W6PSPO Meeting Notes – March 19, 2019

March 19, 2019
Payne Elementary School, 1445 C Street, SE, 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

1. At-Risk Funding Overview – Betsy Wolf, Amidon-Bowen parent [See presentation]

• Inequity in school funding in DCPS

  

  • DCPS funds look like they are equitably allocated across schools in that schools serving greater % at-risk get more funds. But schools serving greater % at-risk also serve more students with IEPs. Taking out special education funding, no longer see equitable funding across schools in DCPS.
  • Why not? Where is at-risk money going? It’s going to cover core general and special education positions in many cases. At-risk money is not truly supplementing the base funding.
• Achievement gaps
  • DC has a large achievement gap because it has large income inequality. Nationwide, achievement gaps are the highest in places with the greatest income inequality.
• Interventions to target achievement gaps
  • To target the achievement gap, you need to supplement instruction for the lowest performing students. Small-group instruction and tutoring have been shown to be the most impactful interventions in education research. But schools don’t have enough extra money to fund positions like reading specialists across the board.

2. Open discussion with Chancellor Ferebee

• Budget: trying to address decline in enrollment w/in schools in East DC vs

  

  overcrowding in West DC 

• Pointed to Council legislation re: stabilization to support schools in enrollment decline (cap at 5% of resources)
• Confusion remains around DCPS budget/follow the $?
  • Start at per pupil allocation, then add $
  • Comprehensive staffing model adds to ‘blur’
• Re: recommended interventions to target achievement gaps (like small group/reading specialist):
  • School based decision today; do we create a model that is mandatory
  • Influence of great teachers/school leaders is not necc equitable
  • Believes in autonomy, but also in sharing with schools research-based strategies to inform their staffing and budgeting decisions.
• Cross-sector planning (W6PSPO → community members; CF: Chancellor Ferebee)
  • W6PSPO: Proliferation of charters and impact on overall resources. CF: Approaching coordination carefully;
  • W6PSPO: Need planning and stability w/ policy around it; Need Chancellor to be ‘cheerleader’ for DCPS
• Inequity w/in schools
  • W6PSPO: Resources/visibility w/in schools are focused on early childhood families (engagement is higher from early childhood families), but schools are being judged by test scores at 4/5th grades
• Teacher Turnover
  • W6PSPO: When classrooms are without a teacher for extended period of time, is there an accountability model parents can follow up with beyond the principal? (Principals are not always responsive nor give priority to staffing gaps). CF: Instructional superintendents are first point of contact.
• School Leadership:
  • W6PSPO:What can the DCPS do to strengthen teacher/principal retention? CF: Exploring multi-year principal contract (today, principal contracts are renewed -or not- annually);  Committed to engaging w/ WTU on IMPACT; Solve for great leadership
  • W6PSPO: Principals are able to use IMPACT to evaluate and retaliate against teachers; teachers don’t have a meaningful way to give feedback on principals. CF: DCPS tracks data about whether teachers return. Understand that there are independent evaluators under IMPACT. W6PSPO: Correction – WTU did not want evaluators who didn’t know them, the school community and requested peer evaluators. Suggest DCPS pursue meaningful feedback from teachers when evaluating principal’s performance;
• Modernizations/Community Engagement:
  • W6PSPO: Modernization/PACE act – suggestion to engage parents who have gone through SIT process to get a view ‘under the hood’ how policy plays out in practice.
  • W6PSPO: What can we hold DCPS accountable for vis a vis lead in drinking water? CF: DGS/DCPS committed to communicating at each step of the process.
  • W6PSPO:  DCPS central office staff need to spend more time in the schools, understand what happens on the ground

3. Open discussion with Jessica Sutter, SBOE W6

• State board voting on priorities Weds, March 20
  • STAR report/dc school report card
  • OSSE survey on report cards: 3 year cycle for changes, except High school growth model
  • High school graduation requirements/Credit recovery
  • Committees
    • Teacher/leader turnover
      • Teacher/leader working group 
    • Research 
    • Social studies 
    • Rich curriculum 
    • UPDATE: State Board members will meet monthly in working groups related to school visits (first Tuesday), teacher retention (third Friday), rich curriculum (fourth Monday), research (fourth Monday), and social studies (fourth Monday). These working groups will be an opportunity for members to discuss key issue and focus areas that the State Board has identified as priorities for 2019. The discussions will provide members the opportunity to share thoughts, recommendations, and next steps for the SBOE. Thank you! ~ Paul Negron, Public Affairs Specialist, SBOE
• Ward 6 DCSBOE Rep Proposed Priorities (JS = Jessica Sutter; W6PSPO → Community members)
  • OSSE STAR Rating Feedback: JS: Will use OSSE Survey and SBOE surveys as starting point for community level discussions. How best to do the OSSE/STAR feedback for Ward 6?  W6PSPO: Best at school level; better opportunity for collecting feedback, esp from teachers. Focus group model.
  • Middle/HS paths: Ward 6 families have expressed frustration around middle and high school options. (in particular lack of strategy around dual language continuation) Middle and high schools (mostly parents from dual language programs have reached out and are dissatisfied w/ feeder options). Looking at options for bringing solutions for Tyler and Stokes communities. W6PSPO: Should start conversation with DCPS; feeders patterns would be affected.
  • Advocacy Coordination Across Sectors: JS: should W6PSPO broaden advocacy efforts to also include charters? W6PSPO: overall, priorities are not necessarily always aligned. Currently, W6PSPO has hands full w/stabilizing feeder patterns, DCPS budget, technology, etc. W6PSPO always open to coordinating with charter schools when it makes sense on specific issues common to all schools.  Some common areas might include standardizing grades (like grade middle schools start, e.g., 5th for charters, 6th for DCPS; SpEd student imbalance (neighborhood schools and open enrollment schools bear the brunt of SpEd-heavy communities, while charter and selective DCPS schools have low SpEd population).

4. Wilson Building Visits – Danica Petroshius –

•  Friday, March 23 10AM-4PM. Danica to follow up via email to W6PSPO

5. CHPSPO’s new name → W6PSPO 

CHPSPO started in 2005 as a group of Capitol Hill public school parents. Much has changed, and we now work with our neighbors in SW, Shaw and across Ward 6 to achieve common goals. We decided tonight to change our name to @W6PSPO to better reflect our values and the work we do.

— Suzanne Wells (@Sew20003M) March 20, 2019

Next CHPSPO Meeting: April 23, 2019 (Note:  4th Thursday due to spring break)

Upcoming Events

Budget Oversight Hearings – Register to testify here–> http://bit.do/educationhearings

• March 27      State Board of Education, Office of the Ombudsman for Public Education, and the Office of the Student Advocate
• March 29      DCPS (Public Witnesses Only)
• April 4          Public Charter School Board
• April 9          Office of the State Superintendent of Education
• April 25        Deputy Mayor for Education

March 25      Capitol Hill Community Foundation Spring Grants deadline

March 29      Ferebee Friday, Pretzel Bakery, 8 – 9:30 am

Visit W6PSPO on the web at http://chpspo.org