. Board members implied that this last three-year extension of the Dupont East moratorium would likely be the last, and that the Dupont ANC should take other proactive steps to address noise, traffic, and economic development issues.

Below are some measures that city agencies, the Council, and the ANC could pursue to address the issues that led to the moratorium zone in the first place. This list is by no means exhaustive, and not all are politically (or financially) viable. But in Dupont, many would like to address the true issues that led to enacting these blanket moratoriums so that we are prepared when a moratorium is eventually, and inevitably, allowed to expire.

Install additional Capital Bikeshare stations and personal racks to provide alternatives to cars, which produce traffic and parking issues.
Direct the Homeland Security and Management Agency to study alternate emergency routes to reduce siren noise (if a re-designation would have no adverse effects on safety).
Designate the main thoroughfare as a "No Buses" route to reduce heavy traffic and noise.
Designate former moratorium zones as "retail incubation zones" and provide a tax credit for hard-goods retails or retail service providers, which would put non-licensed establishments on a more even financial footing with more profitable liquor-serving establishments.
Increase the fees for endorsements (including entertainment endorsements, sidewalk cafe/summer garden) and overall license fees in post-moratorium zones. Utilize the revenue for additional ABRA inspectors. Post-moratorium fees could gradually reset to the normal fee after five years or so.
Increase the fees for outdoor cafes in post-moratorium zones. Increased fees could go to more inspectors, or to install additional bike racks or other alternative transportation measures, such as spaces for Zipcars. Post-moratorium fees could gradually reset.

The East Dupont (17th Street) moratorium zone could be an excellent test case for addressing noise, traffic, and economic development issues through these and other measures in the absence of a moratorium. We're seeking input on these initiatives, and suggestions for additional activities that could take place at the council, ANC, and agency levels.

If successful, similar plans could be instituted in other moratorium zones around the city, bringing retail diversity, quieter streets, and consumer choices while addressing actual problems without a one-size-fits-all moratorium approach.

22 comments

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How can DC fix the liquor license process? (Nov 30, 2010)
Knee-jerk liquor license opposition undercuts credibility (Jul 19, 2010)
Make liquor licenses collaborative, not adversarial (Dec 17, 2010)
A liquor license reveals challenges with living on the border (Apr 11, 2011)