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New: Test Development Opportunity for Educators
OSSE’s Office of Assessments is currently recruiting educators to apply for the opportunity to participate in test development events for multiple DC statewide assessments, including DC Comprehensive Assessments of Progress in Education (DC CAPE), Multi-State Alternate Assessment (MSAA) and WIDA ACCESS.
Applicants selected will be part of a pool of educators available to attend various test development events, including content review, bias and sensitivity review, range finding, data review, and standard setting. Each test development event requires a commitment of approximately three to five days and will be held during the 2025-26 school year or in summer 2026. The assessment vendor will provide participants with a daily stipend or LEAs with substitute reimbursement. Participants can request Professional Learning Units (PLUs) in place of a stipend that can be used toward credential renewal. Participants will also have the opportunity to use experience gained through test development activities to build assessment literacy within their schools and LEAs and influence the content that will appear on the statewide summative assessments for DC students. Applicants who are selected will receive notification from OSSE and event registration information from our partner vendor.
Educators with a range of assessment and curriculum experience, content expertise, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) training are welcome to apply, and all applicants should meet the following qualifications:
- Currently employed as a teacher or academic leader for grades 3 through 12 at a District of Columbia public or public charter school;
- Experience teaching diverse populations and/or students with special needs;
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Expertise in English language arts (ELA), mathematics, or science with a deep understanding of the Common Core State Standards or Next Generation Science Standards;
- Three years of experience as a teacher and/or academic leader; and
- Able to commit three to five school days a year to attend test development events.
If you are interested in participating, please complete the application here by 5 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20 to be eligible for test development events.
For additional questions, please contact Yolanda Barber at Yolanda.Barber@dc.gov.
New: The 2025-26 OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching Program Application Now Open
The 2025-26 OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching application is now open and will close on Sunday, Feb. 15. The OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching program is a cost-free opportunity to become an elementary, early childhood, or special education teacher in DC.
To support potential applicants and school leaders, OSSE is offering an upcoming virtual session:
Information Session for School Leaders
This virtual information session will take place on Wednesday, Jan. 21, from 3:30-4:30 p.m., and will provide school leaders with information about the OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching program structure, expectations for apprentices and schools, and an overview of the role of school leaders in the application process. To attend, register here.
To learn more about the OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching program, visit the OSSE Apprenticeship in Teaching webpage.
For additional information or questions, please email OSSE.Apprenticeship@dc.gov.
DC Health Responds to Changes in CDC’s Vaccine Recommendations (Reminder)
In response to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Jan. 5 recommendations regarding the national childhood immunization schedule, DC Health has issued a statement that the District’s immunization schedule remains unchanged and continues to be covered by all District public and private insurers. The statement indicates that families in the District should continue to receive the full range of vaccines recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians.
SY 2025-26 School Health Profiles - Data Collection in Progress (Reminder)
For the 2025-26 school year, the School Health Profiles (SHP) will be administered from Monday, Jan. 12 through Friday, Feb. 13. All school-level users gained access to the SHP application on Jan. 12.
All schools must complete their profiles through the SHP application and school-level users should contact LEA data managers to get access. All new users should be added as “School Health Profile POCs” through the All Staff application. Once the LEA data manager has submitted the user updates, new users should expect to receive access after one business day. All users must use the same email address added in the All Staff application to create a new user profile to log in. Please note: Google Chrome is the preferred browser.
Please review this recording to explain how to use the application, how to get access and important steps LEA data managers can take to help schools navigate these changes and submit the SHP by the Feb. 13 deadline. That recording, along with the LEA webinar recording, the FAQs document and the questionnaire can be found on the OSSE Healthy Schools Act webpage.
Key Dates:
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Monday, Jan. 12: SHP Application Launched for School-Level Users
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Monday, Feb 2: OSSE Support Tool (OST) Deadline
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Friday, Feb. 13 by 11:59 p.m.: SHP Data Submission Deadline for School-Level Users
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Tuesday, Feb. 17 by 5 p.m.: SHP Data Certification Deadline by LEA Heads of School
DC Public Schools (DCPS) has internal deadlines that fall earlier than some of the above dates. Please check with DCPS Student Health Services contacts for more information.
