The Washington Post - 20.08.2019

B2 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, AUGUST 20 , 2019

gains in English, while four expe-

rienced decreases. Three KIPP

schools experienced gains in

math.

KIPP D.C. College Preparatory,

a high school, was considered

one of the city’s most-improved

charter high schools based on its

test results.

Pearson said the results indi-

cate KIPP and Friendship still

have work to do to ensure that

consistent strategies and teach-

ing approaches are evident on all

of their campuses despite previ-

ous efforts to do just that.

Pearson also noted that Eng-

lish-language learners are per-

forming better in the traditional

public school system — a trend

that has endured in recent years.

He says he has encouraged char-

ter leaders to learn from the

traditional public system’s strate-

gies in working with English-lan-

guage learners.

“Every year, we make steps in

closing the gap,” Pearson said. “I

wouldn’t characterize this year’s

results as significant steps, but

this is the work of a generation —

it’s not the result of a year. And

when we look at the last 10 years,

absolutely we have taken signifi-

cant steps.”

[email protected]

really proud of the math progress

this year, but we know we still

have work to do.”

Overall, the traditional public

school system made somewhat

bigger gains than the charter

sector, although both performed

better in English than in math.

In the charter sector, test

scores varied substantially

among schools. Scott Pearson,

executive director of the D.C.

Public Charter School Board,

stressed that many of the schools

with the biggest gains are in

neighborhoods with high con-

centrations of poverty. Eagle

Academy Public Charter School

in Congress Heights and D.C.

Prep near Benning Road North-

east, for example, posted signifi-

cant improvements in both sub-

jects.

The city’s two biggest charter

networks — KIPP D.C. and

Friendship Public Charter School

— had some schools that made

big improvements and others

that registered large drops. The

math passing rate at Friendship’s

Blow Pierce Elementary School

dropped nearly 22 percentage

points, while Friendship’s South-

east Elementary School in-

creased 27.6 percentage points.

Seven of KIPP’s 11 schools saw

School Without Walls high

schools registered double-digit

increases. Some of the neighbor-

hood high schools that made

impressive gains in English expe-

rienced little movement — or

even declines — in math.

D.C. Public Schools Chancellor

Lewis. D. Ferebee said that after

seeing the math scores, he plans

to rethink math teaching strate-

gies and will increase access to

interventions for struggling stu-

dents.

Ferebee said that fewer stu-

dents scored a 1 or 2 on the exam

— the lowest scores on the test —

an encouraging development not

captured in the passing rates.

In all, the traditional public

system had 38 of its 115 schools

report gains of 2 percentage

points or more in English and

math.

“We want to see the types of

progress that we saw in English

in math,” Ferebee said. “We are

ment is truly a high-quality one

that measures real-world skills

like problem solving and critical

thinking.”

Students at almost every

neighborhood high school in the

traditional public system im-

proved on the English portion of

the exam. The passing rate on the

English exam at Anacostia High,

where more than 80 percent of

students are considered at-risk,

jumped 8 percentage points, to

12.5 percent.

At Coolidge and Dunbar high

schools, two campuses with high

populations of at-risk students

and those with special-education

needs, passing rates more than

doubled in English, with 10 per-

cent passing at Coolidge and

15.8 percent at Dunbar.

But gains on math scores were

mainly in the application high

schools. McKinley Technology

High School had an 8 percentage

point increase. Banneker and

slight increase from 29.4 percent

the previous year.

Results show that 85 percent

of white students, 37.3 percent of

Hispanic students and 27.8 per-

cent of black students passed the

English portion of the exam. For

the math section, 78.8 percent of

white students, 30.5 percent of

Hispanic students and 21.1 per-

cent of black students passed.

On the math and English ex-

ams, Hispanic students made the

biggest gains of any group, with

passing rates increasing 5.3 per-

centage points in English and

2.3 percentage points in math.

Citywide passing rates for at-

risk students — which means

they are homeless or in foster

care, their families qualify for

public assistance, or they have

been held back more than a year

in high school — increased 2.7

percentage points in English and

remained about the same in

math.

District education leaders said

the results help determine where

more resources should be invest-

ed.

“We are seeing progress,” D.C.

