Executive Director’s Blog

Lucretia Murphy, J.D., Ph.D.

“Showing Up and Showing Out” to Renovate the Evans Campus: A Council Hearing to Remember

March 27, 2012

My peers share the hardship of poverty, drugs and violence. Growing up around that and dealing with it numbs you to what is really essential for growth and success; because growth in that world is being hard and success is survival. This is an epic misconception that is making it even harder to succeed.

The Maya Angelou YALC has helped me learn that failure is accepted but success is a choice you make to learn more about yourself. . . . I’m working on it…. but it’s always good to know people believe that you can accomplish something good in your life, even when you don’t realize it.

Sloan Baxter, a student at our Maya Angelou Young Adult Learning Center, shared the testimony above at a recent roundtable hearing on the disposition of the W. Bruce Evans building (MAPCS-Evans Campus). Students, teachers, parents, supporters and staff of the See Forever Foundation and Maya Angelou Public Charter Schools were lobbying for a much-needed renovation to transform our MAPCS-Evans Campus into a state-of-the-art facility – The Maya Angelou Learning Center. This new facility will house our middle and high school programs, as well as a new-and-improved young adult learning center.

Throughout the hearing, D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown said, “You don’t have to ask, plead, or beg. I support the Maya Angelou Schools and I am going to make this happen.” And on March 20, it happened. The council supported our renovation unanimously.

In my view, they also supported the future success of our students.

Looking back at how smoothly the hearing and legislation passed, we probably did not need Baxter, the 12 additional student testimonies, the seven people submitting testimonies for the record and we didn’t need to pack the house with a cadre of supporters.

But, I am so glad that we “showed up and showed out” in support of our school and, most importantly, our students!

The students, parents and staff who talked passionately about the desire for a renovated, state-of-the-art building moved me. Do you know what moved the D.C. Council Chair and other city staff? It was the rallying cry from our students – and their families — that the Maya Angelou Schools were transforming their lives.

I was so proud to see our mission materialize on this day. We are helping students of all ages, despite their challenges, to see forever!

We say “yes” to higher education!

March 5, 2012

Really?! Now a Presidential candidate is questioning a national commitment to access to higher education?! Rick Santorum maintains that college leads to an indoctrination that denies faith. His life is evidence against this. He attended college. In fact, he attended three: Pennsylvania State, University of Pittsburgh, and Dickinson. Through it all, he has maintained a strong Catholic conservatism. If he can withstand the liberalism he so loathes and fears through his pursuit of multiple higher education degrees, why assume others can’t? And if a potential college student shares this concern about “liberal colleges” s/he could attend a religious college. As a Catholic, Santorum has to know that such colleges exist.

The journey of life –whether or not one attends college – will bring challenges to identify, faith, and personal traditions. In the 21^st century, all evidence suggests that the only way for young people to effectively sustain a life that resembles Santorum’s, e.g. family sustaining wage (especially with one wage earner), meaningful employment, secure housing and health care, etc., they must have a degree beyond a high school diploma. College has to be part of the journey from youth to adulthood in America. (And for those who are adults without post-secondary degrees or credentials, they are quickly learning that college isn’t just for the young!)

Mr. Obama has no interest in remaking Americans in his image: a nation of people with multiple degrees. (Or would this be Santorum’s image?) As President of the United States of America, his concern, and the concern we should all share, is that the jobs of today and increasingly the jobs of the future demand credentials beyond a high school diploma or GED. Without this level of education attainment, America and Americans will be left behind. If our young people do not have earn a post-secondary credential they will constantly hit barriers in employment. That image is untenable.

Santorum benefited from his access to higher education. President Obama argues that everyone in America should have this same opportunity. If Santorum takes himself and his faith seriously, he should heed the call to “do unto others.”

Related News: Alliance for Excellent Education Video Briefing
Getting and Staying on Track: The Economic Benefits of Ensuring Success for the Nation’s Most Off-Track Students, December 14, 2011

My Wish for Christmas…

December 22, 2011

Under the new evaluative framework adopted by the D.C. Charter School Board, the Maya Angelou schools—which since 1997 have served students with academic and emotional needs unmet by their previous schools have been deemed “low performing.” Unfortunately, the framework does not capture the progress we at Maya Angelou are making with our distinctive population.

Consider, first, the characteristics of our student population. In our high schools, 35% of our students are court involved, 66% have a history of suspensions/expulsions, 36% have repeated a grade, and 29% have special needs. In our middle school, nearly 30% of the students have been retained a grade, 13% are involved with the courts or Child and Family Services, and 26% have special needs. In fact, the percentage of special education students attending our schools is nearly twice the public charter school average.

This raises the question: What are the appropriate metrics to evaluate alternative schools like ours? We are proud that 73% of our graduates enroll in post-secondary education, and that 87% of these students successfully complete their first year of post-secondary school—a critical benchmark. We are proud that students who had dropped out or were at risk of dropping out are now attending school regularly and working toward a productive future. We are proud that so many parents and advocates seek us out because of our commitment to making school work for special needs children. But these are not characteristics that the framework captures.

This doesn’t mean that we are complacent. We continually strive to improve our students’ academic performance on such measures as the DC-CAS and college admissions exams. But a framework that judges us so harshly without allowing for the challenges associated with our mission does not advance the cause of educational equality.

We look forward to fruitful conversations with the Public Charter School board about the PMF and alternative schools. In the meantime, we will continue to be what parents have told us we are: “the hope on the hill.”

In fact, my wish for Christmas would be that all youth in D.C. be embraced by a school and staff as wonderful as those who work at the Maya Angelou Schools!

Related News:

“In D.C. Charter Schools, A Wide Variety of Challenges,” The Washington Post, December 22, 2011