If you have any other questions, please contact Grace Manubay at OSSE.SchoolHealth@dc.gov.
Become a Subject Area Program Reviewer for DC’s Educator Preparation Providers (Reminder)
Are you an experienced educator with subject area expertise in Early Childhood Education, Elementary Education, Literacy/Science of Reading, or Middle School or Secondary Science, and an interest in ensuring effective teacher preparation? Serve as a program reviewer to support OSSE’s review process at one of DC’s Educator Preparation Providers (EPPs) that prepares future educators to earn an OSSE teaching credential.
By participating in this review process, you will:
- Review documents submitted by a subject area program, including narratives, a curriculum map, and supporting materials described in this OSSE Handbook.
- Evaluate evidence submitted by a subject area program to demonstrate alignment with OSSE's EPP and Subject Area Program Standards.
- Provide OSSE with a recommendation regarding whether a subject area program has met the required standards.
OSSE will host training sessions and conduct reviews from February to April. The full review cycle may take up to 16 hours across multiple days, and current educators who complete at least one review are eligible to earn a $350 stipend and up to 16 PLUs for their commitment and efforts. If you are interested in participating as an OSSE subject area program reviewer, please complete this form no later than Friday, Jan. 30.
Please reach out to Sabrina Alano at Sabrina.Alano@dc.gov for further information.
Action Civics Curricular Materials Available (Reminder)
OSSE has partnered with the University of Maryland and the Close Up Foundation to develop a series of six Action Civics units that focus on teaching students how to evaluate online information, participate in a current issues deliberation, and take civic action. OSSE has additional lesson resources for each unit.
All resources can be found on the Learning Management System (LMS).
For more information, please contact Madison Kantzer at Madison.Kantzer@dc.gov.
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New: Upcoming Restorative Justice Professional Development
Start the new year with restorative justice professional learning. OSSE is partnering with RestorativeDC to offer interactive workshops with practical tools and effective strategies to implement restorative justice in your school community. These sessions are intended for DC educators serving grades K through 12 and will be held at OSSE, 1050 First St. NE from 9 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
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Tuesday, Feb. 3: Transforming Conflict - Restorative Practices for a Positive School Community
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Tuesday, March 17: Leveraging Restorative Justice to Move from Trauma-Informed to Healing-Centered Engagement
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Tuesday, May 12: Restorative Justice Year-End Celebration and Reflection
Register here.
For more information about the trainings visit the RestorativeDC website. For questions, please email Jessica.Dulay@dc.gov.
New: OSSE’s Division of Health and Wellness Partners with Nemours Children’s Health on Physical Activity Training Program
OSSE’s Division of Health and Wellness’ Healthy Tots and Healthy Schools and Wellness teams have been approved to participate in Nemours Children’s Health Springboard Opportunity: Physical Activity Learning Sessions (PALS) Train the Trainer.
As part of the new partnership, the Healthy Tots team is looking to recruit District early care and education (ECE) staff to participate in the train the trainer through OSSE’s LMS.
PALS is a training package for ECE and health training and technical assistance (T/TA) staff on the best practices for physical activity. PALS trains and coaches state ECE and health T/TA staff working directly with ECE providers (Head Start, Early Head Start, child development centers, family child care, pre-kindergarten). The goal is to increase their knowledge of best practices for physical activity in children ages birth to 5. PALS combines content learning with facility-level self-assessments, policy development opportunities, resources and materials, aimed at supporting practice change in ECE programs — leading to healthier, more active children.
If a representative from your ECE program is interested in the opportunity, please contact Kimberly Thompson at KimberlyA.Thompson@dc.gov.
New: LEA Data Discussion for Dual Enrollment Coordinators/Guidance Counselors
Dual Enrollment coordinators and guidance counselors are invited to join OSSE’s Office of Research, Analysis, and Reporting (ORAR) for a virtual discussion to review how the enrollment data collection is used to create the Advanced Coursework – Participation metric scores for the accountability system.
This virtual session will be held on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 11 a.m.
- LEA Dual Enrollment Coordinators/Guidance Counselors - please join your LEA’s data manager at the January 2026 LEA Data Discussion to learn more about how OSSE uses dual enrollment data for accountability.
