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REPORT OF THE DC EDUCATION COMPACT: A CALL TO ACTIONFOR COLLABORATION - CONSENSUS - COMMITMENT - CHANGE May 2005
Volume 1: HISTORY AND EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
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We have to commit to creating an environment of success and stay
together to implement the plan, even when we don't get exactly what we
want.
Anthony Williams, Mayor District of Columbia |
In early 2004, in the midst of the heated debate around political control of the DC Public School system, a group of dedicated philanthropic and community leaders came together. Their interest was in developing a "consensus agenda" for the DC Public Schools. Could a process of public discussion develop such an agenda? They saw that a consensus agenda could create a safe space for a conversation about the critical issues facing the DCPS and its students, articulate the elements of a reform agenda around which there is broad agreement with the DC community, and build a culture of collaboration. With this vision in mind, that small group of committed individuals began the process to create the District of Columbia's Education Compact.
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I have been around a long time, and I have never seen this number and
diversity of people to coalesce around education...
Linda Cropp, Chair DC Council |
This idea of creating a process of public discussion to develop a common agenda around education was not going to be an easy task. The District's public school system and its students face major challenges; none are more compelling than that which eats away at the very core of the system - low expectations. As a district, we have allowed the "tyranny of low expectations" to devastate the education we offer our children. Where there are good things happening, we discount the progress. Where there are bad things happening, we allow that to confirm our low expectations without outrage or remediation. As a community, our own low expectations of our children and schools are reflected back in many practices across the system but most of all in low student achievement. Across this nation, city after city has demonstrated that this doesn't have to be. The single most important action by the DC community as a whole is to value the abilities of every child in this school system and to insist that not only will we not write off any child, we will impatiently demand that every child receive the respect and resources to achieve. We must first stop our own articulation of doubt. We can confirm high expectations for every child's learning through our votes, our funding, our volunteering, our policy participation, and our community conversations.
The process facilitated by DCEC is designed to break this tyrannical stranglehold and inertia that results in mistrust and conflicting agendas. It offers the DCPS proposals for a strategic direction and action plans for improving public schools that the community is prepared to sustain through whatever changes in political or administration leadership may occur. The DCEC process is designed to build public will through a continuous partnership from planning through to implementation. The Compact was formally launched on November 5-6, 2004, at a retreat attended by more than 100 DCPS stakeholders - represented by parents, community based organizations, foundations, businesses, colleges and universities, and teachers and principals. In addition, there were representatives from every branch of the public sector including, Superintendent Clifford Janey, Mayor Anthony Williams, School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafritz, and Council Chair Linda Cropp. So far, our achievements include:
Of course, our most significant accomplishments will begin when positive, lasting change occurs in the quality of the DC public schools and the lives of their students and families.
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People are enthusiastic about pockets of excellence here and there, but
not about our overall DC education system - we need a focus throughout
the District on the whole system. DC Resident at Community Forum, 2/10/05 |
| Student Readiness | School Improvement | Support Systems | Community Support | |
| 1. Professional development of excellent principals and teachers | X | X | ||
| 2. Diagnose learning problems and help students achieve | X | |||
| 3. Create systems of accountability | X | X | ||
| 4. Align standards and instutional practices | X | X | ||
| 5. Engage parents to sustain students | X | |||
| 6. Increase adult literacy | X | X | ||
| 7. Graduating students are workplace ready and/or college ready | X | |||
| 8. Promote healthy families and healthy children | X | |||
| 9. Create healthy and safe facilities & buildings | X | |||
| 10. Management systems that guide excellent execution | X | |||
| 11. Ongoing community engagement and partnership | X | |||
| 12. Create culture of safety and security within and around schools | X | X | X |
The process facilitated by the DC Education Compact developed into a broad agenda, by highly diverse participants, with a wide variety of perspectives. Yet extraordinary unity exists among our members about our fundamental values and principles. These beliefs motivated our members to join the Compact and make long-term personal and institutional commitments to its success. These values and principles form the bedrock of the Compact and will continue to guide its operations and initiatives. Repeated in various ways throughout the meetings of youth, parents, teachers, administrators, business leaders and public officials was a fundamental concern for the quality of our public schools, governmental and civic culture that we draw from to meet the challenges of educating young people and managing the institutions necessary to achieve it with excellence. A clear message was delivered:
In the District of Columbia, we want a culture of learning, excellence and open engagement from our schools, our government and our community.
