–The DC council has now (kinda) posted its hearing schedule for performance oversight. Although some of the hearings below have not (yet) appeared on the hearing management system as of this blog post, I got all of this information from the folks at the committee of the whole and have linked wherever possible to the hearings system (with the presumption that any changes will appear there):

DGS public witnesses: 9:30, 2/21
DGS government witnesses: 9:30, 2/28
DCPS public witnesses: 10:00 am, 2/27
DCPS government witnesses: 9:30, 2/28
Education agencies (including charter board, state board, deputy mayor for education): 9:30, 3/5
Office of state superintendent of education: 9:30, 3/7

–DC’s attorney general has issued updated guidance for our publicly funded schools in light of the fact that our schools are no longer safe from hunters of human beings. The NEA also has some guidance on safe schools.

–The council has recently floated several new pieces of legislation around our publicly funded schools. One bill would provide free or reduced-cost out-of-school-time programming for kids in DC’s publicly funded schools. Another bill would ban cell phones. The two bills apply to both DCPS and charters (though no word on whether we can have the same middle school grades across both sectors because reasons).

–Ward 1’s council member, Brianne Nadeau, has proposed renaming the former Banneker HS building on Euclid Street (what will become a DCPS middle school) after DC activist Dolores Tucker. The building currently is being used for swing space. (See here for more information on DCPS school planning.)

Speaking of swing space: here is the latest McGogney agreement, allowing the building to rejoin the DCPS fold and thus to be used for much-needed swing space.

–In the wake of another bout of cold weather (i.e. winter), DCPS schools once again have had heating challenges. But in a new twist on this old story, our mayor’s people have opined that they literally cannot fix old heating systems because the mean, old council recently passed a law mandating adoption of non-gas heating systems when a new system is installed. (Never mind that the mayor proposed and signed that law—nor that repairs are not installations.)

So the council passed new legislation, amending the old legislation to allow repairs to old heating systems currently in use that are not being replaced (yet). No word from the mayor (whose office likely remains heated).

–A well-funded right-wing group has filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education against DCPS. The complaint alleges racial discrimination, inasmuch as DCPS has a club to empower Black girls. (See more here.)

That said, because right-wing zealots are currently attempting to dismantle the federal government (including this specific department), the status of this complaint is unclear.

It is also unclear if the complainants are aware of the history of our country and its segregated education system; segregated access to advanced placement courses and prestigious colleges (and, naturally, the jobs preferentially accessible to graduates of those prestigious places); the toll of all of that on non-white and not-wealthy people; and the fact that right-wing groups have eliminated affirmative action in colleges.

–Speaking of right-wing stupid tricks: A researcher recently outlined how algorithms in social media—and specifically Facebook—have allowed special interests to “disrupt” public education, in favor of privatization.

–The new poured-in-place surface at Lafayette Elementary apparently got too slick to be safely used by its intended users—who then were denied recess for weeks. (Or what Tireless DC might say is just another smooth move prioritizing fossil fuels over kids.)

–A parent is suing DCPS for not accommodating her child with disabilities in aftercare—specifically, with trained personnel to administer medications as needed. Possibly the only thing surprising about this lawsuit is that it has not happened sooner, given DC’s years-running dearth of school nurses.

–In November, Bellwether (what has also done business as Bellwether Education Partners) put out a report comparing funding between DC’s charter sector and DCPS. It concluded that DC’s charter sector needs more money—especially for facilities.

In January, the National Education Policy Center issued a report that analyzed the Bellwether report. It concluded that Bellwether’s conclusion was a bit, um, inaccurate:

“Although the report’s tabulations are valid, it fails to prove that charter schools are underfunded or that they should, in fact, be funded at parity with public schools. Schools in these two sectors are responsible for providing different services and serving different students, and they often receive resources from different sources. The report neither applies a valid method of comparison nor acknowledges these different responsibilities. Indeed, it provides no way to determine if DC charter schools are funded at the “right level” or what that level should be.”

The policy center also highlighted specious math in the Bellwether report (i.e. failing to mention that its calculation–that DCPS gets $7000/student more than charters—is actually not every year, but spread over 4 years). Naturally, the Bellwether report omits mention of the fact that most DC charters pay nothing for the DC-owned properties they lease. In fact, the sector as a whole has excess cash that has only grown every year, without anyone demonstrating what that investment is used for.

But given the ed reform organizations that fund Bellwether, neither report’s conclusion is surprising.

–In the meantime, newly released scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that while DC has made some gains, “NAEP scores in 4th grade math, 4th grade reading, and 8th grade math improved at a faster rate in the years before mayoral control [2007] than they have in the years since.”

That statement does not come from any person in DC government—but from educators at EmpowerEd. (Surprise!)

There’s more:

“In 4th grade math the so-called “achievement gap” between economically disadvantaged students and the rest of the population actually grew since 2000. In 8th grade math, the “achievement gap” between Black students and White students has actually grown 10 points since 2000. And the same trend holds for Hispanic students. In 4th grade reading, where scores have been stable since 2022, “achievement gaps” have barely budged in 24 years for Black students and students from economically disadvantaged families–while we have made gains with Hispanic students.”

For an, um, alternative view, here’s what DC’s office of the state superintendent of education said.

–Once again, digital equity in DC’s schools is like fusion: apparently always 40 years in the future.

–Finally, following up on the Eagle Academy hearing in December, the DC council reiterated its question for a list of charter schools not meeting fiscal targets in FY24. On January 10, the charter board sent the council this document, which on p. 2 contained a table that had the number of charters meeting (or not) fiscal targets—but no names (naturally):

So the council tried again—and got this document on January 28. The table on p. 2 of that 1/28/25 document appears to be identical to one in the board memo the charter board approved the day before, on 1/27/25, of schools on its fiscal monitoring list!

Well, except for Rocketship, which was omitted from the 1/28/25 document sent to the council.

So: Is Rocketship being monitored? And why would the charter board submit a different table to the council from the one it had literally approved the day before?

That’s not mentioning the fact that the table in the January 10 response document (pictured above) suggests there is at least one other charter not meeting the aggregated 3-year margin goal compared to what is mentioned in the table on p. 3 of the January 28 document. (That is, that January 10 table says 57 LEAs met the floor, out of a total of 68, so 11 did not–while the table on p. 3 of the January 28 document has 10 not meeting the floor.)

That January 10 table above also shows at least 23 LEAs not meeting a target for enrollment variance—while the table from p. 3 of the January 28 document suggests only 5 didn’t meet it. Ditto for LEAs not meeting the target for cash flow from operations margin nor the primary reserve ratio: the January 10 table has 7 LEAs not meeting those targets, while the January 28 table has 5 and 3, respectively.

At some point, the council may finally understand that the charter board doesn’t care about them. The question then will be whether the council will care about the rest of us enough to do something about it.