Testimony Before the DC Council Committee of the Whole at the Performance Oversight Hearing on the Office of the State Superintendent of Education

By Rachel Johnston, Chief of Staff

Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Rachel Johnston, and I’m a Ward 4 resident and the Chief of Staff at the DC Charter School Alliance, a local non-profit that advocates on behalf of public charter schools to ensure that every student can choose high-quality public schools that prepare them for lifelong success.

Charter schools in DC are working hard to ensure students have what they need every day, both inside and outside of the classroom, to be successful. This includes focusing on some of the most important drivers of academic success: student attendance and teacher retention.

Since school year 2021-22, chronic absenteeism has dropped 12 percentage points for DC’s charter schools. Schools have invested in data systems and structures that have allowed them to make data-informed decisions to improve attendance, like adjusting schedules. DC Scholars, a single-site PreK-8 public charter school in Ward 7, saw chronic absenteeism decrease by 22 percentage points with these types of investments.

Since that same 2021-22 school year, teacher retention increased at public charter schools across all grade levels in all eight wards. In particular, Ward 8 charter schools saw a 10 percentage point increase. For example, Center City Congress Heights, the highest-performing school in Ward 8, saw a 25 percentage point increase in teacher retention. They now retain 90% of their teachers. We are deeply grateful for the District’s significant investments in education initiatives, and UPSFF increases in recent years that have allowed charter schools to increase educator compensation, invest in effective literacy and math instruction, and address chronic absenteeism. However, given current efforts to abolish the Department of Education and reduce or eliminate critical education grant funding, equitable and flexible funding for charter schools is more critical than ever before.

We know there’s more to do to ensure all students can read, write, and do math. But we are seeing investments in important drivers, like increasing attendance and teacher retention, translate to improved academic outcomes for many charter school students. Between school year 2022-23 and 2023-24, several charter schools, across both single-site LEAs and larger networks, saw double-digit growth in proficiency in ELA or Math. This includes two Friendship Public Charter School campuses, two Center City campuses, Sela Public Charter School, Paul Public Charter School, Mundo Verde’s Calle Ocho Campus, and Digital Pioneers Academy’s Capitol Hill campus. We are also proud that charter high schools offer some of the highest quality options for families across the city. Eight of the top 10 DC public high schools are charter schools. It is important we learn from what is working, so at the DC Alliance, we bring schools together to share evidence-based strategies. This year, for example, we launched a community of practice for academic leaders who meet monthly to discuss a number of topics including academic data and trends.

OSSE’s Ongoing Investment in Academic Performance

The progress we’ve made as a city wouldn’t be possible without the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and its leader, Dr. Antionette Mitchell. We are grateful for OSSE’s continued focus on academic achievement. This includes leading the Math Task Force, creating several resources to support schools with the implementation of the science of reading, continuing to invest in evidence-based interventions like high-impact tutoring (HIT), and further expanding the Advanced Technical Center (ATC). Five charter LEAs sit on the Math Task Force. We’ve also heard many of the literacy resources have been helpful for schools, especially the LETRS training and the summer training for which teachers were compensated.

Because of the FY25 HIT grant funding provided by OSSE, fifteen charter LEAs can continue to offer and expand tutoring to accelerate learning for students furthest from opportunity. We are also very excited for the Ward 8 site of the ATC to open in the fall, which will expand access to meet more of the demand for these courses. Students from nine charter high schools currently attend classes at the ATC in Ward 5. We know these types of courses interest students, incentivize them to attend and engage in school, and prepare them to enter the workforce after graduation.

Additionally, we know staffing schools with high-quality educators has been a challenge for several years. OSSE’s teacher apprenticeship program helps grow the pipeline of qualified teachers and addresses this challenge. Eighteen charter schools are participating in the apprenticeship program this school year.

Collaboration with OSSE

We appreciate that OSSE collaborates with the DC Alliance and charter schools as they implement many of these programs and initiatives. OSSE’s Health and Safety Team thoughtfully solicited feedback from schools on immunization processes over the last couple of years. At the same time, school staff have been deeply engaged with families across the city on immunizations. We are excited to see that charter schools have now reached over 95% compliance with student immunizations in key grades. This means very few students needed to be excluded this year, which improves attendance.

OSSE’s Data, Assessment and Research Team has also engaged with us and charter leaders on the rollout of the school climate survey this winter. While we recognize the process may not be perfect in its first year, we are grateful for their willingness to collaborate and communicate openly throughout the implementation process.

Dr. Mitchell and her team also meet regularly with our LEA Leader Executive Committee, a group of 10 charter leaders elected by their peers to offer critical thought partnerships with education officials. There are clear lines of communication on a variety of topics impacting the charter sector, which allows us to collectively address issues.

Lastly, we are fortunate to have Dr. Mitchell and OSSE as a partner as the DC Alliance incubates the Partnership for DC School Excellence (formerly known as the School Support Hub) in 2025. The Partnership is focused on supporting mid-low-performing schools through comprehensive school reviews, identifying areas for improvement, carefully matching schools with relevant support, and then offering coaching as schools focus on implementation. Through this work and the school improvement work OSSE envisions with Accelerate DC to address the lowest-performing five percent of all schools, we hope to see more growth across the city.

Moving Forward

There is still progress to be made to ensure all the District’s students, especially our most vulnerable populations, are well-served and educated. Improving outcomes requires collaboration, resources, and citywide solutions. We are thankful for our partnership with OSSE and the city as we work together in support of our students and families. Thank you for your time and attention and I welcome your questions.