Our beliefs can be summarized under three necessary values for achievement:
A Culture of Learning
A Culture of Excellence
A Culture of Open Engagement
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Education is not just a technical enterprise. It is political and
cultural as well. In this room, you have the political and cultural
capital to make positive change.
Warren Simmons, Executive Director Annenberg Institute for School Reform |
Our children and their academic achievement -- for every public school student - live at the heart of our efforts. Around their promise and potential, we focus on our schools, on safety and security for those schools, on the support systems that make schools work effectively and allow learning and teaching to take place, and finally on the broader community. As a city, we must bring a shared sense of impatience and urgency to our commitment to work with DCPS to achieve the academic excellence our children deserve.
The Compact embraced the "levers of change" articulated by Superintendent Janey as critical to achieving lasting, substantive, and systematic change. Working groups1 drawn from across the Compact took up each lever with a mandate to develop a set of strategic implementation priorities applicable to students, schools, support systems, and the community. Dr. Janey and DCPS leaders used these recommendations as they developed the overall strategic plan for the District's public school system. We present the efforts of the working groups in full in Volume 2 of this report.
Simultaneously, groups representing the sectors of the city -- public officials, principals and teachers, the business community, neighborhood and community organizations, parents, higher education, foundations, youth, social service and out-of-school providers - developed recommendations for sector-based commitments and actions that speak to the changes needed to improve student achievement. Volume 2 contains each sector's report in full.
We tested our thinking in four public meetings, one with young people and three attended by the general public at Savoy and Noyes Elementary Schools and Cardozo High School. Working and sector groups used the feedback to incorporate both the spirit and the realism from those meetings into our final product. Volume 2 shares the rich feedback from these public meetings in its entirety.
For both budgetary and logistical reasons, we recognize that the full scope of DCEC's recommendations captured in Volume 2 cannot be incorporated immediately into DCPS's new strategic plan. However, we believe that it is important to develop a comprehensive vision for the future. We will explore near-term, alternative implementation mechanisms for some items that are not incorporated into the DCPS plan. Others will be considered in the future as part of our ongoing collaboration with DCPS. We recognize there are no quick or cheap fixes, but we are dedicated to a long-term partnership for systematic progress.
Drawing upon the wealth of recommendations across all those involved, we highlight below those key priorities that arose in report after report and throughout the public meetings. These priorities represent the heart of our commitment to our public school students - to their readiness to learn, the schools that teach them, the support systems that nourish good learning and teaching, and the community in which they grow.
Our focus during this collaborative effort to improve DC schools has to be the students. We should envision a school system where all students are valued, respected and expected to achieve their maximum potential. In order to reach and maintain this goal the first step is to have children coming to school "Ready to Learn". Two key factors in student readiness are a student's health and welfare and parental involvement. Additionally we must provide for our students school environments that are safe for all, physically, emotionally, and intellectually.
We will develop the collective capacity of DCPS, the community, parents and families to support and sustain high student achievement for every child in every classroom, every school and every community. We will increase the capacity of the system to promote the safety, health and mental well-being of all students. This will be accomplished by engaging all stakeholders as strategic partners in ensuring that the children of the District of Columbia come to school ready to learn.
