Nowhere is that more evident than in the gap — the nation’s largest, according to the federal analysis — between black and white students. D.C. is unusual in that its schools enroll relatively few poor white students. As Michael Casserly of the Council of Great City Schools observed, the gap in the District is more of an income divide.
That’s precisely why the experience of standout charter schools is so relevant. Achievement Preparatory Academy PCS, with 86.2 percent of its students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, for example, or Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom PCS, with 79.1 percent of students qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches, can help show how to overcome the obstacles posed by poverty.
One big advantage that charter schools offer low-income children is more time in school. An extended school day, weekend classes, a longer school year and summer instruction are tools that successful charters have used to lift students disadvantaged by a home life that doesn’t include educational support. D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson told us that officials are examining ways to elongate the school day for students who are in most need of added class time. Another advantage of charter schools is flexibility in basic school management such as, for instance, requiring teachers to submit weekly lesson plans to principals, a practice inhibited by the public schools’ contract with the teachers union.
The national results mirror earlier state tests suggesting a slowing in the pace of improvement as officials confront the more intractable ills of urban education. That calls for bigger thinking and bolder action, not for backing down.