–The DC office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) is updating school report cards and is seeking public feedback on the same starting tomorrow at three upcoming sessions, each with its own subject matter. Registration and more information is here for the following sessions:

Monday October 30, 5:30–7 pm: session on what information should be on the report cards. This session will be held in person at the MLK Library, 901 G St. NW, 4th floor conference center; register here.

Monday November 13, 6–7 pm: session on how and where the report cards should display schools’ summative scores. This session will be virtual; register here.

Monday December 4, 6–7 pm: session on what the report cards should look like. This session will be virtual; register here.

A survey on these subjects is also available here.

To see the current report cards, go here.

For testimony on this subject from experts invited by the DC state board of education to its September 20, 2023 meeting, see here. (Video of that meeting is here, with the testimony and discussion from some experts starting at about minute 21; the agenda and other materials for that meeting, including other public comment, is here.)

–DCPS is holding its annual (mandated) budget hearing on Tuesday November 14 at 6 pm, for feedback on the FY25 budget. Register to testify at this virtual event by November 10 at this link. You can also send questions to ceo.info@k12.dc.gov.

–Also (and not coincidentally) on Tuesday November 14 at 1 pm, the DC council is holding a hearing on DCPS budgeting practices–for invitees only. More information is here. One possible topic of conversation: DCPS’s fascinating accounting of IMPACT bonuses and lack of tech. Another possible topic: the fact that there is now no public tracking of DCPS federal grants–by design!

(UNinvited witnesses can submit written testimony on DCPS budgeting practices at this link or by leaving a 3-minute (or shorter) voicemail at 202-430-6948 by 5 pm on Friday November 24.)

–On Wednesday, November 15 at 12 pm, the DC council will hold a hearing on the nomination of a new charter board member who happens to be a commercial real estate banker without any direct professional experience in schools or education. Registration and more information is here.

To be fair, real estate interests and DC charters have a long and lucrative history. That said, the last time a commercial banker without any direct professional education experience sat on the charter board, he resigned due to self-enrichment by way of loans to newly approved charters.

Right now, however, possibly due to being one person down, the charter board seems a little confused. For instance, an all-day retreat for the board on November 17 is listed on the charter board website with an agenda dated October 16 that is identical to the agenda for the charter board’s October 16 board meeting. Then, in the materials for the October 16 board meeting, there is no transcript for that October 16 meeting–only a transcript for the prior month’s meeting. Well, it’s not like there is other inaccessible information around our charter schools and their finances (well, OK, there’s this and this, too–but what’s a few unaccounted hundreds of millions between friends?).

[Confidential to DC taxpayers who also subscribe to the Post: Don’t go looking for Post stories about former charter board chair and banker Thomas Nida leaving the board, which came about more than a year after reports about his self-enrichment and calls for his resignation (see here and here). Not only was I unable to find either of those linked stories on the Post website by searching under the names of Nida and the stories’ writers, I also was unable to find any Post story about Nida’s resignation in 2010. Thus, it seems that the Post never covered Nida’s resignation as charter board chair! If true, that goes far to explain why problems with charter governance in DC are so intractable: The folks in power apparently like it this way! And really, who can blame them? Having an endless river of public money directed to your private interests by way of well-funded and -placed propaganda around school choice and privatization that cuts out the public almost entirely (thanks, Post editorial board!) is a great way to make bank without all the risks the rest of us incur when making, and then investing, our own money. Heck, it’s a better return than the stock market and bank robbery–and safer, too. And there seem to be no lasting penalties, as Nida continues to prove.]

–On Monday November 20 at 11 am, the DC council will hold a hearing on legislation to force OSSE to support schools in need. See here for more information and to register to testify. See here for excellent background information.  

–On Tuesday November 21 at 2 pm, the DC council will hold a hearing on legislation to put into place measures at DCPS and OSSE aimed at helping retain DCPS teachers. To sign up to testify and for more information, see here.

(No word about improving retention of charter teachers because no one knows whether it’s a problem in that sector (except when we do) and there is (still) no standardized reporting on retention across sectors and anyway, if DC charter teacher retention is in fact a problem (which we cannot know except when we actually do know), then it’s the problem of someone/something else because . . . magic!)

–A second bite of that (rotten) apple will be on Tuesday November 28 at 4 pm, with a DC council hearing on concerns around teacher and principal retention in our publicly funded schools. Sign up and more information are here. (Government and expert witnesses will testify the next day on this subject, on Wednesday, November 29 at 10 am. For more information on that hearing, see here.)

–Buried in the notice of a DC council hearing (also on November 28, albeit at 11 am) around legislation for specific DCPS school names is DC council chair Phil Mendelson’s legislation to grant naming rights for DCPS property in exchange for cash. (No, I am not making this up.) See here for more information and to sign up to testify.

[Confidential to Chairman Mendelson: You might look up the definition of fascism. OTOH, your personal website, chairmanmendelson.com, suggests you already know.]

–On December 6 at 1 pm, the DC council will hold a roundtable on academic achievement in DC’s publicly funded schools. Expect much concern over learning loss, test scores, and literacy, among other things that continue to bedevil education leaders without any mention of decades of school privatization in DC touted to solve it all. For more information and to register, see here.

–On December 12 at 11:30 am, the DC council will hold a hearing on chronic absenteeism and truancy in DC’s publicly funded schools. For more information and to register, see here. For good background that connects this to the November 20 hearing on legislation supporting schools in need, see here.

(And as with the roundtable on December 6, expect expressions of concern that all of this continues to bedevil education leaders without any mention of decades of school privatization in DC touted to solve it all.)