The DCPS system lacks the capacity and the will to engage parents/families as strategic partners in improving student achievement, thus creating an environment that is uninviting and at times forbidding. The ability of students to become fully engaged in their own learning is often times hampered by social and familial challenges. DCPS lacks the appropriate comprehensive programs and service systems to address systemic problems that impact student learning, particularly in the area of health. DCPS also lacks system-wide tools-standards, system of coordination, parent engagement, etc. -- for engaging out-of-school programs/services as strategic partners in improving students' achievement.
Increase the use, capacity and accessibility of school-based health and mental health centers.
Implement Universal School Breakfast.
Establish a coordinated District-wide approach to prevention of violence and substance abuse.
Recruit and involve students and parents in enrichment and services.
Address summer learning loss (children who are not engaged in academic activities over the summer lose a percentage of what they have learned during that time away from school).
Our vision is that every child entering a District of Columbia Public School will become a graduate, ready for college/post secondary education, the workplace and/or military service.
Our mission is to promote a safe and secure culture within every school building and in each of the neighborhoods where our students and their families reside. It is to support DCPS in working to retain and recruit high quality teachers and school leaders, and provide them with high quality professional development. It is to support teachers and administrators as they develop the organizational capacity to diagnose teaching and learning problems at the classroom, school, and district levels. It is to support the creation of a first-class k-12 curriculum preparing students for post secondary education, with clear standards and a high quality counseling effort as well as a first-class career and technical program with similar standards and supports preparing students for work.
The DCPS lacks the capacity and management infrastructure for retaining, recruiting and training effective teachers and principals. This results in a system of instruction that is fragmented and there are no systems to facilitate the diagnosis of teaching and learning problems and no programmatic supports to ensure that all children stay on grade level and above (rigorous curricula and opportunities for acceleration). Academic and social expectations are not effectively communicated to students or parents. Inadequate support and insufficient programmatic offerings (curricular and extra curricular) in both core academics and career and technical courses contribute to a high drop out rate. There is no structure to facilitate community partnerships to support students who have both mental and physical health challenges, and to provide counseling and advisement on future life options. Students and, in many cases, teachers feel physically unsafe. In addition the overall lack of positive relationships between the adults and between adults and students contributes to a fundamentally unsafe atmosphere for learning.
Create incentives for high performing teachers and principals to remain in the District. Strengthen the system to select/hire the best teachers, principals and administrators based on skills, competencies, will and educational philosophy with clear standards of performance for student achievement based on transparent data that are aligned with improved curriculum, tests and professional development.
Create a culture of professionalism and high student achievement by retaining, recruiting and selecting high quality teachers and school leaders and providing them with high quality professional development that increases the retention of high performers and bolsters instructional capacity.
Provide a first-class k-12 curriculum preparing students for post secondary education, with clear standards and a high quality counseling effort as well as a first-class career and technical program with similar standards and supports preparing students for work.
Support students and teachers with the provision of appropriate programs (including enrichment and catch-up), health, counseling, social work, psychological and other services provided in concert with District agencies and community based organizations at the school level.
Develop the organizational capacity to diagnose teaching and learning problems at the classroom, school and district level.
Promote a safe and secure culture within the school buildings and in the neighborhoods where the students/families reside.
For DCPS staff and the DC families and community to invest their enthusiasm and commitment and instill accountability, people must experience support systems that work. We cannot ask our children, teachers, parents, school and central staff to make progress when the fundamentals - communication, curriculum, human resources, technology, and school buildings - act against rather than support our efforts. We envision renovated systems - based in best practices from across the nation and the expertise of our District - that match our values and serve the goal of improved student achievement in every classroom at every school.
We want to nurture and respect our children. They deserve to leave public schools college- and career-ready. Their welfare and achievement should be central to every system decision. DCPS employees desire excellence. They deserve systems that support their efforts, recognize improvements and success, and identify areas that need better management and resources. Competition has taken a toll on the public schools. We must stem the flow of engaged families and communities by incorporating excellence into the systems they depend upon.
