Students Face New Learning Standards

By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 24, 2006

Students returning to school Monday will get the first taste of the D.C. school system's new science and social studies learning standards, which are aimed at immediately introducing more rigor into the classroom and ultimately new textbooks, standardized tests and even upgraded science labs.

The learning standards, outlining what students should know and be able to do at each grade level, are among many new policies and initiatives slated to be launched this year. The changes, school officials say, are intended to boost student achievement, increase the level of parental involvement in the schools and improve efficiency for teachers and administrators.

Students this year also will be offered an expanded array of enrichment programs, giving them more opportunities to participate in math and chess clubs and polish their academic skills after school and during holiday breaks. The school system will open the first three of five planned resource centers for parents, offering them such services as job training and courses on improving their children's achievement.

And, in an attempt to reduce the dropout rate, ninth-graders for the first time will be required to devise graduation plans outlining a schedule for completing their studies.

Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is seeking to begin Phase 2 of his plan to overhaul instruction, introducing new science and social-studies standards for students in kindergarten to grade 12. Last year, in Phase 1, the system introduced new reading and math standards, reading and math textbooks and a new assessment aligned to the new materials.

As required by the federal No Child Left Behind law, students will be tested on the new science and social-studies standards in 2007-08. They will not receive new science and social-studies textbooks until fall 2007. School officials are giving themselves a year to order all the textbooks, attempting to avoid last year's fiasco, when a late spring order triggered significant delays -- in some cases up to three months -- at numerous schools.

The new science standards, modeled on those from Indiana, will focus more on experiments and hands-on learning, replacing the existing standards that emphasize book learning. The new science standards, according to school officials, will not teach creationism.

Michael Kaspar, the system's director of science, said the lessons will incorporate more outdoor activities, field trips and experts such as biologists who study the Chesapeake Bay.

Science instruction will be more "self-learning, self-exploration," said Chief Academic Officer Hilda L. Ortiz, adding that students will do more "testing their own theories."

The social-studies standards, adapted from those in Massachusetts and California, will emphasize geography and world history. Schools will phase in classroom changes over the next few years.

In acknowledgment of the significance of international events, 10th-graders this year will begin focusing on modern world history rather than ancient world history. "Globalization is here. Our kids have to be able to understand the larger world community," said Jesse Nickelson, social studies coordinator.

In the next few years, secondary schools will concentrate more on geography, Nickelson said. In the ninth grade, students will take world history and geography separately rather than as a combined course. D.C. history will be moved from the ninth to 12th grade.

This year, teachers of social studies will prepare for the upcoming changes by tying their lessons more to visits to museums, art exhibits and historic sites in the region, Nickelson said.

During spring break, 14 low-performing schools offered a voluntary camp for students who wanted to practice for the April assessment. School officials say the concept was so successful that they plan to expand the programs offered after school and during winter break -- art, music and technology camps.

"We're looking to extend the learning any time schools are [traditionally] closed," said Gayle Amos, assistant superintendent for differentiated learning.

Ortiz said schools will offer more math and chess clubs.

For the first time, high school freshmen will be required to develop an "individual graduation plan" -- an outline of the sequence of courses they need to earn a diploma. The plan is part of an effort to reduce the dropout rate; although school officials do not have an accurate rate calculated, some experts estimate it to be as high as 45 percent.

Over the summer, the senior high schools offered a "summer bridge" program for incoming ninth-graders who wanted to learn note-taking and study tips and improve their math and reading skills.

In their individual graduation plans, students will determine "this is where I want to go and how I will get there," Ortiz said. "We're taking the guesswork out of graduating."

The school system this year will open three parent resource centers -- in Wards 1, 7 and 8 -- places where parents can obtain information on school policies and community services such as adult education and health programs. The first center will open in the fall and the others later in the year. Eventually, the school system intends to open five parent centers.

"We want to engage parents so they can help their children do better in school. Where you have parents involved in their children's education, you have higher levels of achievement," said Absalom Jordan, who has a son at Stuart-Hobson Middle School on Capitol Hill and is on the steering committee for the parent centers.

"We want to help them understand what test scores mean; we'll teach them to help their children do their homework, and we'll encourage them to be more involved in school," Jordan added.

The steering committee has not yet determined the locations of the parent centers. But it has decided that they will not be located in school buildings, said Michelle J. Walker, the system's chief of strategic planning and policy who is working on the project.

To stem the flow of students to charter schools, Janey and the Washington Teachers' Union are teaming up in an experiment that will attempt to introduce innovation in up to 10 schools. In the last five years, 10,000 students have left the traditional public schools for charter schools.

The pilot calls for the introduction of 10 semi-autonomous schools geared toward rigor and innovation. The school system is soliciting proposals from teachers and principals who are interested in establishing new schools or converting existing ones to fit the concept.

The school system and union said they will agree to exempt the schools from some regulations and union rules so that they can become like charter schools, which are publicly funded and independently operated.

If the pilot program works, officials said they may allow more schools to become semi-autonomous.

"The innovative schools project is designed to provide opportunities for teachers, administrators and other supportive local school stakeholders to take a think-outside-the- box collaborative approach," said George Parker, president of the Washington Teachers' Union.

"Increased school autonomy," he said, "can yield positive results in our efforts to promote high-quality teaching and learning in all D.C. Public Schools."