--This afternoon, starting at 4 pm, the DC council is holding a hearing on the massive report by the DC auditor concerning how our office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) has been handling education data. In a word: badly. In more words: incompletely, inaccurately, poorly compared to other states, and possibly without regard … Continue reading March Madness (DC School Governance Edition)

[Ed. Note: In part 1 of this series, semi-retired educator Richard P. Phelps provided a first-hand account of what went down in DCPS as ed reformers in the early days of mayoral control pushed standardized tests; teacher evaluations based on those tests; and harsh school penalties. This second part looks at the cheating scandals that … Continue reading Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years Later, Part 2: Test Cheats

[Ed. Note: As DC's office of the state superintendent of education (OSSE) seeks a waiver of PARCC testing again (recall that OSSE waived PARCC last school year due to the pandemic) and the DC auditor just released a bombshell report of poor stewardship of DC's education data, it is time to revisit how standardized test … Continue reading Looking Back on DC Education Reform 10 Years Later, Part 1: The Grand Tour

On the evening of September 28 (and/or possibly the early morning hours of September 29, 2020), the ceiling above the third floor atrium at DCPS’s Peabody early childhood campus collapsed. As it fell, the ceiling somehow interacted with a water line, causing water to flood the entire building from the third floor down to its … Continue reading The Education Mysteries, Tale #4: The Peabody Flood Of 2020

In the wake of a deeply weird hearing on "learning loss" (held on February 10 with invited witnesses), the DC Council will hold another hearing on the same topic—on February 26—again with invited witnesses. In a post on twitter the week after the February 10 hearing, council chair Phil Mendelson noted that he “is incensed … Continue reading About That February 26 Hearing On “Learning Loss” . . .

Last month, the DC public learned the identities of members of a task force that the DC council committee of the whole (COW) had assembled almost a year earlier, in spring 2020, to look at learning loss in the pandemic and advise COW about it. Pictured below, the eight task force members have about 11 … Continue reading Inside Job (DC Edu Research And Governance Edition)

Tomorrow, January 21 starting at 1 pm, the DC Council will hold a hearing on DCPS’s imminent re-opening. There are at least 50 public witnesses signed up to deliver their testimony during the hearing. But as with the December 2 hearing on DCPS re-opening, not all public witnesses who signed up to deliver testimony during … Continue reading Disconnecting From The Public On The Road To Re-Opening

Number of students at DCPS and DC charter schools whose assessments were analyzed by a recent private study that determined there is terrible learning loss among DC students in remote instruction: About 30,000 Total number of DC public school students: More than 90,000 Number of charter schools participating in the study: 12 Total number of … Continue reading Profiles In (Dis)Courage(ment)

[Ed. Note: Below is my submitted testimony on DC's comprehensive plan. As a basis for future planning in DC, the draft comprehensive plan submitted by the mayor is now before the DC council for its consideration and approval. For more information, including how to submit testimony, see here. The public hearing record is open until … Continue reading Last Call For DC’s Comprehensive Plan (And Education Rights)