We are looking forward to the work of the Student Assignment Advisory Committee, the technical team, your staff, and our community in the development of plans for DCPS boundaries and the city’s public school buildings and grounds. We believe that as the group begins its work, there should be agreement on the problems that the plans seek to address and shared values to guide the group.
Read MoreREad Michael’s testimony here on the DCFPI website
Good Morning Chairman Mendelson and Council Members. As we measure the performance of our education agencies we should start with a focus on the objectives of our education system. I’ll quote former PCSB board member Steve Bumbaugh who frequently says we have one question to answer in education advocacy and policy: “Are we giving poor kids what the rich kids have?” It may seem oversimplified, but when some students walk three blocks to school and others travel two miles and some students have to take double math and reading blocks while other students enjoy arts and music and language education and when some students have stable long-lasting relationships with teachers and others go to schools where nearly half the staff leaves each year - it’s an apt starting place to measure the performance of our education agencies. To me, our objective is to prepare students to be ready for careers, college, citizenship, and life as an adult. And accordingly, we should also ask whether we’re providing all students the opportunities they deserve to expand their horizons through a well-rounded curriculum and empowering them to control their destinies.
Read MoreDCPS dropped its FY24 budget models last week. Here are some insights.
Background: Looking at per pupil budget amounts without considering context is very misleading. Example: Let’s say a school has many self-contained classes. It may look like the school has substantially more $, but that’s not actually true. Moreover, special ed and English learner dollars only reach those student subgroups, who are in the minority in the vast majority of schools.
Solution: The best way to compare budgets across schools is to first remove the $ going to special education and EL students. Removing fixed positions (including psychologists and social workers) and funding buckets for special education and EL students gives a better comparison.
Read MoreThank you for the opportunity to testify at today’s Performance Oversight hearing. My name is Suzanne Wells. I am the president of the Ward 6 Public Schools Parent Organization, but the testimony I am delivering today is my own.
My testimony will focus on 1) deep concerns with the planning between DCPS and the independent Public Charter School Board, and the urgent need to amend the School Reform Act, 2) the need to increase the salaries of educational aides, and 3) asking DCPS to consider a child of staff lottery preference.
Read MoreRead the full testimony with graphs here.
Read Full Testimony here -
Hello my name is Elizabeth Corinth. I am a Ward 6 resident, the LSAT Chair for School-Within-School @ Goding where my 3 children attend, and a co-organizer of the DC LSAT Collective, which is a volunteer-run group formed to promote mutual support and sharing of best practices among DCPS Local School Advisory Team members.
I’m here today to speak specifically to the impact of the recently released budget allocations on School-Within-School @ Goding. In this second year of the implementation of DCPS’s new budget model, we have definitely experienced the “fiscal cliff” which many had warned about. Let me walk through how that came about, since many schools find themselves in a similar place right now.
Read MoreWe support the Council approving the negotiated WTU contract to better support their members- the DCPS teacher corps. ……..
For now, we stand by our memo of January 12th. We do not believe that the retroactive funds in the WTU contract allocated specifically for DCPS teachers (as described in the contract) should be disbursed to the charter LEAs. UPSFF funds going forward for both sectors will be part of the FY24 budget discussions and will thus apply to all LEAs.
Pay and benefits in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that cover 2019 through this year are for specific individuals and were negotiated by one of 69 LEAs - the publicly managed DCPS. Whatever you decide, it has to be specific to LEA, aligned with demonstrated facts on salary, raises, and existing resources as it is for DCPS, and by teacher not enrollment.
Read MoreAs a budget and policy analyst, an education finance lawyer, and a DCPS parent, I have been collecting data and otherwise involved in DC public education for over 40 years. My contribution on the subject of today’s hearing is to provide data on the District’s scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
Although the scores of DC as a whole and of DCPS are part of the agency’s standard reporting, charter sector scores are not, so I have extracted them from NAEP’s on-line data tool. This is a lot of work, meaning that you are not likely to get these data elsewhere. Therefore, at the end of my written testimony is a full set of graphs with the scores that I have extracted in reading and math, 4th grade and 8th grade.
The pandemic effects, a sample of which is below, may surprise you:
Read MoreC4DC is a diverse group of activists – Ward-level education councils, school organizations and other groups – who share a common goal: Children in all corners of our great city deserve to have great public schools in their neighborhoods – from Pre-K through high school – that fully meet the needs of our students and our communities.
Reach us at c4dcpublicschools@gmail.com