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The Emergency Student Achievement Emergency Act of 2007
“Give us seven ways to improve schools. We'll make seven promises. And you can hold us
accountable.”
- The D.C. Board of Education
The Emergency Student Achievement Act of 2007
- The Board of Education declares a student achievement emergency and
commits to specific academic outcomes:
- Establishes emergency which shall be in place for
a period of 18 months;
- Establishes city-wide academic
metrics which the Board must meet by the end of its 18-month term;
- Authorizes Emergency powers to
address and revise issues, laws, and regulations that impede the Board and the Superintendent in achieving greater
student achievement.
Seven Ways to Improve Schools
Summary
- A grant for special education capacity
- More flexibility in collective bargaining
- An improved budget process
- Fiscal year aligned with educational year
- A realignment of our state functions
- Our own procurement authority
- Interagency facilities support
#1 A Grant for Special Education
- More services need to be provided in
local, mainstream schools to save money and bring students closer to families
- However, schools need the capacity
first:
- Capacity can be developed with a
2-year investment of $10 million in a Special Education Reform Fund;
- Over the long-term, this investment
would generate savings several times greater than the initial
investment;
- Submit a quarterly report to the
Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia regarding the
implementation of the Special Education recommendations adopted by the
Board;
- In return, DCPS commits to bring 45
high school, 45 middle school, and 45 elementary school level 2 & 3
Special Education children into DCPS in a new therapeutic day program,
and to increase the number of slots in least-restrictive settings by 5%.
#2 More Flexibility in Collective Bargaining
- Provides the Superintendent the flexibility to negotiate collective bargaining agreements that
are best for kids.
- Authority would focus on management, including:
- More closely aligning pay with
performance;
- Addressing pay parity issues;
- Improving professional development;
- Reforming transfer and “excess”
procedures;
- Streamlining teacher due process;
and
- Streamlining the grievance and
arbitration process.
- Legislation would not restrict the
District from negotiating on the issues of salaries, wages, benefits, hours and other working conditions
- Legislation would not restrict DCPS
from bargaining as it relates to procedures to resolve disputes relating to the negotiations
- As its long-term objective, DCPS
should maintain the objective of pay-parity with surrounding jurisdictions to retain and attract fully certified and
highly qualified teachers and administrators
#3. A New Budget Process
- Amends the current Budget Act to:
- Establish financial metrics that the Chief
Financial Officer (CFO) for DCPS must meet within 18 months to acquire an independent DCPS CFO;
- Require the CFO for DCPS to report
directly to the Superintendent if the metrics are met;
- Provide the D.C. Council with
greater budget oversight for DCPS by including the Council in reviewing and recommending a new student funding
formula, but would not authorize line-item authority regarding DCPS’ budget;
#4. Fiscal Year Aligned with Educational Year
- Implements the authority granted by Congress to establish a separate fiscal
calendar for DCPS as an independent agency;
- This allows DCPS’ fiscal budget to coincide
with the beginning of the school year.
#5. A Realignment of our State Functions
- Establish the State Department of
Education and authorizes the Mayor to appoint a Deputy Mayor of Education
- Repeal the State Education Office
and transfer most State Education Office duties to the Department of Education
- Separate State and Local functions
to improve accountability and oversight
- Grant the Mayor the authority to
appoint Chief State School Officer
- The State Department of Education will:
- Establish guidelines to determine zero to four-year-old students’ school readiness;
- Conduct annual citywide assessments
of all three-year-olds for school readiness;
- Provide intervention policies and
implementation strategies to assess school readiness of three-year olds;
- Authorize Charter Schools.
- The State Department of Education will:
- Establish Guidelines to educate children from pre-k to post-graduate level;
- Coordinate and collaborate with
other District agencies, including UDC;
- Oversee and develop an integrated
data system;
- Establish standards for curricula,
educational credit, teacher certification, and instructional time;
- Develop State Accountability Plan;
- Perform early childhood services;
- The State Department of Education will:
- Apportion and distribute federal funds;
- Provide education for children in the Department of Youth Rehabilitation
Services;
- Provide transportation for all
special education students; and
- Administer child nutrition programs.
#6. Our Own Procurement Authority
- DCPS needs relief from procurement laws like other independent agencies;
- Retains review requirements for contracts over $1 million;
- This will drastically speed up the time required for conducting basic facilities
upgrades.
#7. Interagency Facilities Support
- The Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (“DCRA”) will establish a
plans review process specific to DCPS to streamline and facilitate accelerate school
construction.
- The DCRA will provide certified inspectors within DCPS, dedicated to supporting the
DCPS Masters Facilities Plan.