- Data managers - please reach out to the person most knowledgeable about dual enrollment at your LEA and share the January LEA Data Discussion meeting invite with them.
Based on OST tickets from the 2024-25 school year, ORAR wants to better support accurate dual enrollment reporting in the 2025-26 accountability year. Dual enrollment coordinators are key knowledge-holders, and we want to support their informed participation in enrollment collection, validation, and certification, so they are aware of the data before metric confirmation next fall.
Please reach out to your LEA’s data manager, or Elizabeth Schiemann at OSSE at elizabeth.schiemann@dc.gov if you are interested in attending.
Early Childhood Special Education Community of Practice (Reminder)
The Early Childhood Special Education Community of Practice is designed to create authentic opportunities for LEA pre-K special education points of contact and those who support this population to collaborate with others and improve learning outcomes for children ages 3-5 with disabilities who are enrolled in early childhood special education programs. Upcoming community of practice sessions will focus on the topics below. All sessions will take place from 10-11 a.m.
Please register for a community practice session(s) using the links above. For questions, contact Dawn Hilton, Supervisory Coordinator for Special Education (Part B-619), at Dawn.Hilton1@dc.gov.
Explicit Writing Instruction for K-5 Multilingual Learners (Reminder)
In this session, K-5 teachers of multilingual learners (MLs) will focus on the sentence-level to support students’ writing growth. Participants will explore strategies from The Writing Revolution, make connections to ML research and WIDA standards, and see classroom examples from a DC teacher.
The session will take place in-person on both Wednesday, Jan. 21 and Wednesday, Jan. 28 at OSSE, 1050 First St. NE, from 1-3:30 p.m. Attendees will receive 3 PLUs for their participation. Register here for the session on Jan. 21 or here for the session on Jan. 28. Only register to attend one session.
For more information, contact Francesca Smith, Multilingual Specialist, at Francesca.Smith@dc.gov.
Dual Language Professional Learning Community in Spanish (Reminder)
In this professional learning series, pre-K through fifth grade dual language educators will collaboratively study the book Toma La Palabra by Mónica Lara. Educators will study, discuss, and share strategies for building oracy and literacy skills in Spanish. Dual language teachers, paraprofessionals, and instructional coaches are welcome to attend. The text is available only in Spanish, and all sessions will be facilitated primarily in Spanish.
Participants will receive a copy of the focus text and attend the following sessions:
- Session 1 (In-person at OSSE): Friday, Jan. 30, 2-4 p.m.
- Session 2 (virtual): Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2-3:30 p.m.
- Session 3 (virtual): Tuesday, March 24, 2-3:30 p.m.
- Session 4 (In-person at OSSE): Tuesday, April 28, 2-4 p.m.
Register here. Participants will receive up to 10 PLUs for full participation.
For more information, reach out to Francesca Smith, Multilingual Specialist, at Francesca.Smith@dc.gov.
Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) Series (Reminder)
Strengthen your school’s capacity to provide life-changing support to students with OSSE’s MTSS Series. This series prepares educators to prioritize success for every learner by championing the work of MTSS. Engage in a full-day in-person session and three synchronous virtual sessions on MTSS.
Session Dates:
Thursday, Feb. 5, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.
- In-person at OSSE, 1050 First St. NE, First Floor, Eleanor Holmes Norton Conference Room
Virtual Sessions, 3 - 4:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, March 10
- Wednesday, April 8
- Tuesday, May 26
Register here. Participants can earn 20 PLUs. For questions, contact Angela.Awonaike@dc.gov.
 New: IDEA Financial Compliance Reporting – MOE, Excess Cost, and CEIS Due March 2
Each year, LEAs receiving Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) grants must report financial data to demonstrate compliance with Maintenance of Effort (MOE), Excess Cost, and Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CEIS) requirements. The fiscal year 2025 (FY25) IDEA Financial Compliance Reporting Workbook submission deadline is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 2.
OSSE will host a webinar at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 10 to review the reporting requirements and demonstrate how to complete and submit the workbook. LEA grant managers are strongly encouraged to participate. Detailed instructions on how to submit will also be shared via email in the coming weeks. Please register to attend the reporting webinar here.
For questions or assistance, contact Kristen Thompson at Kristen.Thompson@dc.gov.
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