State Superintendent of Educa-

tion Hanseul Kang said. “This

data is particularly valuable be-

cause we know that this assess-

build a fairer and more equitable
city when we know that our
African American and Latino
students are achieving at the
same levels as their white peers.”
The computerized Partnership
for Assessment of Readiness for
College and Careers test — widely
known as PARCC and adminis-
tered in the spring — is a rigorous
exam that evaluates students on
a five-point scale, with those who
earn fours and fives meeting or
exceeding expectations and con-
sidered to be “college and career
ready.”
The exam, first administered
in 2015, has multiple-choice and
open-ended questions. It is given
to students each year in Grades 3
through 8 and once in high
school, as required by federal
law.
With the exception of students
taking the sixth-grade math test,
every grade level citywide made
gains on both portions of the
exam.
Overall, 37.1 percent of District
students passed the English por-
tion of the exam, a jump from
33.3 percent in the previous
school year. In math, 30.5 percent
of District students passed, a

PARCC FROM B1

presidential race and whether

Trump had obstructed justice.

A woman stood up and asked,

“How can your constituents sup-

port you in making efforts

toward impeachment of this

president?” Most of the crowd

cheered.

One of three men wearing red

pro-Trump hats, sitting side by

side, said to his friends, “Beating

a dead horse.”

He was voicing the frustration

some conservatives feel over how

much attention impeachment is

getting in the media and among

liberals.

Spanberger’s answer put her

at odds with about half of her

fellow House Democrats and

some of her most admiring con-

stituents.

She does not support im-

peachment and wants Congress

to continue investigating the

Trump administration.

“Congress has the role of ask-

ing questions because we should

want to get to the bottom of

things,” she said.

She’s focused on preventing

future foreign tampering in elec-

tions and is part of a freshman

task force studying the issue, she

said.

The constituent was not satis-

fied.

Spanberger tried again. “If you

are making a case for something

so serious, you want to have

every single fact available to

you,” she said.

Linda Higgins, the pastor at

St. John’s United Church of

Christ, was in the audience. She

wants Congress to impeach the

president. She also worked to get

Spanberger elected.

“Would we have loved to put a

progressive up? Yeah,” Higgins

said. “Would they have won? No.

There is some reality in politics.

We knew who she was. But she is

wonderfully who she is.”

At the end of the town hall, a

man asked how to improve the

quality of discourse in Washing-

ton.

“I’m measured. I have low

blood pressure,” she began,

drawing chuckles. She went on to

vent her frustration with the

devolution of political debate

into snipes on Twitter.

“I don’t think that’s profes-

sional, and I don’t care who you

are,” she said, earning the biggest

applause of the afternoon.

“Tell that to the president,

Abigail!” a woman in the audi-

ence yelled.

“I don’t tell that to the presi-

dent by fighting with the presi-

dent on Twitter,” Spanberger re-

sponded. Then she thanked peo-

ple in the audience who did not

vote for her for coming.

“I don’t care if people think it’s

optimistic and naive. I think we

are better than what we have

seen in recent years, and I want

to be a part of restoring that.”

Almost everyone stood and

clapped.

[email protected]

This is part of an occasional series of

stories about Rep. Abigail

Spanberger’s first year in office.

shouldn’t demonize [fellow

Democrats] over one vote.”

When it came time for Con-

gress to pass a defense spending

package, Ocasio-Cortez submit-

ted an amendment that would

have prohibited the detention of

undocumented immigrants in

Department of Defense facilities.

Spanberger considered the

measure shortsighted and voted

‘no.’ If the military cannot house

kids, they could be sent to even

less hospitable facilities, she

said.

Later, Spanberger visited the

border with a bipartisan group, a

trip that confirmed her position

that the situation can improve

only by addressing the root of the

problem.

For example, she favors add-

ing more immigration judges to

eliminate the backlog of mi-

grants seeking asylum.

She joined Rep. Will Hurd

(R-Tex.), another former CIA case

officer, to sponsor a measure that

would beef up efforts to combat

drug trafficking and human

smuggling in Honduras, Guate-

mala, El Salvador and Mexico

and to better understand how

these conditions contribute to

migration to the United States.

A centrist goes home

Spanberger brought her bal-

ancing act to a middle school

auditorium in Chesterfield last

month. It was a town hall, and

hundreds of residents gathered,

days after former special counsel

Robert S. Mueller III had testi-

fied before Congress about Rus-

sian interference in the 2016

to enforce the law in difficult

circumstances often carry the

psychic burdens of those respon-

sibilities.

Members of Congress have the

power to try to fix the underlying

policies that created those condi-

tions, she said.

After Spanberger spoke,

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a

liberal who voted against the

Senate bill that she supported,

was impressed.

“She did a very good job of

trying to appeal to all sides of the

caucus by being very raw and

personal and authentic,” he said,

confirming he emailed her a note

of support. “It showed people in

caucus whether progressive or

Blue Dog or Problem Solvers, we

forcement arm of the U.S. Postal

Service, on narcotics and child

exploitation cases.