The DC Education Compact will bring together all sectors of the District to contribute their expertise and resources to help DCPS renovate the support systems that students, teachers, employees, families and the public rely upon for quality teaching and learning. DC Public Schools will enjoy support systems that attract the best faculty, staff and administrators for committed service to the mission, goals and changing needs of our school children and stem the loss of parental and community support.
We will collaborate with DCPS to create the mechanisms that add our energy and expertise to
The critical systems spoken to throughout the reports may be grouped into the following six major topics: communication, curriculum, accountability and data for research and measurement, human resources, technology and school buildings. The public schools are unprepared to communicate effectively and to invite and build partnerships with parents, families, communities and the District's sectors. Systems and technology for activities such as human resources, procurement, and data retrieval fail teachers and administrators. Most important, both our curricula and our buildings fail our students and our teachers.
DCEC will support DCPS in its communication and outreach efforts, and extend and enhance those efforts broadly across our District and our families. We will help to develop a comprehensive communication strategy and program to inform students, parents, teachers and the lager community about its ongoing efforts to provide excellent communities of learning in safe, sound, bright and inviting school buildings and grounds.
DCEC will attract added resources, educate the public about needs, help DCPS establish partnerships that enhance system improvements, and help the community take responsibility for supporting DCPS as changes are made to establish and maintain 21st century human resources and technological systems that enable a systematic and effective process for inclusive planning, continuous improvement and system-wide accountability so that all students will compete successfully in their post-secondary education and careers.
DCEC will attract community support and resources to help DCPS offer every child an excellent community of learning in a safe, sound, bright, inviting school so that the DCPS becomes the top choice for DC families.
Delivering an improved educational system for the district's students will take the entire community. We define community to be all of us (families, guardians, community based organizations, Advisory Neighborhood Councils, businesses, public officials, social services, healthcare providers, out-of-school providers, higher ed, neighborhood schools, faith-based organizations, foundations). As such the vision incorporates all of these groups and individuals.
A new vision for our school systems includes an increased trust between the community (public/private) and DCPS through increased respect, personal regard, and competence in core responsibilities and personal integrity. It involves families having the ability to support their children's learning and achievement inside and outside the classroom. This vision focuses on an education improvement agenda that is more community driven and reflects a broad-based deliberative process. It is more ambitious, comprehensive, is sufficiently resourced, and has many, many, partners with a more general sense of public education as a common good.
DCEC will help develop the collective will, knowledge and structure to engage the broad DC community and sustain collaborative efforts that will achieve excellence in learning and student achievement. We will work to enhance literacy across the District as a critical prerequisite for teaching and learning success. We will work to make possible a safe and secure culture within the school buildings and in the neighborhoods where our students and families reside.
Within the district there seems to be a lack of capacity and systemic supports for collaborative work between public/private community entities and DCPS. There is insufficient capacity within DCPS to effectively engage and leverage the community, public and private sectors in order to support and improve student achievement. There is also a lack of comprehensive service systems to address systemic problems that impact student learning, including literacy, poverty, crime, etc. The differences in capacity among various entities (non-profits, community based organizations, etc.) seeking to engage and support the DCPS causes a reduction in the potential benefit of these entities.
DCPS and the community establishing an Office of Family and Community Partnership to develop community capacity to sustain high student achievement and meaningful family engagement.
Creation of a formal structure that guides and drives the many partnerships and engagement strategies so that the resources of the community can be coordinated and targeted.
Develop stronger mechanisms to support multi-sector organizational partnerships
Higher Ed and business communities should support existing coordination/collaborative, instead of creating new initiatives
Establishment of school-based and functional community learning centers
Improve linkages between employers, Department of Employment Services, and literacy programs.
Maximize the resources of the community to greater impact student achievement and opportunities.
