Testimony Before the DC Council Committee of the Whole at the Performance Oversight Hearing on Office of the DME, DC Public Schools, and OSSE
By Tameria Lewis, Senior Director of Government Affairs, DC Charter School Alliance
Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Tami Lewis, and I’ve been a Ward 5 resident for more than 25 years. I’m the Senior Director of Government Affairs at the DC Charter School Alliance, the 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.
I want to begin by thanking Dr. Christina Grant for her leadership as State Superintendent of Education, particularly for her collaboration to ensure long-term academic growth and provide much-needed systems and support services for our students and educators. I also want to thank Deputy Mayor of Education Paul Kihn for his leadership in coordinating District-wide education strategy and for regularly working closely with charter schools on a wide range of issues. We’re grateful for the ongoing collaboration with Dr. Grant, Deputy Mayor Kihn, and their teams as we strive to address challenges our students face while accelerating their academic gains.
Before I turn to some of those challenges, I want to share that while we are grateful for many education investments in Mayor Bowser’s budget proposal, including the 12.4% increase to the UPSFF, we are deeply concerned that the Mayor is proposing to repeal the annual 3.1% increase to the charter facilities allotment after FY25 and that she is also delaying the law requiring DCPS to pay for IMPACT bonuses with UPSFF funds until FY29. The result of both of these proposals will be increasingly inequitable funding for charter schools. IMPACT bonuses represent $26.6 million extra in funding to DCPS that charters, who also have to administer teacher evaluation plans, don't receive. This inequitable funding is in addition to the budget providing DCPS an additional $2 million outside the formula for stabilization and $10.8 million for Early Stages. We hope to work together with the Administration and the Council to resolve these concerns.
Turning back to the challenges our students are facing, we know that schools that focus on building a fun and joyful school environment are achieving greater academic success and higher attendance rates. We have to reimagine school to make it a place where students want to be all day every day, whether that’s offering highly engaging programming such as music, arts, and sports or career-focused opportunities. I’m here today to share some challenges as well as recommendations to consider as you deliberate on the Fiscal Year 25 budget proposal: (1) replicating the successes of the Literacy Task Force with similar investments in math, (2) continuing to invest in work-based learning opportunities and the education through employment data system, and (3) redoubling our citywide efforts to address truancy and chronic absenteeism.
Replicating Literacy Task Force Success with Investments in Math
First, we’ve seen great progress resulting from the Early Literacy Task Force, and we’re appreciative of Ward 2 SBOE member Allister Chang for his leadership, in partnership with OSSE, our schools, and other city-wide stakeholders on this critical issue. We believe now is the time to replicate that success with investments in a similar focus on math. To start, we’re encouraged by the cross-sector, citywide Math Summit taking place tomorrow. The Math Summit is a collaborative initiative organized by EmpowerK12 in partnership with multiple charter LEAs, DCPS, the DME, the DC Education Research Collaborative, and other organizations (1) to convene educators, education leaders, and stakeholders citywide to address math mastery in our schools.
A recent needs assessment the DC Alliance conducted showed that the investments made in literacy instruction have boosted confidence that the support schools received from OSSE have helped them better implement literacy instruction techniques that are showing real results for their students. Our schools are seeking a similar effort to improve math programming.
Investing in Work-Based Learning and Education Through Employment Data System
Second, we believe it’s important for charter school students to have access to work-based learning opportunities, allowing them to leave high school with a head start in their careers and post-secondary pursuits. OSSE’s Advanced Technical Center has been a resounding success for our students, providing schools with the opportunity to offer career-focused classes for students to build skills for high-wage, high-skill, in-demand jobs. We strongly support Mayor Bowser’s proposal to open a second center in Ward 8 and support ongoing funding for these important initiatives.
Additionally, OSSE’s partnership with DME and the University of the District of Columbia to offer dual enrollment programming is invaluable in providing career pipelines for students. Students not only gain exposure to college-level courses for credit but also reduce the financial burden for those who go on to attend college after high school. We’re grateful for these opportunities.
I also want to share our support for the Office of Education Through Employment Pathways, which will lead the development and implementation of the Education Through Employment Data System (2). This system will allow us to better understand how these work-based learning opportunities are impacting employment outcomes for District residents. We believe the data gathered through the system has the potential to significantly impact our ability to make strategic plans over time and inform how our schools adjust their K-12 programming.
Redoubling Citywide Efforts to Address Truancy and Chronic Absenteeism
Finally, our schools are working very hard to support academic recovery, but chronic absenteeism and truancy have emerged as major barriers to student success. While we often rightly focus on addressing high rates of unexcused absences, excused absences have also risen dramatically. In fact, excused absences nearly tripled from the 2018-2019 school year to the 2021-2022 school year. Those rates have remained similar since (3). This is a multi-faceted and urgent crisis requiring a multi-pronged approach to both encourage regular attendance and address unexcused absences, and we’re eager to work together to address factors driving high rates of absenteeism.
We’re pleased to see that several Councilmembers and the Mayor have recently introduced legislation designed to improve school attendance and reduce truancy through strategic systems improvements and stronger interventions. We are especially grateful to Councilmember Parker for engaging charter school leaders in the development of his proposal. We look forward to working with the Council as you consider these proposals. We would ask the Council to consider, at minimum, allowing schools to make student referrals directly to truancy intervention programs currently managed by external agencies (4) after they’ve exhausted efforts to intervene directly with students and families. Right now, these interventions are only accessible after CFSA or CSS has accepted an educational neglect or truancy case, which occurs with only a small fraction of referrals.
As we’ve previously testified, we also recommend redoubling our efforts on a citywide campaign that uses levers resonating with students' families, like PSAs on the radio and on bus stops, along with incentives from businesses to shift behavior. We believe that this is a critical issue requiring city leaders, elected officials, business leaders, and the faith community to come together alongside school leaders and advocates to align on a strategy emphasizing the importance of coming to school regularly.
Additionally, we know that one of the primary factors contributing to high rates of absenteeism is students and families feeling unsafe in their commutes to and from school. We’re encouraged by improvements in coordination and access to Safe Passage support, and we urge the Council to support extending this crucial intervention to every school within the designated safety priority zones. We also support many of the recommendations from the School Safety Committee’s recently published report, including creating a fund to support updates to hard security infrastructure, allowing them to enhance perimeter security cameras, visitor management systems, and more. We also support the report’s recommendations for more comprehensive training for all Safe Passage workers, stronger collaboration between program workers and schools, and expanding access to existing programs like DC SchoolConnect.
Moving Forward
We know there’s still much more to make sure students are in class each and every day, receiving the support they need to thrive academically and ensuring they have the tools they need to start successful careers and achieve lifelong success. We look forward to continuing our partnership with OSSE and the DME to address these challenges and provide the education students deserve. Thank you for your time and attention, and I welcome your questions.
Citations
DC Math Summit event partners include: Center City Public Charter Schools, DC Education Research Collaborative, District of Columbia International School, DC Public Schools Global Studies Program, EmpowerK12, Education Forward DC, Friendship Public Charter School, and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education.
Bowser Administration Establishes Office of Education Through Employment Pathways. March 28, 2024. https://dme.dc.gov/release/bowser-administration-establishes-office-education-through-employment-pathways
District of Columbia Attendance Report, School Year 2021-22, osse.dc.gov. https://osse.dc.gov/publication/dc-attendance-report-2021-22-school-year
Including the Parent and Adolescent Support Services (PASS) Intensive Case Management (ICM) program, managed by DHS, and programs administered by OAG. https://dhs.dc.gov/service/parent-and-adolescent-support-intensive-case-management-pass-icm
