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Got a minute or two? It's March 2022 in review!
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Table of Contents
 March was a busy month! Click the link below to see the State Board's highlights.
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Working Session (3/2)
At the March working session, the State Board heard from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) on the 2022 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) accountability amendment and discussed budget priorities. Members also provided updates on the State Board’s internal committees (i.e., Student Advisory, Administrative, Board Governance, Education Standards, Outreach and Advocacy, Teacher Practice) and discussed drafting of public statements that address attendance and mask mandates in D.C.
Full minutes of the Working Session can be found here and the full recording can be found here.
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At the March public meeting, the State Board first heard comments from State Superintendent, Dr. Christina Grant, who gave updates on COVID-19 policies and procedures in schools, participation in the March 11th Council hearing on school attendance and OSSE’s commitment to addressing absenteeism and truancy in SY2022-23 through a rulemaking process, revising the statewide accountability system, ESSA funding request updates, and OSSE’s social studies work. She announced that the draft of the standards will be up for public comment from April through May.
The State Board then heard from a panel of current students and graduates of D.C. Educator Preparation Providers (EPPs):
- Aziza Kelly, Howard University, Teacher Residency Program, Graduate
- Emmanuel Thomas, University of the District of Columbia (UDC), Student
- Latianna Nichols, Urban Teachers, Graduate
 They shared their experiences going through their rigorous preparation programs and answered questions to help members understand how to best support educators and strengthen the educator pipeline.
Afterwards, the State Board passed several ceremonial resolutions:
- CR22-7 National Social Work Month
- CR22-8 DCSAA Winter Championships
- CR22-9 Recognizing Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching Recipients
- CR22-10 Read Across America Day
- CR22-11 Women’s History Month
- CR22-12 To Recognize Saqiyna Gray’s American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Never Quit Service Award
- CR22-13 Music in our Schools Month
You can find all of the State Board’s signed resolutions on our website here. You can watch the public meeting (with timestamps in the description of the video) on our YouTube channel here.
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In March, the following committees convened: Board Governance, Student Advisory, Accountability and Assessment, Education Standards, and Administrative.
Board Governance (3/11)
The Board Governance Committee met to discuss its work plan for 2022, including ward-level engagements, development and distribution of a Board Governance survey, expert panelists for a public meeting, synthesizing a Board Governance report, and development of governance recommendations. Committee members also listed potential budget needs for 2022.
Read the full set of minutes here. Watch the full committee meeting here.
Student Advisory (3/14)
The Student Advisory Committee met to decide their Aurora Institute Symposium proposal idea, which they will present at the symposium in October. Carlie Fisherow, the Chief of Staff at the Office of the Deputy Mayor of Education (DME), met with the SAC to discuss DME’s Recovery Roadmap. The Committee also discussed updates to their vaccination initiative.
Reminder: The Student Advisory Committee released their city-wide survey for D.C. high school students, which seeks to capture their thoughts on topics like mental health, safe passage, and COVID-19 safety in schools. Please help share this survey widely! The survey is available in English and Spanish.
Survey in English: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SACCITYWIDESURVEY
Survey in Spanish: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SACSPANISH
 Accountability and Assessment (3/17)
The Accountability and Assessment Committee met to discuss upcoming engagements with OSSE, including April stakeholder feedback sessions on the Accountability Amendment—as well as a work plan and budget priority items for 2022.
Read the full set of minutes here. Watch the full committee meeting here.
Education Standards (3/23)
The Education Standards Committee convened and discussed their continued work on social studies standards. Representative Birnstad updated the committee on the work she is doing with staff to coordinate a panel of student representatives from across the country who can speak to their experiences working on education standards.
Read the full set of minutes here. Watch the full committee meeting here.
Administrative (3/31)
The Administrative Committee met to hear updates from the State Board’s sister offices, the Office of the Student Advocate and the Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education, and to discuss the Budget Oversight Hearing, updates regarding space for the agency, mandated reporter training, plans for an equity audit tool, and committee work plans.