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"Get the entire community re-involved in DCPS education!" Participant at Community Forum 2/9/05 |
The leaders of 17 educational, philanthropic, civil rights, and community development organizations collaboratively issued a letter to senior DC public officials on April 28, 2004, inviting them to participate in a dialogue "to improve our public schools and thereby improve our children's ability to reach their goals and live the American dream." Public officials accepted that invitation and as an outcome of the meeting's energy, participants formed a Planning Group to continue the dialogue. Clifford Janey joined the group after he was hired as DCPS Superintendent. During the following months, the Planning Group reached out to numerous other stakeholders and held a series of meetings with the group's members and a variety of public officials.
The DC Education Compact was formally launched when over 100 DCPS stakeholders convened on November 5-6, 2004 at the Airlie Retreat Center. Participants included the mayor, DCPS superintendent and board president, the District Council chair, parents, teachers, principals, and representatives from local foundations, community-based organizations, area colleges and universities, and social service agencies. In agreeing to the DC Education Compact Founding Agreement, all participants personally pledged to elevate the mission of the Compact above all personal and parochial interests, while actively working to develop short- and long-term action plans to improve our schools and enhance student achievement. After Superintendent Janey defined a list of eleven critical "levers of change" (see chart on page 5), participants adopted the levers as the analytical framework for the DCEC process. A twelfth lever regarding "a culture of safety and security" was later added as a direct result of input from students at DCEC forums.
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"We're trying to get unstuck from the problems in DCPS that we all
know about. We need a plan of action of what we can accomplish together.
This coming together is truly inspirational."
Stacey Stewart, President Fannie Mae Foundation |
After the founding retreat, a DCEC director joined the Compact to manage daily operations and professional facilitators helped maximize synergy and cohesion in the Working and Sector Groups, as well as in the public forums. Leaders from six key founding organizations coalesced as the DC Education Compact Planning Committee, not to make final decisions for the Compact, but rather to provide consistent direction and support for completion of DCEC's tasks. The Committee's members include leaders from the Fannie Mae Foundation, the Kimsey Foundation, The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region, Parents United, Southeastern University, and the 21St Century School Fund. The Planning Committee members have generated initial and continued funding for the Compact. DCPS Superintendent Janey and his Special Assistant, Dr. Robert Rice, serve as ad hoc members.
The DCEC Steering Committee brings together members of the Planning Committee, Dr. Janey and DCPS leadership, the co-leaders of the Working and Sector Groups, and the groups' facilitators. The Steering Committee provides ongoing, substantive feedback on the work of the various groups. The Consensus Leadership Team has met weekly to analyze and synthesize the reports of the various groups, developing consensus on a list of strategic priorities for action, as well as the format and content of this report, released in conjunction with the DCPS strategic plan. This hands-on team contains group leaders, DCPS officials, DCEC's director, student representatives, and facilitators.
DCEC organized a series of four public forums across the District from February 1 through 12. These open forums provided candid and practical input for our task-focused work. They gave the general public a vital role in preparation of the final reports and recommendations that would be considered by the Superintendent and his leadership team in development of the DCPS Strategic Plan.
The Compact's first forum was exclusively for DC students and youth groups, whose input was consistently substantive, enlightening, and inspiring. The other three invited the general public to examine the levers of change and offer their insights and recommendations for action. Mayor Williams and Superintendent Janey actively participated in all four forums, along with several other elected officials. School Board and DC Council members also attended. The forums deepened the participants' practical understanding of the issues, built new connections among a broad range of education stakeholders, and generated public support for ongoing dialogue and sustainable reform. This outreach was further expanded by numerous e-mailings and the DCEC website, which offers an easy process for enrolling as a member of the Compact, ( www.dcec.org or call 202-274-8139).
(Audience input at the forums is summarized in the appendices of Volume 2.)
