Opening Statement of Councilmember Grosso

Committee on Education
Public Oversight Roundtable on The Future of
School Reform in the District of Columbia
March 19, 2018

I have convened this roundtable to begin a series of conversations about the status of school
reform in the District of Columbia. There have been significant changes in our education
system over the past ten years and test scores, recent scandals, and evaluative data show us
that we still have a way to go. We are convened today to discuss the District of Columbia
school system under its establishing law, the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of
2007, more commonly known as PERAA.
As many of you know, in 2007, the Council passed PERAA giving the mayor direct control of
public schools. The law’s purpose was to allow flexibility, so “bold changes” in governance and
policy could be made to improve the school system, and thus student academic outcomes,
which had been embarrassingly low for many many years.
The legislation also required that each year beginning in 2008, the Mayor submit an evaluation
public schools under PERAA including an assessment of business practices, human resources
practices, academic plans, and annual achievements. After five years, PERAA required a
summative evaluation of the traditional and public charter school systems. The 5-year report
was published in June of 2015 and as Chairperson of this committee, I held a series of official
roundtables to discuss the findings. I also held community meetings in all eight wards to
discuss report.
I believe that periodic independent evaluations are important to assess the quality, efficacy,
and value of new programs or reforms. A successful review that is unbiased, transparent, and
fair can strengthen the public trust in our education system. Trust, growth, and high-quality
performance are what will help the District of Columbia school reform be successful. And I
believe we should continue to engage in these evaluations of PERAA, both independently and
in-house.
A lot has been uncovered about our school system over the past four months in the form of
scandal and it has been disruptive to students, teachers, and parents. We are facing a
significant lack of trust from the public about the true quality of our schools. As the governing
and oversight body, it is the responsibility of this Committee to take what we have learned and
face it head-on. The conversations are not easy or comfortable. We owe it to the children of
this city to be bold and swift about what changes must be made now.
I believe we are also here today to talk about a bigger problem that is pervasive and systemic.
A problem that is woven into student attendance, standardized tests and grades, teacher

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evaluations, principal ratings, and school budgets. I am of the opinion that if we do not start to
have a public, honest conversation about institutional racism and racial bias in our public
schools, we will continue to spin our wheels about how we are going to close the achievement
gap.
As I stated at the DCPS performance oversight hearing earlier this month, I think it is important
to have perspective about timing. It was not that long ago – a little over ten years – that the
start of the school year was delayed because too many school buildings were in hazardous
condition, and a judge ordered major repairs be completed before students could return. It was
also not that long ago that Congress stepped in and placed an emergency oversight board in
charge of D.C. schools, only returning power to local officials in 2001. And, it was not that long
ago when schools opened without textbooks or supplies, or a teacher in every classroom.
None of those drastic conditions are happening anymore. Schools have almost been
modernized and capital dollars are being used more equitably across the city.
We are all working to collect honest, GOOD data and analyze it appropriately. The use of data
is very important, but data is not everything if we do not ask the right questions or apply it
correctly.
The public education system in the District of Columbia has come a long way, but we know
that we have a long way to go to claim success. There has to be a willingness to adapt, to make
changes that will actually make children career and college ready from the moment they walk
into a Pre-K classroom to the time they walk across the stage to accept a high school diploma.
The original PERAA report from 2015 highlighted specific issues of concern and every year
since receiving that report, I have questioned the Deputy Mayor for Education, DCPS, the
Public Charter School Board, and OSSE about how they are addressing the report
recommendations and making changes.
Over the past three years, the Committee on Education has been committed and will continue
to analyze, legislate, and then fund the following recommendations from the report. I am
going to walk through those recommendations and highlight some of the work we have
already done in the Committee to be responsive.
The 2015 report recommended that first there needed to be resources allocated to build on the
strength and performance of OSSE. In recognizing that there was a failure to sufficiently
collect data and use technology to our advantage, I worked with the mayor and the
Superintendent to add the additional funding needed for the data vault and build out of SLED
in the amount of $11 million;
The report’s second recommendation was to establish greater clarity between the education
cluster of agencies. Through oversight, we pressed OSSE, the DME, the PCSB and the State
Board to have more transparency and clarity about their function by holding more public

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meetings, putting more content on their websites; and being more directly responsive to the
public;
The third recommendation noted that there was a glaring gap in coordination between the
public charter and traditional public school sectors that was detrimental to the system. We
recognized that there was a lack of coordination between DCPS and the public charter sector
and worked with the DME to create the Cross-Sector Collaboration Task Force and the
Everyday Counts Task Force;
The fourth recommendation was the need to address teacher placement and rating. Through
oversight and monthly meetings with the Chancellor, conversations with the City
Administrator and the CFO, I have raised and continue to raise the unequal distribution of
highly effective teachers across the city. I also worked with the Chancellor and the WTU
President for four years to assist in the negotiations to get to a good-faith agreement on the
teacher contracts, which was signed last fall;
I worked tirelessly for two years on the inequities in terms of student discipline and access to
challenging learning opportunities as was cited in the PERAA Report. The Committee on
Education passed legislation that banned the suspension and expulsion of 3 and 4-year olds
after OSSE reported data that I required about the discipline of children in our schools. And
just last week, we moved unanimously out of Committee the Fair Access to School
Amendment Act, which will limit the suspension and expulsion of students to situations of
safety threats. This new law will directly address the school to prison pipeline that deeply
impacts the increase in the achievement gap.
The report noted broadly, the growing achievement gap – particularly for students with
disabilities, English language learners and students in poverty. I challenged my team to come
up with immediate legislative solutions and out of that came the Language Access for
Education Amendment Act of 2017, a bill to provide great access to education for English
language learners. That bill was moved out of my Committee and the Committee on the
Judiciary. For students with disabilities, we held two roundtables and wrote a report about the
status of their education and services – which is on file with the Secretary’s office. We have
tracked the work of DCPS and OSSE to implement the Special Education Enhancement laws of
2014 and pushed them to implement as much as they can even though the legislation is still
subject to appropriations. Those laws are scheduled to take full effect this July.
Finally, last year when it appeared there would not be a full investment in our schools I worked
with my colleagues to supplement the UPSFF funding levels to ensure robust on-going
investment in our schools.
Through this hearing today and the series of public conversations in the coming months, I
intend to focus on what more needs to be done from the legislative branch to help improve the
school reform efforts. Our schools are open, our teachers have a contract, and enrollment in

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schools is growing. It is now time to dig deeper into what can be done to improve outcomes
for every child in an impactful way and to regain the public’s trust in our system.
After we hear from witnesses today, I am going to recess this roundtable and reconvene this
conversation on May 16th starting at 4:00 pm to allow for teachers and others who are not
available during day hours to come to share their views. I will also hold town halls in all eight
wards again this summer to hear from residents directly in their own neighborhoods. I also
encourage the public to sign up and testify at any of the six upcoming hearings for budget
oversight this month and next, which can be found on my website at davidgrosso.org.
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