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March 2–March 3, 2022
This year’s Performance Oversight Hearings for education agencies were held on March 2 for public witnesses and March 3 for government witnesses. Here is a recap of individual members’ testimony:
Ward 4 Representative Frazier O’Leary testified about the facilities issues at several Ward 4 schools—heating issues at Roosevelt and ongoing HVAC issues at Whittier, Truesdell, Powell, Lasalle-Backus, and Roosevelt. He also discussed how there needs to be a swing space in Northeast to accommodate Truesdell, Whittier, and LaSalle-Backus when they are remodeled. (Watch here | Read here)
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Ward 5 Representative Zachary Parker discussed increasing at-risk funding, out-of-school time (OST) programming, and support for schools. Further, he discussed how schools were not ready on day one of school (leaking roofs, broken HVACs, inadequate equipment at Burroughs, Langdon, and Langley), how there hasn’t been thoughtful school planning, and the harmful health effects of the proposed Brentwood bus terminal. (Watch here)
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Ward 3 Representative Ruth Wattenberg discussed the State Board’s recommendations to the STAR Framework and D.C. School Report Card to reduce bias in D.C.’s school accountability system, how the new DCPS budget model is not transparent, teacher turnover, ensuring education agencies are prepared to successfully implement the “Addressing Dyslexia and Reading Difficulties Amendment Act of 2020” in the fall, and more. (Watch here | Read here)
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Vice President and Ward 7 Representative Eboni-Rose Thompson testified about the UPSFF, how there should be improved school planning, greater investments in school-based mental health, digital equity, safe passage, and literacy, and the issue of school facilities—fixing Marvin Gaye playground, HVAC issues at Burrville, Plummer, and Kelly Miller, plumbing and drainage issues at CW Harris and Woodson, sprinklers at Beers ES, and making schools ADA compliant. (Watch here)
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Ward 8 Representative Carlene Reid testified about the need to revisit the PACE Act to ensure that it is furthering equity in building modernizations as Ward 8 continues to lag in full modernizations for DCPS schools, expanding the quality of services for children with disabilities at the Pre-K level, the State Board’s recommendations to the STAR Framework and D.C. School Report Card to reduce bias in D.C.’s school accountability system, exploring standards for virtual learning, and more. (Watch here | Read here)
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And here is a recap of the State Board’s official testimony as presented by President and Ward 6 Representative Jessica Sutter. (Watch here)
Our testimony discusses the State Board’s work and progress over the past year: our ongoing partnership with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to revise D.C.’s social studies standards, the State Board’s set of recommendations to the STAR Framework and DC School Report Card, how the State Board increased its number of student representatives from two to four as recommended by the Student Advisory Committee (SAC), and our continued work in calling attention to teacher turnover. Lastly, we urged the Council to ensure that our sister offices, the Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education and Office of the Student Advocate, have the resources they need to operate and expand their services for the residents of the District of Columbia.
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Other Links:
3/2 (Public Witnesses) Recording
3/3 (Government Witnesses) Recording
March 28 and March 30, 2022
This year’s Budget Oversight Hearings for education agencies were held on March 28 for public witnesses and March 30 for government witnesses. Here is a recap of individual members’ testimony:
Ward 1 Representative Emily Gasoi testified about needing better funding and support for dual language schools and bilingual programs, specific support for schools serving English Language Learners (ELLs), such as funding to translate IEPs for families in a timely manner and training for educators to distinguish between SPED needs and language gaps, funding for adult education, and to re-fund outdoor learning. (Watch here | Read here)
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Ward 3 Representative Ruth Wattenberg testified about the new DCPS budget model and how many schools lost funds in the initial budgets. She said that while high schools are receiving an increase in funds, it appears to be coming at the expense of elementary school budgets. She also discussed issues with the Ward 3 feeder pattern. (Watch here | Read here)
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Ward 4 Representative Frazier O’Leary raised the issue of school facilities. He said that there should be no reason why newly-remodeled schools should have so many basic problems after the city spent millions of dollars on their construction, and there should be no reason why the schools that have not yet been remodeled have structural problems that continue to be ignored by the system. (Watch here | Read here)
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Vice President and Ward 7 Representative Eboni-Rose Thompson testified about how at-risk funds are supposed to be able to supplement, not supplant. She provided an example of how Beers Elementary in Ward 7 and Mann Elementary in Ward 3 both have the same number of projected enrollment, but Beers’ music teacher is paid out of at-risk funds, while Mann has enough money to pay for its music teacher out of local funds. She also called for a citywide, cross-sector education plan. (Watch here | Read here)
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Ward 8 Representative Carlene Reid testified about the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and how Ward 8 lags in the number of schools that have received full modernizations—many of the Ward 8 projects are only in pre-design and pre-planning versus progressing to the construction phase. She also discussed greater investment in improving literacy outcomes, outdoor education in Ward 8, funding for more paraprofessionals, and more. (Watch here | Read here)
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And here is a recap of the State Board’s official testimony as presented by President and Ward 6 Representative Jessica Sutter. (Watch here)
Our testimony covers specific requests for the State Board and our sister offices, the Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education (OMB) and the Office of the Student Advocate (OSA), as well as District-wide supports.
