D.C. commissions a schools analysis

The Gray administration has commissioned an Illinois firm with close ties to the charter school movement to study how D.C. neighborhoods are served by the public education system and help officials decide which schools should be closed and where new ones might be opened.

The study by the Illinois Facilities Fund is the strongest signal yet that Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) is prepared to treat charter schools — which are publicly funded but independently operated — as full partners in a reform effort that was heavily focused on traditional schools during the tenure of his predecessor, Adrian M. Fenty (D). About 40 percent of the 75,000 D.C. public school students attend charter schools.

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D.C. officials also will use the analysis, expected to be completed by mid-October, to guide what may be a significant round of school closures next year. The city has more than 40 traditional schools with less than 300 students apiece. Chancellor Kaya Henderson called the IFF study a potential “game changer” and acknowledged that it could lead to a smaller traditional public school system and further expansion of the fast-growing charter sector.

“If it helps us to better deliver on the promise of a great education for every child in every neighborhood in the city, I’m willing to change the game,” Henderson said Thursday. She succeeded Michelle A. Rhee last fall as head of the school system.

It will also help assess a proposal for a new middle school in Northwest Washington promoted by council member Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3).

IFF, a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, said it will conduct what amounts to a supply-and-demand analysis. It will look at the distribution across neighborhoods of seats in what it calls “performing” public schools — those that meet D.C. academic standards — comparing it with the population of school-age children in those areas. It will then rank neighborhood needs according to school performance, demographics, enrollment and building capacity.

It is a rare instance of the city forming educational plans by looking at both public sectors — traditional and charter — as one. Deputy Mayor for Education De’Shawn Wright, whose office is responsible for school facility needs, said he pushed for the study because the city needs a clearer picture of how it should proceed.

Wright also said he hoped to use the findings to guide decision-making by the D.C. Public Charter School Board, which authorizes the opening of charter schools.

“For the first time ever, we want to give them some front-line guidance about what the districtwide needs are,” Wright said. There are 53 public charter schools on 99 campuses, the heaviest concentration in any U.S. city outside of New Orleans. Thirty-six of the campuses are in Wards 7 and 8, east of the Anacostia River. Those communities also have most of the District’s lowest-performing and underenrolled traditional schools.

The study’s genesis could make it controversial in a city where public school advocates say that heavy private and corporate support for charter schools threatens to marginalize the 123-school public system.