Seven Specific Outcomes
From the Board of Education
- 10 Percent more students will test
proficient or advanced;
- DCPS will outperform test results in
large cities nationally;
- 135 emotionally disturbed, Level 2
& Level 3 students will be in new programs and there will be 562 new
special education slots in neighborhood schools;
- We will accelerate the renovation of
ten open space schools and execute our Capital Improvement Plan;
- We will reconstitute five
chronically failing schools;
- We will provide a meaningful role
for parents in education policy;
- Address “quality of life” issues
in the 75 most dilapidated schools
1. 10 percent more students will test proficient or
advanced
D.C.'s Commitment to Student Achievement Gains Compared to New York One Year After Mayoral Takeover
3. 135 emotionally disturbed students will be in new
programs and the number of special education will increase by 5
percent
- Establish new therapeutic day centers within existing schools to provide 135 new slots for emotionally
disturbed students. Centers to be distributed:
- 45 slots in an elementary school
- 45 slots in a middle school
- 45 slots in a high school
- The number of system-wide slots in least-restrictive settings will increase by 5 percent, from 11,231 to
11,792
4. We will accelerate the renovation of ten open space
schools and execute our Capital Improvement Plan
- By September 2007, we will begin
construction on eight schools identified in the master education plan;
- By September 2007, we will complete
education specs and feasibility studies for all schools scheduled for
rebuilding in 2008
- By September 2008, we will complete
the renovation of the open space schools currently planned for 2008
- By October 2007, for open space
schools not meeting academic goals, we will begin feasibility studies.
Construction will begin by 2009.
- These provisions require that the
Council advances $350 million in funds ahead of schedule
6. We will reconstitute five chronically failing schools
- For chronically failing schools selected for
reconstitution, DCPS will have the power to:
- Recruit and appoint a new principal
and administrators
- Replace all or part of staff at
school
- Recruit new staff
- Determine a reform model or
strategies to be implemented
- Develop a new school vision and
mission with entire school community
- Provide additional resources
necessary to implement the reform model or strategies
- D.C. will announce schools by May 31, 2007
7. Provide a meaningful role for parents in education
policy
- The Board of Education will establish a parent ombudsman within the Board with
responsibility for:
- Fielding requests from the community
- Communicating parent concerns to the
community
- Tracking how the administration responds to the requests
Additional Characteristics of The Emergency Student Achievement Act of 2007
Facilities
- Establishes a new Facilities Oversight Board:
- Delegates to the Oversight Board the
power to oversee the inspection, construction, renovation, repair, and modernization of
DCPS;
- Requires the Oversight Board to set,
and report on milestones for every project;
- Requires the Superintendent to
report to the Oversight Board progress regularly;
- Authorizes the Commission to
expedite the modernization of DCPS and to develop alternative financing mechanisms
for modernization.
Budget
- Establishes an independent Student
Formula Committee (SFC) consisting of the Board, the Superintendent, the Chief
State School Officer, a school funding expert, and the City
Council Chair, convened and staffed by DCEC to study and
recommend a new Student Funding Formula;
- Requires the Mayor to accept,
bi-annually, formula recommendations from the SFC (absent approval of
emergency legislation by the Council of the District of Columbia);
- Provides expanded reprogramming
budget authority without Council approval.
Board of Education Accomplishments: 2004 to 2006
Building on Successes
Accomplishments directed at improving student
achievement:
- Developed the Master Education Plan
- Standardized learning expectations throughout D.C. and introduced curriculum to meet standards
- Enhanced professional staff by hiring 77 new principals for 2005-2007 school years
- Increased certified teachers from 40% to 85%
- Introduced new teacher, principal and assistant
principal assessments
- Introduced Declaration of Education
Accomplishments in the area of facilities:
- Developed the Master Facilities Plan
- Worked closely with parents and
business organizations (Board of Trade, DCBIA, Chamber of Commerce) on management structure
- Worked with Mayor and Council to secured $2.3 billion
for school facilities
- Named community representatives to
facilities advisory panel
- Waiting for Mayor and Council to
name their representatives
- Modernized 12 new schools since 2002
- Eliminated nearly one million square feet of excess
space
Accomplishments in other areas:
- Automated the procurement process
- Significant reductions in truancy
through cross-agency partnership in Truancy Task Force
- Provided funding for parent resource
centers
- Formed partnerships with private
industry and foundations
- Education summit by the Chamber of
Commerce led to creation of work readiness certificate program
- A World Bank grant is training
teachers for national certification
- Created career and technical
education programs
- Achieved new collective bargaining agreement
- Immunized 97% of students, the
highest rate in country
Holding the Board Accountable
If we don’t fulfill these promises, you can hold us accountable.
Note: To be assessed and verified by the Council of the
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