2023-25 Strategic Plan Updates | June 27, 2024

District of Columbia sent this bulletin at 06/27/2024 04:46 PM EDT

Road to Restoration: Updates on the 2023-25 OSSE Strategic Plan

June 27, 2024

Earlier this week, I was honored to begin my role as Interim State Superintendent here at OSSE. I am dedicated to making this transition in leadership as seamless as possible, keeping our strategic initiatives on track, and building on the great work already underway. Thanks to the efforts of Dr. Christina Grant, we have a solid foundation for the continued implementation of our 2023-25 strategic plan.

As we celebrate the end of a successful school year, we are turning the spotlight on our incredible staff. During my 10 years serving as Assistant Superintendent of Postsecondary and Career Education (PCE), I have loved the opportunity to work with people who share my passion to help District residents thrive by providing opportunities and experiences to further their education.

Our strategic plan touches the entirety of OSSE’s work – from early learning to reimagining the high school experience to strengthening our operations. Staff members from all our divisions play key roles in helping to implement specific bodies of work within this plan.

Here at OSSE, we cultivate our employees through a robust set of learning and development opportunities and wellness resources available to staff. These efforts foster growth, development and continual improvement of OSSE staff at every stage of their career. Read on to learn more about our investments in our Cultivate Team strategic priority.

In service,

Antoinette S. Mitchell, Ph.D.

Interim State Superintendent of Education
Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE)

Offering Staff Opportunities for Career Development

At OSSE, we are purposeful in our efforts to hire talented professionals who are passionate about preparing students for success in college, careers and life. Once staff join Team OSSE, we are proud to offer professional development opportunities and systems for ensuring intentional and relevant professional development for all.

Our Human Resources team coordinates training for staff on leadership and mentoring programs and ensures staff have access to robust online learning and training courses. These resources are tailored for staff to develop their skills and competencies in growing their experience in their professional roles. This spring, through a partnership with the Management Center, OSSE offered training opportunities for all staff to develop strategies to work in a way that is equitable, sustainable and leads to outstanding results.

We also encourage staff members to explore opportunities within the agency that will further their development. Last month, OSSE held its first internal pre-hiring fair and networking event in advance of DCHR’s Spring Into New Careers hiring fair. Staff members networked with representatives from each OSSE division to learn more about the 28 unique positions available. The team looks forward to offering a second hiring fair this summer.

Here at OSSE, professional development is the responsibility of all: the agency, our managers and staff.

Strategic Plan Highlights from the 2023-24 School Year

Expanded access to quality, affordable child care by expanding eligibility to child care subsidies, enabling 5,200 children ages 0-13 to become newly income-eligible for subsidies last year.
Invested in the education and development of the early educator workforce, helping more than 250 District child care educators enroll in postsecondary coursework and more than 300 complete Child Development Associate (CDA) coursework.
Transitioned to distributing Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund payments to child care providers to increase staff compensation, distributing funds to more than 80 percent of eligible providers in the second quarter.
Reconvened the Early Childhood Educator Compensation Task Force to make recommendations to advance equity, efficiency and sustainability in the implementation of the fund.

Pictured: School visit to Lee Montessori’s East End Campus

Celebrated our 2024 Teacher of the Year and all awards winners at the annual OSSE Educator Awards.
Secured US Department of Education approval of our ESSA state plan and worked in partnership with State Board of Education (SBOE) to develop a new, more user-friendly Report Card tool for families and stakeholders.
Launched recruitment for DC’s flagship Teacher Apprenticeship Program.
Oversaw the distribution of $64 million to nearly 140 public charter schools representing 70 local education agencies this school year through the Charter Teacher Pay Program.
Worked in partnership with SBOE to adopt DC’s first Financial Literacy Standards.
Convened and published comprehensive, consensus recommendations from DC’s Early Literacy Education Task Force to increase literacy in the District.
As of May 2024, 591 educators, representing 61 LEAs have enrolled in the Foundations of Special Education micro-credential pathway, and 324 educators, representing 21 LEAs have enrolled in the Special Education Endorsement Recovery Initiative (SEERI) pathway.

