For years, the federal government has tasked the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) with identifying District’s lowest-performing public and public charter schools, allocating federal dollars to them, and helping them develop improvement plans.
However, two local lawmakers said they want OSSE to play more of a direct role in how the District’s lowest-performing schools change course.
On Monday, D.C. Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) introduced the School Improvement Amendment Act. This legislation establishes a school support office within OSSE that provides resources and coaching to District public and public charter schools that are ranked in the bottom 5 percent.
Currently, OSSE doles out $300,000 in federal dollars to each school it designates as low-performing and assists in the creation of a school improvement plan. However, the agency doesn’t directly guide each school in the execution of that plan.
If approved, the School Improvement Amendment Act gives OSSE until the fall of 2024 to submit a report that outlines the support office’s processes and frameworks. In its report, OSSE can appeal for more power and resources that would better allow it to directly support the District’s lowest-performing schools.
The finalized processes and frameworks would then be applied no later than September 2025. After that, OSSE would have to report to the council and mayor biennially about how the schools in the program have progressed.
Parker, a former SBOE president with experience supporting and coaching schools in the nonprofit sector, described the legislation as a “game changer.”
“Research shows that through continuous improvement, work and support, schools can improve,” Parker told The Informer. “This disrupts inequities that have allowed some of our schools to remain low performing for decades through greater accountability for OSSE.”
The introduction of the legislation culminates conversations with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, D.C. Public Charter School Board, Washington Teachers’ Union, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), and State Superintendent Christina Grant, as well as out-of-town education officials.
Parker acknowledged Grant for what he described as her passion for further establishing OSSE’s role as a resource hub.
“It’s a necessary shift in the District and across the country,” he said. “The purpose is to be collaborative and supportive, not punitive. We want to provide OSSE with the support that it needs to provide schools with support.”
Ensuring OSSE Directly Steps In with Each Low-Performing School
An OSSE spokesperson said that agency officials look forward to engaging the council on the School Improvement Amendment Act.
In its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, OSSE highlights equitable outcomes for all students as a priority. It measures its progress in meeting that goal by how well schools and student groups with the greatest need show improvement.
Action steps that OSSE outlined toward its goals include: distributing and monitoring grant funding, leveraging its authority to hold low-performing schools accountable, extending learning opportunities to students with the highest need, setting clear expectations for how schools serve high-need students, and implementing the Special Education Performance report, a new accountability system.
Since 2018, OSSE has doled out Investment in School Grants to public and public charter schools that have been designated as the lowest performing in the District and in need of support.
OSSE identifies these schools using methodologies outlined in its Every Student Succeeds Act state plan. They often fall within the following categories: low-performing schools, schools with a low graduation rate, schools with one or more consistently underperforming groups, and schools that are doing poorly for its bottom 5 percent of students as it’s doing for all students.
As of 2022, 32 District public and public charter schools have been eligible for Investment in School Grants. Many of them are in the midst of a three-year improvement cycle, estimated to cost $11 million in federal funds. At least a dozen of these schools are either located east of the Anacostia River or with a sizable population of at-risk students.
During the most recent budget cycle, District schools with at-risk populations — students who experience homelessness, live in foster care, qualify for SNAP or TANF, or are on track to matriculate through high school in longer than four years — have received additional funding through the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula.
However, Mendelson said that the infusion of local and federal dollars means little without authority vested in OSSE to directly assist low-performing schools.
Mendelson told The Informer that he’ll conduct hearings on the School Improvement Amendment Act later in the fall with the hopes of getting the legislation approved before the end of the year. He said that launching a new office within OSSE could cost at least $500,000 in the new budget cycle, assuming that OSSE doesn’t request more latitude in its processes and framework document.
Like Parker, Mendelson spoke about the potential for improvement within the school system as it relates to a bevy of issues. One particular issue that Mendelson mentioned was teacher retention.
The council chairman, who’s scheduled to conduct a hearing on teacher retention in late November, said that DCPS hasn’t adequately addressed this issue in D.C.’s lowest-performing public schools. He said Johnson Middle School, Kelly Miller Middle School and Kramer Middle School have been depleted of teachers who are equipped with knowledge of the campuses’ institutional history.
He said with direct involvement, OSSE could bypass local education agencies to provide the training and support that helps teachers stay longer.
“We’re giving OSSE the authority and asking them to come back to us in a year as experts to show how they’re going to help the [low-performing] schools,” Mendelson said. “This is about creating an opportunity. I know OSSE is supportive of where we’re going. We’re giving them a green light to come back with a proposal.”