Official Details Smaller Schools
Parents' Options Would Rise, Says Pr. George's Chief

By Nelson Hernandez
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Prince George's Superintendent John E. Deasy acknowledges that his proposal to reorganize the county school system is a work in progress, ambitious and maybe even a bit daunting. But if he has his way, his plan to add contract schools will offer choices he believes county parents have never had.

At a Board of Education work session tonight, Deasy will present plans to open dozens of the small, specialized schools over the next several years. The proposed contract schools are part of an effort to improve academic performance in the struggling 134,000-student system; to give parents a choice in their child's education; to lure students from private schools back to the public school system; and to keep other students from leaving or dropping out.

The schools would serve students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, and each would have no more than 300 or 400 students. Located in nontraditional settings or unused wings of schools, they would use a variety of education methods: single-sex instruction, language immersion, specialized courses in different fields or a combination of the programs, Deasy said. Some could operate as "middle college high schools," where students can acquire enough credits to complete their first year of college.

The small schools would not replace existing schools and should not be seen as a quick fix to such system troubles as low test scores and high dropout rates, Deasy said. He remains unclear about how much the program would cost.

"Smallness alone isn't the issue," Deasy said. "Smallness is a condition under which things like deep relationships can form between kids and adults, or kids can't become anonymous or disappear. . . . It's the other things that are necessary -- high-quality instruction, students learning different ways. It's our responsibility to reach for those."

Deasy said creating the schools would take a few years. "You're going to need a year of planning. . . . In three or so years, I'd hope to see several, if not many," schools open, he said. The first order of business, he said, is to hammer out the details of the plan with the newly elected school board, which took office last month.

Board members' early reaction to the plan has been positive, but they are waiting for more details to review it. County Executive Jack B. Johnson (D) said he is supportive of the initiative and had met with Deasy to discuss it.

If the board approves his proposal, Deasy said, a committee composed of some school board members, school staff and community advisory members would recommend types of schools. A request also would be issued for organizations to run the recommended schools.

All plans would have to meet board requirements, and the board would choose the best fit. The schools still would have to meet state academic standards.

Although contract schools seem to resemble charter schools, several of which have been established in Maryland, Deasy said, the two concepts are different.

Charter schools generally arise from groups of parents or organizations that present proposals to local school boards, which accept or reject them. With contract schools, the ideas would come from the school system.

Some charter schools have quarreled with their local school boards and the state Department of Education over the appropriate level of funding per pupil. Officials at some charter schools have said they have been denied money for transportation and special services, and administrators have said the schools' academic results have not always justified their existence.

Deasy said that the contract schools would receive the same amount of funding per pupil as every other public school and that if they fail to deliver on academic performance, their contracts would not be extended.

School system officials also would help with the placement and hiring of teachers. The teachers would operate as school system staff but would work only for the program with which they were affiliated.

Deasy said that the application process is "not fully flushed out" but that entrance would not depend on test scores or race. "The idea is it would be their choice so that the parents who desire to be in that program would make an application. And I suppose to be the fairest, there would be a lottery," he said. "We'll be glad to refine it."

Too many applicants for a school would be a signal to open another one, Deasy said.

"We want them to be small, receptive new schools," Deasy said. "If you've got three times the population, what you want is three schools, not one big school."

Staff writer Rosalind S. Helderman contributed to this report.