A DCPS Teacher Who Helped Create RCTs Speaks Out

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Ed. Note: What follows is an edited interview between DCPS parent Betsy Wolf and a DCPS teacher who helped create RCTs (required curricular tasks) for DCPS. As a condition of this interview, the teacher’s identity remains confidential. DCPS is currently using RCTs as a means of student assessment this school year. But RCTs were created last school year by DCPS specifically to help teachers with virtual instruction, aligned with the use of Canvas. The idea then was to help make online curriculum engaging in a virtual setting. Now, teachers are reporting that RCTs are unhelpful to them, because they do not provide usable feedback and are poorly designed as summative assessments. RCTs also take important instruction time away because DCPS has many other required assessments. Digital inequity just exacerbates these problems: As most DCPS schools do not have a 1:1 student device ratio, many teachers can give RCTs only on paper, then enter the data manually into Canvas. Yet, according to another DCPS teacher who testified during the DCPS budget hearing on November 9, DCPS has spent more than $10 million on the company and electronic system that RCTs use. Read on for a fuller accounting of the steep price of RCTs in our schools.]

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DCFPI Update on School Based Mental Health Ask

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$841K in local, recurring dollars:

o The Mayor’s proposed budget includes $5.8 million in DBH’s budget for SBMH - this is enough to fund 83 schools at a lower grant level (83 schools x ~$70,000 = ~$5.8 million)

o CBO grants should be closer to ~$80,000. The ~$80,000 reflects a roughly $10,000 supplement DBH gave to CBOs for Cohorts 1-3 to cover increased costs in FY 2021. This enhancement was made possible by $1.5M in ESSER GEERS funding that the DME gave to DBH.

o We are asking for an additional $841,000 to get CBO grants for Cohort 4 to the right size of ~$80,000 (83 schools x ~$10,000 = ~$841,000)

· $1.5 million in one-time federal dollars:

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Mayor’s FY22 Budget Compared to Digital Equity in DC Education’s Asks

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June 2021 Mayor Bowser’s FY22 budget makes significant investments in DCPS for student and teacher devices, as well as technology support and school IT infrastructure. However, there is no mention of a citywide vision or plan to close the digital divide and ensure all residents have access to reliable, high quality internet.

Below we compare the mayor’s proposed budget to our January 2021 recommendations to the mayor.

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WRITTEN STATEMENT OF MARY FILARDO, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 21ST CENTURY SCHOOL FUND, WASHINGTON DC BEFORE THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND LABOR ON APRIL 28, 2021

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I will address the following three questions in my written testimony:

1. Does our country need a federal program that invests in rebuilding our elementary and secondary public school buildings and grounds?

2. Is the Reopen and Rebuild America’s School Act (RRASA) the right federal program to address these issues?

3. Does the Reopen and Rebuild America’s School Act belong in a major infrastructure package with roads, highways, and bridges and other major public works sectors?

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First things first — DC officials must address structural underfunding of DCPS→

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The way the city funds our schools structurally underfunds educational operations for DC Public Schools (DCPS) relative to the charter sector to the tune of $40 million to $50 million a year.

That claim may surprise you because the DC charter sector — which has accumulated $500 million in net assets that grow by $40 million or $50 million a year and is consistently deemed by national charter advocates to enjoy among the most hospitable regulatory environments in the nation — ceaselessly claims to be a victim. The opposite is true.

Matthew Frumin is a DC attorney, former advisory neighborhood commissioner and community activist.

Rather than addressing this issue, the deputy mayor for education has been exploring changes to the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (UPSFF) — the primary vehicle for funding schools — and DCPS has been looking into how it distributes funds among its schools. As the mayor formulates her budget though, her first move should be to address the structural underfunding of DCPS operations.

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Education advocates: Mayor must address the digital divide in upcoming budget proposal

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The pandemic has highlighted the need to provide equitable technology access for all students as part of a 21st-century education. While DC made some progress last year in expanding computer and internet access, the city still lacks a multi-year plan and dedicated funding source to ensure that students and families have long-term access to technology and high-speed internet.

On Jan. 11 a coalition of parents, educators and other education advocates, organized by Digital Equity in DC Education, sent a version of the letter below urging Mayor Muriel Bowser to follow through on her Empowered Learners Initiative’s commitment to provide a 1:1 student-to-device ratio and technology supports for DC Public Schools.

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SHAPPE's Position on DCPS Reopening for Term 2

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Dear Mayor Bowser, Deputy Mayor Kihn, and Chancellor Ferebee,

The Senior High Alliance of Parents Principals and Educators is 22 years old. We consider ourselves partners looking for constructive solutions so that a strong DCPS can thrive. It is our hope that you will reconsider and amend the current plan. We believe that you can prevent the significant loss of supports and infrastructure to the secondary school students that it will cause and engage elementary school students. We are writing here about the educational program, the building checklist and health supports have to be in place for any plan. We want to work with you on a strong educational program to reopen we can all endorse.

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A More Equitable Way to Fund Schools Building Maintenance and Operations Costs

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The way we fund school building maintenance and operations (M&O) structurally disadvantages DCPS. It requires DCPS to spend more – to the tune of $558 per student (or $28.6 million a year overall) -- from their funds, which are needed to serve students, than the charter Local Education Agencies overall spend of their funds.

The Council should address this structural unfairness in the budget for FY21. It can do so by moving to pay DCPS utility expense (around $23.7 million a year) outside of the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula (PSFF)

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