Author: bethabacon

bethabacon
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A Better Way to Rate Schools?

A message from Ward 6 School Board member, Joe Weedon, about upcoming decisions on how DC rates schools — and how to make your voice heard on Nov. 16

Currently, schools are rated almost entirely on reading and math test scores–and almost entirely on the proportion of students who are “proficient,” regardless of how much academic progress students in the school did or didn’t make.

This approach has led to many complaints: too much focus on tests and test prep; not enough attention to other subjects;  pressure on schools to focus on teaching students who are close to the proficient cusp instead of kids who score substantially higher or lower; a disincentive for schools to enroll challenging students, whose test scores typically grow more slowly; and, not enough attention to the non-academic aspects of education, including providing a nurturing, safe, challenging, engaging environment.

Thanks to the new federal law, the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed last year, DC has the chance to greatly revise the basis on which we evaluate school quality. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and the State Board of Education (SBOE) have been meeting with members of the community since the spring to hear ideas for fixing the current system.  OSSE produced a “straw man” draft, meant to elicit comment. The SBOE responded with its concerns about what was and wasn’t in the draft.

The discussion now moves to a larger, public stage: the next SBOE meeting, Nov 16 at 5:30. While any member of the public can testify on any issue they want, the three main subjects up for discussion that night are:

  • The Weight of Test Scores:  Our current system overwhelmingly emphasizes test results. We are hearing that this focus on testing has harmful effects on our schools. The OSSE discussion draft suggests a new total test weight of 80%; the SBOE response memo suggests it should be much lower. We need to hear from parents, students, educators, and organizations about how the current testing weight has affected their schools and what they think the new weight should be.
  • The Weight of Growth in Relation to Proficiency:  Rather than holding schools accountable almost entirely for whether their students reach specific proficiency levels, ESSA offers DC the opportunity to credit schools for the progress students achieve each year, meaning that if students enter the year well below proficiency but make above average strides, the school will be credited for that growth–not penalized because the student hasn’t yet reached proficient. We need to hear from parents, students and organizations on what they believe the appropriate balance is between rating schools based on the proportion of students who meet proficiency thresholds and the actual academic progress the students have made.
  • Open, Welcoming Spirit and Other Qualitative Indicators of Quality: In addition to test scores, the SBOE believes that part of a school’s rating should be based on such qualitative factors as whether all students, teachers and parents feel welcome in their schools and such factors as school discipline, attendance, bullying, parent engagement, teacher turnover, student reenrollment, etc. Data for ratings could be drawn from surveys of parents, teachers, and students and from existing data. We need to hear from parents, students and organizations on what factors we should be looking at when assessing our schools.


Please consider testifying before the Board on these or related questions. 
Wed. Nov 16, 5:30 PM
441 4th St NW (at Judiciary Square)

You must sign up by 5 pm, Tuesday Nov 15. Sign up by emailing . Please circulate this information to all interested schools, parents, educators, organizations.

Or, if you can’t attend the hearing, send written statements to me at  and we will make sure your input gets to OSSE. 

Thank you,
Joe Weedon
http://www.ward6education.com/

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Changes to School Health Services Program, Concerns, and What You Can Do

The Department of Health is changing the method of delivering school health services and school nurse staffing allocations starting in January 2017.

For background, see the slide presentation made at two community forums in October to explain these changes or read more information on the school health services program here.

Overview of the changes

According to the DOH presentation, the goals of the changes is to improve health outcomes for our students and standardize level of care provided. Changes reflect an underlying belief that public health initiatives for schools don’t require a credentialed nurse in each school 40 hours per week, despite documented value of school nurses.

There will be a new algorithm to determine whether a school gets 20 or 40 hours per week of nurse coverage will be based on four elements: children with special health needs; enrollment; health suite use; profile data. These data will be reassessed monthly, so coverage could increase or decrease monthly at a school if one or more of the data points changes.

DOH plans to staff point people at schools to calculate the algorithm and identify student needs related to Individual Health Plans. The goal is to improve health outcomes for DCPS students (currently only 40% of DC public school students have complete universal health forms, which includes up-to-date immunizations).

When a nurse is not there, schools will be responsible for using its own staff to cover health needs, or calling 911.