First, the State Board requested funding for a new or renovated office space for OMB and OSA—our sister offices should have an appropriate space that provides privacy for families to share sensitive information. Second, we requested two additional State Board FTEs to enhance our work: one FTE would be devoted to the review and updating of education standards and the other would be devoted to community engagement work on behalf of the agency.
We also shared that we would appreciate the Council’s consideration of adding the text of our proposed legislation, B24-0355, The Statewide Data Warehouse Amendment Act, to the Budget Support Act (BSA). This legislation would empower the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) to annually collect and report more robust, consistent, and detailed information about the District’s teacher workforce. We believe that with the additional data required in the bill, all local education agencies (LEAs) and the District’s state education agency (i.e., OSSE) would be better equipped to attract and retain the best teaching workforce in the country.
Next, we requested that OSSE receive funding for Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS) training for all K–5 teachers, reading specialists, literacy coaches, special educators, teachers of multilingual learners, and administrators, and that the D.C. Reading Clinic programming at DCPS be fully funded to ensure that research-based structured literacy instruction is available to struggling readers, as well as apprenticeship opportunities are available for aspiring reading specialists. The District must ensure that it has adequate resources in place so there is at least one full-time reading specialist in every elementary school who is trained in the science of reading and able to administer screenings and interventions for students with reading disorders, in line with L23-0919, the Addressing Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties Amendment Act of 2020.
We urged the Council to provide more funding for school-based supports, including funding for: teacher retention and school-staffing initiatives, hiring of more support staff (i.e., paraprofessionals), implementation of school-based mental health services (especially for middle and high school students), community schools and outdoor education programs, more grants for adult education providers, and to provide translation and interpretation services (e.g., translation of Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)).
Lastly, we called for prioritizing funds and investments that ensure the hiring, training, and retention of safe passage personnel in Safe Passage Priority Areas, as well as other supports that ensure the safety of traveling students (i.e., crossing guards, raised crosswalks) are in place.
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Other Links:
3/28 (Public Witnesses) Recording
3/30 (Government Witnesses) Recording
Learn more about this year’s timeline for the budget process from the Council of D.C. here.
Throughout the year, the State Board reaches out to agency partners and stakeholders in education to express concerns on important issues. In March, the State Board submitted the following:
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D.C. Policy Center State of Schools Launch (3/10)
 Student Representative Skye-Ali Johnson providing opening remarks at the D.C. Policy Center's State of D.C. Schools Launch
Student Representative Skye-Ali Johnson provided opening remarks for the D.C. Policy Center’s launch of their State of D.C. Schools Report, which examines how students, families, and schools navigated virtual learning during school year 2020-21, the first full academic year when schools operated under pandemic conditions. In her remarks, Representative Johnson characterizes the pandemic as "the eagle of tribulations," to convey the challenges that many families had to endure, from economic hardships to housing instability.
"March of 2020 will be a time recognized as when the eagle of tribulations took flight. It is a time that will go down within the history books. The eagle personifies Covid-19 and its harsh effects on the entire United States of America. Today I want to shed light specifically on how it has specifically affected residents and students of the District of Columbia."
Check out her full remarks by clicking the image above or by clicking here.
Spring 2022 OSSE Literacy Convening (3/23)
 Ward 2 Representative Allister Chang at the Spring 2022 OSSE Literacy Convening
Ward 2 Representative Allister Chang was a featured panelist at the Spring 2022 OSSE Literacy Convening, which brought together literacy leaders and educators from across the District of Columbia to engage in professional learning and networking to build city-wide capacity. The convening theme, Reimagining Literacy invited participants to think about literacy instruction and intervention through the lens of equity.
