Letter to Mayor Muriel E. Bowser

The Office of the Mayor

1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20004

Dear Mayor Bowser:

Thank you for continuing to prioritize public education in the budget. Your proposed investments: 5.9% increase to the base of the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) for all schools, $36 million in stabilization funding for D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) and public charter schools, a salary increase for substitute teachers, and an updated budget model for DCPS with initial budgets for individual schools – will not only help schools bridge the gap in learning but strive for new heights in public education and supports for all students.

For the past two years, our students have been through extraordinary circumstances which have caused unfinished learning and diminished well-being. As we look to recover from the effects of the pandemic, even more should be done to continue the progress we’ve seen in public education for the past 15 years. Therefore, we respectfully urge you to ensure funding equity, provide educator support, expand access to high education, and invest in behavioral health supports for all students. Our FY2023 budget priorities are the following:

PROVIDE EQUITABLE RESOURCES TO ALL SCHOOLS.

• Raise the at-risk weight of the UPSFF to .37 or higher as recommended by the 2014 adequacy study to provide more significant support to students designated as ‘at risk’—those who qualify for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, are experiencing homelessness, are in the District’s foster care program or are one year or more older than expected for their grade in high school.

• Increase the public charter school facilities allotment by 3.1% beginning in FY 2023. The District government must ensure that all students have safe and educationally appropriate buildings.  

• Conduct an adequacy study every five years to ensure the UPSFF increases adequately for all students. 

ENSURE ALL STUDENTS HAVE ACCESS TO HIGHER EDUCATION THAT IS HIGH-QUALITY AND AFFORDABLE.

• Study, expand, deepen, and reform our current dual enrollment opportunities to, at a minimum: expand access to all interested students, particularly students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and students with disabilities; make the application process more efficient; and ensure students receive maximum dual enrollment credit hours for both high school and college classes.

INVEST IN SAFE, STABLE, AND POSITIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS FOR ALL STUDENTS.

• Build on past years’ investments in the School-Based Behavioral Health (SBBH) program by investing in the following: 

  • $300,000 for a cost study to determine what it truly costs to implement the SBBH program now and in the future;

  • $2.4 million to stabilize community-based organization grant funding each year; and

  • Adequately funding the Community of Practice, building a workforce pipeline, and expanding information-sharing and family engagement efforts.

• Maintain the current investment of $920,000 for SY 2020-21 for restorative justice; provide school-wide technical assistance and individual capacity building in DC schools. 

ENSURE ALL EDUCATORS RECEIVE HIGH-QUALITY TEACHER PREPARATION AND SUPPORT. 

• Provide sufficient funding so that all PreK-5 DC leaders and teachers can receive free and accessible structured literacy training with incentives in three years. In 2019, 70% of DC students were not proficient in reading in fourth grade, according to NAEP. The District must ensure all students read at grade level by third grade regardless of where in the city they live, what school they attend, and their ability or language-learning status. They should be confident in their independent reading abilities and enjoy reading. 

• Support educators with housing by creating housing and tax incentives, implementing housing affordability programs, and ensuring eligible educators are connected with the existing programs that can reduce the cost of homeownership. 

Thank you for all you do for our students and families! We look forward to continuing to work with you to ensure we have a just and equitable public education system for all students.

In service,

Education Reform Now DC

Letter from the DC Community about Education Equity

Dr. Christina Grant, State Superintendent of Education

Office of the State Superintendent of Education

1050 First St NE

Washington, D.C. 20002

February 23, 2022

Dear D.C. State Superintendent of Education Dr. Christina Grant:

The D.C. School Report Card and STAR Framework was launched in December 2018 to give families, communities, and policymakers a tool that provides essential information about annual school performance. It comprises specific metrics such as student achievement, student growth, improved English language attainment, graduation rate, and school environment. It provides comparative school data on how all students are performing in each of these metrics so that families can decide which school best meets their child’s needs.

Recently, the D.C. State Board of Education (SBOE) voted to remove the single summative rating from the D.C. School Report Card and make a dashboard of various metrics instead. This change would dramatically reshape the D.C. School Report Card without making equity a critical guiding principle. While well-intentioned, this proposal fails to make transformational change in our accountability system.