As the only Spanish speaker

during most arrests, she said she

told them, “I was the one walking

in the door. I was the one yelling,

‘Put your hands up.’... I was the

one dealing with crying children,

telling them that we were taking

their Daddy away.... I was the

one talking to a crying wife,

saying why we were arresting her

spouse.”

She wanted her colleagues to

know she had experience easing

children through difficult mo-

ments and was trying to act in

their best interest.

She also understood that offi-

cers whose duties require them

life, Spanberger said.

“There’s still a tremendous

problem,” she said, referring to

the border and immigration.

“But we have delivered the im-

mediacy of aid to kids.”

Then she read the torrent of

insults directed at lawmakers

like her.

As a mother of three who had

worked on child abuses cases

while a Postal Service investiga-

tor, Spanberger was particularly

stung by the suggestion that she

backed a measure that harmed

children.

“That was the first time that I

had been so surprised by the

disconnect between what people

were saying out there in the ether

and... reality,” she said.

Bridging the gap in D.C.

Back in her district last

month, the break gave her a

chance to reflect. Spanberger

said she realized colleagues from

the left flank of the party may not

understand how her life experi-

ences before she came to Con-

gress shaped her perspective.

“If I’m going to try and bridge

this gap — because that’s what I

do every day in my district is

bridge the gap of people who are

on the political spectrum — then

maybe I do it in my whole

caucus,” she said.

Democrats gathered on July

10, their first closed-door caucus

meeting since the border vote.

Spanberger stood up.

Most people knew she had

been a CIA officer, she said,

recounting the speech. But in her

20 s, she worked in the law en-

has served in Congress, she has
been a lawmaker in the middle.
She comes from a historically
Republican district that just
five years ago replaced House
Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R)
with someone more conserva-
tive. But she won office last year
thanks in large part to left-lean-
ing groups like the Liberal Wom-
en of Chesterfield County.
Still, Spanberger beat Brat by
just 2 points in a year when
Democrats were motivated to
send a message to President
Trump. Republicans are already
targeting the district in prepara-
tion for the 2020 race.
As she steers through the po-
litical divisions within her swing
district, Spanberger is also trying
to navigate conflicts inside her
own party.
Disturbed by reports about
migrant children sleeping on
floors in unsanitary, overcrowd-
ed holding facilities, without ac-
cess to adequate health care or
food, she sought out party lead-
ers on the House floor, days
before a border funding vote.
“Just so we’re clear... under
no circumstances will we leave
town while there are children
who are being held in detention
centers in these conditions with
no food,” Spanberger said she
told Majority Leader Steny H.
Hoyer (D-Md.), Rep. Cheri Bus-
tos (D-Ill.), head of the Demo-
cratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi’s staff. Hoyer and
Bustos confirmed the conversa-
tions.
The Senate had passed a
$4.6 billion humanitarian aid
package, but Pelosi and liberals
wanted legislation with stronger
protections for migrant children
and limits on how the adminis-
tration could use the money.
“This administration has giv-
en us no reason to trust that they
will protect immigrant families
and humanely address this hu-
manitarian crisis,” said Rep. A.
Donald McEachin, a fellow Vir-
ginia Democrat who staked out a
position opposite to Spanberg-
er’s.
Spanberger and other moder-
ates thought an alternative bill
had little chance of getting
through the Senate; Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.)
had said as much. They joined
with Republicans to pass the
Senate bill and hand Pelosi and
the liberals a defeat.
Still, the National Republican
Congressional Committee rou-
tinely attacks Spanberger for vot-
ing most of the time with Pelosi
and “socialist leader AOC,” refer-
ring to Ocasio-Cortez of New
York.
The only Republican running
against her so far, Tina Ramirez,
tweeted a nearly identical mes-
sage.
The humanitarian aid package
was just the sort of hard-fought
accomplishment that made it
worth it to leave a good-paying
job at an education company and
upend a stable suburban family

SPANBERGER FROM B1

Spanberger navigates political divisions and party conflicts

PHOTOS BY WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), left, and Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) confer before a news conference by the bipartisan Problems

Solvers Caucus at the Capitol, where they announced principles for legislation to lower prescription drug prices.

D.C. schools chancellor will rethink math strategies after seeing modest gains

Spanberger delivers opening remarks at her first hearing as

chairwoman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on

Conservancy and Forestry.

“We want to see the types of progress

that we saw in English in math.”

Lewis D. Ferebee, D.C. public schools chancellor

washingtonpost.com/postpoints

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