CHPSPO Meeting Notes – November 19, 2018

Payne Elementary School, 1445 C Street, SE
November 19, 2018, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

1. DDOT’s Safe Routes to School Program (https://ddot.dc.gov/saferoutes), Amber Gove.

Steps to getting DDoT support for traffic issues

1)    Traffic safety investigation via 311 ticketà https://311.dc.gov/

2)    Traffic calming petition – 75% of houses on block(s) need to sign à https://ddot.dc.gov/page/traffic-calming-and-traffic-safety-101 (scroll to bottom)

3)    ANC submits petition. (Reach out to traffic committee at ANC)

4)    DDoT to collect data – need to follow up to learn when the data will be collected – is it representative? (See process, per DDOT here). 

• DDoT will give average – ask for microdata
  • Data will enable conversation, should DDoT agree action is required
  • Lamont Hinton is contact from MPD (if camera speed/tickets are warranted); only tickets at 11 miles over speed limit

Lessons:

• Constitute a committee at PTA/SIT
  • Try to include community members outside of the school
  • Leverage ANC
  • School leadership participation is critical
  • School culture needs to be addressed, as much as infrastructure changes
• Schools can take on own measures while safe routes plans are implemented. For example, Tyler ES uses cones to create curb extensions to calm traffic

Contacts:

• DDoT’s Ward 6 Liaison – Naomi Klein
  DDoT’s Safe Routes to School Coordinator: Derrick Hardy
  Advice (or if you’re ANC6A, support): ANC Commissioner Amber Gove

Other: Daytime School Parking Zone Act may need additional advocacy

 

2. OSSE School Report Cards, Chloe Woodward-Magrane

New OSSE School Report Cards, featuring STAT rating will be released in December 2018

• All data/metrics used to generate the STAR rating are listed and defined.
• Majority of data will be coming from previous year.  Contact data, etc will come from current year

Discussion:

Q: Will data be disaggregated by program (schools like Tyler ES have 3 programs). A: No, but schools can share this data.

Q: There will likely to be 1 or 2 STAR schools in Ward 6. We’re concerned about this creating a cycle of parents not wanting to send students to schools with 1 or 2 STARS, affecting enrollment. What is message schools should give to families? A: OSSE is working w/ school leaders to know and understand own data; schools should ID bright spots when they are talking about their schools;

Q: What is OSSE doing to support schools that are rated 1 or 2? (STAR is a 1-5 point rating). What is OSSE prepared to do; how is it thinking about school improvement? Where is support for schools outside of the bottom 5% (no clear answer given by OSSE on this Q)? A: OSSE is identifying and putting forward 11M over 3 years grant available to schools in need of comprehensive support – $1M/school; schools must apply, but the amount is reserved only for the bottom 5% of schools. OSSE is working closely with LEAs to ensure grants are in alignment with school-level interventions.

Tenets of OSSE grants:

1- People: how are we supporting people/educators; leadership; training

2- Instruction; instructional practices in school, plan

3- Structures: ex: way you are organizing building (ex: academies; grade bands; supports/autonomies)-

Q: How can we move towards metrics that gauge school quality. A:  disagree that measures do not gauge quality. Examples- median growth percentile; growth proficiency; subgroups compare to subgroups (ex: students w/ disability), not to the whole population;

Next Steps: OSSE come back early next year.

 

3. Open Discussion with Paul Kihn, Acting Deputy Mayor of Education

DME Thematic priorities

1. Reducing achievement gap
   • Influencing factors: 2 systems and Critical importance of by right neighborhood systems
   • Within DME office: direct influence over LEAs & Indirect influence over libraries, UDC, etc
2. Building public confidence in public school system

Brief Presentations about current initiatives within CHPSPO community:

1. Denise Forte: Chancellor Search – working towards a citywide meeting re: vision across all wards on what we want from school system based on equity; by right
2. Betsy Wolf: Equitable Spending (see data analysis here and embedded below)
   • Equitable spending; ex: at-risk funding spent on special education
   • Charters: data is not available – DCPS serves more at-risk/special ed students than charters
   • Recs: California does a good job w/ funding formula; gives great bump for concentration of poverty
     •  Separate special ed from at risk/funding
     • Need policy folks to connect more closely w/ schools to see how policy plays out on the ground
3. Suki Lucier: Advocacy for Shaw Middle School
   • Families need clear pathways for neighborhood schools and DCPS/DME need to fulfill commitments to Shaw community
4. Grace Hu: Technology in DCPS
   • DCPS making good faith effort to inventory state of tech in schools; schools need to train staff on inventory system (by Nov 30) and inventory needs to be done by January. Push is based on need for technology for PARCC testing
   • DCPS considering a proposal to get schools to 1 to 1 ration in 4 years; year 1 for grads 3, 6, 9, year 2 for 3 6 9, year 3, 3 6 9, etc

Discussion:

Q: Chancellor; timing. A: Steering Committee delivered report to mayor and when ready, will pull together stakeholders to continue with process

Q: STAR rating; can we revisit data included in rating? A: Need to share timetable and process for revisions (ex: this rating for 3 years and work on new version over that period, etc?)

Q: Principal contracts (1 year); is DME looking into that? Need stability to ensure strong, quality leadership. A: thinking about as a matter of urgency, that we are attractive as a city

Issue: Improving environmental standards in schools; including improvements of trust and transparency in testing process: requesting parents to be allowed to observe testing.

Issue: Level playing field; moving all schools to start middle school at 6th grade, as charters which start at 5th grade is disruptive.

Q: How will DME work to build trust across ed/school related issues? A: Listening to community. (Transparency was also suggested by group)

4. Next CHPSPO Meeting:

• December 18, 2018
• Agenda items proposed: Safe Passages/Routes,

Upcoming Events

• November 27 (NEW), Committee of the Whole, regular meeting to consider Bill 22-776, “District of Columbia Education Research Advisory Board and Collaborative Establishment Amendment Act of 2018”
• November 28, DCPS Book Club, 6 pm, Dorothy Height/Benning Neighborhood Library
• December 8, EdFEST, 11 am – 3 pm, DC Armory
• December 12, DCPS FY20 Budget Community Forums – RSVP
  • Morning Community Forum: Wednesday, December 12 at 8:45 am at Moten Elementary School – 1565 Morris Road, SE
    Evening Community Forum: Wednesday, December 12 at 6 pm at Janney Elementary School – 4130 Albermarle Street, NW

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