D.C. residents want our district leaders to make bold changes and adopt new ways of thinking to recover from the covid-19 pandemic so that their child, and every child, has a just and equitable public education. In furtherance of this, we urge you to adopt the following five recommendations:

(1) Re-strategize and refocus outreach efforts to ensure that families in all eight wards know that the D.C. school report card and star framework is a tool that they can use to help them make decisions about schools. Families want to know that their child’s school is safe, joyful, and provides them with high-quality learning opportunities but there are still many families who have no idea that the DC School Report Card exists. A recent report from the D.C. Policy Center confirms that families use a variety of tools to make decisions: school visit (48 percent), word of mouth (48 percent), STAR or school quality ratings (37 percent), school report card data (28 percent), school websites (26 percent), promotional materials (10 percent), and other (10 percent).

(2) Get buy-in from families and D.C. residents in all eight wards, particularly those furthest from opportunity, to determine how best to use the D.C. School Report Card and Star Framework to serve their students better. The lessons learned from these focus groups can help the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the SBOE identify ways to support schools in identifying resources and inputs that will reinvigorate joy in learning, facilitate academic growth, and put students on a path to future success.

(3) Improve, but do not eliminate the single summative rating. D.C. must keep the summative rating so that all families have access to clearly communicated, detailed information that provides a single transparent metric for determining how well their child’s school serves all students. We urge District leaders to improve the summative rating by assigning greater weights to schools providing high-quality learning to students with special needs, English language learners, students designated as “at-risk,” and students experiencing significant social change. This is the equitable approach we should be adopting as a city. One key area to consider in the future is tieing summative ratings to reading proficiency to ensure that the District remains serious about its commitment to ensuring every student is equipped with this most fundamental civil right.

(4) Administer the district-wide annual assessment exam this spring. The District uses statewide summative assessments, like the PARCC exam, to provide a baseline understanding of all D.C. students’ academic progress to drive programmatic changes and direct resources to schools that need them most. Unfortunately, it has been two years since the District last administered the PARCC exam. Though these tests may not be perfect, we should fix them, not end them. Rather than just ending testing, students, parents, educators, and policymakers in the District should have a real review to see what is working, what isn’t, and how we can change these important tests to meet the needs of students and educators. DC education leaders might consider shortening the length of the exam and making it more useful for students and families by ensuring the exam provides more rapid, useful feedback on how the student is progressing and what support they need to succeed.

(5) Get serious about innovation and school improvement. The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to set aside 7% of Title I funds to support schools identified in need of support under state accountability systems. The DC State Report Card should demonstrate how those funds are utilized, and our local research-practice partners must analyze their impact to guide improvement.

Covid-19 has greatly exacerbated already existing inequities between student groups. That is why we owe it to our students to transform our public education system so we more effectively put them on a path to success. We urge the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to adopt these recommendations so that every student receives a just and equitable education in the District of Columbia.