Pictured: Alexander Deleon and Alexandra Toro, students at Cardozo Education Campus, emceeing this year's Educator Awards

Extended learning opportunities for students with the highest need through the launch of our High-Impact Tutoring Program, which had already reached 9,996 unique students as of December 2023 at more than 120 schools and 20 community-based sites.
Released the first-ever annual Special Education Performance Report to build educator and system capacity to serve students with disabilities.
Granted $6.3 million to LEAs and community-based organizations 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLC) program to provide needed out-of-school time learning.
In partnership with the US Department of Education’s Region 4 Comprehensive Center (R4CC), OSSE conducted robust stakeholder engagement on ways to enhance support for schools identified for improvement under OSSE’s accountability system. This engagement included empathy interviews, focus groups and listening sessions with DCPS and charter principals, teachers, instructional superintendents, students, LEA representatives, and partner organizations.

Pictured: High-Impact Tutoring session at Kramer Middle School

The Advanced Technical Center (ATC) welcomed the First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden and Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
Bloomberg Philanthropies’ is investing $9.5 million to support the expansion of the District’s ATC in Ward 5, the establishment of a new ATC in Ward 8 at Whitman-Walker Health at the St. Elizabeth’s East campus, and an innovative post-high school bridge program led by the DC Hospital Association.
In May of this year, 197 interns completed the Advanced Internship Program.
The Summer 2024 Career Ready Internship program launched on June 24 with 627 interns.
Nearly tripled the number of dual-enrollment seats to serve more than 600 students and opened the spring 2024 application for dual enrollment.
Submitted DC’s new four-year Career and Technical Education (CTE) State Plan to the U.S. Department of Education in May following a six-month process of development and stakeholder engagement and feedback.

Pictured: ATC students Syieda Tomlinson, Columbia Heights Education Campus and Almeria King, Eastern High School, speaking during June event announcing the Bloomberg grant

Launched K-Adult Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) standards for all DC public and public charter schools.
Partnered with 16 LEAs this spring to successfully pilot the first citywide school climate survey and provide feedback to OSSE. OSSE has convened an Advisory Cohort for the 2023–24 school year and will scale up to a statewide administration in 2024–25.
Launched the new SUN Bucks program and the annual DC Youth Meals Program, helping children get the nutrition they need when school is out of session.
Updated DC's School Immunization Policy and successfully implemented a citywide approach to increase pediatric immunization rates. More than half of DC's public and public charter schools achieved 90 percent or higher immunization compliance in four key grades.
Released the OSSE Wellness Guidelines for Child Care Facilities - a collection of specific actions that help early childhood development facilities integrate wellness into education programming and facility operations.

Held the second OSSE Awards highlighting exceptional staff members and teams who have made significant contributions.
Introduced Spring Break at OSSE during the week of April 8–12 where staff attended a variety of wellness activities.
Grew efforts to embed Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging in our work with hybrid events including a special session welcoming Mr. Steven Johnson’s AP African American History class from BASIS PCS and Ms. Jeannette Brown Carson (Cardozo High School Class of 1950).
Held OSSE’s first internal pre-hiring fair and networking event in advance of DCHR’s Spring Into New Careers hiring fair.

Pictured: Team OSSE during Women's History Event

Collected school course catalogs for the first time to link student, teacher and course data, which will help the District understand which students have access to rigorous coursework and effective educators. In 2023, more than 16,000 courses were submitted to OSSE by more than 90 LEAs and nonpublic schools.
Published an interactive recovery dashboard to provide clear, transparent information on how nearly $1 billion in federal recovery funds are being leveraged by the state and LEAs.
Released critical new systems, including the Learning Management System, as a centralized professional development training platform for the education workforce and Special Programs.
Published the new Student Transportation Family Handbook featuring updates and key information on how OSSE works collaboratively with families and schools.