Concerns raised about these changes

* Decreased coverage in light of national recommendations (CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend full-time school nurses)

* Possible need to rely more heavily on 911 when the nurses aren’t there

* Starting a new program in the middle of the school year

* Lack of transparency and community engagement in how decisions were made about the changes and what is driving the need for cost savings?

How you can help

1. Send feedback ASAP on school nursing (to help provide Ward 6 perspectives to the City Council). Send us an email at or share feedback this form:
 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1lK3PNEDuVKElGhIrybcfNe4cyC5xq_XeAJNHY1o22-4/edit?usp=sharing

Please share:
 * What is the value of school nurses to you personally or your school community?
 * What is the impact on your school when school staff has to cover nursing duties when a school nurse is not on site?
 * Name of your school

2. Sign a petition from the Washington Teachers’ Union and the DC Nurses Association. Every Child Deserves a Full-Time Nurse in His or Her School

3. Testify in front of the City Council or submit written testimony for the Education Committee’s Public Roundtable on School Health Services Program on Oct. 25:
 http://dccouncil.us/events/education-public-roundtable5
Note: If you are unable to testify at the hearing, written statements are encouraged and will be made a part of the official record. Written statements should be submitted via email to or by mail to the Committee on Education, Council of the District of Columbia, Suite 116 of the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20004. The record will close at 5:00 p.m. on November 8, 2016.

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Why Knowledge Matters, a discussion with Dan Willingham, June 1st, 6:30PM

Why Knowledge Matters: The need for a rich curriculum, from the earliest ages

A talk by Dan Willingham, a noted cognitive scientist and professor at the University of Virginia

Wednesday, June 1
6:30-8pm
McKinley High School
151 T St. NE

How to register? The event is free, but please register so the organizers know how many people to expect.

Why attend? The Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education are poised to consider revisions to DC’s current accountability rules and to high school graduation standards. The question of what is fundamental to students’ education is a critical one. Teachers, parents, residents, education leaders and advocates of all kinds, come join the conversation with Dan Willingham.

Who’s sponsoring the event? Major education stakeholders in the District:  DME, SBOE, OSSE, DCPS, WTU, C4DC, CHPSPO and other Ward education councils.

Who is Dan Willingham?  Willingham writes the “Ask the Cognitive Scientist” column for the American Educator magazine. Far more than most academics, he has worked to make cognitive science findings useful and understandable to teachers and schools. He is the author of Why Don’t Students Like School?, Raising Kids who Read, and When Can You Trust the Experts?

More info? Download the flyer for this event

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Chairman Grosso’s Education Budget Increases Modernization Dollars, Rejects Methodology of Mayor’s Budget But Largely Sticks to Plan

Some important changes for Ward 6 included in draft council proposal

Today, DC Council Committee on Education Chairman Grosso released his proposal and report for the education portion of the FY17 budget, including modernization funding and priorities. The Education Committee will vote on the Chairman’s proposal on Thursday, May 5. CHPSPO members involved in advocacy over the past year on these issues prepared a quick view of the draft proposal from Chairman Grosso.

As background: Over the last year there has been a sustained advocacy effort by the CHPSPO group, mostly focussed on modernizations and cross sector collaboration. Those efforts have stepped up in recent weeks in response to the Mayor’s budget proposal. Many, many parents turned out to testify, approximately 250 parents and others from across the city signed a letter asking for broad reform in the modernization process, and there has been continued dialogue with Councilmembers Grosso and Allen.

In the middle of all of this, several of our neighborhood schools have been dealing with the emergence of the lead in drinking water debacle and the failure of several agencies to prevent, respond to or communicate about this threat to kids’ health.

The combination of the budget and policy proposals from both the Education Committee and the Transportation and Environment Committee represent some true responsiveness to the school communities and some good policy making. But they also clarify just how far we have to go.

It is a particular victory that the Chairman has released a dramatically different prioritization matrix of capital projects in the schools than was proposed by DCPS.

While the Chairman’s matrix did not translate in to a significantly revised capital spending plan, it is a big qualitative step forward from the work done by DCPS and sets the stage for any new capital dollars that become available in the City. It also represents a big victory for the call for broad reform that CHPSPO has led.