In December, Working Groups led by professional facilitators tackled each lever of change and the research, practice and future of the lever's topic. Each group reported out their findings on
Membership purposely included DCPS representation and members from all participating sectors - parents, teachers/principals, business, foundations, higher education, social service and out-of-school providers, public officials, and youth. Each of the sectors worked in parallel to develop a plan on how the sector would support and implement efforts to bring that sector's time, talent and resources to improve the levers of change as part of the overall strategic plan for DCPS. The Sector Groups were specifically instructed to: (1) identify key implementation priorities for their sector and (2) specify what other representatives of the sector (currently not participating) should be invited to become involved with DCEC. The Working and Sector Groups ranged in size from 10 to 30 people. Each groups' work was driven by research and data, matched with dedication and a sense of urgency.
In our Working and Sector Groups, we have argued and agreed, reflected and refined, listened and analyzed where we are as a District with regard to our public schools, and where we need to be. Over the months of December and January, groups poured over draft after draft. Working Groups submitted their thinking to the Sector Groups, who then mapped out a set of priorities for action. Members presented this body of work to Dr. Janey and the DCEC Steering Committee on January 21. After the February public meetings, the Working and Sector Groups refined their reports in light of the public feedback. Volume 2 presents the final reports in their full scope and content.
The Consensus Leadership Team distilled a list of strategic priorities through an intense process of synthesis and analysis, resulting in this call to action. After continuous meetings and consultations, the DCPS drafted its own list of its own strategic priorities. After reviewing both lists with the Steering Committee, DCPS and DCEC met to select a "joint" list of strategic priorities for action.
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We don't need a group hug. We need a plan to get real, lasting reform to
take place.
Michael Kimsey, President Kimsey Foundation |
As a community partnership dedicated to bringing real change to the District of Columbia Public Schools, the DC Education Compact represents the diversity of our District and our public and private organizations united by a shared dedication to improving educational opportunities for all of the children in the District of Columbia. Our major responsibility is to work for the achievement of positive results for our students and schools, generating ripple effects that will bring fundamental benefits to their families, our economy, and the entire community.
With the submission of our recommendations to Dr. Janey and the DCPS officials, followed by the incorporation of our input into the DCPS strategic plan, the first milestone in the Compact's work has been achieved. However, our fundamental value, and thus our primary role, remains our ability to bring a comprehensive range of stakeholders to the table, providing constructive insight, criticism, support and resources.
In close partnership with DCPS and District officials, we pledge to continue to engage the broad community in dialogue about internal needs and action on potential solutions for our schools. We will continuously listen, educate, and inform the public in order to build consensus around a common agenda that is responsive, responsible, and sustainable. Conditions will continue to evolve, but DCEC will maintain an ongoing, constructive dialogue among the District, the Superintendent, the school board, the community, and the Compact. DCEC will promote the communication of good news about the school system, while supporting the Superintendent and Board of Education in building and maintaining momentum for our common goals and initiatives.
Dialogue must be followed by action. We are committed to help bring change to our public schools. We invite every parent, family member, community neighbor, service provider, business person, youth, funder and public official to take action with us. Sign the Compact. Invite your colleagues to join you in a commitment of their time, talent and resources. Sign on at www.dcec.org or by calling 202-274-8139. Let us know what you think, what you believe, and most importantly, what you are willing to commit to bring to our children's future. The full text of volume I and II are available online at www.dcec.org.
We hold ourselves personally and collectively accountable for providing the support and services we have agreed to provide under the Compact. We all owe this to our children - and to our future as a District and a nation -- every child, every classroom, every school, every community.
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"We must sustain this effort... Our challenge is to get traction to
spur and sustain system-wide improvements."
Clifford Janey, Superintendent DCPS |
Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to the many volunteers who gave of their time tirelessly
to support this effort. Particular note of thanks to: Mary Jacksteit and
the team at Collaboration DC, Marc Sarkady of Sarkady Process, Bill
Potapchuk of Community Tools, the principals of Savoy Elementary School,
Noyes Elementary School, Cardozo High School and McKinley Technical High
School.
1. See section V, How We Worked, for a description of Working and Sector Groups.
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