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School Profile
The César Chávez Public Charter High School for Public Policy (referred to hereafter as Chávez) is a charter high school serving approximately 240 students in grades 9-12 in Washington, DC. It opened in the fall of 1998, and is chartered by the DC Public Charter School Board (one of two entities—the other is the DC school board—that are authorized to issue charters in the District of Columbia). Chávez views itself as offering new options to students in the DC public schools, particularly in terms of opportunities to participate in public policy and to experience a rigorous, college preparatory curriculum. The lead administrator at Chávez notes that the school's founder, Irasema Salcido, was motivated to open the school "…after working as an administrator for 9 years in a DC public high school. She was frustrated that so many students were graduating without having basic reading or math skills," and she wanted to give them "a top quality high school education that would prepare them to excel in college and in life." She also felt that the DC public schools failed to tap into the many resources that the nation's capital has to offer, particularly in the area of public policy. The school was founded, therefore, on the vision of "developing young people who will make our country a better place by influencing the public policies that affect their communities."
The core philosophy and mission of Chávez is described in the
school's 2002 annual report: "Drawing on the vast policy resources
in the nation's capital, the Chávez school will challenge students
with a rigorous curriculum that fosters citizenship and prepares them
to excel in college and life. The school will use public policy themes
to guide instruction and will provide students direct experience with
organizations working in the public interest. The two components most
emphasized are college prepcurriculum and the public policy program."
The school's philosophy is made clear to students through rigorous academic
standards and "a school culture of academic scholarship and commitment."
INVOLVED GROUPS AND DECISIONMAKERS Stakeholders that were prominently involved in the planning and development
phases of Chávez included the following (note: the program survey
did not investigate how the amount and nature of involvement on the
part of various stakeholders might differ):
The advisory board at Chávez is described in the school's annual report as drawing "…members from diverse parts of the Washington, DC policy community to support the school's public policy program." The Advisory Board assists in the creation of a formalized public policy curriculum to support the goals of the Public Policy Program" and "…also provides feedback on the school's public policy program and helps the school identify individuals and organizations in the policy community to help implement that program." The school also has a long list of organizations with which it has partnerships of some type; a sampling of these partner organizations includes For Love of Children (to provide one-on-one tutoring in both reading and math), federal agencies including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Energy (DOE), DC Action for Children, the Heritage Foundation, the Urban Institute, the Center for Education Reform, and the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.
The curriculum at Chávez, as described above, is based upon holding students to rigorous academic standards. The school's lead administrator notes that "…the curriculum is very challenging, and students know that they must meet the standards or they will be retained." The school's annual report notes that the "…curriculum is adapted from the Modern Red Schoolhouse (MRSh), a national model for school-wide improvement. It includes academic standards in mathematics, science, English, geography, history, art, foreign language, and health and physical education. At the end of each semester, students complete inter-disciplinary Capstone units, in which students focus on the same theme in all of their classes (one theme per semester). The curriculum is supplemented with public policy courses, a community service project, field internship, and a public policy thesis to be completed before graduation. As seniors, students will have the opportunity to take college courses." One major way in which the curriculum at Chávez has changed is that the hiring of additional teachers has allowed the school to expand course offerings into elective areas such as art. In terms of intended goals resulting from the Chávez curriculum, it is described as "very important" that Chávez students be prepared for a particular career, career cluster or occupational cluster, and "somewhat important" that they understand links between academic subjects and adult life in the real world. The most common instructional methods within the Chávez curriculum include student work in small groups or teams, lessons based on teacher-developed units, assigned research projects, hands-on activities, portfolios and exhibitions of student work, and students defending work in front of peers. Chávez administrators note that the school places a "strong
emphasis" on attempts to provide students with "real world"
learning opportunities, and state that all of its students are engaged
in learning that is based upon this principle. Specific forms of real-world
practices that are available to Chávez students include the following:
The largest challenge that Chávez has faced to date, in the words of its lead administrator, is that "…students come to the school at varying skill levels. Despite extensive planning before the year began, teachers had to spend a great deal of time adjusting their curriculum to meet the needs of all learners. At the end of the year, the Principal had to make the difficult decision to retain two-thirds of the first class, all of which failed to meet the 9th grade standards. Despite this decision, 73% of our students re-enrolled that year. In addition to the impact on students, staff, and parents, the decision also forced the school to re-evaluate the goals it had initially established, pre-opening, in the school's charter accountability plan. The school had to go through an extensive revision process and seek approval of the board for changes to make the goals more realistic based on our baseline data." Funding and facilities are also an ongoing problem; an administrator notes, "…without proper funding and space, an additional burden is placed on teachers and staff (and even trickles down to the students) that affects everything we do." Other challenges described by administrators include meeting the needs of a variety of students, recruiting good teachers, and motivating students. César Chávez Public Charter High School
for Public Policy
1346 Florida Avenue NW (2nd Floor) Washington DC, 20009
Tel: 202-387-6980
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