In service,

Eva Johnson                        Ward 8 Parent

Michael Dannenberg           Ward 3 Parent

Linda Epstein                       Ward 3 Parent

Lea Crusey                          Ward 6 Parent

Debra Gaines                      Ward 8  

Amanda Borden                   Ward 2 Parent

Tynejia Grant                      Ward 7  

Sherry                                  Ward 8  

Maura Marino                      Ward 1  

Sullivan                                Ward 2 Parent

Cassandra Gentry               Ward 6 Parent

Kyle Myers                           Ward 5  

Irina Shaman                       Ward 6 Parent

Odessa Bolton                     Ward 6  

Trudy Murray                       Ward 1 Parent

Michael Stewart                   Ward 5 Parent

Joshua Hodge                     Ward 6  

Don Weigel                          Ward 7              

Kyle Myers                           Ward 5              

Nicole D’Angelo                   Ward 5 Parent              

Scott Pearson                      Ward 3  

Artecka Brown                      Ward 5 Parent                          

Isis Rustin                            Ward 1              

Josh Boots                           Ward 6              

Minetre Martin                      Ward 4             

Sarah Bradach                     Ward 3             

Margie Yeager                      Ward 3 Parent

Michael Sriqui                       Ward 3 Parent

Matthew Nocella                   Ward 4

Morrell Miles                         Ward 7 Parent

Catharine Bellinger               Ward 1

Marita Riddick                       Ward 5             

David Grosso                        Ward 5

Erika Harrell                          Ward 7 Parent

Jaqueline Castaneda            Ward 1 

Maria Harrell Logan              Ward 5

Bethany Little                         Ward 3 Parent

Morello Miles                         Ward 7 Parent

Ellen Dodsworth                  

Jessica Giles                        Ward 7 

Will Stoetzer                         Ward 5

Eric Paisner                          Ward 6 Parent

Julie Klingenstein                 Ward 2 

Andrew Klingenstein             Ward 2 

Evelyn Fraser                       Ward 5 

Nicholas Munyan-Penney     Ward 2

Linda Jones                          Ward 8 Parent

Daniele Avila                         Ward 1 Parent

Nora Lieberman                    Ward 7

Tracy Barnes                        Ward 5 Parent

Cc

Rep. Jessica Sutter, President

Rep. Eboni-Rose Thompson, Vice President

D.C. State Board of Education

Committee of the Whole Public Roundtable:

Special Education Policies for Students with Disabilities

Jess Giles

State Director

Education Reform Now DC

Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members and staff of the Committee of the Whole. My name is Jess Giles. I am a ward seven resident and State Director of Education Reform Now DC (“ERN DC”). ERN DC is a non-profit organization fighting for a just and equitable public education system for all students.

DC public education has made progress in the last 15 years, yet the academic performance of students with disabilities is suboptimal. We know that when students with disabilities are provided the appropriate accommodations and interventions in instruction, they can perform at grade level. So why is this not happening?

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)’s 2019 landscape on special education revealed many disturbing trends in the District, including that zero percent of students aged 14 to 21 exited special education to general education in 2018, ranking DC last in the nation. Additionally, the report found that Black and low-income students are much more likely to be overidentified and stay in special education services.

Families need help. Despite the efforts of OSSE and the Ombudsman for Public Education, many families remain unaware or unsure of how to navigate our complex public education system and access resources for their students. What is OSSE doing to put parents, families, and guardians in the best possible position to be informed, make early, proactive decisions about their student’s education and support, and get immediate, free assistance? Are these solutions helping? When will we know?

Early Intervention (EI) has proven invaluable for helping children exit from special education sooner. OSSE must modernize how it works with EI families, specifically how parents/guardians receive information and share evidence (e.g., videos, pictures) of their children’s progress with their related service providers (RSPs); so that parents/families can receive updates and feedback on their child’s progress in real-time with the outcome of ensuring their student exits from services. Additionally, funding should be used for liaisons from OSSE to directly assist families, particularly those transitioning from Part C to Part B.

Educators and schools need help. IDEA requires that a free appropriate public education—which includes special education and related services—be made available to each eligible child with a disability. And yet, there is a significant lack of capacity and training among school staff in special education. In OSSE’s 2019 District of Columbia Teacher Workforce Report, special education was flagged as one of the subjects areas with the highest need for teachers. Pre-pandemic, in 2018-19 school year, 22 percent of all special education positions had to be filled due to teachers leaving their school or new positions being created. I fear this issue has worsened during the pandemic. For example, we have heard of examples where Principals and Assistant Principals are serving as special education coordinators at schools, which is frankly absurd given their workload and responsibilities. Each school should have dedicated staff whose sole focus is assisting students with disabilities and their families. These individuals should also have full awareness of the laws and resources in place, as well as, proper training and certification in special education. The District must provide greater incentives for adults to specialize in special education, ongoing opportunities for professional development, and more support for educators while in school.

Lastly, the District’s low literacy rates demand urgent action from all leaders. In 2019, only 30 percent of students were proficient in reading. I applaud the DC Council for passing into law and funding the Dyslexia and Other Reading Disabilities Screening and Prevention Pilot Program Act of 2019. Ensuring this law is implemented quickly is a vital step in ensuring all students read at grade level by third grade regardless of where they live and go to school in the District; they are confident in their independent reading abilities and enjoy reading.

In closing, I have some additional items in my written testimony I urge the Committee of the Whole to follow up on.

For oversight:

• Require a status update on students inside the D.C. Jail and whether they are receiving education and services.