NASBE Legislative Conference (3/28)
 From left to right: SBOE Student Representative Liv Birnstad, NASBE CEO and President Paolo DeMaria, SBOE President and Ward 6 Representative Jessica Sutter
Student Representative Liv Birnstad was a featured panelist on the opening session at the NASBE Legislative Conference on March 28. Her session centered on envisioning education post-COVID and what State Boards need to do now to lay the groundwork for a brighter future. Here are some quotes from Representative Birnstad during her panel:
“Moving forward, what I hope to see coming out of this pandemic, is where we focus our energy between students, teachers, and administrators. If Covid taught us anything, it’s that school culture is extremely important…How do students view their administrators? Do they think they are trustworthy? Are they able to confide in them? How do students view their school? Do they trust their school to provide them with strong curriculum and strong access to resources?”
“[States should focus on] centering student access. For students, our home life is inseparable from our school life. As State Boards, it’s important to push for accessibility past the 8–4, Monday through Friday school hours.”
Your representatives around town! Be sure to follow them on social media to stay in the loop.
 
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Here are our scheduled meetings for April:
- Wednesday, 4/6 at 5 p.m. Working Session
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Monday, 4/11 at 6 p.m. Student Advisory
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Wednesday, 4/20 at 5:30 p.m. Public Meeting
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Thursday, 4/21 at 4:30 p.m. Accountability and Assessment
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Friday, 4/22 at 10 a.m. Outreach and Advocacy
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Monday, 4/25 at 6 p.m. Student Advisory
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Wednesday, 4/27 at 4:30 p.m.Education Standards
Be sure to check out our meeting calendar for the most up-to-date information about our meetings and each meeting's Zoom link.
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Where can I find the State Board's meeting materials?
Agendas, meeting documents, testimony, reports and resolutions to be considered for all working sessions and public meetings after April 1, 2015 can be on our information sharing website, Simbli.
We publish our official documents, like adopted resolutions and reports, letters, and statements, on our website here.
How do I sign up for a public meeting?
There are 3 ways you can sign up:
We ask that you provide us with your name, email address, and subject of your testimony. You must sign up no later than 48 hours in advance of the meeting. Written testimony may be submitted at any time to sboe@dc.gov.
Learn more about our meetings here.
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Who is my representative and how do I get in contact with them?
Your representative is based on the ward you live in. If you are unsure which ward you live in, you can use this tool from the Office of Planning to find out!
We list each representative and their contact information on our website. Click on your representative's bio to find their email, phone number, and Twitter handle.
How do I join the Student Advisory Committee (SAC)?
If you are a rising sophomore, junior, or senior and are interested in joining the Student Advisory Committee, contact us at sboe@dc.gov.
Applications are accepted on a rolling basis!
You can learn more about the SAC's work here.
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The D.C. State Board of Education is an independent agency within the Government of the District of Columbia that advises the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE), the District’s state education agency. The State Board is made up of nine elected representatives, each representing their respective wards, with one member representing DC at large, and four appointed student representatives. The State Board approves statewide education policies and sets academic standards, while OSSE oversees education within the District and manages federal education funding. More information about the State Board can be found at sboe.dc.gov.
The Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education serves as an external, impartial resource for current and prospective public-school students and their parents or guardians in the resolution of complaints and concerns regarding public education in a way that furthers the students’ best interest. The Ombudsman’s Office uses conflict resolution strategies, including coaching, facilitation, and mediation, to assist families and schools experiencing disagreement or conflict. More information about the Office of the Ombudsman can be found at educationombudsman.dc.gov.
The Office of the Student Advocate supports students, parents, and families in their advocacy through parent education, one-on-one coaching, resource supports, and trainings in order to amplify the voices of families and communities in processes and decision-making; to provide avenues for access to resources and understanding systems; and to support power families and communities already possess. Contact the Office of the Student Advocate Monday through Friday at (202) 741-4692 for questions or support with charter and neighborhood schools. More information about the Office of the Student Advocate can be found at studentadvocate.dc.gov.
For the latest information on the District Government’s response to COVID-19, please visit coronavirus.dc.gov.
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