[Ed. Note: The following blog post is by former DCPS teacher Kathleen Coughlin, who here has outlined how the DC Department of General Services (DGS) has not been following DC law for timely and accurate reporting of HVAC repairs and inspections in DCPS schools for the better part of a year. In June, Coughlin wrote … Continue reading Once Again Flouting DC Law: DGS And School HVAC Reporting

. . . most of which have not been well-publicized in my view: --DC is sponsoring vaccination clinics this summer for DC students. See here for the only listing I was able to find, courtesy of this tweet. A roundtable on the subject held the other week by the DC council revealed that >25% of … Continue reading July Happenings . . .

[Ed. Note: The following is an email exchange from December 2021 between a member of the public (who granted me permission to print this) and the privately held XQ Institute. The email exchange discusses how teachers were asked to organize DCPS students for interviews for XQ, even as some teachers (and their school administrators as … Continue reading No Comment

In April, like tens of thousands of other DCPS parents, I received an email from DCPS about the Advanced Technical Center (ATC). The email discussed classes in cybersecurity, general nursing, and health information technology starting in fall 2022 for DC high school students who will be juniors or younger. According to ATC director Richard Kincaid, … Continue reading Remaking DC High School Education . . . Somewhere, Somehow

--On June 29 at 11 am, the DC council will hold a roundtable on vaccinations for DC students. Immunization rates in DC’s schools are horribly low. Whether the result of ignorance, propaganda, or access (or some combination thereof), this reality portends nothing less than avoidable tragedy. With vaccination rates for DC’s school kids in January … Continue reading Recent & Upcoming Events (Chopping Wood Edition*)

[Ed. Note: The following blog post is by former DCPS teacher Kathleen Coughlin, whose tracking of covid reporting in DC’s publicly funded schools has revealed that various DC agencies have not been following DC law for covid-related data reporting and testing in our schools. Last year, Coughlin created a website with DC school covid data … Continue reading Flouting DC Covid Law, Endangering Students, Teachers, & Schools

Consecutive days starting in late April that DC’s department of health did not report any covid data: 12 Date of letter from DC council members to DC’s department of health, demanding better covid reporting: May 12 Date of reply, saying that the council members’ letter was undermining public trust: May 19 Number of DC’s weekly … Continue reading By The Numbers: DC (Lack Of) Oversight, May 2022 Edition

Number of legally required elements that a March 2022 GAO report found that the DC public school charter board (PCSB) left off its 2021 annual report: 3 (out of 15) Number of those elements that PCSB told GAO could be found on its website: 2 (annual summary of reasons for denying charter applications and description … Continue reading By The Numbers: DC’s Charter Board, Regulatory Capture Edition

Total number of advisory committee members, as specified in authorizing legislation, for DC’s public education research practice partnership (RPP): 21 Percentage that must be appointed by elected or appointed officials not connected to the RPP: 100% Number appointed thus far: 20 Total number of originally scheduled public meetings of the RPP advisory committee: 6 Total … Continue reading By The Numbers: RPP Advisory Committee Speakers’ Edition

--On May 11, DCPS held a public information session about the new Ward 3 high school at 4530 MacArthur Boulevard NW. I found out by accident a few hours before the meeting started. (Yes, I have been a DCPS parent for 17 years. Yes, DCPS has had all my contact information for that time and … Continue reading Absurd Absurdities (And Other Recent DC Education Events & Info.)