Testimony Before the DC Council Committee of the Whole at the Hearing on B25-540, “School Improvement Amendment Act of 2023 Hearing”
By Rachel Johnston, Chief of Staff, DC Charter School Alliance
November 20, 2023
Good morning, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee. My name is Rachel Johnston, and I’m a Ward 5 resident and the Chief of Staff of 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 start by thanking the Council for elevating support for schools as an urgent priority and ensuring that every student receives a high-quality education. Your support for improving academic performance remains crucial as our schools continue to invest in academic recovery efforts for the students who need it the most.
That’s why we appreciate Chairman Mendelson and Councilmember Parker for introducing this bill designed to support the District’s lowest-performing schools and improve student outcomes. We are glad to see that the process identified for the development of a support office puts forth some parameters, but provides OSSE flexibility. With input from relevant stakeholders, they can use their expertise to design this framework in a way that will best meet the needs of students and schools. We also appreciate that this bill requires OSSE to clearly outline how the proposed school support office and improvement framework will interact with the DC Public Charter School Board’s and DC Public Schools’ accountability systems. This is critical, as charter schools need to know exactly how they will be measured and what resources will be available for improvement.
As you consider the details of this bill, we have a few recommendations we believe will strengthen the efforts to substantially improve academic outcomes for the schools entering the program.
Recommendations
First, we urge you to ensure charter leaders are at the table when OSSE is developing its school improvement framework. We believe it's essential to include representatives with a variety of perspectives, including from schools of different sizes, from schools that have different academic models, and from schools that support different student populations. A bottom-up approach that considers the unique culture and character of individual school communities will help ensure the success of the framework. We also have many charter schools who have successfully engaged in multi-year improvement strategies who could share what they’ve learned from that work.
Second, both the amount of funding and the source are crucial. We ask that the Council provide adequate funding for this bill to ensure there are the necessary resources to properly support the schools that need it. This means fully funding the framework OSSE develops, rather than piecemeal support for specific strategies. These funds should be separate from and in addition to the education funding provided to all schools through the UPSFF, so as to not destabilize both the charter sector and DCPS. Increases to the UPSFF are crucial to ensure all schools can continue to maintain increases to teacher pay provided to schools last spring, afford the rising costs of school operations, and retain the necessary pandemic recovery supports as ESSER funding sunsets.
Third, as written, the bill doesn’t define how the lowest-performing 5% of schools are determined. We urge you to clarify that OSSE use the methodologies already detailed in its Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA state plan (required by the U.S. Department of Education) to determine the lowest-performing schools, rather than creating a new, additional framework. This ESSA framework uses three-year cycles so we therefore also recommend adjusting this legislation to a six, rather than five, year timeline for school improvement to allow for two three-year cycles (1).
Moving Forward
I want to thank you again for introducing this legislation to support the improvement of student outcomes. As OSSE moves forward in developing its school improvement plan, we are confident that (1) they will engage with school community members at every step of the process to help ensure resulting improvement programs are flexible and consider schools’ unique cultures, and (2) they will partner and collaborate with high-quality school support organizations with deep experience doing this work and a successful track record working with DC schools.
As always, we’re grateful for our partnership with the city, and we welcome any opportunity to continue collaborating to ensure every student receives a high-quality education.
Thank you for your time and attention, and I welcome your questions.
Citations
Office of the State Superintendent of Education, “Investment in Schools and School Support Under ESSA.”