• The DC Council passed into law the Enhanced Special Education Services Act and finally funded that law. This law require schools to prepare students for adulthood at a younger age (14 years instead of 16 years); expands Part C eligibility from the previous standard; and shortens the time frame for evaluation. These reforms were well-researched and created with families and advocates across the city. What is the latest on the implementation of that law?

• District funding for students should be equitably distributed and consistently monitored. D.C. received $386,317,154 of American Rescue Plan funding and $5 million of dedicated K-12 support for special education. How are those funds being used to support students with disabilities?

Thank you for allowing me to testify today. I welcome any questions you might have.

SOURCES:

“EK12 Unfinished Learning Update Brief from Spring 2020-21.” Accessed January 27, 2022. PDF

“SWD Landscape Analysis October 2019.” OSSE.  Accessed January 27, 2022. PDF

“Mayor Bowser Announces DC to Receive $129 Million in Recovery Funding After Receiving Approval on State ARP ESSER Plan | Mayormb.” Accessed January 25, 2022. Article.

“District of Columbia Teacher Workforce.” OSSE. Accessed January 27, 2022. Report.

Reimagining Voting in DC Through An Equity Lens

In the District of Columbia, we collectively rail against the disenfranchisement of DC residents in the Congress, and rightfully so. We do not have a right to vote on federal laws, yet we are governed by those laws and taxed to pay for them. Politics based on specious constitutional arguments have largely silenced DC residents for more than two hundred years. While DC continues its fight for statehood, the DC government should take all available steps to ensure DC residents can exercise a meaningful right to vote locally regardless of the times or who sits in Congress.

While some states seized upon the vulnerability bred from COVID-19 to disenfranchise voters, the DC Board of Elections implemented many new, positive changes to the voting process, including mail-in ballots, ballot drop boxes, and super vote centers. One of the critical decisions arising from the pandemic will be how we ensure participation in the Democratic process moving forward. We should view this as an opportunity to connect with our community and bring about new ways to allow all DC voters to participate in our democracy safely now and in the future.

Through my work with Democrats for Education Reform (DFER DC), I have led teams of DC residents who have reached out to more than 100,000 DC voters. Our goal is always to understand voter priorities as they relate to students. Voters want the opportunity to be heard, and we have worked nimbly to meet their needs. Last year, we retooled our entire Get Out the Vote approach to bring information to voters in new ways, encourage DC residents to register to vote absentee, and provide voters with ballot pick-up services. However, during this time, we noticed some areas in which the DC Board of Elections could improve its voter outreach efforts.

As we reimagine our voting process in DC, one of our first updates should remove transportation and information barriers. The Board of Elections implemented ballot drop-off boxes and curbside voting, which was beneficial to voters. They should consider increasing the number of ballot drop-off boxes and initiate ballot pickup plans in low-income housing areas and particularly at senior centers. Some of the voters we spoke to shared that they spent much of their lives, or were the legacy of those who spent most of their lives, exercising their right to vote because they had grown up knowing the cost of disenfranchisement. As a result of the pandemic, barriers such as inconsistent transportation options took that opportunity from them.

Additionally, the DC Board of Elections should ensure all eligible voters receive their ballot by mail before election day. Last year, I received my mail-in ballot on election day. Because I am able-bodied and have a career that keeps me informed about elections, I could vote early in person. I shudder to think what the delay may have cost people who needed more time to make an alternative plan.

The DC Board of Elections should also consider more comprehensive voter education and communication concerning election day challenges and the benefits to voting early. While we certainly saw an increase in early voting, as did most of the country, those caught within the injustice of the internet divide and, therefore, without access to the internet or an internet-connected device had fewer opportunities to receive critical information.

Another recommendation is to over-communicate the importance of postmark deadlines through radio ads, text messages, and other innovative media forms. Thousands of voters and I received news about early voting but no clear messaging around vote by mail postmark deadlines. Voters who dropped their ballot in a mailbox after the last U.S. Postal Servicepick-up on election day, lost their right to vote. Too many of the voters we met were unaware that this was a factor.

As we face the uncertain future, one thing is clear: now, more than ever, to truly do right by our communities and ensure robust participation in our democracy, here in DC and across the country, all states must reimagine their local election processes.  We must safeguard all residents’ right to vote and provide the tools for every voter to choose a voting plan that best works for them as individuals and the architects of our nation’s future.

Erika Harrell is the Deputy Director for DFER DC.