Testimony Before the DC Council Committee of the Whole at the Performance Oversight Hearing on the Office of the DME, DCPS, & OSSE

By Ariel Johnson, Executive Director, DC Charter School Alliance

Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Ariel Johnson, and I am the Executive Director 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.

Every educator in the District is working to ensure student stability and academic gains, particularly for our most vulnerable populations. And, charter educators and leaders, in conjunction with families, District agencies, and community members, continue to prioritize what is most equitable while engaging in rigorous academic support. As we testified about at the December Public Oversight Hearing on Academic Achievement in the District of Columbia, our analysis of the most recent PARCC assessment revealed that charter schools presented some of the greatest growth over the last year. Eight out of the 10 schools with the greatest growth in ELA were public charter schools, and seven out of the 10 schools with the greatest growth in math were public charter schools.

Specifically, I want to uplift the important work our small, single-site charter schools are doing to provide diverse, unique programming and learning experiences that can be so impactful for their students. For example, Richard Wright Public Charter School for Journalism and Media Arts provides a student-centered environment that connects young people to classic and modern languages and a curriculum focused on strong writing skills and vocabulary. The DC Alliance is proud to have worked with Richard Wright students for our marquee events. These young people have operated as videographers and interviewers to policymakers in the District and created art used across the city. They also incorporate virtual reality and other technological advancements in the classroom to make school more exciting. Richard Wright has one of the highest in-seat attendance rates of all high schools in DC.

Howard University Middle School partners with Howard University to offer fun non-academic skills-based activities during the summer, like swim classes, that are coupled with math and reading enrichment. This drives student engagement and helps students build unique and valuable skills. And YouthBuild PCS serves young adults earning their GED, obtaining industry-recognized construction certifications, and helping them find employment or enter post-secondary education. Students spend up to 40 percent of their overall time at YouthBuild PCS on a construction worksite or in vocational education classes. These students, many of whom were formerly disengaged from school, graduate with experience from an actual construction site under the supervision of skilled construction trainers and a GED.

The progress we’ve made wouldn’t be possible without Mayor Bowser and the Council’s steadfast commitment to investing in our city’s education system. As our schools will soon face a funding cliff with federal dollars running out this year, we're grateful for Mayor Bowser’s historic proposed increase to the UPSFF in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget. We know just how important investing in our students is for long-term academic recovery, particularly by supporting the ongoing costs of educator raises and focusing on students most in need with increases to weights for students designated at-risk, alternative students, and adult students.

Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education

The progress we’ve made also simply would not be possible without the support of the District’s education agencies. We want to thank Deputy Mayor Paul Kihn and his entire team for regularly collaborating with charter schools as they oversee and implement their District-wide education strategy. Just to name one example: the DME team engaged with charter schools to help inform the work of the School Safety Enhancement Committee to ensure its recommendations incorporate their viewpoints and feedback. Those recommendations include specific needs our schools identified, including creating a fund to support updates to hard security infrastructure, allowing them to add more perimeter security cameras, visitor management systems, and more. The DC Alliance and our member schools also appreciate the DME’s efforts with the DC Public Charter School Board to better coordinate and plan across sectors and the larger education landscape. We know that an independent charter authorizer is critical to a robust, stable, and high-performing charter sector, so increasing cross-sector collaboration is key to citywide planning efforts.

Office of the State Superintendent of Education

I also want to elevate the work Dr. Christina Grant and her team at OSSE are doing to create, maintain, and improve systems that are vital to our schools. Their support and partnership have been a key component in our schools’ recovery strategies. For example, we commend OSSE for their investment and management of high-impact tutoring programs that many of our schools have found vital to recovery efforts. Additionally, many of our schools’ students have attended career-focused classes at OSSE’s Advanced Technical Center. This program has been a resounding success, and we’re so grateful to Dr. Grant and the OSSE team for creating an accessible way for students to build skills for high-wage, high-skill, in-demand careers. Students who took classes at the ATC had higher in-seat attendance rates than their peers.

OSSE has also collaborated with the DME and our schools to offer dual enrollment programs that allow DC high school students to take college-level coursework for credit. We thank them for these opportunities that give students more confidence in their ability to be successful in college while also reducing their financial burden if they go on to attend college by allowing them to accumulate free college credits. Finally, I want to uplift Dr. Grant’s focus on literacy and literacy instruction across the District. Her leadership on the Early Literacy Task Force as well as ensuring our educators have robust training opportunities in the science of reading, LETRS, and structured literacy instruction, have been vital in supporting student growth.

Moving Forward

I’ll end where I started: we know there’s more to do to support long-term academic recovery and provide the support our students need to thrive. We’re facing numerous challenges that require citywide solutions and demand a deep sense of urgency to solve. We’re grateful for our partnership with the city’s education agencies and look forward to continuing our work together to make sure every student has the opportunity to receive a high-quality education.

Thank you for your time and attention, and I welcome your questions.